What a Night!

If there’s ever a reason to clear your calendar and make time for art, Gallery Night is it. Organized twice a year by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the event creates the perfect storm of diverse art, local artists, an art-loving audience and venues that range from traditional to unusual.

Held this Friday from 5 to 9 p.m., Gallery Night allows people to gallery hop through museums, galleries and other businesses, viewing art, meeting artists, and experiencing receptions, tours and demonstrations along the way.

Katie Kazan, director of public information at MMoCA, says Gallery Night started out in the 1980s and has since grown into a citywide tradition with a record fifty-nine participants this year.

“People like the variety of events that are available: demonstrations, openings, opportunities to meet artists, etc.,” she says. “Many people also like the fact that they can gallery-hop in their own neighborhood or another neighborhood around the city. Because participation in Gallery Night is low-cost, it’s a way for non-art businesses (exercise or yoga studios and pet stores, for example) to show and promote temporary exhibitions in an affordable way.”

The following are the participants in Spring 2009 Gallery Night. But new this year is an online map—check it out to navigate your course for the evening.

West

Art in the Afternoon 3606 Deer Path Rd., Middleton. 469.2994. artintheafternoon.net

The Bohemian Bauble 404 W. Lakeside St. 333.2646. bohobauble.com

The Century House 3029 Unversity Ave. 233.4488. centuryhouseinc.com

Chiripa, Artisan Crafts of the Americas 636 S. Park St. 441.8808. chiripashop.com

DeRicci Gallery 1000 Edgewood College Dr. 663.2263. edgewood.edu/community/studioart.aspx

Douglas Art and Frame 3238 University Ave. 441.9948.

Fine Earth Studio & Gallery 2207 Regent St. 843.1933, fine-earth.org

Grace Chosy Gallery 1825 Monroe St. 255.1211. gracechosygallery.com

Higher Fire Clay Studio 2132 Regent St. 233.3050. higherfireclaystudio.com

Janus Galleries 2701 Monroe St. 233.2222. janusgalleries.com

Long Term Care Institute 6502 Grand Teton Plaza, Suite 107. 233.7042.

Macha Teahouse and Gallery 1934 Monroe St. 442.0500. machateahouse.com

Milward Farrell Fine Art 2701 Monroe St., Suite 200. 238.6501. milwardfarrellfineart.com

Mound Street Yoga Center 1342 Mound St. 442.6792. moundstreetyoga.com

Quarry Arts Building 715 Hill St. 770.3729. quarryarts.com

Spectacular Spectacular 1414 S. Park St. 345.4954

Studio Jewelers 1306 Regent ST. 257.2627. studiojewelerswi.com

TileArt 1719 Monroe St. 255.8453. tileartdesign.com

Unearthed 2501 University Ave. 441.1993. unearthedmadison.com

Downtown

16 Hands Studio 104 King St. 219.0342.

Ancora Coffee 112 King St. 255.2900. ancoracoffee.com

Anthology 218 State St. 204.2644. anthology.typepad.com

Chazen Museum of Art 800 University Ave. 263.2246. chazen.wisc.edu

Curved Artists at Café Montmartre 127 E. Mifflin St. 698.6232. getcurved.com

Hyart Gallery 133 W. Johnson St. 442.0562. hyartgallery.com

Little Luxuries 230 State St. 255.7372

Madison Children’s Museum 100 State St. 256.6445. madisonchildrensmuseum.org

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art 227 State St. 257.0158. mmoca.org

Madison Senior Center 330 W. Mifflin St. 266.6581. madisonseniorcenter.org

Overture Galleries 201 State St. 258.4961. overturecenter.com/galleries

Porter Butts and Class of 1925 Galleries Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. 262.7592. union.wisc.edu/art

Raw Materials 408 E. Wilson St. 268.0451

Savoir Faire 5 N. Pinckney St. 819.8066. sfcardsandgifts.com

State Street Gallery 109 State St. 819.0304. statestreetgallery.com

Steep & Brew Gallery 544 State St. 256.2902. steepnbrew.com

UW Art Department 7th Floor Gallery 455 N. Park St. 262.1660. art.wisc.edu

Wisconsin Academy’s James Watrous Gallery Overture Center, 201 State St. 265.2500. wisconsinacademy.org

WYOU Community Television at Dance Fabulous 212 N. Henry St. 258.9644. wyou.org

East

Absolutely Art 2322 Atwood Ave. 249.9100. absolutelyartllc.com

Arts 4 All at Escape Java Joint 916 Williamson St. 249.7333.

