Overture Galleries Winter/Spring Exhibitions
TUE, JAN 25 – SUN, APR 17, 2022
In this Winter/Spring Cycle, Overture brings into the Galleries four exhibitions of printmakers. These exhibitions coincide with SGCI’s printmaking conference held in Madison in spring 2022, which brings together over 1,000 printmakers and arts professionals in all stages of their careers.
The international,Wisconsin-based Vox Populi Print Collective honors fine art printmaking and provides high-quality exhibition opportunities for members. After the past two years of social isolation, now seems like the right time for us to RE-create ourselves, RE-invigorate our relationships, RE-set our intentions and RE-start the parts of our lives that were put on hold. The Re•Vision exhibition aims to use this time for reflection to create a new vision for the future. Whether your focus is micro or macro, personal or political, cautious or optimistic, now is the time for Re•Vision!
Through relief printmaking and carving, both artists explore the relationship between humans and nature. Meredith’s work investigates the parallels between deep sea exploration and traveling to new psychological depths. Nichols’ prints, from his book Stretched Thin, meticulously weave stories that ground the human condition in transformation.
Dog is Alive, Magic is Afoot is a series of reductive woodblock prints created between January and May 2021. The prints act as portals into an annual cycle of months and moons and commemorate a year of being in a relationship with the natural world.
Portraits by Barberena honor voices that continue to refuse erasure, who have never remained silent. The broad public hears us as the past and the other, static in their present futures: already buried, emigrated, displaced. We are our present and future.
TUE, FEB 1 – SUN, APR 24, 2022
Pressure Points, featuring printers who currently reside in the Midwest, highlights the innovative ways in which artists use historical and contemporary printmaking methods to call attention to critical issues about queerness, altered ecosystems, immigration, climate change and blackness.
Thanks to Adriana Barrios and the SGCI Conference for their curatorial contributions to this cycle of exhibitions.
ROTUNDA GALLERY
Young people are often expected to claim their own spaces, yet societal systems actively work against them. Often, staying invisible is easier. Claiming space takes bravery, openness, and support. Yet, finding belonging within that space allows youth and their peers to thrive in their fullest forms.
This exhibition features two bold murals. In the summer of 2021, these works were each painted by a different group of young people, in a different location, with the guidance of a different artist. Despite those context differences, “I Belong” and “Crowns in Chaos” were both created with the same deep level of intentionality, truth, and care.
This collaborative exhibition is made possible by support from The Bubbler at Madison Public Library, Overture Center, Madison Public Library Foundation, Dear Diary of Madison and the Dane County Juvenile Shelter.
Teen residents and staff members of the Dane County Juvenile Shelter Home. Audifax, lead artist
We all have experiences where we feel we are not able to be part of something, lost in a world that we don’t feel we belong in; it’s frustrating and scary, especially as a teen. This work represents growth that takes place when feeling accepted and appreciated.
“It doesn’t matter where you are, you can find that sense of home if you surround yourself with people willing to be open, and by embracing who you are. This starts with knowing ourselves, bit by bit relaxing into who we were and realizing the potential of who we can become.”
Dane County Juvenile Shelter Home is a temporary living facility for Dane County young people under the age of 18. This mural is a culmination of a collaboration between The Bubbler at Madison Public Library and Bubbler teaching artists, Dane County Juvenile Shelter Home, and artist Audifax.
Dear Diary Teens: Kadence, Sydney, Aviana, Shiloah, Sariyah, and Allycia
Shiloah Symone Coley, lead artist
This work speaks to the wholeness Black women experience when supporting one another for exactly who they are. Living as a Black young woman in the Madison area can feel extremely isolating, but living as Black young women, together, can bring a sense of strength and understanding.
“When we work together, we get stuff done and do our work with passion and pride. We each have different strengths as well as our own personalities. Our identities as Black women are empowering and eminent. The mural as a whole represents Black sisterhood, and a support between Black young girls…a sense of calmness yet chaos in different parts…”
Dear Diary of Madison is committed to fostering a community in which Black and Brown girls feel supported, competent, and safe. This mural is a culmination of a collaboration between Dear Diary Teens, The Bubbler at Madison Public Library and artist Shiloah Symone Coley.
Fall 2021 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, SEP 7, 2021 – SUN, JAN 16, 2022
SAT, SEP 25, 2021 – SUN, JAN 23, 2022
PLAYHOUSE GALLERY – Everything COVID
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has impacted all lives around the planet. This exhibit gathers experiences and expressions from throughout our community and beyond and serves as a way to grieve our loss, understand our unique and collective experiences and move forward in connection and compassion.
