The Galleries of the Marshall Building

The Marshall Building is an eclectic Downtown arts hub, a sort of grown-up successor to the legendary Sydney Hih. Bob DeToro, who took over ownership of the Marshall Building in 2008, is proud of the way Milwaukee’s artistic community has settled into the former wholesale grocer, imbuing the building with a vibrant and creative spirit, all the while highlighting a unique architectural history. “We try to accentuate the bones of the building wherever possible by exposing the columns [the oldest example of the reinforced concrete Turner “Mushroom” System], concrete floors and beautiful Cream City/Chicago Pink brick blend,” says DeToro. 

“I hear over and over from people that have never been here (particularly after Gallery Night): ‘wow, I can’t believe I never knew how many amazing people are in this building,’” DeToro furthers. “We need to continue to collaborate with all of our tenants, the Third Ward Association, other businesses in the neighborhood and City of Milwaukee to find creative ways to show off just how special this building and the Third Ward neighborhood are.”

The following, in walking path order from the central elevators, is a compilation of the Marshall Building’s gallery or gallery-adjacent spaces. Support these artists on Summer Gallery Night the weekend of July 17-18 or during the 2nd Annual Marshall Building Art Crawl on Labor Day weekend.

Lower Level

MKE Potters Guild — #11 LL

Regular Hours: by appointment

Founded by sculptor Lionel Mindin, the Milwaukee Potters Guild offers classes for adults and displays a rotating selection of ceramics by fellow sculptors and potters.

The Catacombs of Neto — multiple spaces

Regular Hours: Monday-Wednesday by appointment, Thursday-Friday 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Weekends 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

One of the Marshall Building’s newer tenants, the Catacombs are an immersive bilingual (English/Spanish) art museum showcasing the multimedia work and creative process of artist Ernesto “Neto” Atkinson. The space is comprised of four rooms that work together in conversation, blending art, healing, cultural identity and accessibility.

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First Floor

Aquae Nguvu — Suite 130

Regular hours: Thursday-Saturday 12-5 p.m. or by appointment

London-born gallerist Tony Nickalls operates the dual-roomed Aquae Nguvu—Nguvu meaning “power” in Swahili, and Aquae Latin for “of water.” Nickalls curates shows at Aquae Nguvu that tell real stories: “I’m not too interested in pretty pictures,” they remark. The space has also consistently been a great opportunity for emerging Wisconsin artists, including several previous Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) mentees. Works on display during Gallery Night include Cindy Hansen and Tracy Keller Nickolaus’ photography and painting series on memory care and others on nostalgia and whimsy in the adjacent space.

Harmonic Harvest — multiple spaces

Regular Hours: Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

This community arts nonprofit aims to foster belonging, interconnectedness and resilience across Milwaukee’s diverse communities. Regularly hosting community events, Harmonic Harvest is perhaps best known for their Renaissance Threads Workshops in which attendees add a fabric square to an ever-growing community quilt, each square inspired by “the people, places, and moments that shape [our] lives.”

Townsville — #100

Regular Hours: Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Townsville specializes in illustrative works celebrating city skylines and school pride. Founded by artist Josh Seubert, the illustrations depict “the most iconic and recognizable city or campus features collaged together like a puzzle...as much as 40 hours of research and plotting goes into each design.”

Timo Gallery — #110

Regular Hours: by appointment

This first-floor gallery features the multimedia abstract works of Timothy “Timo” Meyerring and colleagues. Timo is known for his Rock Legends series, a collection of paintings honoring iconic musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, previously featured at the Iron Horse hotel.

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Second Floor

Kashes Collection — #210

Regular Hours: by appointment

Kashes Collection is the studio and gallery of artist Anthony Brewer. Filled with swirling colors and abstract linework, Brewer’s art is inspired by his passion for men’s mental health, as he reminds us to just breathe.

Kat Harrison Studio — #207

Regular Hours: by appointment

Kat Harrison is an art educator and ceramics artist who hosts monthly workshops on clay hand-building, a ceramics technique that does not employ a pottery wheel. She also utilizes the space to showcase her ceramics and prints, bright and colorful reflections of her passion for community-building.

Impenduum — #209

Regular Hours: by appointment

Impenduum is a multi-platform design exhibit, experimenting in visual and audio works.

Gallery 218 — #218

Regular Hours: Saturday 1-6 p.m., or by appointment 

Gallery 218 is a cooperative artist space featuring the work of Judith Hooks (printmaking and painting), Bernie Newman (photography), Holly Strope (acrylic), Steve James (painting), Jennifer Scavone (photography), Guntis Lauzums (digital art) and Tom Friese (painting). Celebrating 36 years, the collective has festive plans for Friday July 17, including live jazz by local musicians.

Sadler Gallery — #200

Regular Hours: by appointment

At the far end of the second floor lies Sadler Gallery, specializing in fine art dealing and custom framing. While closed during July’s Gallery Night due to renovations, owner Frank Sadler plans to host a grand re-opening in Fall 2026.

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Third Floor

Manger/Duback Studio — #301

Regular Hours: by appointment

Artists Barbara Manger and Sally Duback share a studio space on the third floor. Manger specializes in monotype printmaking and etching and is particularly inspired by shapes of nature: “mostly I am intrigued by tangles, overlays, apparent disorder.” Duback meanwhile is an accomplished painter and muralist, with many works on display in public institutions across Milwaukee.

