With the warm, accommodating fall weather, October Gallery Night and Day on October 15 and 16 proved to crowd the galleries, merchants and Milwaukee streets. Artists appeared at numerous opening receptions while visitors throughtout the city admired a variety of visual delights..
On the third floor above the Starbuck's Coffee Shop located on Water Street and St. Paul, Cedar Gallery hosted it last's exhibition “COEXIST: new paintings and 3d objects by Waldek Dynerman.” The artworks feature the apparent relationships between childhood/adulthood, environment/man, innocence/reality, feminine/masculine, past/present, and use/reuse. Walderman creates with recycled toy parts and artifacts, reassembling the DADA like installations and objects that usually including moving parts. The present exhibition remains open only until October 23, after which Cedar Gallery looks to find a new location in Bay View.
Merge Gallery's exhibition on the Marshall Building's second floor seemed to express the sentiments of humorist Don Marquis: “The chief obstacle of the human race is the human race.” With collages and artwork filled with various bird nests and book art, Tori Tasch assembled an homage to natural artifacts dwindling in an overcrowded and over processed culture.
On the building's third floor Luckystar Studio opened, where Bridget Griffith Evans featured brilliant colored bird portraits in her studio while Gene Evans works in a separate space in the same suite, both studios adjacent to their main gallery. The high ceiling in the gallery provide many fascinating exhibitions in the future, approximately eight a year, which fufills the unique Luckystar Studio vision.
Portrait Society Gallery on the fifth floor overflowed with the imaginative, magical realist artist in their exhibition; “Bernard Gilardi: Four Decades.” The vibrant, bright hued paintings stimulated great discussion, especially the multiple portraits of President Lincoln and a tribute to DaVinci's Mona Lisa where Giraldi's version smokes a cigarette. Fred Bell adds to his distinctive series by finishing over 50 small portraits in his “Crying Babies.”
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On the first floor, Grava Gallery hosted the annual, “Allyson Giesen: New Jewelry Collection,' which kept the intimate gallery full to the brim with admirers. The 31-year-old Dallas artist began her artistic jewelry making at 13 years of age when her mother bought her beads. She continues to enjoy this affection for the gems, today constructing more complicated adornments from her imagination inspired by the stones she persoanlly picks for each piece.
Using a variety of freshwater pearls, semi-precious stones, and sterling silver, the former Milwaukee resident began a recently developed process that allows the artist to mold Bronze and Silver metal clay like porcelain. The material Giesen uses combines approximately 70-75 percent bronze or silver metal mixed with a binder and water. To begin, the artist designs this metal clay into the jewelry she envisions. It is then fired like porcelain, and afterwards only the bronze and silver remain to create a completely metal artwork to be worn on the body.
Giesen fashions bracelets, necklaces, rings, and diminutive ornaments or as she says, “vessels,' in shapes resembling vases or Greek urns, and then attaches them to necklaces. The very tiniest one she names “weesels,” (wes-l). Other necklaces feature long, triple ropes of pearls, often layering these luxurious or delicate creations that the owner Michael artistically displays within picture frames on the wall or from a large tree branch lying on the counter. Her reasonable prices and innovative collection invite buying gifts for the upcoming season and will remain in Grava Gallery through November.
The Art of Institute of Wisconsin began an impressive two weeks to their new semester and student's artworks now line the walls, and eventually their first floor gallery in the P.H. Dye building, all evident at the weekend open house. Tory Folliard hosted Arizona artist Robert Cocke for the Friday reception (with an online interview following this week), and a interesting show opened at merchant Hot Pops. The flowing day Peltz Gallery offered her warm hospitality for her annual “Remarkable Men Show,” featuring David Anderson, Warrinton Colescott, Mutope Johnson, John A. Sayers, Kehinde Wiley, and a lithograph by Claes Oldenburg. While this recalls only a small sampling of gallery night offerings, remember that these exhibitions remain open for viewing whenever there's a free moment to enjoy art in the coming month when the weather turns colder.
