Kat’s Great Big Gallery Night Guide

 

Oh friends, it’s Gallery Night again. This week’s Art Date is entirely given over to the quarterly event. Most regular gallery spaces are opening new shows, while other locations may offer only a one-night happening. Here are some ideas for your art-viewing itinerary.

ALTERNA-PLACES

One of the great things about Gallery Night are the exhibitions and events that happen in unusual locations, or that are truly temporary special events. Here’s a few to track down. 

Orlandini Studios
633 W. Virginia Street, 5th Ward.
Friday 6 to 10 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Orlandini Studios is a craft studio specializing in plaster architectural decorations and details, and ornamental sculpture. The studio also features drawings of various Milwaukee landmarks by Debra Stubbe Burkart.

Sensorium 
326 N. Water Street, 2nd Floor
Friday 5 to 10 p.m.

A mysterious and alluring upper room with large windows over the Starbucks downstairs, the Sensorium is gaining a name as a venue with intriguing exhibitions.

CoPA 8th Annual Member’s Exhibition
600 E. Mason Street, 2nd Floor
Friday 4 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Coalition of Photographic Arts (CoPA) is a perennial exhibition featuring an array of photographic styles and subjects. This year’s venue is located at the corner of Mason and Jackson Streets downtown.

Gene and Joan in Lodi, etc.   
2007 N. Prospect Avenue
Friday, 8 to 11 p.m.

Artists Anne Helgeson and Susie Seidelman have a fascination with the found image. This exhibition, presented in an old apartment on the East Side, will feature hundreds of slides originating from somewhere between the 1940s and 1970s. Multiple projectors will cast the light and shadow of years gone by onto the walls, and experience that could be surreal and surprising.

Kenilworth Open Studios  
1925 E. Kenilworth Place
Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Studios from UWM’s Peck School of the Arts open their doors with a variety of art, film, music and dance performances, and more. More than 100 artists will be represented, so check out the website for full details (and drop by to say “hi” to TCD on the 6th floor!).

ART AND OTHER THINGS

Gallery Night makes partners of artists and many locations which featuring other types of businesses and activities. This weekend features a few with particular interest.

Photography by Jessica Kaminski
The Iron Horse Hotel
500 W. Florida Street
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.

Prolific and stylish photographer Jessica Kaminski will be shown in the stylish environs of the Iron Horse Hotel.

Thomas Hellstrom presents LM: +43-87
Next Act Theatre
255 S. Water Street
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 4 p.m

Photographic views of Lake Michigan are the focus of this exhibition with over 100 images.

Ari David Rosenthal   
SPiN Milwaukee
233 E. Chicago Street
Friday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Constructed, destructed, and saturated digital photographs by Rosenthal will be on view in this combination restaurant, club, ping-pong hall and art gallery.

OLD SCHOOL 

The old school gallery establishment of Milwaukee, with many venues having been in existence for decades, continues to have excellent artistic offerings. 

Peltz Gallery: A Retrospective 
Peltz Gallery
1119 E. Knapp Street
Friday 6 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Milwaukee art community was deeply saddened by the recent passing of Cissie Peltz, but her gallery lives on. This exhibition features artists shown over the past 24 years of the gallery’s history, including Gladys Nilsson, Warrington Colescott, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and more.

Blast from the Past: Celebrating 46 Years of Art at David Barnett Gallery
David Barnett Gallery
1024 E. State Street
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Over four and a half decades have passed since the founding of this gallery, which is showing an array of artists such as Picasso, Rembrandt, Kandinsky, and more.

Quality H2O
DeLind Gallery of Fine Art
450 E. Mason Street
Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This exhibition, on view for one week only, features art on the themes of water, with views from one American coast to another, and beyond into international seas.

Jon Schueler: Paintings from the Seventies 
Dean Jensen Gallery
759 N. Water Street
Friday 6 to 9pm; Saturday 10am to 4pm.

Milwaukee native Jon Schueler traveled far in his artistic career, and especially notable are his connections to New York and the coastal highlands of northwest Scotland. This exhibition features the mercurial skies and seas of emotive lands.

25th Anniversary Celebration

Tory Folliard Gallery
233 N. Milwaukee Street
Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Celebrating the longevity of this gallery, more than 60 artists will be shown, including Tom Uttech, Patrick Farrell, and Fred Stonehouse.

Eternal Flesh
Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
839 S. 5th Street
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 5 p.m.

The human figure is indeed an eternal subject in art, and this exhibition explores it in a variety metallic mediums by artists John Balsley, Demitra Copoulos, Dan McGuire, and Kendall Polster.

INTRODUCING…

A brand-new stop on the Gallery Night itinerary: 

National Art Gallery 
611 W. National Avenue
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 4 p.m.

