Something is brewing at Sculpture Milwaukee

As we prepare for our eighth public exhibition of sculpture by renowned international artists on the streets of downtown Milwaukee, Sculpture Milwaukee is pleased to announce the release of our first companion beer. Debuting on Saturday at Company Brewing and throughout the month at select bars and restaurants, including Classic Slice and Bridgewater, Sculpture Milwaukee Monumental IPA is the latest collaboration between Company Brewing and the Beer Endowment, a project our executive director and current guest curator, artist John Riepenhoff, started a decade ago to support and promote artist-run organizations.

Like Fred Smith Lager, Poor Farm Pils, and other art-backing Beer Endowment craft brews already in production, Sculpture Milwaukee Monumental IPA—a big, bold, and refreshing West Coast double IPA—shares qualities with its namesake. The beer is also symbolic, Riepenoff says, of the deepening and reverberating conversations people are having about art thanks to Sculpture Milwaukee’s continued investment in fostering cultural life in the city: “There’s an explicit social history of humans gathering to converse over libations. In Milwaukee, we obviously have our own beer history and collaborative social spirit. With Monumental IPA, we’re adding to the story by using the beer as a way to welcome people into the conversations Sculpture Milwaukee has already started.”

Monumental IPA’s tallboys, designed by artist and former Milwaukeean Nat Pyper, also debut a fresh new identity for our organization. The beer’s 16-ounce can, along with other design elements created by Pyper, will be part of our next exhibition, Actual Fractals, Act II, opening on June 3. A follow-up to our 2023 exhibition, Actual Fractals, Act I, which Riepenhoff also curated, Actual Fractals, Act II will kick off with a weeklong series of events, including tours and artist talks.

We’ll be following up soon with more information about Actual Fractals, Act II. But in the meantime, cheers—and suffice it to say that we’re excited to be brewing up more ephemeral programming at Sculpture Milwaukee to enrich viewing experiences and build new layers of value, for artists and audiences alike. “With elements of design, in Nat Pypers’s case, or performance, in the case of works of social choreography we’ve commissioned from Kim Miller, a local performance and visual artist, we’ll be activating discussions around other monumental physical pieces in the show,” says Riepenhoff. “As we continue to gear up and build on Sculpture Milwaukee’s success, we’re not only finding more ways to collaborate and co-invest to support more artists, but also to spark new conversations about public art that are as important internationally as they are to Milwaukeeans who might enjoy the wonder and surprise of discovering, say, an organic bronze evoking fruits and plants and fertility by the Brazilian artist Erika Verzutti tucked into a pocket park they pass every day.”See you soon at Actual Fractals, Act II. It’s going to be a monumentally good time.

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.