ArtSPACE Twenty-Two Eleven 2211 Atwood Ave. 257.9443.

Azena Photography 202 S. Dickinson St. 245.2797. azenaphoto.com

bad dog frida 2094 Atwood Ave. 442.6868. baddogfrida.com

The Black Earth Kiln Group 149 Waubesa St. 244.5040.

Carta StudioWorks 2001 Atwood Ave. 669.4329. cartastudioworks.com

Common Wealth Gallery 100 S. Baldwin St. 256.6565. cwd.org

DNA Studios 2057 Winnebago St. 244.0111. dnastudios.us

Earley Design 1231 E. Wilson St. 256.5171

Eastside Bazaar 836 E. Johnson St. 320.4611. eastsidebazaar.com

Jackie Macaulay Gallery at Social Justice Center 1202 Williamson St. 227.0206. socialjusticecenter.org

Lucent Room Studio 305 S. Livingston St. 316.1644. lucentroom.com

Madison Shambhala Center 408 S. Baldwin St. 217.2132. herspiral.com

Pong Gallery 1976 Atwood Ave. 206.2759

Radiant Glass 100 S. Baldwin St., Suite 100. 446.2830. radiantglass.com

Renéeglass Factory 100 St. Baldwin St., Suite 100. 255.1000. reneeglass.com

Studio Paran 2051 Winnebago St. 242.1111. studioparan.com

The Skin Source 845 E. Johnson St. 251.6511. theskincaresource.net

Winnebago Studios 2046 Winnebago St. winnebagostudios.org

Wisconsin Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired 754 Williamson St. 255.1166. wcblind.org

Fear Factors

“You will be creeped out.”

This was the promise Madison Museum of Contemporary Art curator of collections Rick Axsom made me as we set up a time to discuss the museum’s newest exhibition, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

He didn’t disappoint.

As Axsom took me through a visual tour of the paintings, prints, photographs and other works in the show, I encountered more than my fair share of evil, scary, ghoulish, disturbing and, yes, very creepy imagery.

Surprisingly, the nearly one hundred works in the exhibition come from the museum’s permanent collection. “Who would have thought there’d be so much evil?” Axsom asked with a laugh.

A few years back, as Axsom and a colleague were reviewing the museum’s collection of works on paper, they realized a good portion was of a menacing nature. So MMoCA decided to create a show highlighting the work, naming the show after a line from Shakespeare’s MacBeth.

Drawing upon works from the early twentieth century to the present, Something Wicked demonstrates how evil is understood and represented by modern and contemporary artists. Furthermore, instead of exploring evil through a religious lens, taking a secular approach focusing on “the horrors of political history, the monstrous acts of the sociopath and the inner torments of the mind,” according to the museum.

It’s fascinating to see the breadth with which artists depict this single concept.

A few works are slightly whimsical, in the scary-but-fun vein of Halloween, according to Axsom. A good example is Chris Vassel’s untitled image of death skeleton. Standing in a furry coat in a snowstorm, the chilly guy is someone you can almost feel sympathy for.

Yet other artists offer heart-wrenchingly horrible scenes, such as Käthe Kollwitz’s etching in which a personification of death is ripping a mother away from her child or a series of photographs by Larry Clarke showing teenage heroin addicts.

Some pieces in the show reveal human-beast hybrids. The idea of nature gone awry was popular in the aftermath of World War II, when the threat of nuclear holocaust was a reality, Axsom said. In colorful works, evil military men have animal traits, women become pigs and men have the faces of birds.

