Racine Art Museum, Matt Eskuche Take In the Trash

One art space in themetro area that is often overlooked is the department store window gallery atthe Racine Art Museum (441 Main St.). The windows from theoriginal downtown retail space remained even after the building was renovatedto create a unique, expansive gallery for the museum. The window space, thougha prime location for public viewing, provides a challenge for artists to fittheir works within its dimensions. Racine Art Museum (RAM) Executive DirectorBruce Pepich calls it an exercise in “high relief.”

Each year the RAMselects an artistusually one who works in sculptureto fill the space withsite-specific artwork. On Aug. 6 an artist with Milwaukee ties opens the 2010-2011 windowexhibition in “Matt Eskuche: Agristocracy.” Eskuche fashioned an installationfrom found objects, incorporating consumer leftovers such as disposablebottles, paper coffee cups and plastic lids. Even though Eskuche’s primarymedium is glass, he used society’s throwaway excess to construct high-designchandeliers and lighting fixtures for the installation.

The centerpiece includesan immensely long vintage table with claw feet that will be covered with morethan 240 pieces of painted glass trash. It examines the consequences ofconsumerism by exposing modern culture’s discarded objects and causing thepublic to reflect on what we consider disposable, along with what happens tothis vast waste.

“The museum thoughtEskuche would enjoy and benefit from working in a public space to create aconversation about what objects we acquire and how we live with them,” Pepichexplains.

Eskuche’s artistictraining includes studying as a metalsmith and learning age-old glassmakingtechniques, which he industriously applies to his installations. Eskuche hostsa gallery walk during the RAM’s Free First Friday event on Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.Later in the year he will participate in the 2010 Camgeran Applied GlassSymposium in Turkey.

Another interestinggallery space exists at the Museum ofWisconsin Art (MWA), which showcases statewide talent in an exhibit seriestitled “One From Wisconsin.” MWA’s newest exhibition in the series features Milwaukee favorite FredStonehouse. The exhibit runs Aug. 4 to Sept. 12 and will present Stonehouse’snew body of work, which incorporates 20-25 intimate portraits that revealfictitious family lineages. His surreal, witty and satirical portraiture willinvent individual legacies that Stonehouse relates to the genre’s historicalcontext. The MWA hosts an artist’s reception on Sept. 5 from 1-4:30 p.m.

Annie B.’s “ArtBeat inthe Heat,” a family-friendly art festival, takes place Saturday, July 31, fromnoon to 10 p.m. in Bay View’s Hide House(2625 S. Greeley St.).The event presents artists’ booths in a day aimed at engaging the city’s youthsand showcasing Milwaukeeart and music.