Photo courtesy of Charles Allis Art Museum
John Fleissner with his art - Charles Allis Art Museum
Allis Artist-in-Residence John Fleissner with some of his work on show for the exhibit 'Strike' at the Charles Allis Art Museum (June 25, 2026).
“Strike at Allis-Chalmers and Other Wisconsin Stories,” the current exhibition of the work of Charles Allis Museum artist in residence John Fleissner, is one of the most exciting shows I’ve seen in Milwaukee in years. While the focal point of the exhibition is a series of labor strikes at industrial giant Allis-Chalmers during the 1940s, Fleissner is adroit at connecting those historical moments to the political movements of today. Through a series of woodcuts, historic photos, sound recordings, and other ephemera, Fleissner uncovers the overlooked histories of both union and political radicalism in the metropolitan Milwaukee region.
The Shepherd Express recently sat down with Fleissner to discuss this important exhibition, and why recovering such useable pasts matters for the present.
I’m struck by seeing this particular exhibition in this particular space. The Charles Allis Art Museum is housed in a mansion built by industrial wealth—and it looks like a fitting home for a well cultured captain of industry. What drew you to wanting to stage your exhibition here?
Photo courtesy of the Charles Allis Art Museum
John Fleissner art - Charles Allis Art Museum
John Fleissner's art along with pieces from the museum's collection relating to the Allis-Chalmers' labor strike on view for the exhibit 'Strike' at the Charles Allis Art Museum (June 25, 2026).
“Charles Allis was the first president of Allis-Chalmers. This was his house. He died well before these events, but that wealth he accumulated went on to maintain the system of control on the shop floor that these workers organized to confront. It’s a mansion, and we took it over and filled it with images of the workers’ histories. The collection here is a beautiful collection. But it is interestingly juxtaposed here against things whose aesthetic is more left wing, but also kind of folk art and somewhat low brow in some context.”
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I was also impressed with the way the exhibition highlights relationships between events that took place some eighty years ago with what is happening today, whether in Milwaukee Public Schools, immigration hearings across the United States, or in Gaza. How are you thinking through the relationship between past and present in this exhibition?
“I want to show that Milwaukee has had militant, progressive movements for a long time …This strike has a progressive history. The left doesn’t need to be contained in a cultural ghetto. It’s kind of the history of Milwaukee is meshed with this militant, working-class movement. And we’re still doing it today.”
It’s a long distance—both geographically but also intellectually—from West Allis, where the strikes took place, to places like Gaza. How are you making sense of the commonalties between such disparate times and places?
Photo courtesy of Charles Allis Art Museum
John Fleissner art - Charles Allis Art Museum
Protest art for Gaza and Palestine by John Fleissner on view for the exhibit 'Strike' at the Charles Allis Art Museum (June 25, 2026).
“I think for the people who led this strike the immediate interests of the workers were what was important to them. But they had internationalist politics ... They understood that the working class globally had a commonality with one another, rather than with the people throwing bombs at each other.”
I know that you work as an art educator for Milwaukee Public Schools, and that the work of some of your students is included in the exhibition. Does the diverse nature of the students you teach inform the sort of internationalism apparent in the show?
“The places where there are multiracial student bodies have this kind of organic internationalism, a kind of international understanding, because they have friends who are from all over the world. People from different backgrounds. These students don’t need to be convinced. The things that we’ve done together are things they decide affect them that they want to do something about. What I’m doing is giving them some framework to know a little bit about how to organize and then making it engaging and fun by including the art aspect of it.”
Ultimately, what do you hope people take away from this exhibition?
“The history of the strike has been suppressed because of all the Red Scare stuff. It’s [the exhibition] about raising it up like it was a good, important part of our local history that should be honored and celebrated and remembered that this is where we come from. And those politics were popular and are still popular and can be popular.”
“Strike at Allis-Chalmers and Other Wisconsin Stories” is on display at the Charles Allis Art Museum (1801 N. Prospect Avenue) through October 24, 2026.
