“Bridge Work: Ten Years of Making,” at MIAD’s Frederick Layton Gallery through March 8 features recent work by participants in the Plum Blossom Initiative, a program developed by local artist Jason Yi and curator Leah Kolb in 2015, conceived to shore up the disruptive gap facing students upon graduating from art school. A spin through the work of the 23 participants in the show suggests that the infrastructure those two architects laid is both functioning extraordinarily well and holding up to the elements.
“Holding up to the elements” in Bridge Work’s case means enduring the ravages of the crucial passing of post-college time. For artists it means maintaining a practice that continues to grow and evolve. That’s easier said than done considering most artists are forced to cultivate their studio practices independently of work obligations. Where accountants sharpen their skills on the job, artists usually get better on nights and weekends after life’s other demands are met.
Which is what makes the work in this exhibition so remarkable. While several artists in the show have developed full-time studio practices, most of them continue to emerge, honing their visions as they can. And they clearly CAN. It’s an impressive exhibition. Upon entering the gallery, three rich black-and-white photos by Nick Drain caught my immediate attention. The ghostly, photographic images of found life within nature profoundly offset the full-frontal flicker of social media-based imagery.
Mutant Formalism
Across the way, examples of LaNia Sproles’ ever-evolving body of bodily-oriented works provoke thought and a deeper look into her practice. Sproles’ doggedly searching work is a perfect testament to the discipline and pace one would hope to gain from the program. Nearby, Kaden Van de Loo’s mutant formalism appears as a rare lifeform in 2025. Impersonal, historically rooted, and slow burning–not attributes usually associated with Zoomer-core. The very idea of tackling monochromatic painting is novel in the hands of a 20-something, but then to pull it off with a touch and eccentricity that would make Jake Berthot blush is pretty incredible. Chad Alexander Matha’s work in the exhibition, a hanging assemblage of construction netting and leather called Just Keep Putting a Pin in It, only hints at the breadth of his vision. That I know what this vision is testifies to a visibility he’s carved out locally; a space not simply handed to Milwaukee artists. To be seen takes work and work worth noticing.
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Lindsey Yeager for instance is an artist whose work I caught out of the corner of my eye here and there over some years. I saw it at a show at VAR Gallery a while later and it sunk in deeper. And seeing her three handsome paintings in “Bridge Work” made me wonder where they’ve been all my life. Like a hummed song from the Great American Songbook: you can’t imagine when you first heard it, but it may as well have been there forever. That’s how art works on us; it builds rapport slowly over time until it’s an integral part of how we see the world. Julia Bradfish’s work in the exhibition not only represents a practice I’ve absorbed over time, but one I’ve watched grow and flourish in the last few years. The paintings in the Layton Galleries reflect a commitment to growth and experiment that was undoubtedly goosed by the opportunity offered by the initiative.
Personal and Progressive
Which is why it’s so important to support such programs and local art in general. Viewing art isn’t transactional, it’s personal and progressive. It’s no different than your most valuable interpersonal relationships. To see where Dominic Chambers’ work in the show, and where it has gone since his time in Plum Blossom, should make local supporters feel proud and connected, but also hungry to keep feeding the furnace that builds these bridges.
The attrition rate of art school is significantly higher than other degrees. Even in the best graduate programs, the chance that a student will be working professionally as an artist a decade later is less than 50%. The attrition rate for dentists by comparison is about 17%. Artists have very different ambitions than dentists, of course, but they do wish for sustainable practices. Dentists don’t need to beat a drum to get our attention, they simply let us consume at will and wait. Artists on the other hand require curious partners, agency, and social energy that, when connected in the right way, fosters experiences and relationships as valuable in its own way as any bridge work you’ll get done in a dental chair.