At Tory Folliard Gallery, two new exhibitions hold court beginning May 30. Native daughter of Wisconsin, Yale Master of Fine Arts and assistant professor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design Breehan James presents “Way of the Wilderness,” a study of favorite locations in her family’s Wisconsin hunting camp and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. With tree-reflecting brooks and forest floors crocheted by fallen leaves, James’ canvases capture the repetitive patterns of nature and instill in the viewer a similar meditative calm.
Trent Miller’s exhibition makes a humble request: “Meet Me at the Edge of the World.” Miller is already a step ahead when it comes to breaking out of the artistic mainstream, seeing as he uses Emery Blagdon’s Healing Machine as a visual point of departure. Outsider artist extraordinaire, Blagdon spent 36 years putting together more than 400 paintings, baroque wire mobiles and found items into a surreal, shed-sized installation that he believed to have curative powers. Miller favors similarly carnival-esque colors and hypnotic structures.
Representation versus abstraction, soothing versus invigorating, earth tones versus hues not on Mother Nature’s palette: these two exhibitions may diverge on a number of scores, but the contraries are always complementary.
“How to Make a Photography Book and Get it Published” by Carl Corey
Alverno College Conference Center
3400 S. 43rd St.
Back in May 2013, the Chicago Sun-Times sent its 28 staff photographers to the breadlines. Thought being: just have the reporters snap the required shots with their iPhones. Despite the darkened flash bulbs, the move illuminated a newfound cultural situation in which we pocket professional photographic technology on a daily basis. But the publishing business has yet to catch up with this democratization of the photographer. Accordingly, Carl Corey’s timely presentation can help all you would-be shutterbugs go pro. Admission is paid via PayPal, costs between $25 and $35, and—no—cannot be charged against future royalties.
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“I am Milwaukee Home”
Art Is For Lovers Gallery
2228 N. Martin Luther King Drive
“I Am Milwaukee Home” is a collaboration between 25 local photographers and online music magazine amfm (amfm-mag.com). The magazine commissioned the photographers to snap shots of the various neighborhoods they call home. The result is a free one-night exhibition from 6-9 p.m. on Friday, May 30, which showcases the varied faces and topographies of a city whose diversity has been historically masked by de facto segregation.
