“Celebrate the culture of the artisan” is the watchword of Holiday Folk Fair International, but it really should be “cultures.” All in all, 53 different artisanal traditions will be on display Nov. 21-23 at Wisconsin State Fair Park’s Exposition Center. Many may know the cuckoo clocks of Germany’s Black Forest, but fewer will have dined with a Welsh lovespoon, which communicate romantic intent to its recipient through symbols carved into the utensil’s handle. Fewer still will be acquainted with the delicate handicraft of bobbin lace, a centuries-old tradition practiced by generations of Slovakian miner’s wives. Folk art of the Hmong, Egyptians, Cornish, Donauschwaben and Latvians will offer further informative and diverse delights. Over the three-day event, more than 25 groups will perform traditional music and dance. But the Holiday Folk Fair International is no mere master class in the wide world’s cultural cache; it’s also an opportunity to cross a few names off your holiday gift list.
Admission at the gate is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for children and gratis for military personnel. Tickets can also be purchased in advance from folkfair.org.
‘Phenomenal Agglomerative’ and ‘Raw vs Cooked’
Portrait Society Gallery
207 E. Buffalo St.
Two new shows open at the Third Ward’s Portrait Society Gallery on Nov. 21. “Phenomenal Agglomerative” comes to us from erstwhile MIAD chair of foundations and current associate dean of graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lynn Tomaszewski. The title elusively alludes to the pattern-based accumulation of shapes and colors wherefrom Tomaszewski’s paintings emerge.
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The group show, “Raw vs Cooked,” collects the appetizing results of soliciting five artists/curators to assemble a body of work based on various food-related words. Exhibitions run through Jan. 10, 2015.
‘Visualizing Sovereignty’ Artist Discussion
Union Art Gallery
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
“Visualizing Sovereignty,” currently on display at UW-Milwaukee’s Union Art Gallery, exhibits contemporary works by American Indian artists, poets, architects, linguists and anthropologists. The show concerns sovereignty, which the artists bring to image in order to reflect on American Indians’ reclamation of sovereignty over gender, language, stories, landscape, politics, economics and spirituality. On Thursday, Nov. 20, UWM Anthropology faculty Bernard Perley will lead exhibiting artists in a discussion on sovereignty in the Union Art Gallery at 7 p.m.
