Wisconsin Triennial Brochure 2019

WISCONSIN TRIENNIAL 2019
An exhibition of contemporary art from across the state
Oct 19, 2019 – Feb 16, 2020

Wisconsin is home to a vibrant, diverse art community that creates in every medium and
touches every corner of our state. In the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial, the Madison Museum of
Contemporary Art celebrates this ever-evolving contemporary art scene with an exhibition
that reflects the dedication and sophistication of Wisconsin’s artists. The works presented
are both timely and timeless, bringing into view the ideas, processes, and content that
artists are exploring today.
CONTENTS
Saif Alsaegh 1
John Himmelfarb 3
Stephen Perkins 6
Ariana Vaeth 8
Emily Arthur 1
John Hitchcock 3
Jeffrey Repko 6
Leslie Vansen 8
Tom Berenz 1
Jon Horvath 4
Suzanne Rose 6
Shane Walsh 9
Timothy Brenner 1
Chele Isaac 4
Andy Rubin 6
Della Wells 9
Jennifer Bucheit 2
Tom Jones 4
Dane Schumacher 7
Ed Erdmann 2
Tomiko Jones 4
Peter Schwei 7
Marianne Fairbanks 2
Diane Levesque 5
Anders Shafer 7
Ben Grant 2
Gina Litherland 5
Pranav Sood 7
Rachael Griffin 3
Dakota Mace 5
Spatula&Barcode 8
Helen Hawley 3
Francisco Mora 5
SPOOKY BOOBS 8

SAIF ALSAEGH MILWAUKEE
1991 (video still), 2018 • 11:55 minutes • Courtesy of the artist
In 2011, Saif Alsaegh moved from Iraq to the United States, leaving behind
the endless violence, deafening explosions, and constant fear of death
that plagued everyday life in Baghdad. Through the medium of video, he
unravels his memories of war and explores the strange tranquility of his life in
Wisconsin. His experimental style of narration is most poignant in 1991, a video
featuring a phone conversation between the artist and his mother, Bushra, an
Iraqi immigrant currently living in Turkey. The film captures footage of Alsaegh
cooking and engaging in other routine activities while video chatting with
his mom, who tells the story of his birth, in 1991, in the midst of the Gulf War.
Bringing together the virtual landscape of the phone, the bucolic landscape
of Wisconsin, and the fragmented landscape of memory, Alsaegh presents
a poetic meditation on war, displacement, separation, and familial love.
EMILY ARTHUR MADISON
Cherokee by Blood, 2018 • Aspen wood, screenprint, cast bronze, and
dried silk • Courtesy of the artist
For Cherokee by Blood, Emily Arthur collected dead songbirds in collaboration
with a zoology lab and then cast the birds in bronze. The bronze birds
are delicately shrouded in silk organza and placed in wooden boxes — a
presentation reminiscent of a viewing at a funeral. Printed on the silk is text
from a series of documents dating from 1906 to 1910 that contain interviews
of over 125,000 people who applied to the US Court of Claims in an effort to
retain their tribal enrollment within the Cherokee Nation. Traumatic accounts
of removal of Cherokee peoples by the government can be read on the silk
that cradles the dead birds, placing environmental destruction and Cherokee
displacement at the forefront of Arthur’s work.
TOM BERENZ MILWAUKEE
Drowning in a Bathtub, 2018 • Acrylic and oil on canvas, 72 x 94 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Worried about the potential for disaster ruining a perfect moment, Tom Berenz
builds up paint on the canvas into what he calls “piles of floating information,”
which resemble crashes and shattered worlds. In Drowning in a Bathtub, diluted,
watery lines and the black-and-white tiled floor provide a sense of space, while
the jumble of fleshy limbs and abstract shapes lend a sense of unease. Drawing
the viewer in with bright pinks and blues, the angst filled bathtub overflows
off the bottom edge of the painting, opening up the image for personal
introspection and interpretation.
TIMOTHY BRENNER MADISON
Purple and Yellow Still Life, 2018 • Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 8 inches •
Courtesy of Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee
Timothy Brenner’s still life paintings are comprised of layers upon layers of
acrylic paint that result in an incredibly tactile and textured composition. Brenner
developed a visual iconography in which he paints a series of reoccurring icons,
symbols, and objects from his life in various environments and color combinations.
For his series of decorative planters, Brenner fastidiously replicated the same
composition in several iterations. The completed paintings were then repainted on
a smaller scale for inclusion in yet another still life: Still Life Shelf. Extending his selfreferential
iconography even further, Brenner reconstructs the shelf depicted in the
painting as a three-dimensional object, replete with hand-painted wood grain, on
which a selection of the physical paintings are then displayed.
1