Featuring work by local Latino artists, this exhibition will feature art and information on the Mural of Peace Movement. Gallery Night will be complemented by performances of live music and Ballet Folklorico, plus on-site caricatures.

MARSHALL MAYHEM 

The Marshall Building, in the heart of the Historic Third Ward, is always an epicenter of art. This Gallery Night features some notable shows. All galleries listed below are located in the Marshall Building, 207 E. Buffalo Street. 

In Bloom
Katie Gingrass Gallery
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 10 to 6 p.m.

Katie Gingrass Gallery has just moved in to Suite 100 in the Marshall Building, and this Gallery Night is their first event in this art hot spot. The exhibition highlights works celebrating the vibrant freshness of Spring.

Natural Forces
Elaine Erickson Gallery
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday.

This exhibition features print work in figurative and abstract forms as meditations on forces of nature.

Things on Strings
Safi Studios
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 4 p.m.

This exhibition includes large paintings and “‘oodles’ of rearview mirrors.”

An Abstract Nature 
Gallery 218
Friday 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 5 p.m.

This group exhibition brings together a variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and more devoted to notions of nature.

Sadler Gallery 
Friday 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This gallery shows exceptional pieces by local and national artists in a range of styles and subjects. Featured artists include Bridget Griffith Evans, Sasha Kinens, and Michael Santini.

Traces 
Greymatter
Friday 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 4 p.m.

The evidence of being, of presence in places, is an undercurrent of works in this group show by Andy Mattern, Leigh Merrill, and Pavel Romaniko.

The Vanishing Point: Shana McCaw and Brent Budsberg
Portrait Society Gallery
Friday 12 to 9 p.m.; Saturday 12 to 5 p.m.

This exhibition includes sculptural installations and large-scale photographs dwelling on the experience of life in a harsh landscape. Also on view is the Winter Chapel by Kevin Giese, the print collaboration White Noise, and Niki Johnson’s provocative portrait Eggs Benedict (see also the TCD story).

GREAT BIG ART PARTIES 

Since it is Gallery Night, it makes sense to socialize in an aesthetically heightened manner. Here are a few suggestions. 

Pfister Artist-In-Residence Stephanie Barenz Welcome Reception 
Pfister Hotel
424 E. Wisconsin Avenue
Begins at 9 p.m.

As Stephanie Barenz settles into her new studio at the Pfister, her yearlong residency will be celebrated with a welcoming party. Free snacks and cash bar.

MAM After Dark: Black and White  
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N. Art Museum Drive
5 p.m.-Midnight

Music, food, drinks, and plenty of art will be part of the party. Featured art is created by MIAD students following the black-and-white theme.

Explore Your Five Senses 
Whiskey Bar 
788 N. Jackson Street
Friday 6 to 11 p.m.

The evening performances, beginning at 9 p.m., will feature a mix of fashion, music, and live art created by multiple painters on site.

JESSICA’S PICKS

TCD arts contributor Jessica Sattell has her eye on three exhibitions for Gallery Night:

Avant Garde Coffeehouse Research Project
Inova
2155 N. Prospect Ave.
Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 12 to 5 p.m.

From 1962 to 1968, the Avant Garde Coffeehouse on Prospect was a powerhouse of the Milwaukee folk and blues scene as well as a hotbed of experimental art of all kinds. This exhibition is a dynamic culmination of interdisciplinary research between UWM’s Peck School of the Arts Music Department’s Finger-Style Guitar Program and the Department of Theatre that proudly presents the legacy of an “unexpected icon in Milwaukee’s underground art scene.”  Photography, ephemera, video and sound recordings are enhanced by students’ live performances in the Finger-Style Guitar program, giving voice to our local precedent of art as a community endeavor. The exhibition runs through May 12.

(un)franed & (un)tamed
Wabi Sabi Gallery
219 N. Milwaukee St, Suite 2D
Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Third Ward newcomer, Wabi Sabi Gallery, a venture from Genoa City-based Wabi Sabi Farm, opens with husband-and-wife gallerists Corey and Jennifer McVey’s collection of pottery, photography, drawings and mixed media. The exhibit aims to introduce the subtlety of the venue’s namesake, “wabi sabi,” as an appreciation for the beauty of the decaying, fleeting, and imperfect nature of life. Exhibition runs through June 30.

Perimeter: Photographs by Kevin J. Miyazaki
Haggerty Museum of Art
13^th & Clybourn
Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Equal parts portraiture and journalism, Kevin J. Miyazaki aims to put a “face” on Lake Michigan through his encounters with everyday people during a weeks-long journey around the lake’s perimeter. Just as stunning are his waterscapes of the “Michigan Ocean”—a photodiary which marks the diversity of his travels and raises issues surrounding the fragility of fresh water. Exhibition runs through May 19.