But the collection I found the most frightening was a dream series of photographs by Arthur Tress. For his book, The Dream Collector, Tess interviewed children about their dreams and nightmares. He then constructed a few nightmare scenarios and had the very kids who dreamt them pose in the scenes for photos. A hockey player crouching over a steamy street gate is certainly unsettling but the image that unnerved me shows a hooded figure clutching a child on an empty street flanked by barren trees. I’m all for facing fears, but the kid who showed up for this photo shoot is a lot braver than I’ll probably ever be.

As we examined the works, Axsom raised intriguing questions about humans’ attraction to disturbing images, dangerous stories and scary movies. These and other ideas will be discussed in lectures and programs held in conjunction with the show, he said.

But one thing’s for sure: We’re all scared of something. And chances are you’ll find—and have the chance to confront—your fear at this exhibition.  

Something Wicked This Way Comes runs through April 12 at MMoCA, 227 State St. For more information, call 257.0158 or visit mmoca.org.

Images top to bottom are an untitled work by Chris Vasell, Birds of Heaven by Robert Lostutter and Hockey Player by Arthur Tress.

Element of Surprise

Shocking events happen around us every day. Violence, noise, fighting, confusion. These overwhelming forces are such normal parts of modern life that we can become desensitized to them, hardly even notice their presence.

That’s why it amazes me that we can still be started by something as seemingly benign as a two-dimensional image.

Barbara Probst’s photographs aren’t in-your-face graphic. Rather, by setting two images side-by-side, she requires the viewer to compare and contrast them. It’s the differences and connections we notice that evoke an “aha” experience—that wonderful moment that can’t be achieved simply by seeing something shocking or controversial.

Probst, a New York- and Munich-based photographer, has a new exhibition, Exposures, on display at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art December 6 through March 8.

In the series, which Probst began in 2000, she groups together photos showing a single action but taken simultaneously from different points of view. She captures her images through a system of radio controls, synchronized cable releases and other photographers at times.

The varying viewpoints illustrate not only the many ways a single moment can be depicted but also how it can be experienced. And noticing that the seemingly dissimilar images are actually of the same event—and one distinct moment in time—is a surprising realization.

In Exposure #39: N.Y.C., 545 8th Avenue, 03.23.06, 1:17 p.m., for example, a color photograph shows a woman striding through a beautiful mountain setting. But the accompanying black-and-white image reveals that the same woman is actually on the roof of a New York skyscraper in front of an alpine backdrop.

Others works don’t startle as much as show how drastically viewpoint informs the feel of a work. Seeing a woman and two girls walk across a street in Exposure #11a: N.Y.C., Duane & Church Streets, 6.10.02, 3:07 p.m. from an aerial view seems more objective than its sister image, a tender close-up of one of the girls grasping her guardian’s hand as they cross the intersection.

And Exposure #40: N.Y.C., 545 8th Avenue, 03.23.06, 1:42 p.m. evokes (in me, at least) a sense of nervousness due to Probst’s choices of viewpoints. One image is an upside-down photo of a young woman skipping. The other exposes how close she is to the ledge of a skyscraper. They’re interesting photos on their own. But together, the disorientation of the first image coupled with the new information the second provides makes me think the woman is going to topple over the side of the building.

Other viewers may have different reactions to Probst’s work. But it’s definitely worth checking out the exhibition to see what surprises are in store for you.

EVENT: On Friday, Barbara Probst will discuss the Exposures exhibition and describe her artistic process at 6:30 p.m. at MMoCA. The event is free for MMoCA members and $5 for nonmembers.

Images—Exposure #39: N.Y.C., 545 8th Avenue, 03.23.06, 1:17 p.m.; Exposure #11a: N.Y.C., Duane & Church Streets, 6.10.02, 3:07 p.m.; and Exposure #40: N.Y.C., 545 8th Avenue, 03.23.06, 1:42 p.m.—are courtesy of MMoCA.