Madison is a globally renowned center for mapmaking. University of Wisconsin’s strong cartography program, has been housed in the geography department since the 1940s. Today, the Dane County cartography community includes student training labs, mapping companies, government mapmaking agencies, and a map library. Oftentimes, when you look at a map, the people responsible for creating it work, or were initially trained here in the Madison area.
We are all connected to one another—what you do here, in Madison, matters to someone across the globe, just as their actions matter to you. Whether it be how we treat our air, land, and water, or how we educate and care for people, the impacts have rippling effects. Geographers are asked to stand in the shoes of others, living in very different circumstances. Maps help us to see the everyday world around us in new ways, build connections, identify patterns, and visualize phenomena. We are here in this world together.
This exhibit was developed by the University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab, a center of innovation for map design, interactive visualization, and geographic thinking.
GALLERY II – Fragility – Shelby Gahm, Stephenie Hamen & Eric Hazeltine
Shelby Gahm, Stephenie Hamen and Eric Hazeltine explore extraordinary and fragile aspects of the human body and psyche. Gahm’s work explores ideas of what constitutes a home. She considers the human nature of collecting memory, which memories we choose to carry with us and how that shapes who we are and, therefore, the home we carry within ourselves throughout our lives. Through painting, Hamen reveals the truth and strength of living with chronic invisible illness. Hazeltine’s artistic process represents the dichotomy of destruction and conservation within the physical body.
GALLERY III – Take Me There. – Landes Sullivan & William Del Moral
Landes Sullivan and William Del Moral cultivate human connection through art. Del Moral evokes feelings of hope, humanity and unity through his dense, vibrant paintings. Sullivan creates with intentionality, building colorful mixed media wall sculptures that surround, engage and inspire the viewer.
Dia de los Muertos Community Altar
THU, OCT 28 – SUN, NOV 14
Rotunda Gallery
The Dia de los Muertos Community Altar Project honors our ancestors and all those who passed especially in this year when we have lost so many to the pandemic. This participatory project draws on the Day of the Dead altar-making traditions in Mexico and remembrance traditions worldwide. The community altar and celebration bring our diverse community together—to honor our ancestors and keep their memories alive. All are welcome to participate by creating and contributing a shadow box altar to honor someone who has passed.
To participate, reserve an altar box at www.communityaltar.wisc.edu.
Dia de los Muertos Community Altar Story Sharing and Celebration | MON, NOV 8, 6 PM, Rotunda Gallery
Join altar creators as they share stories about their ancestors and loved ones.
Spring 2020 Exhibition Cycle
While the Overture building was closed during COVID, Overture Galleries Spring 2020 exhibits remained online as digital exhibitions. Scroll down to view all four galleries in the spring 2020 cycle.
This spring marks the 50TH Anniversary of Earth Day and the UW-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. During this “Year of the Environment,” Overture Galleries partners with the Nelson Institute in presenting exhibitions and programs exploring environmental topics. Our featured artists will challenge us with questions about the impact of human behavior on the health of our planet through their artwork that explores the experiences of inhabiting our Earth and human relations with our fellow creatures.
GALLERY I – Endgame – John Riggs & Hannah Sandvold
John Riggs and Hannah Sandvold record landscapes of the Pacific Northwest in transition. Riggs’ photographs are a call to action, linking the devastating results of clearcutting to our climate crisis. Sandvold uses traditional printmaking techniques to create layered visual journeys, mimicking the the experience of moving through natural spaces.
GALLERY II – Altered Scapes – Ginnie Cappaert & Lynne Roark
Ginnie Cappaert and Lynne Roark depict the beauty of natural landscapes, distilling them into their essential elements. Cappaert’s intimate works created with 30-40 layers of oil paint and cold wax speak to the small, but important fragments of life. Madison Photographer Lynne Roark has taken to the skies to capture Iceland’s landscapes from above. Roark’s Ghosts of Glaciers Past presents surreal combinations of ice, glacial rivers and shorelines. Shooting straight down from a single engine plane, her photography creates enticing and provocative imagery, bringing attention to the fragility of our world’s receding glaciers.
