Looking at Local in a New Light
Overture Center’s four galleries create a forum for diverse artistic expression that fosters the growth of local artists, curators and arts organizations. Three galleries radiate off Rotunda Lobby, and the Playhouse Gallery serves as the lobby for The Playhouse Theater. Overture Galleries are free and open to the public.
Artists’ Information Upcoming Exhibitions Previous Exhibitions
TUE, APR 26 – SUN, SEP 4, 2022
Overture Galleries Spring/Summer Exhibitions
In this cycle, The exhibitions’ media range from painting, ceramic and glasswork and connect to a variety of topics-from dreams to storytelling to scientific theories. The artists explore how we understand our world-from the internal psyche to external concepts. Overture is proud to collaborate with the Marie Christine Kohler Fellows Program at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery in the Playhouse Gallery to examine the questions of what constitutes life, the living and its origins.
Artists’ talks in Playhouse Gallery, 5-6 PM
Artists’ talks in Galleries I, II, II, 6-8 PM
Lelia Byron and Luisa Fernanda García-Gómez unearth maps revealing iridescent windows into their inner selves. Byron’s vibrant paintings translate dream fragments where tangles, isolation, cycles and the fantastical collide. Through repetitive printing and the creation of patterns, García-Gómez reFlects on her own behavior and the conflicting expectations of society and herself.
Bunny Attack (aka Sara Christenson) and Karolina Romanowska delve into intimate human emotions with anthropomorphic surrealism. Bunny Attack utilizes a rabbit motif in detailed ink drawings to convey universal feelings of love, loss and fear. Sculptor Romanowska molds folk masks and figures reflecting the dichotomy of internal and external self-expression of identity and emotions.
Taj Matumbi and Allison Uselman investigate visual storytelling with two-dimensional media. Matumbi blends formal abstraction with intentionally naive and self-taught drawing style which represent childhood rites of passage while alluding to individual and collective angst of recent years. For Uselman, stories are the most interesting way she inhabits the world. She illustrates her self-authored short stories with an idiosyncratic vision.
TUE, MAY 3 – SUN, AUG 28, 2022
Life As We Don’t Know It is an exploration of the limits of what both scientists and artists consider “life.” A cohort of multimodal artists have worked collaboratively to redefine what might count as life. The resulting art of this collaboration unveils a cosmos that inhabits new realms of possibility.
Sponsored by the Marie Christine Kohler Fellows Program at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.
Special event! – Conversation with artists and scientists of LIFE AS WE DON’T KNOW IT
Rotunda Studio
The concept of “life” is nebulous – something that is known to all, but undefinable. Join us in a conversation with Life As We Don’t Know It artists and scientists who will approach, encroach, and even disrupt understandings of what might count as life, challenging human sense-making and grids of intelligibility.
Learn about the impact of the Overture Galleries in the following personal testimonies:
• Erin Liljegren: Overture Galleries exhibit inspires local artist to make more art
• Robert Jaeger: Local artist shares what Overture means to him and the Madison community
• Hannah Sandvold: Overture Galleries provide an outlet for voices to be heard
Overture Galleries are sponsored by The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery hours
At this time gallery hours will follow general building hours listed here:
For more information about these exhibits, please contact our Community and Education Program Manager, Beth Racette at bracette@overture.org
