Two Artists 'Playing House' at the St. Kate

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Photo courtesy of St. Kate—The Arts Hotel

“Playing House” is currently on exhibit at St. Kate—The Arts Hotel.

Curatorial decision-making often goes unnoticed in the endeavor of art appreciation. As much as artists would sometimes like it to be otherwise, how one feels about a work of art is inevitably dependent on external variables and relationships. Keeping all these variables and the work itself in a healthy state of equilibrium is difficult.

Which is why the current exhibition at St. Kate—The Arts Hotel, “Playing House,” is so compelling—compliments to St. Kate’s curator, Maureen Ragalie. It’s a modest show, with only 10 pieces in the small gallery, but it feels bigger than the space it’s in. The show pairs the work of Michelle Grabner and Lois Bielefeld, who each maintain sophisticated and mature studio practices. Any assortment of either’s work would be illuminating, but in tandem, they slingshot each other into another dimension.

Using very different artistic strategies, Grabner and Bielefeld ply the conceptual territory of domestic activity. Grabner, a painter and sculptor, looks to process, material transformation and symbolic form, while Bielefeld’s work is rooted in narrative, cinematic photography. A large  arrangement of 18 of Grabner’s grid-like paintings initially seems interested in abstract geometries. They could very easily read as a group of autonomous paintings. Those possibilities end quickly, however, as one absorbs Bielefeld’s wonderful photographs of American domesticity nearby. When this takes place, Grabner’s checked imagery identifies itself as gingham patterning rather than hermetic geometry, and it lurches from the neo-Platonic plasma right onto the paleo-modern picnic table. It also underscores the painterliness and materiality of her canvases, or burlaps, as it were. They possess something of Agnes Martin’s within-the-lines skewedness, which invests them with unexpected presence. Each painting employs an ever-so-slightly different color palette, and the bands of color are soft-edged and anti-mechanical. This handmade quality suggests (and becomes an analog for) traditional notions of female domestic labor, such as stitching, embroidery and sewing.

Mysterious and Complex

Bielefeld’s photographs are more than foils for Grabner’s paintings; they are mysterious and complex compositions that consider rituals, roles, identity and performance. They also deconstruct the act of image-making itself. It is somewhat unclear initially whether her photographic scenes are documentary snapshots or staged events. But clues soon emerge. In a work titled Jackie, Lydia, and Lois, the artist makes a cameo, cooking in a gingham shirt while Lydia and Jackie vacuum and schlep laundry. Alone, each individual character appears natural enough, but as a group, they seem a little out of sequence. In fact, this scene is staged for the sake of art, and in doing so, it connects dramatic to social role playing and ritual to performance.

Naya, Darell, and Annie, another photograph set in a kitchen, also features three figures frozen in domestic action. One is preparing to walk a dog, another tends to an electric mixer, and a third, the only man, carries groceries though a door. One giveaway that this is fiction is the discreteness of each individual’s role. As in many of the photographs, the acts performed are categorically distinct and identifiable by name, which stands as a measure and a statement about their social conventionality.

Filling out the exhibition, Grabner offers several untitled bronzed objects that bridge the gap between cinematic narrative and abstract motif. Casting an egg carton and a baking pan in a historically elevated alloy exults those mundane objects traditionally associated with subordinated roles and labor. It’s such a simple and elegant way to invert the meaning freighted by such symbolic objects. The decision to pair Grabner and Bielefeld’s work is also simple and elegant… and admirable: It’s a rare and restrained curatorial decision to ensure the whole exceeds the sum of the individual artists’ work without sacrificing individual moments or spot-lighting the organizing hand behind the scenes.

Openings This Week

January Gallery Night & Day
Jan. 17-18
Various locations

Gallery Night & Day is the principal art event in Milwaukee for gallery hopping and art viewing, showcasing some 50 venues throughout the city’s thriving neighborhoods and buzzing Downtown. As the event’s website states: “This free, two-day art event offers you the opportunity to buy original art, dine in outstanding restaurants and shop in unique boutiques.” For more information—including a complete list of participating venues—visit gallerynightmke.com.

“On the Nature of Wisconsin”
Jan. 17-Mar. 20
The Warehouse
1635 W. St. Paul Ave.

“On the Nature of Wisconsin” is The Warehouse’s first art exhibition to feature only artists who were either born in or have spent significant portions of their lives in our state. The exhibition’s opening reception features guest educators from the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, as well as sculptor Bill Reid with a pop-up exhibition. Featuring works from the gallery’s permanent collection, “On the Nature of Wisconsin” celebrates our artists and their relationship with the natural world of the Badger State. For more information, call 414-252-0677 or visit thewarehousemke.org.

“Toward the Texture of Knowing”
Jan. 17-May 24
Haggerty Museum of Art
1234 W. Tory Hill St.

“Toward the Texture of Knowing” exhibits artists, including Felix Gonzales-Torres and Rachel Rose, who have engaged in slow and intentional examinations of everyday points of contact—with people, emotions, time and the world—as sites of curiosity and impact. Several different programs will be presented throughout the coming months in conjunction with “Toward the Texture of Knowing,” thereby making the museum a place for reflection, contemplative practice and mindfulness. Best of all, every program is free, open to the public and takes place in a single location: the Haggerty Museum of Art. For more information, call 414-288-1669 or visit marquette.edu/haggerty.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Gallery Talk with Dr. Cedric Burrows
Monday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m.
Haggerty Museum of Art
1234 W. Tory Hill St.

During Milwaukee Museum Week, the Haggerty is exhibiting Joel Sternfeld’s photograph, The National Civil Rights Museum, formerly the Lorrain Motel, 450 Mulberry St., Memphis, Tenn., August 1993. On hand will be Dr. Cedric Burrows to discuss this photograph in the context of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. Burrows is an assistant professor of English at Marquette University; his dissertation, “(Re)Reading Readers: The Construction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in Composition Textbooks,” investigated how both King and Malcolm X have been anthologized in first-year writing textbooks. For more information, call 414-288-1669 or visit marquette.edu/haggerty.