Sadly, Green Gallery West didn’t survive the July fire that engulfed a building on Riverwest’s Center Street. Fortunately, however, artist and owner John Riepenhoff quietly perseveres at Green Gallery East, a contemporary gallery on Farwell Avenue. The gallery’s new exhibit, titled “Guesthouse,” features Milwaukee artist Peter Barrickman, who also lost a studio and artworks in the Center Street fire.
“Guesthouse” presents Barrickman’s new paintings, created to replace those lost in his studio. The artist’s good friend Riepenhoff indicates that the title of the exhibit refers to the idea that the art gallery can function as an aesthetic guesthouse—a comforting and welcoming place for those in the community to visit, to “reside” in the artist’s visual expressions for a brief time.
Riepenhoff also alludes to other meanings for “guesthouse,” as in a temporary place in Barrickman’s mind for painters and images he uses for inspiration. He can then reinterpret those works on his own canvas. Or perhaps it means the place in the minds of viewers who absorb an artist’s emotions and ideas while at the gallery.
Barrickman’s current works in acrylics, collage, ink and marker illustrate these poignant concepts by exploring impermanence, the fragility of objects over time and the loss of valuable items in life. Barrickman and Riepenhoff experienced these concepts firsthand in July’s tragic fire. The resilient Barrickman now paints in a studio on Palmer Street.
Barrickman, a recipient of the 2009 Mary L. Nohl Fellowship Fund, opens his new exhibition 6-9 p.m. Nov. 10.
“The best way to help artists and galleries recover from this loss would be to buy art,” Riepenhoff adds. “You would be supporting artists and galleries while enriching yourself in the process.”
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Art Happenings
Portrait Society Gallery Reopening
Marshall Building, Fifth Floor
207 E. Buffalo St.
The Portrait Society Gallery hosts a grand reopening for its expanded and renovated space. The event, which runs 6-9 p.m. Nov. 9, features the debut of three fascinating photographic collaborations.
Winter Art Festival
Monona Terrace
1 John Nolan Drive, Madison
The Wisconsin Alliance of Artists and Craftspeople, the group behind summer’s “Art Off the Square,” features a variety of great art for holiday giving along with a Young Collectors’ Corner for those under 12. The Winter Art Festival runs 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11. ($3 admission fee; $2 with food donation.)reopening, photography, Winter Art Festival, Madison, Monona Terrace, Art Off the Square
