Photo by Michael Lagerman
Within the Folds - Thomas J Price
'Within the Folds' by Thomas J Price installed on Wisconsin Ave in Milwaukee
In 2020, Thomas J Price’s sculpture Within the Folds was displayed on East Wisconsin Avenue, part of Downtown’s annual Sculpture Milwaukee outdoor exhibition. On Thursday, June 12, Within the Folds will be reinstalled in the Vel R. Phillips Plaza (401 W. Wisconsin Ave.), but that will not be its final destination. After June 2026, Within the Folds will be on the move again.
In a collaborative effort by Sculpture Milwaukee, America’s Black Holocaust Museum, the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Downtown, Price’s statue will not be left as a stationary marker but will become a mobile monument to African American history, eventually relocated to other locations within the city. Within the Folds is part of a larger ongoing project. 2018’s Sculpture Milwaukee exhibit included Radcliffe Bailey’s Pensive, depicting pathfinding Black scholar W.E.B. DuBois in the posture of Rodin’s The Thinker. Pensive is now outside Milwaukee City Hall. Bailey has been acclaimed for his explorations of African American history.
The project also includes Sculpture Milwaukee alumnus Sandford Biggers’ BAM (Seated Woman), displayed at the Black Holocaust Museum. A work by Karyn Olivier will also be included in the project’s growing “vibrant public art collection.”
And there is more to see: day-trippers in Madison will find Bailey’s life-size sculpture of Vel Phillips on the State Capitol grounds, the only artwork of its scale depicting an African American in any state capitol.