GALLERY III – Unaccountable Abodes – Erin Liljegren & Robert Jaeger
Robert Jaeger and Erin Liljegren present both Earth’s human and animal inhabitants in man-made environments. Liljegren addresses the deprivation of the environment caused by human over-population and massive consumption through mixed media and recycled materials. Jaeger photographically documents the juxtaposition of zoo visitors and the resident animals in captivity within the context of environmental degradation and extinctions.
PLAYHOUSE GALLERY – Earthly Kin
The relationships between humans and our fellow living creatures are ancient and complex. In this exhibit, artists explore the mysteries, beauty and tragedy of our shared lives.
PLAYHOUSE GALLERY – Creative Life on the Spectrum – ArtWorking Artists
JAN 10 – MAR 1
ArtWorking artists celebrate Children’s Theater of Madison’s production of Mockingbird. In Mockingbird, Caitlin, who is on the autism spectrum, uses art to process her world. This exhibition showcases visions of the world through the eyes of professional artists with disabilities from ArtWorking as well as youth from CI Pediatric Therapy Centers and Achieving Collaborative Treatment.
Winter 2019/20 Exhibition Cycle
In Galleries I, II and III, seven artists explore themes of identity, social context and creative process. This winter, we are pleased to collaborate with Children’s Theater of Madison, expanding their production of Mockingbird to include an exhibition in our Playhouse Gallery featuring professional artists from ArtWorking.
TUE, DEC 10 – SUN, MAR 1, 2020
GALLERY I – The Space Between – Rachel Durfee & Denise Presnell
Rachel Durfee and Denise Presnell use a wide range of materials and tools to produce colorful work that is both dazzling and thought-provoking. Durfee explores how we can thrive in the gap between life as it is and life as it ought to be. Presnell’s layered canvasses display a map of vigorous creativity.
GALLERY II – Human Identity Portrait Stories – Natalie Ergas, Yongchul Kwon & Jerry Jordan
Natalie Ergas, Yongchul Kwon and Jerry Jordan explore different facets of human identity. Ergas uses collage to capture the essence of individuals, focusing on female strength and stories. Kwon is a sculptor who interrogates the role of anonymity within society. Jordan’s paintings celebrate wokeness in defiance of ancient beliefs fueled by fear, hate and cruelty.
GALLERY III – Sleepwalk – Kassandra Palmer & Justin Parks
Kassandra Palmer and Justin Parks use repeated visual imagery that is both abstract and recognizable to communicate elusive aspects of the human condition. Palmer combines wood, clay, paint, paper and graphite in her humorous compositions. Parks embodies personal experiences in collage-like images of acrylic and graphite.
ROTUNDA GALLERY – Urban Bubble – Rob, Trionna, Ariez, Savannah, Dakwon, Lamar, Artemas
DEC 14, 2019 – JAN 26, 2020
Living in and on the Urban Bubble is precarious at best. Being young, gifted and black does not equate with being understood and encouraged by the systems that be. Moving through the turmoil, we, as artists, seek to define ourselves and project our realities into the future, owning our narratives and images.
The Bubbler, in collaboration with Faisal Abdu’Allah and MMSD’s Foundations Central graduation recovery program located at the Urban League of Greater Madison, presents this art exhibition by Madison youth. Over a nine-week course held in the Bubbler Room at Central Library, URBAN BUBBLE is the culmination of conversations and productions that celebrated identity, excellence and the powers within each individual.
Faculty and staff: Faisal Abdu’Allah (UW Madison), Rob Dz (Bubbler), Jesse Vieau (Bubbler), Jennifer Tomlinson (MMSD), Kevin Evanco (MMSD), Gordon Heingartner (MMSD), Alison Stauffacher (MMSD).
Participating organizations:
Fauhaus -Faisal Abdu’Allah / UW Community Arts Collaboratory / Madison Public Library / Bubbler / Dane Arts / Scooter Software / Leila & Mickey Straus Family Foundation / Epic
Playhouse Gallery – Ho-Chunk Art: Sharing our Sacred Voice through our Art
Curated by Melanie Tallmadge Sainz
FRI, NOV 1, 2019 – SUN, JAN 5, 2020
The original peoples of the Madison area are the Ho-Chunk. In English Ho-Chunk translates to People of the Sacred Voice. Despite the arduous times faced by the Ho-Chunk, their culture and creativity have endured. While there is no word for art in the Ho-Chunk language, there are words that describe beauty and goodness. These qualities will fill the space of the Playhouse Gallery. Contemporary mixed media art will be juxtaposed with traditional Ho-Chunk art forms that blend natural materials obtained through local foraging and harvest and paired with commercial art products that reflect our adaptive lifeways.
