Three exhibitions opening at Marquette University’s Haggerty Museum of Art on Oct. 6 reaffirm the institution’s commitment to staging socially conscious, conversation-inducing exhibitions.
Connecticut-based artist Rick Shaefer has contributed a suite of large-scale charcoal drawings entitled “The Refugee Trilogy.” Shaefer’s triptychs depict the three stages of exodus. Land Crossing shows the refugees put to flight by war and famine. Water Crossing treats the perilous journey across water, while Border Crossing finds hostility where the refugees had hoped for hospitality. Shaefer’s choice of charcoal on vellum and his classical realist style lend a timeless quality to his subject matter, calling to mind both historical and symbolic refugees.
The recent spate of hurricanes, earthquakes and flirtations with nuclear war have brought the phrase “dress rehearsal for the apocalypse” back into vogue. “The World Turned Upside Down: Apocalyptic Imagery in England, 1750-1850” collects paintings, political prints, pamphlets and illustrated books, demonstrating that civilization has long brooded on its own uncertain expiration date.
“(Re)Housing the American Dream: A Message From The Future” presents the fruits of a collaborative project between Chicago-based performance and video artist Kirsten Leenaars and 20 middle school students from Highland Community School and the International Newcomer Center in the Milwaukee Academy of Chinese Language. By addressing questions about the American Dream in light of issues regarding the environment, economics, race, gender, equality, education, technology and immigration, the participants collectively created a video that imagines America 50 years hence.
Screening of Film for “Privates”
H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art
2001 Alford Park Drive
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“Privates” is the current exhibition inhabiting Carthage College’s H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art. Curated by Chicago artists Nicole Mauser and Tobey Albright, “Privates” culls works from their private collections, which have been painstakingly compiled from thrift store treasures, Internet finds and artist-acquired originals. At 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 5, Mauser and Albright will supplement the exhibition with a screening of the video works they have collected. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
“Metamorphosis”Gallery 2622
2622 N. Wauwatosa Ave.
“Metamorphosis,” a new collection of work by Quentin Marcus Puckette, opens at Wauwatosa’s Gallery 2622 on Friday, Oct. 6. Puckette’s paintings favor bold lines and demonstrate an admirable ability across the abstraction-representation spectrum. According to the artist, this new series of paintings is intended to prompt a continuous questioning—“What does the world represent through the aesthetics and motifs observed?”—that constitutes an enriching, interpretive challenge in the case of Puckette’s abstractions.
