Gallery Night Milwaukee: Green Gallery, Patricia Terry, Berkeley and other splashes

The winter edition of Gallery Night in Milwaukee took place Friday and Saturday this past weekend. I took the A.V. Club's lead on a couple of art exploits seen on Friday night, but ended up off the the trod path and left one destination on my to do list.

The Green Gallery is somewhere I've wanted to check out for a while. I heard of this space a couple of years ago, recognizing the name of creative mind Michelle Grabner in a promotional piece for the Green Gallery's second installation Silverpoint Drawings with Guest Mobile. Keeping with Milwaukee's good fortune, several classes of privileged but angsty local teenagers (myself included, more angsty than privileged), among others I'm sure, felt edified by her instruction and her work.

A Person of Color: a mostly orange exhibition is currently on display at the Green Gallery. It features a host of artists, mostly spry, hip, and trained with their works of mixed mediums staking out floor space and wall art hung low to make you exert some effort to take a gander. Aggressively, which I guess reflects the color swatches of orange employed here, several of the current pieces take deliberate stabs at your sensibilities in overtly self-indulgent to fast approaching borderline cliche ways (making it quite possible that cliche is the new cool this spring).

At Cuvee Black Art made a seldom witnessed mainstream appearance in Milwaukee, expressed through several collages, paintings, and illustrations authored by Evelyn Patricia Terry, a founder of Milwaukee's art presence. Best known for her paintings and printmaking, Terry's Gallery Night work included a series of illustrations carrying wisdom laden captions. Words offered ranged from the philosophical "Opposites attract, but likes stay together" to the practical "I have much work to do". The didactic intent of the Black Arts legacy resonated the gathering.

Art showed up in musical form at Bayview's Sugar Maple as the cooperative Milwaukee Area Composers and Artists (MAC&A) filled the sound stage with a couple Master's thesis jazz compositions featuring brass favorites tenor and baritone saxophone, trumpet, and lesser seen instrument the marimba. Instigated by local musician Steve Gallum, the set featured work by composition peers Blake Manning, and Mike Neumeyer. Ears out for these guys. Their scoring of original works with pen on parchment tinted paper and impromptu is well done; neither often shared with the public in an informal setting, both suitably hosted by Sugar Maple's indy jazz inspired confines.

Speaking of jazz, a free benefit (donations accepted) for the legendary Berkeley Fudge will take place at 7:30p this Friday January 28, 2011, at The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. Berkeley recently suffered a health setback and the arts community is doing their part to recognize his contributions to the Milwaukee scene. Berkeley resident musician at the Jazz Estate, he was on the bill in the summer 2009 and I missed him unfortunately.

I missed out on Studio 420b exhibitions that featured artists Leslie Peckham, Lindsey Marx, Steven Ruiz, Fred Kames and several others. Judging from previous work, this camp of artist should also be added to your watch list.

Gallery Night in Milwaukee comes around again with spring this time, April 15 and 16th 2011.

Gallery Night Milwaukee: Endangered Concern

All around Milwaukee you can see physical changes taking place, clean-cut mixed-use developments, fragrant plantings in the boulevards. The streets are even getting paved after ten years of neglect. Some of that same rejuvenating energy is being released on the social scene too. Gallery Night is not a new invention and it's nice to see creative outlets taking root in Milwaukee.

One of my favorite displays of the night hung not from a wall of Art Asia, but from the shoulder of a stern-looking fellow who looked like a typical renegade with a Harley parked outside. Stereotypes in place, alligator would be expected to cover his feet. Instead one rested gently cradled on his forearm and bicep. Everyone has to have a cause.

The caretaker of the endangered Chinese Alligator had the kind of leeriness emitting from those that think satellite surveillance is being taken of them. Apparently he has been battling the animal rights activist, the extreme ones that do not believe anyone should own pets (especially if they are alligators). Those pretentious fun-suckers! Personally, I am all for docile 45 lbs, 18 year old alligators chilling on Gallery Night with their masters. Wait a minute... this must be one of only several handfuls of Chinese alligators left on the planet.

Everything was red. Not Commy red but deep visceral blood red. This relic of a beast fit in perfectly with the ambiance of Art Asia, a trading post of Chinese gifts, furniture, and artifacts. Minus the crowd hovering around reptilian and owner, you may not have noticed the gator's presence. It was a serene creature, an expression opposite to the one given by the typical bewitching "alligator smile". The constant glance of this creature lacked menace unlike its relatives, looking almost relieved to feel protected by and outside force other than it's own wild instinct. I am usually harsh on exotic animal owners, but I think I can let this one slide. My super-cool friend Miranda and I both ended up donating 5 bucks to the cause.

Gallery Night is a quarterly event, which I think would make the next one scheduled for late November.