West Town, Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, Kinzie Corridor, Humboldt Park

West Town

Wisconsin

IL • MI • IN

West Loop, Fulton Market, East Garfield Park

West Loop and West Side

Evanston, The North Shore, Northern, Western and Southern Suburbs

Suburbs

Old Town, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Roscoe Village, Bucktown, Wicker Park, Logan Square, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Uptown, Edgewater, Andersonville, Rogers Park

North Side

Michigan Avenue, Streeterville, The Gold Coast, The Loop, and South Loop

Michigan Avenue

Pilsen, Bridgeport, Chinatown, plus Hyde Park, Jackson Park/Dorchester, and Bronzeville

South Side

Superior and Franklin streets, West Chicago Ave, and down to Merchandise Mart and the River

River North

Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Mythologies, a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Tim Anderson, on view August 21 through September 26, 2026.The works draw on a lifetime of research into world mythology — the ancient, the obscure, and the enduring — tracing the stories that have shaped human culture across every civilization since the beginning of recorded time, and long before.Mythology is not a relic. It lives on in literature, graphic novels, and film — in every retelling of the eternal struggle between good and evil, love and fear. What Anderson finds so compelling is not the differences between these stories across cultures, but their profound similarities. The names and faces change; the essential human truths beneath them do not.The works in Mythologies also sit with a deeper silence: the knowledge that the vast majority of cultures and civilizations that have existed on this earth left behind little that survives. Their stories, their wisdom, their ways of making meaning are largely gone. Against that absence, mythology functions as a thread of continuity — connecting what we know to what has been lost, and asking what it means that the same stories keep returning.Image: Tim Anderson, Aphrodite, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30”

Tim Anderson: Mythologies

Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Mythologies, a solo exhibition of new oil paintings by Tim Anderson, on view August 21 through September 26, 2026. The works draw on a lifetime of research into world mythology — the ancient, the obscure, and the enduring — tracing the stories that have shaped human culture across every civilization since the beginning of recorded time, and long before. Mythology is not a relic. It lives on in literature, graphic novels, and film — in every retelling of the eternal struggle between good and evil, love and fear. What Anderson finds so compelling is not the differences between these stories across cultures, but their profound similarities. The names and faces change; the essential human truths beneath them do not. The works in Mythologies also sit with a deeper silence: the knowledge that the vast majority of cultures and civilizations that have existed on this earth left behind little that survives. Their stories, their wisdom, their ways of making meaning are largely gone. Against that absence, mythology functions as a thread of continuity — connecting what we know to what has been lost, and asking what it means that the same stories keep returning.

Mythologies Closing Reception

Gelsy Verna (1962–2008) was a Haitian-Canadian artist, educator, and collaborator who taught at UW–Madison and left a lasting impact on students and colleagues. Working primarily in collage and drawing, Verna used symbols, text, and layered images to explore how meaning is never fixed, but constantly shifting.Throughout her work, Verna often challenged familiar cultural icons. In one series, she reimagined Martin Luther King Jr. with different hairstyles, patterns, and even Mickey Mouse ears. In another, she portrayed Marilyn Monroe with brown skin. With wit, courage, and imagination, these works invite viewers to question how identity, history, and power are constructed.Mother, Father, Please Help Me&nbsp;was drawn and redrawn over several years in collaboration with artist and frequent collaborator David Dunlap. Built through many layers of images and marks, it functions as a palimpsest—a surface that holds traces of earlier versions beneath what we see now. The work embodies Verna’s belief that images and symbols change over time, and that new meanings emerge through revision, proximity, and combination.This artwork has both a front and a back, and both are essential to fully experiencing the piece. To allow visitors to encounter the complete work, the reverse side has been carefully reproduced and printed for display.Recently acquired by MMoCA from the artist’s estate,&nbsp;Mother, Father, Please Help Me&nbsp;is among the last major works available from Verna’s studio. Verna died suddenly in 2008 at just 46, leaving behind a rich artistic legacy that her sister, Mahalia Verna now works to preserve.&nbsp;

Gelsy Verna: Mother, Father, Please Help Me

In/Between Arts festival

As part of In/Between, Amanda Browder: Civic Sparkle activates one of RAM Downtown’s interior gallery spaces, inviting visitors to experience the artist’s large-scale textile work from a closer perspective. Civic Sparkle features portions of a previous work by Browder, alongside behind-the-scenes content from the creation of Zig &amp; Zag—the piece which adorns the outside of the museum. Together, these works highlight Browder’s collaborative, community-driven practice which celebrates shared creativity, memory, and the power of art to reimagine place.

