Common Theme at the UWM 46th Annual Juried Art Show

At the 46th Annual Juried Art Show, some common themes were on display. Consciousness, be it about the space the artists take up as individuals, or on a much larger scale and the ways people interact with the world. Ten artists who were chosen by a panel of jurors each gave short speeches about their selection of work being displayed in UWM’s Union Art Gallery on Thursday

Part of a three-week long exhibition that started with an award ceremony Feb. 22 and closes on March 15. The UWM Juried Art Show has occurred for 46 years in the Gallery,  built in 1972. The show is a way for student artists of all levels and ages to display their work outside of classroom environments.

Walking in from the main Union concourse, a slightly dated building that can feel claustrophobic due to the massive concrete architecture inside, into the Union Art Gallery is a dramatic change of tone. The small hallway connecting the Gallery to the Union has an unassuming modesty to it that opens into the tall, dramatically lit and columned larger than expected interior of the Gallery. Borrowing design cues from the main Union architecture, like the recessed squares in the concrete ceiling and the massive concrete pillars standing along the side of the Gallery, a reminder that this is UWM’s home for art and was made with that intention. The space continues to be a sanctuary for artists on campus, with rotating displays of student work: https://uwm.edu/studentinvolvement/arts-and-entertainment/union-art-gallery/exhibitions/

“This is often one of the only real opportunities for student artists to present their work. People will invite their friends and family and peers to show their work to them in a more real way.”

Linda Corbin-Pardee, manager of the Union Art Gallery

By 5 p.m. when the show was scheduled to start, most of the chairs in the small audience section were filled. Popcorn bags rustled as they and plastic cups of UWM punch were set on the floor politely under chairs. A couple more people ducked in while Danielle Passwaters, the assistant manager and a first-year graduate student at Peck School of the Arts, gave a brief introduction and thank you speech to the audience of roughly 25 people.

A mixed group of students and their family and friends, some instructors, as well as enthused members of the public, made up the intimately seated audience. When the first of 10 selected artists took the stage, it became clear that they were all avid appreciators of the arts as all their attention was on the speakers.

The Show’s Selected Artists:

The first artist to speak was Rebekah Farnum, a UWM Peck student, who paints her representations of the female form and experiences over archival photos, transforming them into art more abstract. Followed by Angela Swan, an older student returning to formal education, who created sandblasted bowls as part of a larger body of work relating to the strife in Yemen. Her art on display is also unusual in that she recommends viewers to touch, and not just look at the bowls to feel their texture. Timothy McCue, another Peck student who spoke about his struggles working with wood as a new medium to make an ironically wood-crafted fire extinguisher.

With each artist’s Q&A it was evident that the people in attendance were, for the most part, more than your casual art enthusiasts. Asking questions about specific types of wood, and the challenges faced with each type didn’t go over anyone’s head. More than just woodworking questions but the process and each individual’s approach to their art were analyzed as well, especially with the next artist.

The first MIAD student of the night, Kirsten Meier creates panels of hand-woven cloth, in what she calls an “intuitive form.” This is because she cannot see the final work until it is taken off the loom. She also, like other artists of the night has larger bodies of work that cannot be shown in the Gallery, but she speaks on how her performance art is woven into her weaving as she “paces back and forth in the studio with yards of yarn” she demonstrated shortly in front of the podium. Mariah Ferrari, a BFA student at UWM also uses photos as a starting point for her work, like Farnum, but typically of physical models of contorted and warped limbs. Ferrari then uses these as a reference to paint, hopefully making the viewer question the lines between reality and illusion.

Another MIAD BFA student took to the rostrum. Phoenix Brown spoke about how her work represents her both culturally and her own perspective. With her work on display behind her, she speaks about her dreams and wishes not just contained to a canvas. On the screen is a piece of art she made that is prominently displayed across an entire wall in MIAD.

Rebecca Hahn was the next to speak, and opposite to Brown speaking about personal representation in her art, Hahn makes art from repurposed objects using ceramics to demonstrate the interactions humans have with earth, like her series of 110 geodes constructed of ceramic, glass, and bubble wrap. She told the audience to think of “what-ifs” when looking at her work. As that existential thought made its way through the group Angela Livermore, the next in the lineup demonstrated how she is a living example of “what if?” She has spent years working with different mediums and in many contexts, mostly community involved art. Eventually, she asked herself what if there was more to learn from school and now she stood in front of an audience of people because her art was selected by a jury.

Approaching the mic with a passionate energy, Leah Schretenthaler started by thanking her husband for hand making the wooden pieces and frames of her art. With that, she launched into an impressive monologue about the way her home of Oahu was forever changed by outsiders and how she herself, not a truly native Hawaiian, pays homage to the land through her art. Occasionally speaking too close to the mic so that her strong voice bounced through the gallery a fervor for the topic is evident.

Katie Lemeux caps of the speakers for the night. Once a graphic designer for artists like Snoop Dogg, the Gorillaz, and Norah Jones she left that fast-paced profession to learn sculpture. Some of her work is whimsical, like a childhood rendition of her on a horse she was promised as a present. Others are more evocative, like a collection of pitted figures, or a sculpture of a woman with her fist through another woman’s mouth. The collection of her work is meant to highlight the variety of expression, and her graduate studies at UWM have lent her the space to explore that fully. Her plans in the works include pieces that require scaffolding and hand-cranes to construct, something that is only possible in the studio she has here.

What most audience members came into the night with was nothing, the schedule of artists was not posted, nor was there a theme like the Gallery had attempted to do several times in years prior without success, Corbin-Pardee remembers. What they left with was a cohesive experience. Corbin-Pardee reflected that “the students make art about what matters to them, what’s going on at the time,” and that any cohesion was accidental. The link between each piece left the show feeling like more of a demonstration on what the future could hold than a panel of randomly selected artists.