Fourteen Ho-Chunk artists from Wisconsin and beyond will provide a broad perspective of the values and traditions of their heritage. In respect of tribal elders and creative trailblazers, the art of long-time Madison residents Truman Lowe (1944 – 2019) and Harry Whitehorse (1927 – 2017) will highlight this exhibit. The contributions made by these elders have inspired countless contemporary Ho-Chunk artists to continue our legacy of preserving our culture through the arts.
Featured artists include:
Levi Blackdeer – Simone Brown – Alvena Foss – George Greendeer – Sidney Hall, Jr. – Tom Jones – Rita Kingswan – Josie Lee- Kelly Logan – Truman Lowe – Henry Payer – Christopher Sweet – Melanie Tallmadge Sainz – Harry Whitehorse
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts. Additional sponsorship for the Ho-Chunk Exhibit is provided by Ho-Chunk Gaming.
Special Rotunda Gallery Exhibit! – Keep Hope Alive – Obama: An Intimate Portrait – Pete Souza
WED, OCT 23 – SUN, DEC 8
Former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza shows his stunning behind-the-scenes photographs of President Barack Obama.
During the eight years of the Obama Presidency Pete Souza took almost two million photographs of President Barack Obama. More than 300 of those images comprise his coffee-table book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” which debuted as #1 on the New York Times bestseller’s list in 2017. As President Obama wrote in the foreword, “Over the course of eight years in the White House, I probably spent more time with Pete Souza than with anybody other than my family.” Souza was present not only for every meeting, but for the private and personal moments that, according to President Obama, captured “the mood, the atmosphere and the meaning of those moments.”
This exhibit coincides with the Keep Hope Alive presentation by Pete Souza on FRI, OCT 25 in Capitol Theater
Fall 2019 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, SEP 10 – SUN, DEC 1
GALLERY I – Swept Away – Aaron Laux & Katherine Steichen Rosing
Using the circle as a symbol of earth and eternity, Swept Away weaves a narrative of climate change. A rich tapestry of natural materials and impressions of ephemeral objects explore the effects of human disruptions to the equilibrium of the biosphere.
GALLERY II – Multiplicity of Being – Anwar Floyd-Pruitt & Xiaoyue Pu
Floyd-Pruitt and Pu explore themes of identity, society, and culture through portraiture. Floyd-Pruitt’s energetic mixed media self-portraits reflect on his past, present and future. Pu is a photographer whose images challenge elitism within the fashion industry and explore the multifaceted identity as Chinese through her use of the color red.
GALLERY III – Unstill Lifes – Yeonhee Cheong & Jayne Reid Jackson
Yeonhee Cheong and Jayne Reid Jackson are artists who use their technical skill to transform everyday scenes into rich metaphors. Using watercolor and pastel, Cheong grapples with her identity in botanical self-portraits. Jackson’s mezzotints and etchings are literally and figuratively reflective, speaking to the fragility of life.
Playhouse Gallery – Phoenix from the Ashes
SUN, AUG 25 – SUN, OCT 27
The Phoenix from the Ashes exhibit highlights creative projects made from Madison ash trees decimated by the emerald ash borer infestation.
Eric Adjetey Anang – Gene Delcourt – Thomas Ferrella – Ryan Frank – Aaron Granat – Roald Gunderson – Richard Judd – Aaron Laux – Tom Loeser – Paul Morrison – Andrea Oleniczak & Taylor Kurrie – William Rice – Sylvie Rosenthal – Katherine Steichen Rosing
Summer 2019 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, JUN 11 – SUN, SEP 1, 2019
Gallery I – Two Alone – Noël Ash & Victoria Maidhof
Maidhof and Ash both capture profound yet relatable moments. Through photography, Maidhof tells the story of a kinship between two individuals from different generations. Ash paints self-portraits that reveal a mother’s mental stress as she suffers through repeated conflict with a small child.
Noël Ash Website Victoria Maidhof Website
Gallery II – Soñé una Milpa – Leigh Garcia & Maria Amalia Wood
Using papermaking and printmaking techniques, Soñé una Milpa highlights the narratives of ten Latina immigrants living in the Madison community. Garcia and Wood’s collaboration creates interest in stories of immigration, thus inspiring respect for these women and their valuable life journeys.
