PAST EXHIBITIONS
Michelangelo of the Menagerie: Barye Bronzes from the Charles Allis Art Collection
September 28 – January 16th
Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875) was a French sculptor made famous by his bronzes of animals. He was called The Michelangelo of the Menagerie by the influential art critic Théophile Gautier. The Allis has a large collection of Barye bronzes that have received little recognition and the exhibition is an opportunity to view the Allis collection in a new context.
The Charles Allis: 100
Years
February 4 - November 13,
2011
Baylor, Forumla
The Charles Allis: 100 Years features dynamic, multi-sensory installations that invite the viewer to experience the Charles Allis Mansion as never before. Created by six Wisconsin artists, the exhibition is part celebration of the Mansion’s Centennial and part re-interpretation of the collection, the history of the building, and the space within.
Carol Emmons layers historic imagery with contemporary objects, blurring the concepts of value and “taste” in the Marble Hall. Gary Gresl juxtaposes rough hewn beams and farm equipment against the refined surrounding of the Library while Ashley Morgan’s treatment of the dining room portrays a space devoid of function, haunted by former events. Reggie Baylor examines Milwaukee’s industrial and social history, transforming the sitting room with visual symbols taken from the language of statistics. Martha Glowacki and Alexander Boyes’ collaboration interprets Charles Allis’ bedroom as a place where the dream to collect and possess objects intermingles with the hum of manufacturing.
Artists:
Reginald Baylor
Carol
Emmons
Gary
Gresl
Martha Glowacki
Alexander Boyes
Ashley Morgan
Gallery
Guide Click Here
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Review by Graeme Ried Click Here
Emmons, Alembic
Wisconsin Masters: Bruno Ertz
October 13, 2010 - January 9, 2011
Born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1873 Bruno Ertz was celebrated as a self-taught artistic prodigy. Early on he focused on delicate, hyper-realistic images of insects and birds, drawing on the great American tradition of naturalist painters. Ertz was part of the flourishing artistic community that developed in Milwaukee in the last two decades of the 19th century. Through his friendship with Frank H. Bresler, of the Bresler Gallery, his work became part of the major art collections in the city of Milwaukee.
The exhibition is part of the annual Wisconsin Masters series which focuses on the work of a Wisconsin artist who made a significant contribution to the artistic heritage of the state.
Sponsored by: West Bend Mutual Insurance
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New Media at the Charles Allis
June 2 - September 15, 2010
What is new about new media? Artists James Barany, Jill Casid, Sabine Gruffat, Stephen Hilyard and Chele Isaac approach this question by exploring the interplay between “new” and “old” media forms, adapting established and emerging technologies for artistic inspiration against the historic backdrop of the Charles Allis Art Museum.
James Barany provides a stereoscope for viewing his video projections – the nineteenth century viewing device completes the doubled digital image in the viewer’s mind. Jill Casid uses an iPhone application titled “Shake It” to display polaroid photographs on iPod Touch. Her images from Parisian street scenes are richly reflective and refer to photography’s earlier histories, including photographs of Paris by Eugene Atget. Stephen Hilyard creates beautiful high-definition animation that takes the viewer inside the painted landscape of a decorative serving plate. Sabine Gruffat’s videos combine archival footage with the artist’s own investigations of industrial and natural landscapes to ask about the role that media plays in our access to history and memory. Chele Isaac returns to the final decades of the twentieth-century to follow a late Victorian figure, dressed in neoprene, through a series of settings that now include Mr. Allis’ bedroom.
New Media at the Charles Allis is co-curated by Martha Monroe, Curator at the Charles Allis and Villa Terrace Art Museums, and Amy Powell, Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Art History at UW-Madison and 2010-2011 Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellow at the National Museum of African Art.
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FORWARD: A SURVEY OF WISCONSIN ART NOW
February 24th - May 19th, 2010
Gallery Night Reception (Free Admission)
Friday, April 16, 2010
5:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Gallery Talk: 6:00 p.m.
Linda Wervey-Vitamvas, Forward exhibition Grand Prize Winner
Wisconsin ceramicist, Linda Wervey-Vitamvas whose work deals with the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between the body and medical instrumentation, physical invasion and scientific ideology, will discuss her works “Sexual Politics” and “Troutula of Salerno" at 6:00 p.m. on Gallery Night.
The Charles Allis Art Museum is a vibrant urban center that still houses the original Allis collection and works to strengthen and support the Milwaukee community by elevating the visibility and prestige of Wisconsin's art and artists. This juried exhibition features the work of Wisconsin artists created within the last two years.