JENNIFER BUCHEIT MADISON
100%, from the series Again & Again: A Reflection on Consumer Culture, 2017 •
Archival pigment print on post-consumer substrate, 17 x 15 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Jennifer Bucheit’s photographic series Again & Again: A Reflection on Consumer
Culture addresses the rise of American consumerism and the inordinate amount
of paper waste discarded in landfills — with Wisconsin being the number
one paper producer in the world. Mindful of the excess waste, Bucheit began
collecting her family’s paper trash, which she then carefully deconstructed and
photographed in a still life setting. The images of the paper packaging were then
digitally compiled and printed back onto one side of the original packaging —
reinforcing the themes of repetition, reuse, and recycling. From shopping bags
to takeout cartons, the resulting works of art reveal our irreverent consumption
while unveiling the potential for turning the disposable into the admired.
ED ERDMANN MENOMONIE
Dismas, 2017 • Soil collected from the banks of Red Cedar River on canvas,
24 x 24 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Growing up on a farm in the Mississippi Valley, Erdmann developed a profound
respect for the land. As an artist, the physical landscape informed a series of
paintings that use natural elements — dirt, sediment, and sticks collected from
the Red Cedar and Mississippi rivers — to generate works of art that are a literal
manifestation of his environment. Highlighting the natural rhythms, lines, and layers
produced by water eroding soil, Erdmann creates paintings from dirt and sediment
that are part land art, part color field painting. When the resulting work is placed
on a gallery wall, it serves as a poignant reminder to pause and appreciate the
inherent beauty of the natural world.
MARIANNE FAIRBANKS MADISON
Heart of Being 3, 2018 • Hand woven on a digital loom (TC-1) tencel, acrylic,
nylon, wool, 41 x 21 x 4 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Marianne Fairbanks stretches textiles to their formal and conceptual limits.
Heart of Being 3 is a jacquard weaving with an eye-catching, fluorescent-pink
backside that is presented as the front. A rectangular section is cut out from
the middle of the piece and flops forward toward the viewer, revealing part of
the metallic silver frontside. In jacquard textiles, the design is woven into the
fabric itself rather than printed or embroidered on top of it, which means that
the pattern is created together with the cloth: the image thus becomes the
object, and the object is the image. Fairbanks emphasizes the unique material
structure of jacquard by weaving into her piece the actual patterns that
comprise the visual language of weaving — the crisscrossing of intersecting
threads at a 90-degree angle. Fairbanks thus presents us with a striking
and self-reflexive fabric: a weaving about weaving.
BEN GRANT MILWAUKEE
Untitled 115, 2016 • Acrylic, automotive paint, ball point pen, colored pencil,
enamel, graphite, oil, and spray paint on canvas over panel, 47 x 47 inches •
Courtesy of the artist and Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee
Ben Grant combs through the history of art to recover techniques and
processes that have long been forgotten. He reworks these painterly oddities into
contemporary compositions that he describes as “on the edge of falling apart.”
The layering of technique and media — from ball point pen to automotive paint
— results in an intricately patterned composition that is visually stimulating.
Grant’s formal explorations hint at representation without completely giving way
to abstraction, inviting the viewer in for a closer look. For Grant, this interactive
inquiry is essential to his practice as it validates these complex, layered paintings
that can be just as engaging as a representational, narrative composition.
2

