Gallery Talk and Fashion Sale with Rosemary Ollison, December 14

Join artist Rosemary Ollison, whose exhibition, Prosperity in a Million Scraps, is currently on view at the Lynden Sculpture Garden, for a gallery talk and holiday sale on Saturday, December 14, 2019, from 2 to 4 pm. Several of Ollison’s handmade necklaces, as well as fashion items including one-of-a-kind dresses and ensembles, denim vests and jackets, and kimonos, will be available for purchase. The necklaces, ranging in price from $25 to $150, make wonderful holiday gifts, as do the notecards made from Christiane Grauert‘s watercolor sketches of Ollison’s fashion show in August. The talk will begin at 2:30 pm.

The event is free to members or with admission to the sculpture garden. Rosemary Ollison: Prosperity in a Million Scraps remains on view through Monday, December 23, 2019. The Lynden Sculpture Garden is located at 2145 West Brown Deer Road, Milwaukee, WI 53217.

Ollison has a history of transforming each of her apartments into an artist environment, deploying layers of pattern, duct tape sculptures, curtains of woven leather, crazy quilts, and inventive drawings. At Lynden, Ollison has created another immersive environment from repurposed materials within the former home of Harry and Peg Bradley. Spreading beyond the gallery, where a fourteen-foot leather quilt is surrounded by sculptures, garments, and hangings, Ollison’s work fills Lynden’s domestic spaces and prepares the dining room–the only room in the house that remains as it was at the time of Mrs. Bradley’s death–for an imaginary dinner party.

Ollison also shares a love of fashion with Peg Bradley, the home’s former proprietor. In August we showcased Ollison’s clothing and accessories—all made from repurposed materials–in Beyond Fashion, an outdoor fashion show. This is an opportunity to acquire some of that work at special prices.

More information at: https://www.lyndensculpturegarden.org/exhibitions/rosemary-ollison

About the Artist
Rosemary Ollison is a 77-year-old self-taught artist and 2018 Nohl Fellow in the Emerging category. At 16, Ollison moved to the Midwest from an Arkansas plantation. She began making art in 1994 while healing from an abusive marriage and working as a pre-school aide at St. Francis Children’s Center. Working in numerous media, she explores her identity as a Black woman and celebrates the power, individuality, and mystique of women. Ollison collects glass, leather, bracelets, beads, bones, and jewelry from thrift shops and rummage sales and repurposes these materials into sculptural and wearable works. She has transformed each of her small apartments into an artist environment, deploying layers of pattern, duct tape sculptures, curtains of woven leather, crazy quilts, and inventive drawings. Ollison recently designed a room at the new Saint Kate hotel in downtown Milwaukee, and she was named a 2019 Artist of the Year by the City of Milwaukee Arts Board. Her work is in the collections of the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Chipstone Foundation, as well as in private collections. She is represented by Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee.

About the Lynden Sculpture Garden
The Lynden Sculpture Garden offers a unique experience of art in nature through its collection of more than 50 monumental sculptures sited across 40 acres of park, lake and woodland. The sculpture garden is open to art and nature lovers of all ages daily, 10 am-5 pm; until 7:30 pm on Wednesday evenings in the summer; closed Thursdays. Admission to the sculpture garden is $9 for adults and $7 for students and seniors; children under 6 and members are free. Annual memberships are also available.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.