Amanda Browder: Civic Sparkle

Welcome to In/Between. This September 18 – 27, everyone is invited to a new festival of visual and performing arts. The mostly free public biennial brings together exhibitions, pop-up music and poetry, circus arts, wellness programs, films, tours, workshops, and social events at locations throughout Racine County. Newly announced festival highlights include: Rooted: Artist Welcome Dinner on September 18, 6 – 9pm at Hotel Verdant Ballroom, a multi-course dinner with artists; Dan Devening: Finestra Falsa from September 18 – 19 &amp; 25 – 26, 12 – 5 pm; September 24, 5 – 8pm at OS Projects, featuring recent paintings and works on paper by Dan Devening; English Paper Piecing with Rosy Petri on September 24, 6 – 9pm at RAM Wustum, a workshop on hand-sewing technique; Paper, Pattern, &amp; Play with Michael Velliquette on September 26, 10am – 2pm at RAM Wustum, exploring paper cutting; Craft &amp; Draft: A Night of Makers on September 26, 6 – 10:30pm at RAM Wustum, a celebration of regional artists with demonstrations, live music, and hands-on art experiences. <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/pa85pL3r9My?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Rooted: Artist Welcome Dinner&nbsp;</a>September 18, 6 – 9pm, Hotel Verdant BallroomKick off&nbsp;In/Between&nbsp;with a multi-course dinner where guests will be joined by artists participating in the festival. <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/EkhSauhQlr5?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Dan Devening: Finestra Falsa</a>September 18 – 19 &amp; 25 – 26, 12 – 5 pm; September 24, 5 – 8pm, OS Projects&nbsp;View recent paintings and works on paper by Chicago artist Dan Devening who explores color, surface, perception, and the relationship between digital and painterly imagery.&nbsp; <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/zJhzsRqAQZm?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">English Paper Piecing with Rosy Petri</a>September 24, 6 – 9pm, RAM WustumLearn directly from a Milwaukee-based mixed media artist as she teaches the basics of a relaxing hand-sewing technique. <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/NSvIe8gy3d8?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Paper, Pattern, &amp; Play with Michael Velliquette&nbsp;</a>September 26, 10am – 2pm, RAM WustumExplore color, geometry, and abstraction through paper cutting, inspired by Velliquette’s&nbsp;<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/gljKvJqViOV?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Intuitive Patterns</a>&nbsp;installation at RAM Downtown.&nbsp; <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/1BHq2qZne3E?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Craft &amp; Draft: A Night of Makers&nbsp;</a>September 26, 6&nbsp;– 10:30pm, RAM WustumMark the festival’s closing weekend with a celebration of regional artists that features demonstrations, live music, and hands-on art experiences.<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/XIUqixf21Km?e=db6c531f0b&amp;c2id=7490e2c96350ef93f5850a9e4303a67d" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Explore all festival events</a>

In/Between

Papercutting as a creative handcraft has roots in many cultures, including centuries-old examples from China, the Polish tradition of&nbsp;wycinanki,&nbsp;and the Mexican history of&nbsp;papel picado. Celebrating handwork and recognizing its potential to connect across time, space, and geography, this exhibition combines various forms of papercutting.&nbsp;Through large- and small-scale works, contemporary makers expand upon tradition, adding their voices to rich creative lineages. To further illustrate this concept, shadow puppet theater utilizing paper silhouettes will be performed throughout the run of the show.Cut It Out&nbsp;is part of&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.handwork2026.org/" target="_blank">Handwork 2026</a>, Craft in America’s nationwide semiquincentennial collaboration showcasing the importance of the handmade and celebrating the diversity of craft that defines America.