RACHAEL GRIFFIN MADISON
Plum, 2016 • Monotype on paper, 44 x 29 1/2 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Through the time-intensive process of reductive monotype, Rachael Griffin uses
the subject of food to examine appetites — whether a taste for a particular food
or a more sensual craving. Curious where and when these associations are made
in our brains, she explores several of the universal visual triggers that elicit our
most primal desires. In Plum, Griffin renders a bright, juicy plum with a giant
bite taken out of it and in Cherry an impossibly tall slice of cherry pie whets our
appetite. Fleshy and body-like, her images invoke sensations or memories that
are subconscious and inescapable.
HELEN HAWLEY MADISON
In Time, Its Flow, 2019 • Video installation, single projection with sound,
paper screen, steel frame, 5:02 minutes • Sound design by Page Campbell and
Helen Hawley • This project was supported by a Foundation for Contemporary
Arts Emergency Grant • Image courtesy of the artist
In Time, Its Flow is a curvilinear aluminum sculpture that both encloses and serves
as a projection surface for artist Helen Hawley’s video animation. Using only water,
the artist brushes lines across a slate slab to create a hand-drawn animation. As
each new mark appears, another evaporates just as quickly, calling attention to
both the passage of time and the transient nature of that which is man-made.
Intentionally choosing materials that are intangible — evaporating water and
vanishing time — Hawley subtly gestures to our own impermanence.
JOHN HIMMELFARB SPRING GREEN
Leader, 2017 • Maple veneer plywood, 96 x 33 x 14 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
John Himmelfarb has always been interested in the symbols and markmaking
that humans use to communicate ideas — from hieroglyphics to more
contemporary pictographs. From his early childhood growing up in Chicago,
he recalls walking through Chinatown with his parents, fascinated by the
pictorial language on commercial signs and storefronts. His admiration for
graphic forms can be seen in his new series of plywood sculptures, which are
based on a geometric vocabulary of squares and rectangles. He begins by
hand-sketching the designs on graph paper using only straight lines and right
angles, and then materializes them in wood using a CNC router. Part human,
part architectural, the resulting sculptures oscillate between figuration and
abstraction to suggest forms that are both playful and symbolic.
JOHN HITCHCOCK MADISON
Bury the Hatchet, 2019 • Multimedia sound installation, dimensions variable •
Courtesy of the artist
John Hitchcock’s Bury the Hatchet installation explores the history of the
Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma through the images and sounds of the American
Frontier. This multimedia work layers soundscapes of steel guitar, cello, clarinet,
and accordion with recordings of Hitchcock’s grandfather Saukwaukee John
Dussome Reid (Kiowa) telling stories of “the old days on the southern plains.”
Hitchcock summons the land, language, and visual symbols of the Great Plains
— the focal point for Plains tribal culture — while challenging the dominantly
Western narrative of the written word. The resulting installation presents an
indigenous view of oral history as passed on from generation to generation
through storytelling. Viewers are invited to engage with the installation and
activate the sound elements while occupying the dedicated space for the work.
3

JON HORVATH WAUKESHA
Stray, from the series This Is Bliss, 2016 • Archival pigment print
24 x 30 inches • Courtesy of the artist and Alice Wilds Gallery, Milwaukee
Jon Horvath’s narrative project This Is Bliss investigates the roadside geography
and culture of the rural Idaho town of Bliss. The town is historically significant
due to its positioning on the Oregon Trail, but sadly Bliss reached its peak in the
mid-20th century when Interstate-84 was constructed and vehicular traffic was
redirected away from the once thriving community. This Is Bliss investigates the
complex booms and busts of a small town, while reflecting its humanity and the
complicated, romantic ideals of the American West.
CHELE ISAAC MADISON
You were invented to manipulate, 2019 • Installation with single-channel video,
sculpture, sound, and scent, dimensions variable • Courtesy of the artist •
Video in collaboration with Jack Kellogg
Video footage, written prose, atmospheric sound, scent, and sculpture come
together to create an immersive environment in Chele Isaac’s installation, You
were invented to manipulate. Isaac mobilizes the prose within her video to
interrogate issues of control, particularly to question who is in control of our
democracy. By deploying language and image to confuse rather than clarify,
she illuminates the fractured nature of information and the subjectivity of
truth within our current political landscape. Working intuitively, Isaac activates
all of our senses and challenges us to enter into a space, both physically and
emotionally, that prioritizes free association, ambiguity, and the unknown
over any definitive answer or didactic message.
TOM JONES MADISON
Payton Grace, from the series Strong Unrelenting Spirits, 2017 •
Archival pigment print and beads, 25 x 20 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Tom Jones has been photographing his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of
Wisconsin, for the past 19 years. Part of an ongoing photographic essay on
the contemporary life of his tribe, Jones uses the Native American tradition of
beadworking that is typically reserved for clothing to hand-stitch floral designs
onto the surface of his photographs. For Jones, the resulting beadwork, which
envelops and adorns his figures, is a metaphor for his Ho-Chunk ancestors and
their spirits. The series, Strong Unrelenting Spirits, enriches the art historical
genre of portraiture and provides visibility to a nation of people who are
often left out of prevailing societal narratives.
TOMIKO JONES MADISON
Hatsubon, 2016 • Mixed media installation, dimensions variable •
Courtesy of the artist
Tomiko Jones explores cultural landscapes and the ways in which our relationship
to the land shapes our identities and defines our sense of place. In Hatsubon,
a memorial to her father, Jones creates an installation with photographs of
three bodies of water that have familial significance: the Monongahela River
in Pennsylvania where her father grew up; the waters surrounding Big Island,
Hawaii, her mother’s birthplace and the site of her father’s burial; and the Pacific
Coast of California, where her parents met and Jones was born. Another series of
photographs on silk picture the artist, her mother, and her sister as they perform
the Japanese Buddhist ceremony of hatsubon, marking the first anniversary
of a loved one’s death — the three women wade into the sea to release a small
bamboo boat into the vast expanse of water. Hatsubon lies within the liminal
space between image and object, performance and ritual, life and death.
4

