Notes On An October Gallery Night

The warm, autumn weather inspired a crowded gallery night and a quieter Saturday this past October weekend. Friday night the action began early at 5:00 p.m. when the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design\'s Alumni and Student Art Sale on their fourth floor presented a variety of affordable work in every medium. In the lower level lobby, Community Advocates sponsored a photography exhibition “Homeless is Not My Name.”

Several Milwaukee area photographers that participated included Stephanie Bartz, Mark Braughtigam, and Mark Hines, who dignified people living on the streets or in homeless shelters with their professional photos. A few statistics accompanied the prints, one quote stating 40 percent of homeless men had served in the armed forces. These poignant pictures gave names to those faces one might encounter on the street who find themselves in dire circumstances. In these uncertain economic times, only the fine bottom line to one\'s checking account may determine the difference between making a living and living on the edge of bankruptcy. 

“Generation Next” also opened at MIAD in the lower level galleries, an exhibition that featured several up and coming artists, including Sophia Arnold and Melissa Cooke. Cooke\'s brushed graphite drawings that appear similar to a painting take a turn towards the more distorted. Her self portraits depicting her face enclosed in a plastic bag or merged with a bony skull create ever-disturbing images.

Gingrass Gallery featured Janet Roberts, Sasha Kinens and Sergio Lopez along with other selected artists in an exhibition “Go Figure.” Each artist found a singular perspective to the human figure, either clothed or nude.

Chris Berti (“New Work”) and Jason Rohlf (“Soundings\') attended the opening of their new joint exhibition at Tory Folliard Gallery. Berti found a few minutes to talk about his sculpture, especially two vintage hangers that displayed carved, open hands on each end, on the hanger\'s back and front. 

He explained that his parents, now into their late 80\'s, were cleaning their home while Berti was helping and uncovering all these “relics” from his Catholic, Irish childhood. A \'consecrated\' house as he further described his memorable home.

The hanger\'s open hands definitely represent Christian iconography he said with conviction, a remembrance from his years at home. With any other remnants he unearths from his childhood, Berti plans on carving more sculptures with Christian symbolism in tribute to his parent\'s faith and his upbringing. Berti finished chatting when he said with  a son\'s pride that his mother smiled when he showed her the reworked hangers, delighted in her son\'s fresh approach. 

In the Marshall Building at the corner of Water and Buffalo, art professor Rina Yoon was on hand to explain her exciting work on display in “Earthbody” at Elaine Erickson Gallery. After traveling to Korea in the past year, Yoon discovered an ancient paper coiling technique made from strips of strong, rice like paper. She demonstrated the coiling technique for anyone in the gallery, a technique that required almost a month for Yoon to perfect before she could use it in her artwork.

Yoon then applied the technique to the defining the human form, her large fragmented limbs made from numerous delicate white coils glued in a sensuous pattern and exhibited on a dark, charcoal grey wall in Erickson\'s front window. When asked if she will continue experimenting with this technique, Yoon replied that paper coiling fascinated her and explored her previous printmaking, or her works on paper, on another level.

Portrait Society Gallery continued their popular “Men at Leisure” photography show, while LuckyStar Studio celebrated their 12^th birthday by featuring the work of Frank Juarez. Greymatter sold several works on paper from the “Amalgam” exhibition by their three Chicago artists when the gallery opened its first out show presenting work from out of state.  The corner merchant on the Marshall Building\'s  first floor, Cranston, added the hand dyed and silk screened textiles by Laura Goldstein to their home furnishings store, which now features artful antiques and vintage accessories.

Grava Gallery hosted their annual jewelry show with Texas artist Allyson Geison who transports her fine crafted adornments using semi-precious stones combined with industrial materials to Milwaukee. Bronze, sterling silver and steel were used to craft her inventive bracelets, necklaces and earrings.

This year the young jeweler accessorized her bold necklaces with Grotta & Company\'s exquisite hand dyed and screened ribbons. Whether her bronze circular snakes are worn on a oxidized chain, satin cord or colored silk strand, stop by the Marshall Building\'s first floor Grava Gallery through Thanksgiving to choose from this art to wear to give to someone special. Gieson\'s pieces showcase freshwater pearls among other gems, garnets and tanzanite, at extremely reasonable prices.

Saturday morning found Dean Jensen Gallery\'s spectacular show “Great Impressions III” displaying prints by Claes Oldenburg, Phillip Pearlstein and Jim Nutt. to name only a few of these post-modern/abstract artists. Plan on some time during the next month to stop in at Jensen\'s gallery and study these masterful works on paper. A print by Sean Scully, who is currently on exhibition at Madison\'s Chazen Museum of Art in “Sean Scully Paintings and Watercolors,” found a place on Jensen\'s gallery walls as well.

Saturday afternoon at the Victorian home that houses Peltz Gallery one could find Jeanette Pasin Sloan curled up with her coffee on a gallery sofa. She had flown in from Sante Fe for the weekend\'s opening reception that also featured John A. Sayers. The internationally renowned Sloan mentioned that Cissy Peltz began her gallery 22 years ago with an exhibition by Sloan when Peltz discovered her paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the upcoming week, check back at Art Talk for an interview with this printmaker and painter inspired by reflective objects that she collected from her own kitchen when her children were toddlers. Hope everyone found Gallery Night & Day just as exciting at all the other merchants and venues throughout Milwaukee. The following weeks ahead always offer an opportunity to revisit these galleries for a second look.