“Nares: Moves” June 14-Oct. 6 Milwaukee Art Museum 700 N. Art Museum Drive
The Milwaukee Art Museum presents the first retrospective for New York-based artist James Nares, titled “Nares: Moves.” This exhibit will explore the artist’s films as central to his artistic practice. It will highlight Nares’ significance to contemporary art through his photographs, drawings, paintings and sculptures. Nares dedicated his 50-year-long career to focusing attention on motion by variously creating, capturing and manipulating, as he once described it, “things in motion, motion in things.”
“James Nares is a prolific, perpetual creator. I first worked with the artist when I was at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Jacksonville and decided then that I wanted to explore the full breadth of his work and share it with a broader national audience,” says exhibition curator Marcelle Polednik. “Nares is not constrained by any one medium. A central figure of punk rock and New Wave cinema in New York in the ’70s, he has remained curious and innovative as his work has broadened and matured. His influence on the artists and art of New York is indelible; placing his work in the canon of art history allows us to more fully understand the development and nature of contemporary art.” For more information, visit mam.org.
“Temari: Decorative Japanese Thread Balls” Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Lynden Sculpture Garden 2145 W. Brown Deer Road
The practice of making temari originated in China and made its way to Japan, where it is said that Japanese noblewomen, confined within castle walls during times of war in the feudal period, made the decorative balls for their children. Temari are now made by mothers and grandmothers for a new child on New Year’s Day. In Edie Whitten’s workshop, participants will spend the day learning to make one of these beautiful thread jewels as a gift or decoration. Starting with a Styrofoam core, they will focus on the different stages of creating a simple 10-division/five-petal design—from padding the ball, to covering it with a thread wrap, to finishing it using a Kiku herringbone stitch. For more information and to register, call 414-446-8794 or visit lyndensculpturegarden.org.
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“Bonsai for Beginners” Saturday, June 15, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Lynden Sculpture Garden 2145 W. Brown Deer Road
“Bonsai for Beginners” is a workshop with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society. Bonsai, incidentally, is living sculpture; unlike traditional sculpture, it changes from day to day, season to season and year to year. Because it is never “finished,” it celebrates all of nature: its cycles, harshness, resilience and balance. Bonsai is for people who enjoy art, nature, trees, gardening and sculpture, combining the principles of design with the science of horticulture.
Participants in this workshop will create a bonsai from a dwarf schefflera (an indoor plant). In the class, they’ll design their bonsai and transplant it into a ceramic container. This is a hands-on class in which participants learn the basic principles and techniques of bonsai design and how to work in harmony with nature. The goal? Return home with the bonsai you created in the class and a new appreciation for the world of trees! For more information and to register, call 414-446-8794 or visit lyndensculpturegarden.org.