Fair Finds

Gorgeous weather, dazzling art and enthusiastic crowds merged this weekend at the fiftieth Art Fair on the Square. A truly eclectic mix of art—paintings, sculpture, mosaics, prints, photography, furniture, clothing and much more—was represented in the more than four hundred artists who showcased work at the annual event.

The following are just a few of the artists and work that caught my eye as I made my way around the Capitol Square.

Prairies and fields become dramatic settings when they’re rendered by Kansas City watercolorist Susan Lynn. Her saturated colors—from sunny golds and rich reds to cool greens and deep blues—make her landscapes simultaneously realistic and better-than-real-life.

Bay Area-based photographer Chris Honeysett travels near and far capturing striking scenes of Yosemite and San Francisco—his image of the Golden Gate nearly obscured by fog is not to be missed—as well as European cityscapes and Asian landscapes. He also offers poetic photographic studies of plants, architecture and other unique forms.

Pop art meets the landscape painting tradition in the eye-catching oils by Susan Hodgin. The Indianapolis artist uses pattern—mostly dots—and vibrant color to describe the world around us.

To say Cali Hobgood-Lemme photographs everyday items misses the startling beauty the Urbana, Illinois, artist finds in a made bed, stack of folded button-down shirts, bathroom sink or a pair of men’s shoes. If only my furniture and laundry could look this exquisite.

Johnson Creek artists Wendy and Marvin Hill hand-paint block prints. The images have a literary quality—each seems to tell its own story.

Quiet, delicate, mystical, beautiful. Any of these words could be used to describe the photography of Ashland, Oregon’s Raquel Edwards.

Subdued colors and an almost hazy quality seem to make viewers slow down and appreciate the oil paintings of Todd Voss of Hovland, Minnesota.

Photographs by Todd Lundeen, a former UW–Madison art student, show people, landscapes and architecture of the Far East through vivid color and almost hyper-realistic clarity. I’m not sure an Art Fair-goer was able to pass by his booth without picking up a serious case of wanderlust.


Photos courtesy of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Girl Power

What is feminist art? Who is a feminist artist? Must the artist knowingly make feminist art? Must the artist be a woman?

These are just a few of the questions raised in the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s latest exhibition, Girls 

and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection.

The show, which opened in May and runs through July 20, explores the legacy of feminism in art through a collection of roughly twenty paintings, photographs and prints from the 1960s through ’90s.

Artists represented in Girls and Company include Diane Arbus, Joan Brown, Ilona Granet, Jenny Holzer, Mary Laird, Jin Lee, Marisol, Lev T. Mills, Nancy Mladenoff, Frances Myers, Christina Ramberg, Miriam Schapiro and Hollis Sigler.

Photography in the exhibition is particularly striking, from Cindy Sherman’s untitled image of a woman—herself posing as an abused wife—with a bruised face and a look of shock to Anne Noggle’s scenes of an elderly woman in her small Santa Fe kitchen and two nude women sitting at desks in a small office smoking cigarettes.

Nicholas Nixon—one of two men in the show—also presents a thought-provoking photograph in St. Petersburg, Florida, in which a group of teen girls directly confront his camera as well as those who encounter the image. It’s a good example of much of the art in this show—in that it raises questions for viewers but doesn’t offer up easy answers.

Noteworthy, too, are prints by the Guerrilla Girls, a collaborative activist group that formed in the 1980s and raised awareness about discrimination in the art world and other realms. In one poster-style screenprint from 1989, the group comments that with the $17.7 million one could spend on a single Jasper Johns painting, he or she could instead purchase at least one work from each of the over sixty-five women artists and artists of color that they list. It’s a powerful statement made in a powerful work.

Jane Simon, curator of exhibitions at MMoCA, recently offered some insight into how the exhibition came together, what feminist art means today and what she hopes viewers take way from the show.

How did Girls and Company come about? Why did you decide to hold this exhibition? 