Cut It Out: Papercutting Traditions and Beyond

How do you throw a brick through the window… is inspired by artist and activist Johanna Hedva, who poses the question, “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?” Hedva’s statement questions the rights and opportunities of individuals with disabilities as they navigate forms of protest.Through new commissions and recent works, artists Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma look toward Hedva’s work to prioritize modes of dissent that influence personal, political, and social systems.&nbsp; Each artist uses strategies of movement, communication, interruptions in time and space, or moments of play to achieve such transformation. As Hedva suggests in her question, the most meaningful strategies for challenging cultural systems and governing bodies are actions that take place beyond the streets. By circulating these artists’ processes of resistance, this exhibition makes enacting a revolution become more approachable and possible on both individual and communal scales.How do you throw a brick through the window… is co-organized by Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC).

How do you throw a brick through the window…

Italian immigrant Silvio Barile spent decades converting his pizzeria into a museum to honor his heritage. The Italian American Historic Artistic Museum in Redford Charter Township, Michigan, was once enormous. The interior walls of the restaurant were covered with murals, photos, and postcards of iconic Italian imagery such as statues of Julius Caesar, Roman ruins, Renaissance-era paintings, olive trees, and Italian and American pop culture figures. In addition to two-dimensional adornments, Barile fabricated large-scale concrete statues depicting events and characters renowned in Italian and American history. His sculptures filled the pizzeria, then the patio behind it, then the acre of woodland behind the patio. Even after the restaurant closed in 2002, the museum remained and continued to grow.After Barile’s death in February 2019, increasing costs and pressure from the community resulted in the destruction of the site in 2020. In May 2021, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center acquired three large painted concrete works by Barile that were believed to be the last remaining components of the museum. In the early months of 2022, a grouping of eight additional works was found and acquired by the Arts Center. This is the first time these works are being shown outside of the Michigan site.

Silvio Barile

OS Projects is honored to present Fenestra Falsa, a solo exhibition of collages and paintings by Chicago artist Dan Devening. The exhibit opens August 8, 2026 and continues through October 10, 2026. A public reception for the artist takes place on Saturday, August 8 from 1 – 3 pm. Dan Devening is an image builder who combines decisive subject matter with gestural mark-making, spray enamel, collage and stitching to express a life experience shaped by the unexpected, the surprising and the unknown. Like much of what has held his interest over the years, the works in this exhibition engage the ways in which perceptual nuance and optical and spatial play come alive in compositions built on rigorously considered parameters. The project’s point of departure is the rounded rectangle, a shape that is ubiquitous in the devices that connect us to the outside world: iPhones, iPads, computer monitors and televisions. All these devices employ the "friendliness" of the rounded rectangle to suggest comfort and simplicity while effortlessly holding us captive. The shape’s affability—and invitation to use, peer into, and be mesmerized—mirrors the current state of culture, reflecting not only how we consume information, find entertainment and create connections but also the darker, more sinister undertones that are ever-present. The rounded rectangle also serves as a portal. It can frame an aperture or function as a window revealing a landscape. It can press outward against the picture space, swelling and suffocating the frame, as if straining toward its breaking point. This capacity, to both expand outward and pictorially recede and dissolve inward, makes the shape both flexible and multivalent, giving Devening room to explore the ways in which physical and perceptual experiences frame psychological response. Fenestra Falsa’s collages and paintings are fully grounded in the formal concerns of art making, offering the viewer the opportunity to be transported through purely material means. Form builds the image, reveals the subject and tells the story. Form creates chromatic intensity and calibrates the relationship between sharpness and blur, qualities that echo the devices that hold us hostage. Like those devices that incessantly demand speed and immediacy, the works in Fenestra Falsa induce the same pull toward absorption, elevation and immersion—only slowed down, stilled, held. <a href="https://www.osprojects.art/fenestra-falsa" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Details</a> Image: Altadena by Dan Devening, 2025

Fenestra Falsa

Butterfly Disco is an installation by Brian Keith Stephens in the JK Art House Parlor. This is a fun, immersive experience with black lights and artwork on mylar. It can only be seen at JK Art House. The opening reception is on Thursday, September 3, 2026, from 6–8 p.m. The exhibition dates are from September 2 to October 11, 2026. Private appointments are available now through the opening; contact the gallery to schedule. Please RSVP for the Opening Reception.