Clare Jorgensen — #312

Regular Hours: by appointment

Jorgensen paints in encaustic: molten pigmented wax that is gradually layered and textured on woodblock. “I am in love with the labor intensive, heavy, organic, unpredictable and predictable qualities.” She was recently a resident artist with ARTservancy, a program dedicated to uplifting the work of environmental conservationists and artists.

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Fourth Floor

Julius Brown — #402

Regular Hours: by appointment

After years of creating live synesthetic graphics in performing arts spaces and night clubs, it’s no wonder that light artist Julius Brown has transformed his practice into something more meditative. Merging his passion for fine art with his background in computer science, Brown renders abstract and iterative visual pieces using software he codes himself on upcycled Windows XP laptops. After curating the renderings, he assembles them into cohesive large-scale video projections and invites the viewer to slow down, discovering the gradual, nearly imperceptible shifts to the environmental imagery he crafts.

Kim Storage Gallery — #404

Regular Hours: Thursday-Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m., or by appointment

This fourth-floor gallery intermingles contemporary works by both emergent and well-established artists. Friday July 17 marks the opening reception of “Color Play,” a group exhibition by Poppy Dodge, Megan Woodard Johnson, Kathleen Waterloo and Gretchen Warsen. “Together, these four artists make a compelling case that color is never neutral,” says gallerist Kim Storage.

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Fifth Floor

Bennie Higgins  — #500

Regular Hours: by appointment 

Follow the sounds of John Coltrane to the left exiting the elevators and you’ll find renaissance man Bennie Higgins’ studio. He’s done a little bit of everything over the years, including photojournalism, sociology, criminal justice and (currently) domestic violence education. Higgins comes from a family of artists and works mostly in oil portraiture, and he is also a regular at Cedarburg Plein Air. Though he primarily takes commissions, you can see examples of his figure work (and maybe some experimental abstracts) on Gallery Night.

Valaria Tatera + Eric Koester — #502

Regular Hours: by appointment

Tatera is a visual and installation artist whose large-scale, tactile work is rooted in indigenous trauma and healing. Says Tatera, “It is my body reenacting blood memories of ceremonies grounded in repetition, movement and dance.” She shares a space with painter Eric Koester, whose art questions American commercialism. 

WB Artist  — #504

Regular Hours: by appointment

Husband-wife duo Ted and Karen Brusubardis share a gallery space, but their practices couldn’t be more distinct. Ted’s large-scale video and Karen’s paintings both draw inspiration from family legacy, Ted of his Latvian roots and family music business, Karen of her Bolivian heritage and memories of the imaginary worlds she created growing up in rural Wisconsin. The two will create a collaborative body of work to celebrate their 10th year at the Marshall Building in January; meantime on Gallery Night, you can enjoy displays of Ted’s multimedia videography alongside Karen’s current works in silverpoint, acrylic and giclee reproduction on woodblock.

Magestro — #506

Regular Hours: by appointment 

Creative director of Mindspike Design (a web design group just around the corner in Suite #515) Mike Magestro hosts a studio space on the fifth floor for his abstract artwork. His work explores texture and “feeling of place rather than direct representation.”

Wiscy Jones Creative — #509

Regular Hours: by appointment

Nate Fehlauer operates design firm Wiscy Jones Creative, creating unique, poppy visuals for local and national brands, though he also creates art for himself. His distinctly posterized style evokes the graphic novels he “spent much of his youth engrossed by.”

Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art — #526

Regular Hours: Thursday-Saturday 12-5 p.m.

The Portrait Society is among Milwaukee’s foremost contemporary galleries. The rotating exhibitions show bodies of work by unique and underrecognized local artists. Past exhibits include pataphysical graphite artist Christopher T. Wood, photographer Lois Bielefeld and fantastical flashe painter Ashley Lusietto. During Summer Gallery Night, the Portrait Society will show work by Khari Turner, an ink and carbon artist whose work discusses systemic racism and the transatlantic slave trade, often mixing his paints with water collected straight from Lake Michigan or the Milwaukee River.

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Sixth Floor

Material Studios + Gallery

Regular Hours: Friday-Saturday 1-5 p.m.

Operated by artist and managing director Pamela Anderson, Material Studios + Gallery is the largest collaborative creative workspace in Milwaukee's Historic Third Ward, also home to MARN and ArtWorks for Milwaukee. “By bringing together artists, nonprofits, and creative entrepreneurs under one roof, [we serve] as a dynamic ecosystem where creativity, collaboration, and professional growth can flourish,” says Anderson. On Gallery Night, Material Studios is following a theme of Art and Community, featuring collaborative works by resident artists on the front feature wall of the space.

Anderson, prolific painter and sculptor, is just one of the many local artists who call the space home. De-facto managers oil painter Deborah Brooks and graphic designer Maureen Megan Kane each engage the space to its fullest; Brooks offers regular oil painting workshops and 1-on-1’s and plans to show her student’s work in her space on Gallery Night.

Other Material Studios artists specializing in everything from collage to dollhouse-sized micro galleries include May Klisch, Beki Borman, Pink Balance, Holly Buchholz, Susan Fiebig, Karie Brittain, Chrystal Gillon, Hydea Ali, Judith Gahn Murphy, Marti Coplai, Andrew Perry, Maureen Kane and Natalja Yatsuka.

Many of these featured spaces will be open and/or running special programming on Gallery Night & Day, July 17-18, but not all! Visit gallerynightmke.com for the most up to date Summer Gallery Night programming.