DIANE LEVESQUE KENOSHA
Dancing Bear and Savoyard, from The Penny Dreadful Project, 2018 •
Acrylic on canvas, 48 x 40 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Diane Levesque’s ongoing series of paintings and drawings, The Penny Dreadful
Project, reinterprets themes depicted in Staffordshire figurines produced
between 1810 and 1835. These popular collectibles portrayed idealized
pastimes as well as disturbing and often violent contemporaneous events
from infamous murders to public hangings. Despite this, or perhaps because
of it, the figurines were acquired as decorative household items. These themes
also corresponded to what could be read in “penny dreadfuls,” popular serial
literature from the same era with sensational storylines. With bold color and
energetic brushstrokes, Levesque heightens the implied violence and sexuality
of the stories, transforming the decorative motifs of the Victorian era into social
commentary that is unsettling yet alluring.
GINA LITHERLAND CEDARBURG
Yggdrasil, 2018 • Oil on panel, 20 x 40 inches • Courtesy of the artist and
Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago
Gina Litherland’s immaculately rendered paintings reference the artistic
tradition of magic realism and the narrative plotlines found in folktales.
Litherland creates her own mythologies in her wood panel paintings, twisting
familiar iconographies and storylines into new realms of the uncanny where
young girls befriend tigers and join packs of dogs howling at the moon. In her
painting Yggdrasil, Litherland illustrates the Tree of Life from Norse Mythology,
the three “Norns” (female beings who control the fate of both gods and
humans) appear as girls eerily floating beneath the tree, lit from below, toying
with their environment. Litherland imbues her mystical worlds with tales of
female empowerment, making them places where young girls and women
have immense power and magic over their incongruous surroundings.
DAKOTA MACE MADISON
Na’ashch’áá’ I, 2018 • Cyanotype/digital media on paper, 24 x 24 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Dakota Mace is a Diné (Navajo) artist who reinterprets the symbolic abstractions
of Diné creation stories, cosmologies, and social structures. Mace uses a
combination of traditional and nontraditional materials, taking Diné visual culture
and design out of the realm of weaving and into printmaking and photography.
Subverting expectations of Diné designs as utilitarian or decorative objects, Mace
transforms and preserves these traditions while bringing them firmly into the
fine art realm, engaging in an act of cultural reclamation. The abstracted symbol
of Na’ashjéii Asdzáá (Spider Woman) is the most prevalent motif seen in Mace’s
designs and one of the most important deities in the Diné Bahané (creation story)
as she was the first to weave her web of the universe while spreading Hózhó
Náhásdlíí’ (beauty way) teachings of balance within the mind, body, and soul.
Mace affirms the importance of the cultural signifiers while embracing her belief
of hajisí dígíí dahiistłó biihji nilłx (we weave what we see).
FRANCISCO MORA FOX POINT
Travesía en la Panza de un Burro (Voyage in a Donkey’s Belly), 2018 •
Graphite on paper, 12 x 16 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Francisco Mora’s drawings reveal the imaginary world of his dreams. Playing with
scale, he transforms humans into animals and back again, sending his fantastical
characters on journeys through a mysterious jungle. Born and raised in Mexico City,
Mora draws on the visual traditions of Mexican surrealism in which Mexican artists
merged their own histories and folklore with the ideas that had defined surrealism
throughout Europe. The resulting works of art transformed and expanded the
movement through new stylistic innovations and cultural references. Mora’s body
of work catalogues his imagination, in which a giant child, a wizard, a woman
traveling inside of a donkey’s stomach, a fish-man, and a bird-man all intersect
in a visionary, hand-penciled world.
5