Exhibitions are sometimes planned years in advance. This one was planned about a year ago. And I think it happened because I was thinking about the changing role of feminism and because I knew we owned these works by the Guerrilla Girls. I’ve wanted to show them since I started working here four years ago. I’ve been intrigued by practices that involve performance and masquerade, two approaches that often revolve around feminism.

What were the challenges for you in putting the show together?

I think I associate with a second or third generation of feminism, and I think that is not always in line with some of the older generations of feminism.

Why does the museum have a large collection of “feminist” art?

How do you define feminist art? I think it all depends on how it is defined. Certainly, when you start looking you can find new ideas.

How has the definition of feminist art changed over the years? What is it today?

I am not even sure feminism occurred to artists like Marisol, but for artists like Joan Brown and Cindy Sherman, it was a constant reminder and a label that came up time and time again. I think they were probably delighted with the label, but their art addressed many issues and concerns.

What piece in the show resonates most with you?

I am very fond of the GG [Guerrilla Girls] pieces as well as the painting by Joan Brown. I’m also very fond of the photographs by Anne Noggle. The museum owns several of her pieces.

What has the reaction to Girls and Company been so far?

Very positive, especially with women viewers.

What is your goal for the exhibition?

To raise awareness and spark discussion.


Images, courtesy of MMoCA, are Untitled Head (#12) by Jin Lee, The Martyrdom by Frances Myers and St. Petersburg, Florida by Nicholas Nixon.


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

University Theatre opens its summer production, The Musicals of Musicals: The Musical, on Friday. Also that day, Artisan Gallery in Paoli unveils two shows: ceramics by Rick Hintze and the group show Contemporary Animal Imagery.

The Spring Green Arts Fair, featuring the work of over two hundred artists, runs Saturday and Sunday in downtown Spring Green, while the Madison Early Music Festival offers a Preview Concert Sunday afternoon.

And Tuesday sees the start of Butterfly Encounters, featuring photographs of local butterflies by Ann Thering at the UW–Madison Arboretum Steinhauer Trust Gallery.

Summer Traditions—with a Few New Twists

When you think of summer around Madison, a few favorite events likely come to mind. Concerts on the Square. Art Fair on the Square. American Players Theatre.

All three get their start this month and the next, with a combination of what’s made the events perpetually popular and some new twists on the traditions.

American Players Theatre

American Players Theatre offers five shows this summer, one of which started last week.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is APT’s signature production, says communications director Sara Young. The company used to do it annually, starting in its debut year of 1980, but hasn’t taken it on since 2000.

“It’s the quintessential APT experience,” Young says. “Part of it takes place in the woods and we’re in the woods. The magic people expect out of APT is heightened in it.”

And while many theater-goers know the Shakespearean comedy well, Young assures that this production is worth a watch. “You haven’t seen this Midsummer,” she says. “It’s gorgeous and fun.”

Ah, Wilderness! kicks off this week and Young promises the play by Eugene O'Neill will push the envelope further than an

y other play APT has performed has yet. Next week sees the start of Shakespeare’s Henry IV: The Making of a King, which Young describes as a coming-of-age story. In fact, she says, the entire season could be similarly characterized.

APT’s fourth and fifth shows—Widowers’ Houses by George Bernard Shaw and The Belle’s Strategem by Hannah Cowley—start in August and represent a mix of old and new. “We do a lot of Shaw out here,” Young says. And she adds that The Belle’s Strategem is the first play written by a woman that the company will perform.

Concerts on the Square

Concerts on the Square celebrates its twenty-fifth season this year, with the first of six Wednesday-evening performances taking place June 25.

Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra music director and maestro Andrew Sewell says he planned the season to be memorable and special, and one that longtime Concerts lovers would enjoy. “We really wanted something that would bring everyone together,” he says.

In the Concerts on the Square tradition, a Fourth of July concert (held July 2) will be a patriotic salute to America and feature Hong-En Chen, the pianist who won the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s 2008 Young Artist Concerto Competition.