Brian Keith Stephens: Butterfly Disco

Inspired by artist Lenore Tawney's postcard correspondence, participants will create one-of-a-kind collage postcards. Using papers, photographs, newspaper clippings, musical scores, and nature guides, they will construct miniature collages ready to mail anywhere in the world. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center holds hundreds of key components from Tawney’s last studio environment, some of which are on display at the Art Preserve.

Treasured Postcards

Out There October 9 - November 7, 2026Opening Reception: Friday, October 16th&nbsp;from 5 to 8PM (Gallery Night MKE) 207 E Buffalo St, Suite 404, Milwaukee, WI 53202 (Marshall Building, 4th floor) Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Out There, a two-person exhibition of new&nbsp;work by Hector Acuna and Andy Paczos. The title borrows the advice a teacher gave Paczos at the&nbsp;School of the Art Institute of Chicago: look out the window, "there's lots of good stuff out there." He&nbsp;took it, and has painted Chicago from direct observation for three decades since. Acuna works the&nbsp;same way, returning to his Wisconsin sites across multiple plein air sessions and staging handmade&nbsp;props to paint in natural light. Both find their subjects by standing in front of them Andy Paczos, From Chicago. Ave. Bridge, Oil on linen, 28 x 40", 2011

Out There

at RAM’s Wustum MuseumStitched Stories: Narrative Quilts and Textiles&nbsp;brings together quilted, woven, and embroidered works from RAM’s collection that tell stories through fabric and thread. Whether incorporating representational imagery or utilizing abstraction, these small- and large-scale fiber works explore the multitude of ways in which textiles can be used to convey meaning. Drawing from both personal memory and imagined worlds, the artists represented in&nbsp;Stitched Stories&nbsp;demonstrate the versatility of fiber as a medium for storytelling as they transport viewers to faraway lands—from the bottom of the ocean to outer space. Significantly, several artists with Wisconsin ties are represented, underscoring the rich history of textile production in the state.

Stitched Stories: Narrative Quilts and Textiles

At RAM’s Wustum MuseumCynthia Toops is a polymer art pioneer who has been pushing the boundaries of the medium since the 1980s. The artist is well known for her micromosaic technique, which pieces together tiny shards of polymer into figurative or abstract compositions. Her distinctive style pulls inspiration from everyday events or objects, botanical subjects, folk art, and the cultural jewelry and ancient beads which she collects. While Toops works on her own, she also often collaborates with her husband, Dan Adams, who creates the glass beads and components featured in some pieces.

RAM Showcase: Cynthia Toops

This exhibition will bring together for the first time the work of two artists who have dedicated their lives, through their multifaceted artistic processes, to healing.After a life of rambling, Emery Blagdon (1907–1986) settled on his family’s homestead in Garfield Table, Nebraska. Many members of his family had been afflicted with cancer. Convinced of the healing potential of the unseen forces of the earth, Blagdon spent forty years constructing “The Healing Machine.” Using largely tin foil, masking tape, Christmas decorations, and wire, Blagdon sought to harness magnetism, electricity, and other energies to surround visitors with positive forces. JMKAC has owned “The Healing Machine” since 2004.Guadalupe Maravilla migrated to the United States from El Salvador, unaccompanied, at age eight. At thirty-six, he was diagnosed with cancer, which he links to inherited trauma. During treatment, Maravilla connected with Indigenous healing practices, including sound baths—ceremonies that harness sonic vibrations from gongs, conch shells, and other instruments to restore calm and balance and release toxins in the body. He began making sculptures, paintings, performances, and large-scale installations that incorporate found objects related to his own migration story and various gongs and bowls, which he activates to conduct sound ceremonies. Blurring art, science, and medicine, he calls these activations “healing machines.”At the Arts Center, central to the exhibition is Maravilla’s Mariposa Relámpago, a school bus that has been reimagined as a healing temple. Throughout the exhibition, the healing machines will be activated by Maravilla and various other healers, playing the sculptures to turn on and amplify the energy in the gallery—transforming the space into an immersive healing environment.For the coinciding installation at the Art Preserve, Maravilla’s El Espíritu de Mariposa Relámpago Disease Thrower, a monumental bronze snake with a butterfly head, lightning bolt, and gong, serves as a central altar. Surrounded by Blagdon’s energy-focusing paintings and a selection of Maravilla’s retablos, this installation harnesses the energy held in the shed formerly occupied by Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine,” while it is on view at the Arts Center.