STEPHEN PERKINS MADISON
Latin American Art and the Decolonial Turn (1963–2018): Memories of
Underdevelopment Revisited, 2019 • Mixed media printed matter, dimensions
variable • Courtesy of the artist
Stephen Perkins is an avid collector of printed works made by artists from
around the world. He proposes curating as a form of art, choosing a thematic
selection of works from his personal collection and presenting them as a
group in a salon-style display. Using his home as an informal gallery space,
Perkins has organized several installations derived from his archive of
materials, which enables him to re-animate older works within new thematic
contexts. This practice is in keeping with his interest in collecting work by
international artists who operate within alternative artistic milieus and explore
new ways of exhibiting. Much like Perkins challenges the traditional museum
model, the pieces he includes in this installation challenge dominant narratives
about art and culture. They present a counter-narrative to the colonial rhetoric
of development that framed artistic practices and discourses across Latin
America between the early 1960s and the mid-1980s.
JEFFREY REPKO MADISON
Fermata, 2018 • Acrylic, paint, and wood, 60 x 36 x 60 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Jeffrey Repko was born in Pittsburgh right after the fall of the steel industry.
His large-scale sculptures channel the post-industrial narratives of his
hometown to convey notions of assembly and reconstruction. Merging his
interest in machinery with his childhood fascination with plastic toys, Repko
pairs bright colors with modular, building-block forms. In Fermata, Repko uses
the bright pinks, lavenders, and yellows of toys from his childhood to inspire
creative play and youthful optimism.
SUZANNE ROSE FORESTVILLE
45º9'35" N 87º14'10'W" from the series Blind Spot, 2019 • Archival pigment
print, 23 x 34.5 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Suzanne Rose’s Blind Spot series uses photographic techniques and styles directly
influenced by photography of the 19th century by artists like Carleton Watkins
and Timothy H. O’Sullivan, to explore natural landscapes altered by humankind.
Grand, impressive trees cut through with telephone lines, branches shorn off trees,
root systems laid bare are all shown in moonlight, twilight, or the pre-dawn light.
The title of each work in this series is named for the GPS coordinates where the
image was taken, effectively contrasting the modern mapping system with the
19th-century aesthetic Rose embraces. Shaped vignettes are used to detail Rose’s
observations of the rural Midwest that are lushly detailed and rich in contrast.
ANDY RUBIN MADISON
Love in Balance, 2018 • Collage and monotype, 18 x 24 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Andy Rubin’s etchings incorporate the poetic images from La sculpture
grecque au Musée du Louvre, a 1937 art book documenting Greek sculpture
from the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris. In Love in Balance, the
sculpture of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, is depicted alongside
a sculpture that has been masked by a blue monoprint that only reveals the
image through a stack of geological forms. For Rubin, these rock towers
represent our earthly knowledge, an accumulation of facts that build up over
time. Not perfect, nor linear, the information we discover as a society shifts
and is called into question as time passes. What remains is the eternal truth —
the love that unites, repairs, and balances out all the foibles of humankind.
6

