TCD’s Guide to Gallery Night

Do you feel empty at the close of a rich Gallery Night adventure? Wish you could keep that social buzz going? ART Milwaukee presents a solution with their first event of its kind: Wedding “A Gallery Night After Party.”

ART Milwaukee President, Jeremy Fojut, says the idea for the event came to him when he was recently at a wedding and realized how much they can suck. “Why don’t we encourage the live collaboration of artists and then play off that wedding theme?” he said.

As you enter the event space at the Pritzlaff Building, you will walk the wedding aisle under a romantic grouping of balloon arches as photographers will snap you silly from the sidelines. The photos will be posted on Facebook and the most fashionable has the chance to win a free night at the Hilton. The evening will begin with a VIP cocktail hour from 9 – 10 p.m., followed by the wedding reception from 10 p.m. – midnight. During the reception, ten artists will be “married” into five pairs to work on five canvases.

To make things a little interesting, these pairs  — who have never worked together before — will be required to utilize a “mystery medium” (Iron Chef style) in their piece. This “medium mistress” might create trouble for the couples, or who knows, it could lead to an unforgettable honeymoon. I asked Jeremy for a hint but he jests the mediums shall remain locked in the Pritzlaff bank vault until the big reveal.

“Right now Gallery Night is really anti-climactic and this is a place where everyone can meet up at the end,” said Fojut. ART Milwaukee expects between 200 and 300 people for this event. Buy your tickets on their website. VIPs ($15 for 2 guests) will enjoy complimentary appetizers from Molly Cool’s and complimentary tastings from Big Bay Brewing Company and Great Lakes Distillery from 9 – 10 p.m. General Admission ($10 for 2 guests) includes one complimentary high five. DJ Romke will be throwing down the sweet tunes for the evening and guests will be not be encouraged to do the “Electric Slide.”

Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
273 E. Eerie St.
New Exchanges: Evolving Visual Ideas and Forms
Innovation and Vision: Six Perspectives of a Design Collection
5 – 9 p.m.

Interact with MIAD’s exhibit, New Exchanges: Evolving Visual Ideas and Forms. The exhibit will include a rotating series of guest curators, interactive space for the audience and forums to help spark dialogue and share ideas. Also on display this Gallery Night evening will be Innovation and Vision: Six Perspectives of a Design Collection with guest curators Mel Buchanan, Richard Wright, Victoria Matranga, Ryan Ramos, Kipp Stevens, and John Caruso. Each curator offers a unique look at MIAD’s digital Industrial Design collection.

Blutstein Brondino Fine Art
207 E. Buffalo St., #212
Passion of the Self-taught Artist
4 – 9 p.m.

Blutstein will feature artwork and sculpture by many famous outsider artists including Howard Finster, B. F. Perkins, R. A. Miller, Inez Walker, and Jimmy Sudduth. Local artists featured include Tony Busalacchi and Rory McKeown. Artists from the Grand Avenue Club’s Grand Gallery will also participate in the event and a percentage of the art sales will go to the Grand Avenue Club – a non-profit organization assisting adults who have experienced mental health issues.

Downtown/East Side/Riverwest

Danceworks 
1661 N. Water St.
Tim Decker
5 – 9 p.m.

Tim Decker’s gestural drawings and wire mesh sculptures find a fitting venue in Danceworks’ gallery space. Informed by his study of t’ai chi and travel in Southeast Asia, Mr. Decker’s work portrays the grace of creative movement. And, to see creative movement live, consider attending Dancework’s cinema-inspired performance, “The Sequel,” beginning at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“Tyanna J. Buie, Good Student” (2011) by Luis Galvez.

Dean Jensen Gallery 
759 N. Water St.
A Painter, Photographer & Printmaker: Luis Galvez, Dane Haman & Tyanna J. Buie
6 – 9 p.m.

Three Milwaukee-area artists – all of them twenty-somethings and not well-known in Milwaukee’s art community – emerge from the shadows in this exhibition. Tyanna J. Buie, a printmaker and recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s MFA program, uses large-scale silkscreen and collaged prints to create a narrative informed by her early girlhood as she was shuttled from one foster home to another. Luis Galvez’s paintings are sometimes ghastly, sometimes witty and sometimes both. The artist radiates magical realism that call to mind the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Dane Haman’s color and black-and-white photographs of seemingly mundane Wisconsin life uncover a fresh, idiosyncratic vision of the state’s culture.