Leigh Garcia Website Maria Amalia Wood Website
Gallery III – Not to Scale – Robert Lundberg & Jacki Whisenant
Whisenant and Lundberg illuminate subjects that are often overlooked. Whisenant inspires closer inspection of insects, presenting them at a larger-than-life scale that fades to a delicate cut-paper rendering. Lundberg documents the critical infrastructure of water systems, inviting questions about our relationship to water and the societal and cultural implications of this hidden world.
Robert Lundberg Website Jacki Whisenant Website
Gallery I, II and III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Immigrant Journeys from South of the Border | ¡Mi travesía hasta Wisconsin!
WED, JUL 10 – SUN, AUG 18
As our nation debates when and why people from other countries should be allowed to come to the United States, this exhibition invites you to meet Ana Claudia, Fernando, Gilberto, Jennifer, Mario, Cinthia, Panfilo and Saul, eight immigrants whose journeys began in Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Honduras who are living in Wisconsin today.
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Women Against Hate United By Love – J. Leigh Garcia, Rachel Griffin, Kelly Parks Snider
SAT, MAY 11, – SUN, JUL 7, 2019
We are women united against hate. We are mothers, sisters, grandmother and caretakers. We are joined together purposely to shine a light, capture attention, and push back against injustice.
A collective effort of artists and activists, “Women Against Hate United by Love” is a platform, an entry point for a female-led anti-hate campaign united against bigotry, intolerance and racism. The creative building blocks for our artwork and messaging are women’s stories—powerful, tough, revealing stories of injustice, tragedy, strength, and amazingly, hope.
Spring 2019 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, MAR 12, – SUN, JUN 2, 2019
Gallery I – Folks – Jerry Butler & Shelby Kahr
Butler and Kahr make portraits of people who have shaped their lives. Butler focuses on the resilience of the human spirit that resolves toward personal peace and happiness. Kahr uses figurative painting to explore her cultural heritage in the Midwest.
Jerry Butler Website Shelby Kahr Website
Gallery II – Into the Light – Maryam Ladoni & Kayla Story
Personal narratives resonate with universal themes in Ladoni and Story’s images. Story explores the long-lasting impacts of fatherlessness through photographs based on personal interviews. Ladoni travels back to her hometown of Iran, documenting her journey towards understanding her identity through memory.
Maryam Ladoni Website Kayla Story
Gallery III – FUTURE HISTORY NOW: A Retrospeculative – Simone and Max
Visionary fauxklore and impassioned objects combine in a fluid, fragmented chronology of our once and future now.
Gallery I, II and III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts. Additional funding for Gallery II provided by the Madison Arts Commission.
Playhouse Gallery – The Wonder of Learning
THU, JAN 24 – WED, MAY 1, 2019
The exhibtion continues in the Youth Services Room, Madison Public Library, Central Location
The Wonder of Learning exhibit from the world-renowned schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, will inspire parents, educators and other advocates for children to better understand the powerful learning that occurs in the early childhood years. Visitors will be immersed in the world of the much-admired Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood education and understand how children, from birth, use many “languages,” such as art, music, play, drama and literacy, to learn about and make meaning of the world.
A series of professional development workshops and conferences will take place in Madison during the four months the exhibit is available.
For more exhibit information, please visit wonderoflearningwisconsin.org.
“The Wonder of Learning” project is presented by Preschool of the Arts with additional support from Madison Public Library, Madison Public Library Foundation, Overture Center for the Arts, Madison Children’s Museum, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Reach Dane Head Start, Community Coordinated Child Care, Little Explorers Preschool, UW Madison Office of Child Care and Family Resources, The Finlay Group, Summit Credit Union and CG Schmidt.
Winter 2018/2019 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, DEC 11, 2018 – SUN, MAR 3, 2019
Gallery I – What We Inherit: Remnants of Light and Space – Angelica Contreras & Ellen Reynolds Hall
Hall and Contreras are both painters who create compositions that embody a moment or feeling. Influenced by imagery from many cultures, Contreras uses paint and rich collaged patterns to create figures and the environments they reside in. Through the medium of oil paint, Hall uses the natural world to explore color, light, form, energy and emotion.
Angelica Contreras Website Ellen Reynolds Hall Website
Gallery II – Strata – Hannah Bennett & Gabrielle Cordes
Bennett and Cordes push the boundaries of the materials they use. Bennett is inspired by nature, using paper pulp, textiles, embroidery and found objects as sculptural mediums to express her ideas. Cordes creates intuitively, assembling dynamic sculptures with contrasting colors and materials.
