Best Picks for Gallery Night

The city will come alive tonight with Gallery Night, debuting a slew of new exhibitions and new art, with 50 different venues participating, and a big turnout likely on such a beautiful day. Can’t see the art through all the people? Not a problem. Here are four shows opening among the celebratory crowds that will be around long after tonight’s — and tomorrow’s — parties are over. All four should reward your time, whether it’s tonight or in the weeks to come.

 

Playing Favorites: New Work by Tyanna J. Buie

Dean Jensen Gallery

759 N. Water Street

Opening reception for the artist, 6-9pm

Saturday 10am-4pm

Exhibition continues through June 14

Tyanna Buie synthesizes ideas, materials, and reference points. Her art draws inspiration from her biography, but not just the real events of life. Imagined and presumed family history is part of the stories, forming the underpinning for works in Playing Favorites.

Screenprinting is a foundational technique for Buie, but she adds to her compositions through collaged elements and additional drawing, rendering each piece as a singular, unique object. Prints are often made as fairly small things, but Buie works on a monumental scale with pieces such as Easter Sunday, which measures about five feet tall.

 

 

Broads, Chicks, and Divas: Art by and/or About Women

Grand Gallery

Grand Avenue Club

604 N. Water Street

Friday 5-8:30pm

Saturday 1-3pm

Exhibition continues through July 11

Located in the Grand Avenue Club, the Grand Gallery is a notably diverse venue but for this exhibition focuses on the single subject of women. However, within that theme is an incredible range of styles and evocations of the many facets of femininity. This group show presents works in all mediums, spanning the psychological terrain from serious and sombre images to light and whimsical creations. Other pieces delve into the mysterious and moody side of life, as well as side tripping to everything in between.

 

 

Keith Nelson and Friends

Rural Utopia: Watercolors from Blotchy Blobs Blog by J. Shimon

Portrait Society Gallery

Marshall Building

207 E. Buffalo Street

Opening reception Friday 5-9pm

Saturday noon-5pm

The Marshall Building is filled with galleries from basement to the top floor, but as you’re meandering through the endless things to see, drop by the Portrait Society Gallery where Keith Nelson has orchestrated a series of three-dimensional collages. These sculptural groupings have a frontal view like a painting, but are composed by all sorts of intriguing stuff, including metal, linoleum, wood, and toilet tank tops. More than a dozen other artists also contribute to the project.

Also on view are delightful diminutive watercolors by J. Shimon, constructing a fantastic, fanciful view of life in rural northern Wisconsin.  These works were recently on view in Rural Utopias at the John Michael Kohler Art Center and are more than worth a second look.

 

 

 

 

Pfister Artist-In-Residence: Niki Johnson

Pfister Hotel

424 E. Wisconsin Avenue

Friday gallery opening 5-9pm

Artist reception in Rouge Lounge beginning at 9pm

 

The new Pfister Artist-In-Resience Niki Johnson moved into her studio last month and this Gallery Night is both an open house and welcome reception. Johnson is embarking on her year-long residency during which she will produce a series of sculptural bathtubs and plates, visually and conceptually linked to stories and characters from Grimm’s Fairytales. The nascent stage of this project is the chance to see a work in progress, witnessing the way the work grows, moving from raw clay blocks to large-scale sculptural art.

 

 

There are nearly 50 venues participating in Gallery Night and Day. For a full schedule including exhibition descriptions and hours, see The Historic Third Ward website. (http://www.historicthirdward.org/events/gallerynightparticipants.php)