MEND - Gallery Talk

Glenn Williams received his M.F.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialization in Sculpture. In his work he explores various social constructs and their impact on our perceived realities. He deconstructs, reconstructs, and sometimes simply reflects various accepted mores to expose how they shape our understanding of the world around us and influence our interactions on a social, political, and environmental level. Williams’ work has been exhibited in numerous invitational and juried exhibitions throughout the United States, such as Franconia Sculpture Park, Lynden Sculpture Garden, and the Indianapolis Art Center. Currently, Williams is an Associate Professor of Art and Area Head of the Sculpture Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Before Heidi Parkes was born in Chicago in 1982, her grandmother organized a collaborative family quilt to commemorate her birth. Now based in Milwaukee, her quilting and mending celebrate the hand, and her works tug at memories and shared experience. Often using specific textiles, like an heirloom tablecloth, bed sheet, or cloth tea bag, Heidi adds subtle meaning and material memory from the start. Engaging in the worlds of art, quilts, mending, and social media, Heidi is an advocate for the domestic realms, slow stitching, and mindfulness. Find her on Instagram and YouTube. She was a 2020-2021 ARTservancy Artist in Residence, and a 2005 graduate from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jaymee Harvey Willms was born and raised in Maplewood, Minnesota. From there she moved to South Dakota where she received her BFA in painting and art history from the University of South Dakota. In 2015 she went on to graduate from SUNY Albany with her MFA in sculpture. Currently, she serves her community as Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washington County and an adjunct instructor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She believes in fearless advocacy and the power of storytelling. Her artwork digs into fantasy, feminism and where materials meet these two concepts. She has had international residencies, shows her work across the United States, and continues to make work in her studio in Milwaukee’s Walker's Point neighborhood.

Sylvie Rosenthal started building at age six at the Eli Whitney Museum where she made circuses, catapults, rockets, and robots. She received her BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Woodworking and Furniture Design Program in the School for American Crafts, built two houses from the ground up with her mentor Doug Sigler, and received her MFA in sculpture from UW-Madison. Sylvie maintains a studio practice making furniture on commission, production work, and sculpture dealing with the intersecting flight patterns of the histories of trade, the intentional and unintentional transplantations that come with it, hybridity, materiality, queer theory, and the natural world.

Siara Berry (Cudahy) is a sculptor working in a wide-array of mediums; ranging from woodworking to soil, concrete to found objects. In 2015, Berry graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute holding a degree in Sculpture and Creative Writing and has since been working and living in Milwaukee, WI. Berry is the recipient of the 2022 Career Advancement Grant awarded by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design and in 2023 was awarded the Mary Nohl Fellowship as an Emerging Artist. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest, including Women Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend, WI, Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH as well as various Milwaukee-based galleries. In addition to her art practice, Berry serves as the Arts/Industry Program Director for the John Michael Kohler Art Center.