Sculpture Milwaukee’s Actual Fractals Act II

As Downtown Milwaukee decompresses from a muscular stretch that included the RNC, Harley Davidson Homecoming, and the Milwaukee Air and Water Show, the time might be right to sink into something a little subtler while cooling off in the shadows of the glass towers along Wisconsin Avenue. In my experience, discovering art in unexpected places is a fine cure-all for a jet-fueled summer bender, so while the international jet set is currently playing out their own version of this routine at the Venice Biennale, maybe try our local version. This year’s Sculpture Milwaukee program brings some great work for you to stumble upon in its latest exhibition, “Actual Fractals Act II,” curated by executive director John Riepenhoff.

Sculpture Milwaukee has been programming the streets of Downtown since 2017, with certain works remaining and becoming permanent fixtures on our urban landscape. This year’s cohort of artists joins works still in place from “Actual Fractals Act I” and a few holdovers from its predecessor, “Nature Doesn’t Know About Us.” Each iteration of the program seeds Downtown streets with unexpected surprises and seems to get more ambitious with each trip around the sun. New to the map this year are works by, among others, Derrick Adams, Sarah Braman and, hopefully soon, international superstar Anish Kapoor, most famous for his monumental chrome bean, Cloud Gate, in Chicago’s Millenium Park. More on that to come.

Though Sculpture Milwaukee’s footprint sprawls through at least four Milwaukee neighborhoods, its center of gravity is Museum Center Park, tumbling westward down Wisconsin Avenue. In the center of the plaza, adjacent to Mark di Suvero’s fixture, The Calling, rises a captivatingly weird painted figural sculpture by Japanese artist Isumi Kato. The piece features an expressively rendered being animating an otherwise reserved gray stone totem. Him, her, or It stares out at the city provocatively and offsets the formal starkness of di Suvero’s nearby I-beams. One of local artist Michelle Grabner’s contributions to “Actual Fractals Act II,” Untitled (Yellow,) a monumental yellow bookend, lives comfortably between the vitality of Kato’s figure and the crisp materiality of di Suvero … both literally and figuratively.

Industrial Gazebo

Across the street, New York-based artist Sarah Braman’s sculpture Stay offers viewers a chance to participate in her work and then to use it as a lens with which view the surrounding viewshed. Made from a section of prefab concrete culvert fitted with a spread of gorgeous stained-glass windows, the work operates like a small industrial gazebo with a Light-and-Space accent. I’d encourage anyone who can see the sunrise through its eastern-facing array of candy colored glass to do so. The work is an elegant complement to our city and its unique perch on the world. Heading up the Avenue, a laquered bronze and eponymously titled pangolin by Lin May Saeed excites viewers in plain sight at North Jefferson Street. Everyone loves a cute and cuddly animal. While I was there it was being pawed at by two children. Still further down the road, along the river, one of Sculpture Milwaukee’s excellently considered and executed didactic signs offers credit to local conceptual practitioner Kim Miller for her integrated artwork Social Choreography, which is composed of a set of imaginative interactive prompts on each of the signs marking “Actual Fractals Act II.” The visual design of that very wayfinding marker comes courtesy of Brooklyn-based text artist Nat Pyper, announced as well on its own adjacent sign.

For a quick few weeks, one of Derrick Adams’s benches adorned the plaza in front of the Marcus Performing Arts Center, but it has since moved on. Nearby, however, a space is reserved for what will certainly be the most anticipated of this year’s additions: one of Anish Kapoor’s now universally admired chromed sculptures. It’ll be a spectacle when it does arrive, and I’m all for anything that excites our city’s art community, but you’d be served very well to take an early morning walk as soon as possible down the Avenue to see the great stuff already in place, some that I’ve mentioned, and many others you’ll have the thrill of discovering on your own.

Event Listings

August 11-August 17

Milwaukee Art Museum

Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio

Sunday, August 11, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Deer District, Milwaukee

Morning Glory Art Fair

Sunday, August 11, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights

Sunday, August 11, 2–3 p.m.

Usable Space (1950 S. Hilbert St.)

Ping Pong Book Club book exchange

Sunday, August 11, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.

