Viewers can double their pleasure when two of Wisconsin’s oldest art organizations (Wisconsin Visual Artists and Wisconsin Designer Crafts Council) exhibit their works at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend, now through March 27.
It takes a heap of dedication to build art organizations that produce quality works, if only because the definition of quality is often unclear. The Biennial is, as one would expect, wildly varied with 52 works culled from 640 possibilities. Many areas of Wisconsin are represented (Green Bay has the most contributors) and the sense of history emerging from the exhibition is worth considering.
Leslie Loomis Vansen, a longtime UW-Milwaukee teacher, scores with skeins of color snaking across her energetic painting, Clathrate. Three of her former students are also in the exhibition and Vansen is pleased to note all three have pursued differing styles. Fred Stonehouse, another artist/educator, recently completed a solo smash at MOWA, and two of his students were juried in for this 2016 Biennial, suggesting that the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Hog Butcher for the World, a bodacious woodblock print by S. V. Medaris (Mount Horeb), earned chops (plus a major monetary award) for craftsmanship, Bethann Moran’s (Fort Atkinson) beautifully brushey painting of Brussels sprouts in a winter scape is superb, and the ghost of Aaron Bohrod haunts Jacob A. Pfeiffer’s Shadow Box (oil on panel), a knockout of realism.
A strong thread runs through the exhibition, leading us to spring, which Phil the groundhog says will be early. Outside of the floor two Hyde Gallery, on the west facing balcony, a trio of vertical forms, (Mop Sculpture by Melissa Dorn Richards), point upward as if to explore space. Downstairs, view the progress of a bridge linking MOWA with a charming park beyond and enjoy the Wisconsin crafts, too.
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Through March 27 at Museum of Wisconsin Art, 205 Veterans Ave., West Bend. For more information, visit wisconsinart.org.
