What are the guiding principles, ideas and positions of a person? How do these perspectives influence the way we see ourselves and how others perceive us? The concept of ethos guided curator Brie Schettle in her debut curatorial project, on view now at the Charles Allis Art Museum.
“Ethos” is a compact exhibition and offers a number of firsts. It is displayed in the museum’s Richard Krug Foyer and the Margaret Rahill Great Hall. The former is an area that has not often been used for exhibitions, with the notable exception of the recently closed “Threshold.” Edgy, contemporary work is shown on rich red walls accented by elaborate sconces, a merging of oppositions. “Ethos” is also a showcase of work by nine artists who have associations with UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, either as alumni or as students nearing graduation.
As emerging artists, the questions of how to define oneself artistically are poignant. A number of them delve into these questions through pictures that build a sense of defiance towards pretension. Kaylie Steinhaus shows a large painting of a young woman meticulously tweezing her groomed eyebrows. Her thick, dark eyelashes extend lushly and her pink nails are precisely manicured. Throwing off the equilibrium of conventional beauty are the discreet marks over her lip—a thin haze of a mustache that acknowledges the reality of human biology.
Erich Hazen takes on the traditions of figure painting in luminous, large canvases that combine abstract backgrounds and bodies, with faces glossed over. His colors seem to glow in the summer sun of lakeside scenes. His work is inspired by his personal observations, as he inserts his experiences as a gay man into narratives rarely seen so candidly in art.
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Schettle described the concept of ethos as drawing from a sense of rightness. The straightforward manner of these artists aligns with this, but the exhibition also suggests an emphasis on figurative and biographical connections in art coming out of the programs at UWM. While there is a variety in the mediums and approaches shown, this unifying concept holds the exhibition together.
Through April 28 at the Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave.