Guadalupe Maravilla with Emery Blagdon: The star exploding in the body

At the Art Preserve: May 5, 2026–January 10, 2027At the Arts Center: May 30, 2026–December 6, 2026 This exhibition will bring together for the first time the work of two artists who have both dedicated their lives, through their multifaceted artistic processes, to healing.After a life of rambling,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jmkac.org/artist/blagdon-emery/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(38, 62, 148);" target="_blank">Emery Blagdon</a>&nbsp;(1907–1986) settled on his family’s homestead in Garfield Table, Nebraska. Many members of his family had been afflicted with cancer. Convinced of the healing potential of the unseen forces of the earth, Blagdon spent forty years constructing “The Healing Machine.” Using largely tin foil, masking tape, Christmas decorations, and wire, Blagdon sought to harness magnetism, electricity, and other energies to surround visitors with positive forces. JMKAC has owned “The Healing Machine” since 2004. Guadalupe Maravilla migrated to the United States from El Salvador, unaccompanied, at age eight. At thirty-six, he was diagnosed with cancer, which he links to inherited trauma. During treatment, Maravilla connected with Indigenous healing practices, including sound baths—ceremonies that harness sonic vibrations from gongs, conch shells, and other instruments to restore calm and balance and release toxins in the body. He began making sculptures, paintings, performances, and large-scale installations that incorporate found objects related to his own migration story and various gongs and bowls, which he activates to conduct sound ceremonies. Blurring art, science, and medicine, he calls these activations “healing machines.”At the&nbsp;Arts Center, central to the exhibition is Maravilla’s Mariposa Relámpago, a school bus that has been reimagined as a healing temple. Throughout the exhibition, the healing machines will be activated by Maravilla and various other healers, playing the sculptures to turn on and amplify the energy in the gallery—transforming the space into an immersive healing environment. For the coinciding installation at the&nbsp;Art Preserve, Maravilla’s El Espíritu de Mariposa Relámpago Disease Thrower, a monumental bronze snake with a butterfly head, lightning bolt, and gong, serves as a central altar. Surrounded by Blagdon’s energy-focusing paintings and a selection of Maravilla’s retablos, this installation harnesses the energy held in the shed formerly occupied by Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine,” while it is on view at the Arts Center.

Number One at Tandem Press&nbsp;celebrates the vision of Tandem Press founder William Weege and the groundbreaking work of the press’s first collaborating artist, Sam Gilliam. Their partnership established a spirit of experimentation and technical innovation that continues to define Tandem Press today. Featuring works that reflect Gilliam’s bold approach to abstraction alongside Weege’s commitment to collaborative printmaking, the exhibition honors the creative foundation upon which the press was built. Together, these works trace the beginning of a legacy that has shaped generations of artists and printers.Sam Gilliam&nbsp;(1933-2022) was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. Since the early sixties, Sam Gilliam has been a pillar of the Washington D.C., the modern, and the contemporary art communities. He has tested the boundaries of color, form, texture, and the canvas itself over the course of his long, productive career. Gilliam was a major contributor to the Washington Color School, a group of Washington D.C. artists that developed a form of abstract color field painting during the late 1950s through mid-1970s.His inventive approach to creating art has also had a great impact on the field of Abstract Expressionism. One of the most important African-American artists of the twentieth century, Sam Gilliam was the subject of a 1983 retrospective exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.,&nbsp;Modern Painter at the Corcoran: Sam Gilliam. His works are included in prestigious collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Beymans Museum in Rotterdam,&nbsp;the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, and the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris among many others.William Weege&nbsp;(b. 1935, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; d. 2020, Arena, Wisconsin) was a pillar in the printmaking and papermaking fields in the United States. He exuberantly explored unconventional printmaking processes, adding paint, collage, handmade paper, and sewn elements to various printed surfaces to create vibrant abstract expressions. He was also an early practitioner in the revival of handmade paper, which started in the 1960s.Although he is best known for his later abstract works, much of his early art commented on social and political issues. Weege studied engineering and city planning and worked at a commercial printing firm before returning to school to study printmaking. He received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1970, Weege represented the United States at the Venice Biennale before joining the UW-Madison Art Department faculty in 1971. He founded Tandem Press in 1987. In addition to being a distinguished professor, Weege had a very successful career as an artist. He exhibited widely, and his work is included in many museum collections throughout the United States including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Sam Gilliam & William Weege