DANE SCHUMACHER GREEN BAY
Self-Taught, 2018 • Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Twenty-one-year-old Dane Schumacher insisted on making art before he
even turned two. As he continues into adulthood passionately honing his
innate talent, he simultaneously confronts a chorus of criticism about the
impracticalities of his career choice. The artist fleshes out his anxieties about
his future in each of his immaculately detailed self-portraits. In Self-Taught, he
paints himself donning a smock and a pair of checkered Vans while diligently
drawing pictures with Crayola markers. Having outgrown the childhood art table
where he sits, the artist nevertheless appears happily absorbed in this whimsical
depiction of the childlike imagination and creativity he associates with pursing
an art career. By contrast, Disillusioned presents Schumacher’s hypothetical
portrait of himself with a traditional nine-to-five career: absentmindedly holding
a floppy stuffed animal puppet in one of his heavily veined hands, the artist’s
expression is one of pure disenchantment.
PETER SCHWEI DODGEVILLE
In the Landscape, 2010–2019 • Oil and water interactions, acrylic, pencil, oil,
and colored pencil on canvas, 98 x 100 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Peter Schwei’s monumental canvas overwhelms the senses with its sheer scale,
intricate level of detail, and shifting sense of perspective. In monochromatic
tones of gray, he depicts a forested landscape where trees tower over thick
tangles of underbrush. Rather than creating his composition with brushed
lines, Schwei achieves form, tonal variation, and texture by facilitating chance
interactions between water and oil-based mixtures. Working with a small
section of the unstretched canvas, he pools water onto its surface and then
applies drops of oil paint combined with different liquid agents. The mixture
disperses rapidly, organizing itself into dizzying patterns that dry onto the
canvas as the water evaporates. The result is not only a landscape, but a
physical record of how natural elements in the world interact with one another.
Tying together image and process, Schwei points to the infinite complexity
and profound beauty of the world around us.
ANDERS SHAFER EAU CLAIRE
Childhood of Chaïm Soutine, 2016–2019 • Acrylic on paper, 22 x 29 inches •
Courtesy of the artist
Utilizing the concept of a storyboard, Anders Shafer visually documents the
lives of the artists he admires and those that influence his artistic practice. Artist
and historian, Shafer creates what he calls “immersion” paintings in which he
conducts in-depth research into an artist’s life and then reinterprets the historical
narrative though his own creative vision. In Childhood of Chaïm Soutine, Shafer
paints the famous artist revered for his unique form of Expressionism — one
that served as the precursor to Abstract Expressionism. Shafer’s work not only
harnesses the gestural, individualized style of Soutine, but recounts the incredible
history of the French artist’s life and art.
PRANAV SOOD MADISON
Who is She?, 2018 • Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 48 inches • Courtesy of the artist
and René Heiden
Pranav Sood’s intricate, pattern-heavy paintings draw on the artist’s personal
relationships. Influenced by Indian, Persian, and Egyptian art, Sood emphasizes
the flatness of the canvas while employing bold lines, strong profiles, and
symbolic motifs. The artist also references op art in his work and each of the
figures in his fantastical compositions inhabit a veritable wonderland of vibrant
color, whimsy, and a surreal graphic sense of space. These works tell the story of
a quest for love between a young couple as they embark on the journey toward
adulthood and leave their homes behind. Sood complicates the cultural norms
experienced in his native India, challenging expectations on how love should
be formed and with whom. The vibrating patterns and repetitive geometric
vocabulary of these works investigate visual language across cultures while
addressing the universal quest for love.
7