Hannah Bennett Website Gabrielle Cordes
Gallery III – Painted Stones
Curated by Laurel Fletcher
Stone-painting has increased in popularity, driven by social media and the “Kindness Rocks” movement. Adults and children paint stones and leave them in public spaces to be discovered by strangers, with the goal of spreading friendship and a sense of community.
Visitors are invited to leave and find painted stones within Overture Center for the duration of the exhibit.
Gallery I, II and III are sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Veteran Print Project: The Transience of Narrative
SAT, NOV 3, 2018-THU, JAN 10, 2019
The Veteran Print Project matches veterans with printmakers who artistically interpret their experiences and perspectives. The exhibit seeks to encourage reconnection between veteran and civilian and to grow a more honest understanding of the shared human experience.
Additional Events:
The Veteran Print Project: Transience of Narrative and Ajax are featured programs of In Good Company, a month-long exposition of emerging veteran artists and civilian collaborations.
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Fall 2018 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, SEP 11 – SUN, DEC 2
Gallery I – 10th Biennial PhotoMidwest Juried Exhibition
The 10th biennial PhotoMidwest exhibition is part of this year’s PhotoMidwest festival celebrating its 20th anniversary. Photographers from Wisconsin and 12 midwestern states exhibit in this show juried by Alex Garcia and Alfred Rasho.
PhotoMidwest Curators’ Talk
FRI, OCT 5 | Promenade Terrace
5-6 PM Curators will talk on their own work and careers
7:30 PM Curators will talk on the PhotoMidwest exhibition
Alex Garcia is a Chicago commercial photographer and photojournalist, a recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a World Press Photo award and is currently on the board of the National Press Photographers Association.
Alfred Rasho has spent 30+ years as a teacher and filmmaker, receiving 2 Emmys, 17 Telly Awards and a Gold Award from The Chicago Film Festival for cinematography.
Gallery II – Studies in Stone, Ice and Memory – Peter Blanchard, Terri Messinides & Steven Ralser
This exhibition considers memories, both static and fluid. Ralser’s photographs show us the beauty and abstraction in ice. Messinides explores the fragility of memory through collage using natural materials. Blanchard exposes patterns in strata of stone.
Steven Ralser website Peter Blanchard website
GALLERY III – Two Selves: Explorations of Personal Experience – Jacob Newman & Ryan J. Robinson
Robinson and Newman both deal with the confusion of everyday life. Robinson’s portraits contemplate the lack of perceived reason behind existence through his rough handling of the figure on the canvas. Newman imagines current social issues in the context of the fictional worlds he creates with his drawings on paper.
Ryan J. Robinson website Jacob Newman website
Gallery I, II and III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Sanctuary: Environmental Land Art at the Farley Center
FRI, SEP 7 – SUN, OCT 28, 2018
Hosted by the Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability, sixteen local artists use natural and organic materials to celebrate our connection with the Earth. Sanctuary is a photographic tour of art installations created on their wooded land near Verona, WI in Fall 2017.
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
SUN, OCT 6, 2018
We celebrated the rich roots of Latino art in culture at the fifth annual Latino Art Fair, organized and sponsored by the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County in partnership with Overture Center. Talented artists from throughout South Central Wisconsin exhibit and sell their artwork, including paintings, photography, pottery, jewelry, music and more. This year we featured the art of spoken word and an Afro-Peruvian performance by Golpe Tierra!
Special Gallery Exhibit
IMMIGRATION X / INMIGRACIÓN X
WED, SEP 12 – SUN, OCT 14, 2018
Synapses is a group of Latinx artists collaborating on projects focused on social justice to impact the community.
Members: Richie Morales l Juan de Hoyos l Andy Villanueva l Evelyn Galindo
Summer 2018 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, JUN 12 – SUN, SEP 2
Gallery I – Random | Access | Memory – Amy Bethel & Lorraine Reynolds
Bethel & Reynolds repurpose, rebuild, and reimagine materials to create 3-dimensional works that blend nature, history and technology. Bethel’s sculptures and installations explore the occasionally absurd metaphors that shape our experience of time. Through assemblage, Reynolds ponders the power of seemingly disparate objects to speak to memory and loss.
Amy Bethel Website Lorraine Reynolds Website
Gallery I sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery II – Captured in Time – Sharon Beckman & Sunil Gopalan
Beckman culls historical ephemera to create delicate collages that evoke memory and mystery, with women and birds recurring in her narratives. Gopalan highlights the beauty and elusive behaviors of birds around the world in his striking photographs.