<a href="https://kimstoragegallery.us22.list-manage.com/track/click?u=63eb3ae92ac5ae9371f4d5ed0&amp;id=af142533d1&amp;e=0feabe6389" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">Doug Fath</a>’s paintings are open narratives that examine myth, culture, pain, and hope. Working in a Magic Realist style, his canvases invite viewers into dreamscapes where the familiar and the fantastical converge — where blindfolded pigs recline in lush abundance, armed bears stand vigil amid wildflowers, and bluebirds rise singing into darkened skies. Through vibrant color and the charged presence of animals, Fath constructs a symbolic language that is at once personal and universal, poetic and politically alert.&nbsp;At the heart of his practice is a commitment to painting as a healing mechanism — a space where isolation, grief, injustice, and resilience can be held together without easy resolution. Fath’s imagery draws on encyclopedias, folk art, scientific illustration, literature, and poetry, weaving them into allegories that speak to the current political and social moment. The narrative is always open-ended, never didactic — he invites the viewer to complete the meaning, to bring their own experience into dialogue with his.&nbsp;His primary influences are the women of the Mexican Surrealist movement — Frida Kahlo, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo — whose unflinching examination of pain, isolation, and the inner life runs throughout his work. Fath received his MFA in Photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has exhibited across the United States at venues including the James Watrous Gallery, Arts + Literature Laboratory, Tory Folliard Gallery, the Dubuque Museum of Art, and the Museum of Wisconsin Art.

Doug Fath

Mark your calendars — this October, JK Art House opens Between Reflection and Revelation: David Dunlop's Material Alchemy, a new exhibition that bridges Old Master painting technique with strikingly contemporary materials. Painter David Allen Dunlop applies traditional translucent oil painting methods — the kind pioneered on copper and pietra dura by 17th-century Dutch and Italian masters — to copper, gold, steel, and aluminum. The result: paintings that genuinely shift and glow as you move through the gallery. The exhibition runs October 14 through December 28. We're kicking things off with a full weekend: Opening Night Gallery Night — Friday, October 16, 5–9 PM Gallery Day — Saturday, October 17, 11 AM–6 PM And there's more: during Gallery Night, we're hosting a free Parlor Workshop in partnership with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center