Guest artists are highlights of the season, and several are newcomers to Concerts on the Square, says Sewell. Trumpeter Ryan Anthony will be featured in July 9’s Sound the Trumpet concert, while Philadelphia violin and bass trio Time for Three performs at the String Fusion concert on July 23.

Sewell says the final concert of the season, July 30’s Our Town, will serve as the ultimate anniversary celebration. The concert will feature mezzo soprano Kitt Foss, soprano Alli Foss, Tracy Silverman on electric violin and the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble.

Art Fair on the Square

Art Fair on the Square also celebrates an anniversary this summer: Fifty years of being the ultimate downtown outdoor arts festival, attracting roughly 500 artists and countless art lovers to the Capitol Square.

Art Fair coordinator Katie Hunter says her goal in putting on the event is to make it seem fresh each year. There are surely some changes in store this season.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art made the Art Fair application process almost entirely digital this year. That attracted not only more applicants—more than 1,500 as compared to 1,300 in 2007—but also new ones. Hunter estimates that one-third of artists who will participate in Art Fair on the Square July 12 and 13 are newcomers.

The digital process also contributed to the Art Fair’s effort to go green. Hunter says the event is ramping up its recycling and focusing on biodegradable products. She also posed a Go Green Challenge to participating artists, asking them to create at least one work of art using recycled of biodegradable materials. A jury will view all the eco artwork and choose a winner, who will earn free entry into next year’s fair.

“We’re trying to connect the environment and the arts,” Hunte says. “Art can be used to facilitate a lot of environmental practices.”

Art Fair also has partnered with EnAct, asking artists to decorate rain barrels that will be showcased around the Square and later auctioned off. And they’re working with the Chicago-based Working Bikes Cooperative, which takes donated bicycles and refurbishes them to be used as a power source in developing countries. The group will have a sixteen-foot bicycle-powered fountain on display.

While Art Fair could have used its anniversary season to reflect on past festivals, Hunter says the desire was to look toward the future. She hopes to make the event as environmentally friendly as possible in the years to come.

“We’re not a green event but we’re a greener event,” she says. “It will take a few years.”

Hunter encourages festival-goers to bike, bus or walk to Art Fair. Those who come in on two wheels may park their bicycles at a new bike corral on King Street.

Other changes to this year’s fair include a revamped kids area, which will include art projects led by MFA students. And a strong lineup of food vendors and live entertainment should assure Hunter’s other goal for Art Fair: that anyone, art lover or not, can attend the event and have a great time.

Photos top to bottom are courtesy of American Players Theatre, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Tomorrow, Stage Q begins its annual two-week playfest, Queer Shorts 3, which celebrates LGBT theater and its actors, directors and playwrights at the Bartell Theatre. The Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society starts its summer program, Same Carriage, Fresh Horses, on Friday. Performances change weekly and take place at venues throughout the Madison area.

Saturday marks the annual Juneteenth Day Celebration honoring the African American emancipation. The event is held in Penn Park.

And on Monday is Concert on the Green, the Madison Symphony Orchestra outdoor summer concert and picnic at Bishops Bay Country Club in Middleton.

June Artists: Water Worlds

Many of us, it seems, have a strong connection to water but one that’s constantly in flux. We’re drawn to water, inspired by it, rejuvenated by it, sometimes frightened by it. 

So it’s not surprising that artists are attracted to it—and that their depictions of water are greatly diverse. 

The James Watrous Gallery at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters plays with this idea in an exhibition opening in June. Works by two artists are shown alongside one another to show how each observes and interprets the water and its surrounding landscape.

The Things We Know (formerly Verismo/Verita) by Lake Mills artist Amy Arntson is a series of hypnotic, crisply realistic watercolors. Most of her paintings include no land as reference; the viewer is left only to focus on the waves and their colors, textures, patterns and rhythms.

In Lake Superior Blues, Madison architectural-model builder Bruce Severson showcases pastel drawings and acrylic paintings that express the moods and feelings he encounters in the landscape of Lake Superior.