SPATULA&BARCODE MADISON
Recipe Box, 2019 • Performance and installation, times, dates, and dimensions
variable • Courtesy of the artists
A collaborative duo comprised of artists Laurie Beth Clark and Michael Peterson,
Spatula&Barcode extend artmaking into the realm of daily experience, where
human interactions are themselves the work of art. With the goal of bringing
people together to share stories and spark conversations, their art often takes
the form of food-based events. Recipe Box, their project for the Triennial, is
comprised of hundreds of handwritten index cards that record generations
of their families’ heirloom recipes. Presenting their personal archive of family
recipes, Spatula&Barcode ask us to consider how memory, history, and culture
are both preserved and understood through various foodways. They take this
idea one step further, inviting community members to attend and contribute to
hosted potluck dinners in MMoCA’s lobby — a series of “performances” that aim
to foster human connection through the actual consumption of culture.
SPOOKY BOOBS MADISON
You Have the Right to Remain a .: 8008069 Aggressive, 2018 •
Digital print, 24 x 18 inches • Courtesy of the artists
An artist collective formed by Amy Cannestra, Myszka Lewis, and Maggie
Snyder, SPOOKY BOOBS (SB) is a collaborative effort that uses art, language,
and design to re-appropriate sexist and misogynistic language often leveled
against women. SB uses words that are often deployed as weapons to diminish,
minimize, and shame women, and integrates them into the designs of innocuous
wallpaper, such as in their series, The Patterns’ Vicious Influence. The series
explores how these accusations (bossy, high-maintenance, crazy), oversaturate
our lexicon to the point of becoming unnoticeable. Many of the same words are
used in SB’s series You Have the Right to Remain a , which visualizes how
hostile language is used to actively subjugate those not adhering to patriarchal
language. People are “arrested” for their behavior and given a corresponding
label (aggressive, bossy, frigid), in which SB seeks to validate our behaviors in
spite of these labels.
ARIANA VAETH SHOREWOOD
Midnight Delight, 2018 • Oil on canvas, 48 x 72 inches • Courtesy of the artist
Ariana Vaeth’s large-scale, autobiographical paintings chronicle relationships
in the artist’s life. Capturing seemingly ordinary moments between friends —
watching television, chatting on the couch — Vaeth infuses each snapshot with
a heightened sense of drama. Placing herself within the composition, Vaeth
is able to occupy the dual role of creator and participant, positioned to take
part in the everyday drama of the scene around her. In her work Caitlyn Cold
Day, Vaeth directly stares at the viewer while wearing a t-shirt featuring an
image of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Confronting the audience subverts any
societal expectations of a traditionally demure female subject or her role as an
object to be admired, as in the famous work worn by the artist. Vaeth is able to
seize a feminist perspective on the domestic interior painting, while directing
and capturing our gaze.
LESLIE VANSEN MILWAUKEE
Crwth, 2017 • Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 inches • Courtesy of the artist
The formal elements of color, surface, space, and movement play strongly in Leslie
Vansen’s abstract paintings. Like labyrinthine pathways, layers of swirling and
twisting lines engulf her canvas, hinting at the artist’s interest in the movement
of people through space. However, rather than representing a single moment or
identifiable action, her paintings instead express the accumulation of multiple,
repeated actions across place and time — the residue of human activity on the urban
landscape. This notion is reinforced by her methodical application of paint, which is
itself a study in duration, movement, repetition, and accumulation as she overlaps
and intersperses multiple layers of painted acrylic lines and tape. Although Vansen
looks to her everyday surroundings for inspiration, her paintings are suggestive
rather than illustrative, describing through abstraction the ineffability of time,
memory, and bodily experience.
8

SHANE WALSH MILWAUKEE
Xpressor 3, 2016 • Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 58 inches • Courtesy of the artist
and The Alice Wilds Gallery, Milwaukee and Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York
While large in scale, Shane Walsh’s paintings start out as small-scale collages
constructed from photocopies of various marks and shapes he collects. He
then fastidiously transmits these collaged, transformed images by hand with
acrylic paint onto canvas. Redefining the art historical notion of painterly
abstraction, Walsh paints large scale brushstrokes such that they appear
as if they’ve been carelessly passed through a photocopier — warped and
echoing the familiar visual palette of the Xerox machine. While the viewer
might see large, expressive brushstrokes from afar, up close one sees an
almost digital color field, devoid of any painterly gesture. Walsh subverts our
expectations of what abstraction means and can mean, imbuing modernist
inclinations of the canvas with a contemporary interpretation, and very
deliberately referencing the history of abstraction.
DELLA WELLS MILWAUKEE
My Rainbow Makes Me Dance, 2019 • Collage on paper, 16 x 12 inches •
Courtesy of the artist and Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee
Della Wells employs the medium of collage to construct fractured and
whimsical compositions. Together, her works reveal an imaginary world
she refers to as “Mambo Land,” a dynamic environment which serves as
an arena for women and girls to take control of their own fears. In Haitian
Vodou religion, a Mambo is a female priestess, one who often performs
healing works and guides others throughout complex rituals. Similarly,
in Wells’s collages, women are the predominant figures, presiding over
each scene. In Mambo Land, there is no fixed point of reference; scales
shift, people and animals fly, children rule, monsters thrive, and daily
routines are given a sense of staggering importance. These collages create
a subverted world, utilizing symbolism such as American flags, highway
signs, state buildings, and chickens, to offer a complex commentary on
what it means to be a Black woman in this current political moment.
9

