Linger On: Mark Ottens

Gallery Night and Day are approaching quickly: Friday, April 26 and 27. Our hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, April 26 and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27.

The current exhibition, “Linger On: Mark Ottens,” closes on April 27. It is an engaging retrospective of an artist whose process requires great skill and concentration. Whether it is a drawing or a painting, Ottens’ work absorbs the hours, days and months of notation as countless marks and gestures weave patterns that leave a visible record of the passing of time.

Mark Ottens is a mid-career artist who did his undergrad and graduate work in Chicago, studying with late generation Chicago Imagists at SAIC as well as with Kerry James Marshall and others at the University of Chicago, Illinois.

IN ADDITION, on gallery night and day, we will present a new exhibition in the Project Space called Gender Dynamic: Bernard Gilardi.

Bernard Gilardi (1920-2008) recently had his first one-person exhibition in New York City. The PSG exhibition celebrates this accomplishment with some of Gilardi’s work that focuses on gender relationships — one of his recurring themes. Ahead of his time, this Milwaukee native who made 400 paintings in his basement over a 40 year period, dealt with humorous and complex issues of gender fluidity and relationships throughout his career. It seems that when Women’s Liberation became headline material in the 1970s, Gilardi did paintings exploring power dynamics and shifting social roles. He also enjoyed disrupting the notion of Wisconsin’s wholesome dairyland by peopling the pastures with interesting characters -- pregnant milk maids, cross dressers and female football players in fields lined with cow pies.