Grohmann Museum
1000 N. Broadway at State St.
Working Legacies: The Death and (After) Life of Post-Industrial Milwaukee – Photos and Histories by David Schalliol and Michael Carriere
5-9 p.m.

This exhibition explores the legacy of work in Milwaukee through documentary photographs and site histories of former and current industrial facilities in the city, maintaining focus on their present use and local context. This look into Milwaukee’s industrial past and present lays groundwork for the city’s future. The exhibit proves that from the manufacturing of wind turbines to cutting-edge urban farms, the decline of working Milwaukee has been greatly exaggerated.

A print from Tina Barney’s series, “The Europeans”. Courtesy: Haggerty Museum.

Haggerty Museum of Art 
13th and Clybourn
Tina Barney – The Europeans
10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

The Europeans is a close look at wealthy Europeans at home through the eyes of American photographer Tina Barney. Appropriately, the informally staged poses of her subjects allude to 19th century portraiture. Large, plush, and vivid, these images challenge the conventional relationship of subject to viewer and reinforce the status of photography as a medium for portraiture within this demographic.

InterContinental Milwaukee (Gallerie M)
139 E. Kilbourn Ave. 
Pfister Hotel’s Artist in Residence Program Finalists
5 – 9 p.m.

Gallerie M exhibits works by local artists year-round on a rotating basis. January’s Gallery Night features the finalists for the Pfister Hotel’s Artist in Residence Program. As you view the artists’ work, listen to music, and sip a cocktail, you can also feel the competition – Gallery monitors give live updates of text and Twitter votes for the winner.

Peltz Gallery
1119 E. Knapp St.
Return of the Men
6 – 9:30 p.m.

Peltz Gallery’s exhibition, Return of the Men, will include works from David Anderson, Christo, Warrington Colescott, Robert Cottingham, Jim Dine, Waldek Dynerman, Sam Gilliam, Robert Girsh, John Gruenwald, David Lynch, Alex Katz, Santiago Moix, Ed Paschke, Philip Pearlstein, John Sayers, Art Spieglman, Andy Warhol, William Weege, Khinde Wiley, William Wiley and more.

Balthazar and Kubicka channeling Serge and Jane. Photos courtesy the artists.

Tool Shed
2427 N. Murray Ave.
La Decadanse
5 – 9 p.m.

Tool Shed premiers La Decadanse, “a photo series inspired by the love affair between Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin: he a French songwriter and she an actress with an appetite for the louche.” These erotic photos were shot on 35 mm black and white film by artists Bathazar and SM Kubica.

Arts @ Large
908 S. 5th St.
Dave the Potter
4 – 8 p.m.

Arts @ Large will debut their Dave the Potter exhibit, which looks at the fusion of literary and visual arts by a poet and slave during the 1800s. Dave the Potter engraved pots with his poetic words and students from Brown Street Academy, Browning School and Silver Spring Neighborhood Center will display their artwork inspired by this creative man.

Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
839 S. 5th St.
CoPA Juried Exhibition
5 – 9 p.m.

The CoPA Juried Exhibition closing reception will take place this Winter Gallery Night. View photography from over 25 artists from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota. This year’s Juror is Catherine Edelman from the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Illinois.

Bay View

The Hide House 
2625 S. Greeley St.
6 – 10 p.m.

The Hide House will feature three floors of live music and art. This historic space is home to a creative community in the Bay View neighborhood.

Freya Salon
2318 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Messengers from the Wilderness
7 – 9 p.m.

In this collaborative exhibit, artists used mixed media to compose a piece until they decided it was time to turn their work over to Alyssa Schulte. Schulte also started a drawing and then turned her piece over to the other artists. Enjoy snacks and drinks from 7 – 9 p.m.

Shorewood

Robots at the Beach by Silas B. Ritchie

Anaba Tea Room
2107 E. Capitol Dr.
SiRealism
open til 9 p.m.

Milwaukee native Silas B. Ritchie’s work borders the real and imaginary. In this SiRealism exhibit, you’ll see strange but familiar places, animals, robots and a lack of humanity. Enjoy tea and sandwiches as you peruse the artwork.