John Michael Kohler Art Center

Artist Talk

Tuesday, August 13, 12:15–2:45 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

Work from Home Wednesday: coworking session at the Villa

Wednesday, August 14, 12–3 p.m.

Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts

2024 Fiber Friends At WMQFA- Third Thursdays!

Thursday, August 15, 10:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Thursday Nights at MAM

Thursday, August 15, 4–8 p.m.  

Jewish Museum Milwaukee

Community Free Day for Chagall’s Dead Souls Exhibit

Thursday, August 15, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.  

John Michael Kohler Art Preserve

Wayside Days: Art Preserve Tours

Friday, August 16, 1–3 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio

Saturday, August 17, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA)

Art and Chalk Fest

Saturday, August 17, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Scout Gallery

Scout Summer Showcase

Saturday, August 17, 10 a.m.–1 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Story Time in the Galleries

Saturday, August 17, 10:30–11 a.m.

Charles Allis Museum of Art

Discover the Allis: Guided Tour

Saturday, August 17, 11 a.m.–12 p.m.

John Michael Kohler Art Preserve

Wayside Days: Community Day at the Art Preserve

Saturday, August 17 12–4 p.m.

James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden (Sheboygan)

Wayside Days: Community Day at Tellen

Saturday, August 17 12–4 p.m.

Charles Allis Museum of Art

Story Time at the Allis

Saturday, August 17, 1–3 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights

Saturday, August 17, 2–3 p.m.

Saint Kate, the Arts Hotel

AIR Time, Art & Studio Tour with AIR Anwar Floyd-Pruitt

Saturday, August 17, 6:30 p.m.

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Event Listings: August 4-August 10

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Sunday, August 4, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Café Sopra Mare
• Sunday, August 4, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights
• Sunday, August 4, 2–3 p.m.

Wauwatosa Historical Society

• Firefly Art Fair
• Sunday, August 4, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Museum of Wisconsin Art

• Elements of a Living Studio with Jeff Zimpel
• Wednesday, August 7, 10:30–11:30 a.m.

Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

• Work from Home Wednesday: coworking session at the Villa
• Wednesday, August 7, 12–3 p.m.

Grohmann Museum

• Kids’ Art Days
• Wednesday, August 7, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Washington Park

• Washington Park Wednesdays-Live Art
• Wednesday, August 7, 5–7 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Thursday Nights at MAM
• Thursday, August 8, 4–8 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Member Mingle + Artist Talk: “Idris Khan: Repeat After Me”
• Thursday, August 8, 5–6 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Artist Talk: “Idris Khan: Repeat After Me”
• Thursday, August 8, 6:15–7:15 p.m.

Jewish Museum Milwaukee

• Where Does Russia End? Russian Imperialism and Anti-Ukrainianism from Past to Present
• Thursday, August 8, 7–8:15 p.m.

House of Rad

• hRAD grillin' & chillin'
• Friday, August 9, 5:30– 9 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Summer Party
• Friday, August 9, 5:30–9 p.m. (Reservation Required)

Museum of Wisconsin Art

• Second Saturdays
• Saturday, August 10, 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Art Making: Kohl’s Art Studio
• Saturday, August 10, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Racine Art Museum

• Full Steam Ahead 2024
• Saturday, August 10, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Deer District

• Morning Glory Art Fair
• Saturday, August 10, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Story Time in the Galleries
• Saturday, August 10, 10:30–11 a.m.

Milwaukee Art Museum

• Drop-In Tours: Architecture and Collection Highlights
• Saturday, August 10, 2–3 p.m.

John Michael Kohler Arts Center

• Arts/Industry Talks with Sharif Bey, Sahar Khoury, Martha Poggioli, and Edra Soto
• Saturday, August 10, 2–4 p.m.

Charles Allis Art Museum

• Story Time at the Allis
• Saturday, August 10, 1–3 p.m.

OS Projects

• Opening Reception: Lois Bielefeld: Its Own Pristine Devices
• Saturday, August 10, 1–3 p.m.

Saint Kate, the Arts Hotel

• AIR Time, Art & Studio Tour with AIR Anwar Floyd-Pruitt
• Saturday, August 10, 6:30 p.m.