GALLERY TALKS
KIDS’ ART ADVENTURES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 • 6:30–7:30 PM
In Conversation: Chele Isaac and Helen Hawley
Together, Chele Isaac and Helen Hawley will examine their
individual approach to making their video installations and
describe their conceptual underpinnings, such as
phenomena and rhythms of nature.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7 • 1–1:45 PM
Stephen Perkins on Latin American Art and
the Decolonial Turn
Stephen Perkins will discuss his installation which is a
response to an exhibition he visited at the Museo Jumex in
Mexico City in 2018 made from materials from his archive,
coupled with works by Latin American artists.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6 • 6:30–7:30 PM
In Conversation: Tomiko Jones and Tom Jones
In this joint gallery talk, Tomiko Jones and Tom Jones
will discuss how they each extend the boundaries of
photography to explore identity, tradition, and
intergenerational understanding.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10 • 1–2:30 PM
Enjoy a variety of artwork that highlights the natural
landscapes of our world. Use printmaking techniques
to create a postcard celebrating your favorite
aspects of nature.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8 • 1–2:30 PM
Let the exciting paintings that show interwoven
colors and shapes spark your imagination and make
your own woven paper collage.
MMoCAKIDS ARTPACK
Stop by the museum’s lobby welcome desk and ask
for the MMoCAkids ArtPack, the museum’s hands-on
discovery kit for exploring art throughout the museum,
which includes a special take-home activity developed
for the Wisconsin Triennial.
DROP-IN TOURS
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 • 1–1:30 PM
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14 • 1–1:30 PM
10

MMo CA BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Officers
Trustees
Larry Frank
Dave Orr
Marc Vitale, President
Shiva Bidar
Sara Guyer
Amy Paulios
Vikki Enright, Vice-President
Marian Bolz, Life Trustee
Cedric Johnson
Rick Phelps
Bret Newcomb, Vice-President
Leslie Smith III, Vice-President
Charlotte Cummins, Secretary
Dynee Sheafor, Treasurer
Bryan Chan
Karen Christianson
Jennifer DeMain
Jim Escalante
Dave Franchino
Valerie Kazamias,
Life Trustee and Chair,
The Langer Society
Jason Knutson
Oscar Mireles
Eric Plautz
Jennifer Ridley-Hanson
John Ronzia
John Sims
QuHarrison Terry
MMo CA STAFF
Administrative Department
Stephen Fleischman, the Gabriele
Haberland Director
Michael Paggie, Business Manager
Judy Schwickerath, Accountant
Curatorial Department
Mel Becker Solomon, Curator of the
Collection
Leah Kolb, Curator of Exhibitions
Marilyn L.M. Sohi, Head Registrar,
Permanent Collection
Carol Chapin, Collection Database and
Image Production Manager
Stephanie Zech, Associate Registrar
Doug Fath, Preparator
Elizabeth Anderson, Assistant Curator
Installations and Facilities Department
Brian Bartlett, Director of Installations
and Facilities
Bruce Crownover, Installations and
Facilities Associate
Sarah Stankey, Assistant Preparator/
Photographer
Operations Department
Bob Sylvester, Director of Public
Operations
Jason Bank, Public Operations Manager
Museum Store
Leslie Genszler, Director of Retail
Operations
Laurie Stacy, Manager
Education Department
Sheri Castelnuovo, Curator of Education
Kelsey Knutsen, Education Associate
Janet Laube, Education Associate
Simone Doing, Education Assistant
Development Department
Elizabeth Tucker, Grant Writer
Annik Dupaty, Director of Events
and Volunteer
Kaitlin Kropp, Development Officer
Amy Lambright Murphy, Events and
Volunteers Assistant
Bob Sylvester, Private Events and
Wedding Rentals
Betsy Wyns, Development Associate
Communications Department
Erika Monroe-Kane, Director of Strategic
Communications and Engagement
Charlotte Easterling, Head of
Graphic Design
11
TO LEARN MORE VISIT MMOCA.ORG/2019-WISCONSIN-TRIENNIAL

Generous support for the 2019 Wisconsin
Triennial has been provided by Ellen Rosner and
Paul J. Reckwerdt; Nancy Mohs; the Steinhauer
Charitable Trust; University Research Park; Katie
Howarth Ryan; JoAnne Robbins and David Falk;
Nancy Doll and Michael Bernhard; Karen and
Craig Christianson; Darcy Kind and Marc Vitale;
Dynee and Barney Sheafor; Lynda and Charles
Clark; BDO USA, LLP; an anonymous donor;
Dane County Arts with additional funds from
the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, the Evjue
Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of the Capital
Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation,
and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation; and a
grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds
from the State of Wisconsin and the National
Endowment for the Arts. Design support is
provided by Hiebing.

227 STATE STREET, MADISON, WI
TO LEARN MORE VISIT MMOCA.ORG/2019-WISCONSIN-TRIENNIAL
OR CALL 608.257.0158