Taking a cue from the side-by-side format of the exhibition, I’m posing together Arntson and Severson’s individual responses to a shared set of questions.

Why take on water as your subject matter?

Amy Arntson: Growing up in the Great Lakes region, water has always been a powerful symbol for me. It is intimately connected with the passage of time … of stability and change. It is both fragile and seemingly eternal. Most of my current paintings do not reference the surrounding land. Instead, they focus on light, texture, shape and movement of water. There is no place to stand, only a place to be. Without a horizon line, the implied physical presence of the viewer diminishes. Viewers are encouraged to meditate on the water, projecting themselves into the painting.

Bruce Severson: I lived by Lake Superior a couple years in the late seventies and was really quite taken by the whole lake and its large features—the large boats, the large bluffs. It was quite a magical thing.

In what kind of style do you choose to represent water—and why this style?

Amy Arntson: Influences on my work range from wash drawings of the seventeenth

-century illuminists who addressed the relationship between landscape and the expression of feeling, to an array of twentieth century abstract artwork. Abstract color, shape and texture are an underpinning to all my realistic paintings, as are a sense of place and time and related emotions. The work is created from sketches and photographs of locations I visit in the Great Lakes and other areas.

Bruce Severson: I think it’s probably some sort of impressionistic style but I do think I go back and forth between abstract and realistic. Sometimes it’s both things: Sometimes the details are quite abstract but when you back up its hyper-realistic.

How is your medium of choice suited to rendering water?

Amy Arntson: Throughout my career, I’ve found it 

important to be familiar with a variety of media, so that any choice made comes from a strong knowledge base. I’ve examined a wide variety of concepts in painting, photography and electronic art. Consistently line and wash and watercolor seem most beautiful to my eye, and this is the medium used in my current paintings.

Bruce Severson: I can capture the nuances of colors easier with pastels. However, in a large way, paintings allow another kind of looseness I try to work with. I use quite a range of application techniques; not just brushes, but I make certain implements for applying paint.

What do you hope to express in your work?

Amy Arntson: The title of this exhibition at the Watrous is taken from Aldo Leopold’s statement that “We only mourn the things we know.” I have started to think of my water paintings in the context of global change and potential loss.

Bruce Severson: I try to capture atmosphere as much as the objects. There’s an ethereal quality to a lot of my work. And I also like to work with colors. My show I’m calling Lake Superior Blues, partly because I miss the lake and partly because whenever I observe the water it seems to be a different shade of blue.

What do you hope people get from seeing your work—and side by side with that of another artist?

Amy Arntson: I don't know the other artist or his work but I look forward to seeing his paintings. It is always good to see another artist with a similar interest. Viewers will benefit from two viewpoints.

Bruce Severson: It’s my own landscape, my own eye on it. To me, it’s sort of a language that words can’t describe … Each person will come away with their own feeling. It’s more about that, about sharing a feeling, than anything else.

Verismo/Verita and Lake Superior Blues run June 20 to July 27. For more information, visit wisconsinacademy.org.

Photos from top to bottom are: Arntson’s Fall Wind, Severson’s Ice Waves, Arntson’s Under Tom’s Pier and Severson’s Thin Ice.


COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Some major events take place this week—and long Memorial Day weekend—around Madison.

Get a jump start the holiday weekend this evening at Tunes at Monona Terrace with music by The Reptile Palace Orchestra Balkan Dance Groove.

Friday through Monday, take your pick—or, better yet, check out both—of the World’s Largest Brat Fest at the Alliant Energy Center and the WisCon Feminist Science Fiction Convention at the Concourse Hotel.

On Saturday, Girls and Company: Feminist Works from MMoCA’s Permanent Collection, a collection of feminist art from the 1960s to ’90s, opens at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

And on Sunday, join or cheer on runners in the Madison Marathon.

Artful Evening

Art, design, fashion, the who’s who of Madison … my head is still spinning over how these elements came together so beautifully last night at Design MMoCA. I have to say, last night’s preview gala was one of the best events I’ve attended so far this year.

