“Celebrate Queer Milwaukee” is the joint effort of three young artists who, like their subjects, identify somewhere along the LGBTQ spectrum. Never mind where, exactly; pigeonholing is not part of the program, public proclamations of joyful presence are. Hawley offers photographs whose multiple exposures represent various views of her subjects in dreamy montages. Mollet uses collage and drawing to warmly depict friends at rest. Magnolia’s practice is two-fold: like her colleagues, she creates positive portraits of a diverse community, but unlike them, she makes both elaborate indoor versions of her multilayered paintings and simpler outdoor models, to be screen printed and postered around the city. This is important: celebrations of difference are needed in both private and public spaces if they are to be truly inclusive, and truly effective, celebrations of alternate ways of being.
—Lori Waxman 5/31/13 1:55 PM
