Art along the lakeshore engaged Milwaukee last Friday on one of the first summer nights. Whether at Bay View's inaugural Gallery Night or in the Historic Third Ward's Marshall Building Block Party, visitors discovered music and refreshments to enliven the first June weekend.
The Gallery on the Marshall Building's second floor featured an interesting exhibit interweaving diverse Polish heritage. Dagmar Costello's Kapliczkas, or little chapels, dotted her ethereal oil on board landscapes. These tiny buildings accent the roadsides in Poland's countryside, and in Costello's paintings that envision dreaming in color.
Darlene Wesenberg Rzezotarski conjured fairy tales and folklore that connected with personal family history in her imaginative sculptures. Many of her ceramics depicted tales told from her cousins only recently discovered living in Poland. Rzezotarski also signed her book Encountering Poland: Trick a Witch, Wed a Hedgehog and Save Your Soul that captured her artwork and stories in one softbound volume.
One sculpture Good Queen Wanda appeared to be a metaphorical favorite tucked in a back room of the gallery. Her golden braids flying behind her, the queen had a mercurial quality that shimmered with her clothes covered in metallic glazes. In another piece titled Letter to America one wall separates a mother and son. The woman sits at an old table (copied from the original that Rzezotarski actually found in the house) in the homeland reading a letter from her son, on the other side of the wall. Even when things in America were difficult, Rzesotarski explains the children always wrote that a life in America was good, despite the real problems their families were experiencing.
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Moving to the fifth floor in the Marshal Building, the Portrait Society Gallery featured the first 20 oil portraits by Fred Bell in his new series. Over 300 people occupy the Marshall Building on any given business day and Bell will use a year to paint as many of the occupants as he can. The exclusive portrait exhibition will remain in the hallway gallery while Bell completes his assigned portraits. For all those familiar with the building, studying these expressive faces offers a delightful opportunity to meet the people on all five floors. Even the ones usually hidden because the merchants are closed on a Gallery Night and Day. Once again, these portraits capture a unique circle of humanity that will undoubtedly change within the year.
From the first floor's lobby ceiling hung a bicycle fleet combined from various eras, including a newly minted Trek bike with contemporary technology. Descriptions on the wall named all the bicycles, a mini educational lesson for the enthusiast or those interested. Just below and inside, Elaine Erickson Gallery presented Carol Rowan's brilliant pastel paintings of nature. Grava Gallery continued showing the prisma pencil paintings of Sally Gauger Jensen that portray her illusions from Bay View store windows, and Reginald Baylor Studio offered creative ideas in several disciplines. One could spend the entire evening perusing Grotta & Company, Still Gallery, Merge Gallery and Safi Studio alone. Now even the Marshall Building's lower level has its own array of special art.
"Trekking" to the West Side of Milwaukee one could stop at Wauwatosa's Gallery 2622. The fresh monthly exhibition featured a mosaic show by Shelly Bird. Bird creates clocks, jewelry, mirrors, paintings, and mosaics for home interiors, especially in kitchens and baths. Often found objects under resin accent her more decorative images. For further information contact Gallery 2622 for viewing the work or commissioning Bird on a personal project. (2622 Wauwatosa Avenue, 414.708.4777)