Designers, retailers and arts enthusiasts mingled with the likes of Jerry Frautschi and Pleasant Rowland, Toni Sikes of The Artful Home, Valerie Kazamias from MMoCA, chocolatier Gail Ambrosius, Food Fight’s Daryl Sisson, Lisa Sisson of shopbop.com, Christi Weber and Sonya Newenhouse from Madison Environmental Group, and many others.

The show—in which sixteen local and regional designers created “rooms” based on works of art from the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s permanent collection—continues on through Sunday.

Here are some highlights:

• The bedroom (above) from Mark Jenssen’s of Jenssen Design is one of the most intriguing vignettes. In it, a canoe form and lattice structure are suspended over a minimalist bed. The shapes are also found in the inspiration artwork, Robert Stackhouse’s Diviners.
• The living room space by Natasha Vora of Indocara Global Home Furnishings and Jodie Amerell of Inner View Consulting is a cozy and cool celebration of natural colors and textures that complement Lee Weiss’s organic, rhythmic Beach Stones watercolor.
• Flad Architects showcase an office space based on Ellsworth Kelly’s simple Oranges lithograph of three circles. Streamlined furniture includes clean white circular chairs and a light wood desk. The designers show a sense of humor by placing a bowl of oranges on a shelf.
• Chuck Close’s Robert Manipulated reveals a face out of grid of gray squares. Davison Architecture + Urban Design nicely echoed the style in sleek furniture and the format in a floor of gray squares.
• Bungalow Pros provide a break from clean lines and funky forms with a dining room featuring heavier wood pieces, while the Madison Environmental Group’s contemporary living room quells any concern that green design can’t be cutting-edge cool.

These are just a few of the creative, innovative and inspiring features that caught my eye. Check out the show and find your own favorites.

Design MMoCA runs 11 a.m.–8 p.m. April 25, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. April 26, and 11 a.m.–4 p.m. April 27. Visit mmoca.org for a schedule of lectures, gallery talks and a designer meet and greet. 

Thanks to Amy Lynn Schereck for the photos.

An Artistic Addition

Madison has a newcomer to its visual arts scene: Bungalow 1227, a laid-back enclave for artists and art lovers at 1227 E. Wilson St.

Set in a cozy brick bungalow, the gallery is the latest undertaking of Pat Dillon, a Madison artist and writer (she’s written about travel for Madison Magazine).

“This is one thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” she says.

Dillon transformed the former home into a rustic gallery, exposing stone walls and keeping the original wood floors intact. Paintings and drawings fill the walls—as well as windows covered with sheets of corrugated metal—and pottery is displayed on shelves and tables.

That the gallery was a concept brewing in Dillon’s mind for years allowed her to keep tabs on artists she’d one day like to represent. She created Bungalow 1227 to be a relaxed space where local and regional artists can display their work. But she’s thrown some international artists into the mix, too.

Dillon also intends for the gallery to be welcoming the public. Art lovers of all stripes can pop in straight from the adjacent bike path or from a stroll along East Wilson Street to look, shop and talk art.

The gallery’s opening is May 2, in conjunction with the city’s spring Gallery Night. Her first show is Women Inspired Art, which runs through June 30.

Proceeds from all her shows will benefit a charity, this time the YWCA’s Third Street Program.

COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Design MMoCA takes over the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Friday through Sunday for a showcase of interior design based on works from the museum’s permanent collection.

Thursday through Saturday, the UW Dance Program offers its Spring Program Concert at Lathrop Hall.

The Madison Symphony Orchestra brings the sounds of Russia to Overture Center with concerts Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Also at Overture is a free Community Hymn Sing Saturday morning in which the public can sing along with the concert organ.

The city will be filled with runners taking part in the 27th Annual Crazylegs Classic on Saturday. The 8K run starts and the Capitol Square and makes its way throughout the downtown.

And hundreds of alpacas and fans of the fuzzy animals will meet up at the Alliant Energy Center Saturday and Sunday for the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival.