Sculpture Installed Outside City Hall

The second season of Sculpture Milwaukee is beginning to be installed.

Meanwhile, as exhibition organizers gear up for the new group of sculptures and artists, a number of pieces from the first exhibition have found permanent homes in town. The latest such piece was installed today outside Milwaukee City Hall at 200 E. Wells St.

Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, artist Tony Cragg‘s work “Mixed Feelings”, an 18-foot-high bronze sculpture, will now permanently adorn the space just south of the building’s porte-cochere entrance most commonly occupied by the city’s Christmas tree.

Cragg is a British artist best known for abstract forms in varying materials. According to a release, one-person shows of his work have been held at the world’s top museums, including the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Tate Gallery, Liverpool; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and Tate Gallery, London.

The piece, completed in 2010, spent the summer of 2017 at the corner of N. Jackson St. and E. Wisconsin Ave. outside the federal courthouse. It was on loan to Sculpture Milwaukee from the Marian Goodman Gallery in New York City.

The piece features two intertwining towers. As the viewer circles the piece, human profiles can be spotted in the sculpture.

Cragg has created a number of similar pieces, which have fetched between $250,000 to $500,000 according to the Christie’s website.

The installation was completed by Chicago-based firm Methods & Materials and the city’s Department of Public Works. All costs of the installation were paid for by the donor through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

Sculpture Milwaukee was created by Marcus Corp. chairman Steve Marcus. Milwaukee Downtown assists in coordinating much of the project, with curation led by former Milwaukee Art Museum director Russell Bowman. Funding was provided by a number of donors and in-kind sponsorships.

Four of the 22 pieces showcased in last summer’s installment sold as a result of the exhibition. Prices and buyers were not disclosed. A portion of the sale proceeds goes to fund future installations.

Which brings us back to the second annual exhibition, set to begin in late-May. Over 20 artists are scheduled to have works temporarily installed on Wisconsin Ave. starting May 10th. All but one of the pieces will be available for purchase.

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