Sharon Beckman Website Sunil Gopalan Website
Gallery II sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery III – Beauty – A Social Construct – #ReclaimBeauty & Comfort Wasikhongo
This exhibition investigates beauty as a cultural construct through imagery of the body. Hauer uses photography to capture unfiltered images and challenge contemporary perceptions. Wasikhongo reveals the anatomy and strength of the human body through paintings of professional bodybuilders.
Kinda Kreative Website Comfort Wasikhongo Website
Gallery III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Yearnings
SAT, JUN 30 – SUN, SEP 2, 2018
Four artists reflect on their personal laments, celebrations and yearnings through their artmaking. Along the way, they invite others into the process. How do we find peace in a world of violence? Forgiveness in a world of offense? Unity in a world of division and protest?
This is not an exhibition of answers or strategies, but one of journey. There are more questions along it’s paths, the clues come more in whispers and sighs rather than shouts and epithets.
Artists: Bobbette Rose, Cynthia Reynolds, Eugenia Sherman Brown, Janine Bessenecker
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – The Sixties Revisited
FRI, MAY 4 – SUN, JUN 24, 2018
The 1960s was a complex and contentious era of expanding consciousness and social upheaval that profoundly changed our nation. These 33 artists explore the era and its reverberations in our current time.
Artists: Nancy Erickson Dutmer, Michael Duffy, Richard Ely & Martin Saunders, Bruce Fritz, Ray Gloeckler, Caroline Greenwald, Karin Hanson, Lewis Koch, John Kowalczyk, Pat Kroth, Ryan Laessig, Fatima Laster, Katharina Marchant, Robert Matejcek, Andrea Musher & Kim Charles Kay, Leslee Nelson, Jill W. Pfeiffer, Pamela Phillips Olson, Beth Racette, Lybra Ray, Chris Revelle, John Riggs, ST Rivera, Katherine Rosing, Leora Saposnik, Cherie St. Cyr, Terry Talbot, Emma VanDell, Dan S. Wang, Bill Weege, Kurt Westbrook, Megan Wilson, Mary Alice Wimmer & Amanda Wood
Image credits: Robert Matejcek, Ray Gloeckler, Cherie St. Cyr, Bruce Fritz, Lybra Ray, Fatima Laster
Overture Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Norman Berven & Barbara Mittelstaedt Berven, The Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Spring 2018 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, MAR 13 – SUN, JUN 3
Gallery I – Water is Life
Water. It sustains us, cleanses us and quenches our thirst. In the not-too-distant past, clean water was considered an endless resource. Recent developments from the Flint water crisis to pipeline protests are raising concerns about access to and quality of water, for current and future generations.
Co-curators: Anne M. Connor & Carolyn S. Knorr
Artists: Jennifer Bucheit, Anne Connor, Tim Connor, Marcia Getto, Mary Gordon, Matt Hayner, Carolyn Knorr, Diane Kravetz, Becky McKenzie, Rebecca Power, Howard Schwartz, Lisa Seidman, Don Sylvester, Paul Thoresen, Mariah Wooster-Lehman & John Wright
Gallery I sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery II – Redefining Narratives – Erika Herrera, Dakota Mace & David Dexheimer
This exhibition explores cultural dualities and divides through a contemporary lens. Herrera’s ethereal black and white photographs express her duality as a Mexican American. The intricate weavings of Mace re-contextualize traditional Diné (Navajo) practices, while creating a dialogue on cultural appropriation. Dexheimer’s expressive paintings chronicle recent conflicts between police & the public.
Dakota Mace Website Erika Herrera Website
Gallery II sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery III – Season of Shadows – Alaura Borealis and Community Participants
In this social project, Borealis interviews trans and nonbinary peers about gender and creates performances, installations and events around pressing themes. The exhibited collection of transcripts, photographs and other artifacts represents collaborating artists’ metaphors for being queer today.
Gallery III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Winter 2017/18 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, DEC 12 – SUN, MAR 4, 2018
Gallery I – Études – Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists
Étude is French for a study. In music, an etude is a composition that emphasizes a certain technique. It compels a musician to focus on and become skilled in this technique. Over time, étude work provides the musician with intense technical practice—and in time, mastery—in selected areas, opening themselves up to the possibilities of full creativity with their chosen instrument.
Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists (MCFA) members created fiber art that visually expresses their use of études—studies—significant to them. Their studies are the basis for this intriguing exhibit. The artists pushed the envelope of their technical expertise and expanded the possibilities for their creative endeavors.