Between Reflection and Revelation: David Dunlop's Material Alchemy

New England…has recently posited itself as a grand signifier in my existence as a jewelry artist. It is learning about New England’s seminal history as the seat of the American Industrial Revolution, the undeniable gravity to the founding of this nation, its growth and ultimate dissolution, and the remnants and detritus that are informing my current work. My formative years were spent in southern California where cultural imprints positioned me in a liminal existence between prejudice and privilege. I am half Black and half White. Living in a middle-class suburb of Los Angeles and visiting my father in socio-economically and racially divided South Central Los Angeles impacted my identity as a young person searching for which culture to occupy and how. Ultimately, I realized the choice itself provided me with a tool of social leverage.&nbsp;—Tanya CraneResponding to her own biracial background, Tanya Crane imbues her enamel, metal, and found object jewelry with reflections on history, resiliency, migration, community, adornment, humanity, identity, family, and heritage.&nbsp;As she considers how traditions shift across space or through time, Crane creates patterns that echo designs of global Indigenous makers. This exhibition features jewelry inspired by historical adornment in RAM’s permanent collection—specifically, incised metal bracelets and neckpieces from West Africa that were used as currency. Objects like this were exchanged within trade or barter networks, not only for local agricultural and luxury products but also in transatlantic slave trade negotiations. This potential compelled Crane to cautiously move forward with her explorations.As she states, “The research for my jewelry encompasses both a response to my immediate landscape and my family stories relative to the impacts of the Great Migration. It is through this lens that I interact with and respond to the museum’s collection, contextualizing that historical work through a contemporary lens and providing a dynamic framework to investigate the past in the present.”Crane’s artwork metaphorically embodies the many layers of human existence—specifically, history, race, class, and culture. Through her practice, she reaches into the past to better understand the present and, potentially, the future. As a contemporary jeweler, Crane centers mark-making, patterns, and material choice to build the content in her individual pieces, and doesn’t shy away from using scale to create bold statements. The sgraffito technique she often employs means she carves through one layer of information to get to another—literally uncovering and exposing what has come before.In 2022, RAM invited Crane—who was teaching at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and has since moved back to her home state of California—to consider making work in response to a small selection of historical African pieces in the museum’s collection. Crane’s personal investment in using jewelry to make connections and her stated interest in the history of adornment made her a good candidate for this provocative project—she was ready to consider tackling the metaphorical weight of these metal historical objects that once functioned very differently than they do in a museum collection.<h5> </h5>Tanya Crane received her MFA in Metalsmithing + Jewelry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and her BFA in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Crane is an Assistant Professor of 3D Foundations, Jewelry and Sculpture at Long Beach City College. Named a 2024 United States Artist Fellow in Craft, she was selected in 2023 to be an inaugural recipient of the Center for Craft’s Teaching Artist Cohort. Crane was also a recipient of The Doris Prouty Foundation Artist Grant—offered to BIPOC/AAPI women artists in Massachusetts and North Carolina to further their artistic activity and practice. She was the 2018 Society of North American Goldsmith’s Emerging Artist and selected to present at SOFA Chicago, as well as the 2017 winner of the Society of Arts and Crafts–Boston Artist Award.Crane’s work is in the collections of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, TN; Philadelphia Art Museum; Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; and Racine Art Museum.

Tanya Crane: Embodied Histories—Exploring the Legacy of African Jewelry

Since the 1980s, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center has built a remarkable collection of Asian textiles, including works from Bengali kantha, Hmong-Miao paj ntaub, and Japanese boro traditions. While these practices developed in different regions and cultures, they share common themes of resourcefulness, care, and storytelling through cloth.<a href="https://us.list-manage.com/pnUEGGLwsr2?e=62e89a6c87&amp;c2id=edfb4aca6fcc01b3e5cc7350834d6f24" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">When Threads Meet, They Speak</a> brings these textile traditions into conversation for the first time, highlighting the connections and distinctions that emerge through their materials, techniques, and histories. Often created by women in rural communities, these works transform worn fabrics into objects of beauty and utility, carrying generations of creativity, resilience, and cultural knowledge within every stitch. <a href="https://us.list-manage.com/xDUrCcgR1W_?e=62e89a6c87&amp;c2id=edfb4aca6fcc01b3e5cc7350834d6f24" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" target="_blank">View the Exhibition</a>

When Threads Meet, They Speak

Called “Floating Flowers” by Thomas Haneman, these fantastical botanical paintings, richly toned and wildly inventive, could be specimens from outer space, underwater, or some sort of Eden. Positioned out-of-space and time, they joyously spring from his canvases, unfettered by nature or science. Many of them face away from the viewer, growing in the direction of an unseen source of light or energy. After emerging from a long and crippling depression, and inspired by his garden, Haneman’s subjects appear like synapses, the fresh sparks in his brain, brought on by his new-found happiness and excitement for life. They are the visual result of his healing, synaptic displays of joy. His paintings bear reference to seventeenth-century Dutch still-life and eighteenth-century botanical illustrations, while feeling atemporal and contemporary.

Floating Flowers

Crystal City is a monumental found-object sculpture by Robert Blackstone (1971–2023) that depicts a self-contained modern city. Begun when he was a sophomore in high school, Blackstone built the work from found objects, electronics, harvested glass, toys, family videos, and personal mementos. Crystal City combines sound, light, movement, and living elements to create a miniature immersive urban landscape. First created and shown in Dayton, Ohio, this marks the first time the work will be exhibited outside that city. Originally conceived as an elegy for Blackstone’s grandmother, the project evolved into a reflection on social and economic injustice and a vision of a more unified, interconnected city. The exhibition also features additional works by Blackstone drawn from the downtown Dayton bank building where he developed the project in its final years. Many of these sculptures attest to Blackstone’s interest in history, the passing of time, and the human condition.

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