New Gallery Installation at River Press Opening August 29
Milwaukee, WI – August 21, 2025 – River Press presents the first exhibition in their Micro Gallery, Life Should Make More Sense Than This by Milwaukee-local artist, Sarah Jane Sutterfield. The exhibition features 25 metallic monotypes and sculptural pieces. An exhibition reception will be held on Friday, August 29 from 5 pm to 9 pm, when works will be available for purchase. The exhibition will remain on view until November 2. The River Press Micro Gallery is a 60 square foot space for Milwaukee artists installing full-breadth solo exhibitions rotating every 3 months.
Exhibition Overview – Life Should Make More Sense Than This
In Life Should Make More Sense Than This, interdisciplinary artist Sarah Jane Sutterfield presents 25 metallic monotypes alongside a series of sculptural works shaped by the invisible thread of loss.
Created during a period of heightened creative urgency, the work explores transformation, grief, and intimacy through abstraction and material metaphor. Influenced by Russian Cosmism—a philosophical movement that imagines personal loss, resurrection, and connection as collective tasks—the exhibition reflects on how emotional experiences take shape in physical objects and ritual gestures.
A mirrored pedestal holds a sturdy glass block. A microwave plate, taken from a former home, now renders the appliance unusable—a quiet artifact of separation. Cardboard matchsticks from an intimacy game are pressed to its surface. A handmade basketball backboard adorned with jeweled charms hovers between play and sentiment. The metallic monotypes shift with the changing light, resisting fixed meaning.
Each surface—mirrored, glowing, catching the light—asks the viewer to step in, look closer, and maybe catch a glimpse of themselves in the process. The work doesn’t try to make sense of what happened. It stays with the weight of it.
Join Sutterfield for an opening reception of Life Should Make More Sense Than This August 29 from 5 pm to 9 pm. “This is the first time I’m showing this body of work publicly — and to do that in River Press, a brand-new space built by Mya in the heart of the neighborhood, feels like the perfect way to share it with my community.”
The exhibition will be on view from August 29 – November 2. River Press is open Monday-Thursday 1 pm to 7 pm. More info at: riverpressmke.com/micro-gallery
About River Press
River Press is a shop, studio and gallery located in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood that features exclusively Milwaukee-local artists. River Press hosts community workshops and events as well as rotating installations in their Micro Gallery, a 60 square foot installation space featuring solo exhibitions from Milwaukee artists rotating every 3 months. It is a printmaker-run space offering a broad selection of prints, stickers, and artworks in addition to custom fine art poster services. River Press is owned by local multimedia printmaker and arts marketer Mya Giuliani and is the home base for The Wizard’s Print Snacks, a series of art vending machines around town. riverpressmke.com
About Sarah Jane Sutterfield
Milwaukee-based artist Sarah Jane Sutterfield works across sculpture, installation, and painting to create deeply personal, layered environments. A graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (BFA, 2017), Sutterfield has exhibited nationally in Yarmouth, Massachusetts; Eldorado, Kansas; and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Her work often explores themes of love, loss, and community, weaving together material experimentation with emotional resonance.
Her upcoming exhibition, Life Should Make More Sense Than This, is Sutterfield’s second solo installation, following Bright Sides at Saint Kate: The Arts Hotel in 2022. In addition to her studio practice, she runs GIRL OF THE 21ST, a jewelry and merchandising brand rooted in individuality and handmade design.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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