While the art is personal in nature, you will be engaged by the unexpected work that resulted from these études. The resulting images and themes impacted the artists’ lives while at the same time improved the fiber artists’ virtuosity in their chosen mediums.
Gallery I sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery II – PLACES – Gideon Abbott, Chuck Bauer & Tom Cubr
These artists reveal the tension and tranquility within our environment. Abbott depicts city scenes through a pixilated lens, hinting at tension between technology & humanity. Bauer engages the viewers with expressive compositions inspired by light, color and the builder’s craft. Cubr’s compositions suggest potential harmonies where humans and nature interact.
Media
Abbott: Acrylic paint
Bauer: Oil
Cubr: Mixed Media
Chuck Bauer Website Tom Cubr Website
Gallery II sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery III – Prisms of Memory – Greg Gregson & Christian Strait
Through different media these artists each explore memory and interpretation.
Gregson uses gestural line and dynamic compositions to interpret everyday objects and imagery. Strait layers photographs of iconic Madison sites to visually illustrate how our minds build memories of physical space.
Media
Gregson: Oil, mixed media on canvas.
Strait: Photography
Greg Gregson Website Christian Strait Website
Gallery III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Cool Science Images
SAT, MAR 31 – SUN, APR 29, 2018
The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s annual Cool Science Image Contest celebrates the beautiful and informative images captured by the university’s faculty, staff and students during their research. The Cool Science Images Contest features science-themed pictures created using powerful and exotic equipment — such as microscopes that can see inside living cells and satellites observing Earth from 20,000 miles away — and homemade tools as simple as a pinhole camera.
The images in this exhibit are drawn from winners chosen during the contest’s first seven years, in which hundreds of researchers submitted images of animals, minerals, vegetables, clouds and stars that reveal at scales enormous and miniscule surprising patterns and features that help us better understand the world around us.
The Cool Science Images project is Sponsored by Fitchburg-based Promega Corp., with additional support from DoIT Digital Publishing and Printing Services and the UW–Madison Arts Institute.
Playhouse Gallery – From Dinosaurs to Space Ships: A Father and Daughter Journey – Nancy and George H. Hutson
SAT, JAN 20 – SUN, MAR 18, 2018
George H. Hutson and Nancy Hutson artworks exemplify the father and daughter’s playful explorations. Mr. Hutson brings child-like exuberance to his paintings of fanciful dinosaur adventures. Ms. Hutson expands the boundaries of crochet with her tapestries of landscapes, skies and spaceships.
Playhouse Gallery is sponsored by Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Fall 2017 Exhibition Cycle
TUE, SEP 12 – SUN, DEC 3, 2017
Gallery I – All That Remains – Elaine Daily-Birnbaum & Quenten Brown
Artist Talk: TUE, NOV 28, 2017 | Promenade Lounge, 6:30 PM
The abstract works in this exhibition playfully blend reality and dreamlike imagery to create seemingly familiar yet unexplainable forms. Daily-Birnbaum relies on personal experiences to invoke images of interest and intrigue. Brown’s structures morph modern tools and imagery into delicate, otherworldly constructions.
Gallery I sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation, Webcrafters-Frautschi Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery II – Unusual Perspectives – Colette Girard & Rose Kratchman
Photography captures reality, yet through unique perspectives it can also transform the ordinary into the unfamiliar. Girard’s images encourage an appreciation of the vividness in the visual world. Kratchman’s black and white photograms beautifully capture the essence of soap bubbles through new perspectives.
Colette Girard Website: colettegirardphography.com
Rose Kratchman Website: rosekratchman.com
Gallery II sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Gallery III – Constructs & Consumption – Robert Coberly & Richie Morales
Through painting Coberly and Morales reveal the complexity of contemporary structures, both physical and ideological. Coberly’s architectural abstractions create tapestries of industry and modern city life. Morales reveals the duality of violence and consumerism embedded in materialistic society.
Robert Coberly Website: robcoberly.com
Richie Morales Website: behance.net/richiemorales
Gallery III sponsored by the Arts Access Fund, a component fund of the Madison Community Foundation and by contributions to Overture Center for the Arts.
Playhouse Gallery – Aisthetikos Cuvare (Aesthetic Curves)
SAT, SEP 2 – SUN OCT 29, 2017
Our world is made up of curves, appearing in nature, architecture, and on the body. The a
