Brandon Bauer, Still from Anthropogenic Landscape (Fire and Ice), 2019, Two-channel film
Fragments of the Acceleration–A Project by Brandon Bauer
Jan. 27 – Feb. 21, Baer and Godschalx Galleries
This exhibition explores the atomic origins of what has been referred to as the Great Acceleration of the Anthropocene and the urgency of the climate crisis. The work was created during the artist’s 2019 sabbatical.
Related events:
Consensus, Civility, and Polarization in the Climate Change Debate, Thursday, Feb. 6, 5-6 p.m., Bush Art Center 130
The 2019-20 Killeen Fellows, Brandon Bauer, Angel Saavedra Cisneros, & Wendy Scattergood, offer a presentation addressing this year’s Killeen Lecture theme “Must We Speak? Civic Responsibility in Times of Polarization”. The presentation will address the scientific consensus, civility, and political polarization in the debates about climate change.
Reception to follow the panel discussion, Feb. 6, 6-7:30 p.m., Bush Art Center Galleries
Negotiating Space: Recent paintings by Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau
March 2 – April 1, Baer Gallery
Reception: Friday, Feb. 28, 5-7 p.m.
Featuring recent paintings by Wisconsin artists Ginnie Cappaert and Marjorie Mau. Both artists employ the use of cold wax as they explore abstraction and landscape in their paintings.
(Re)Fashioned
March 2- April 1, Godschalx Gallery
This exhibition explores solutions to the fast fashion crisis, as envisioned by the students participating in (Re)Fashion, an Honors Tutorial.
Senior Art Exhibition
April 14 – May 8, Bush Art Center Galleries
Reception, Friday, April 17, 5-7 p.m.
The Senior Art Exhibition is the capstone experience for all St. Norbert College art majors.
October and November saw much good art in the Art Galleries. Material Worlds was featured in the Baer Gallery in October and filled with still life paintings by Cassie Marie Edwards and ceramic sculptures by Craig Clifford.
Material Worlds, Baer Gallery Material Worlds, Baer Gallery
The Godschalx Gallery featured the exhibition, Plywood by Post. Project organizer, Katie Ries, Associate Professor of Art, St. Norbert College, invited artists to join her in a collaborative mail art project. The artists shipped thin pieces of birch plywood to each other, once a month, adding to each panel when it was in their possession.
Plywood by Post, Godschalx Gallery
The 2019 Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition was featured in the Baer Gallery in November. The exhibition included works by seventeen current St. Norbert College students. Awards were juried by curator, artist, and owner of the James May Gallery, Kendra Bulgrin. This year’s winners were: 1st Place, Hailey Buss, for the painting Celebration, 2nd Place, Megan Huth for the sculpture, Jumbo Avo, and 3rd Place, Bridget Van Beckum for the pattern design, Mallard Ducks. Honorable Mention Awards went to Hailey Bush for Freshwater Fish of North America, Rhiannon Cooper for Great Grandmother, and Noah Fidlin for Birdhouse.
Baer Gallery, 2019 Juried Student Art Exhibition
Also on exhibit in October was 6×880=One, a collaborative project by students in Art 389, Aesthetic Rites and Rituals, taught by Fr. James Neilson. Each student created a piece that in length is one sixth of a mile, collectively making the work in the gallery one mile long.
6 x 880 = ONE, Godschalx Gallery
There are still a few days to catch the November exhibitions, which run through Friday, Dec. 6.
All current SNC students are invited to enter the 2019-20 Juried Student Art Exhibition. The deadline for entries is October 7, 2019. Please see the entry form below for further information. Best of luck!
In the Bush Art Center, we’ve opened the year with two exciting exhibitions. Why We Collect, in the Baer and Permanent Collection Galleries, features work from the St. Norbert College Art Collection as well as the chance for visitors to purchase art out of the Art for All vending machine. April Beiswenger: “In collateral light must I be comforted”, in the Godschalx Gallery, navigates the intersection between clothing, technology, and the art of perception. Both exhibitions run through September 21, 2019.
Godschalx Gallery, April Beiswenger Exhibition,
Work by artist Jean Stamsta that was gifted to the art collection at St. Norbert College by Jean and Duane Stamsta and Kohler Foundation, Inc., in the Why We Collect exhibition.
A vending machine full of art curated by Katie Ries. Everything is for sale for $5 or less.
A vending machine full of stickers featuring awesome women. Curated by April Beiswenger and located in the Bush Art Center lobby.
Welcome to our 2019-20 season! We’re kicking off the year with a celebration of creative work on campus. Why We Collect, in the Baer and Permanent Collection galleries, features work from the St. Norbert College Permanent Collection. After taking a look at some of the works collected by St. Norbert College, you’ll have the opportunity to add to, or start, your own collection with a purchase from the Art for All vending machine. The vending machine, curated by Katie Ries, Associate Professor of Art at St. Norbert College, offers the opportunity to purchase art for $5 or less.
The Godschalx Gallery features April Beiswenger:“In collateral light must I be comforted”, an exhibition that navigates the intersection between clothing, technology, and the art of perception. April Beiswenger is Associate Professor of Theatre at St. Norbert College.
During these exhibitions, which run from August 26 – Sept. 21, we encourage visitors to enjoy a self-directed exercise in Slow Looking. A guide to this practice will be available in the gallery. Also, join us for fun activities in the Bush Art Center during the campus-wide SNC Day event on Sept. 21, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
The 2019 Senior Art Exhibition boasts the work from seventeen graduating studio art and graphic design major seniors, featuring mediums such as printmaking, packaging design, short film, oil painting, and sculpture, just to name a few. Up now until May 3, 2019 in the Bush Art Center Galleries you can come see the ultimate works of:
Julia Allen
Emerson Bartch
Sarah Chojnacki
Carla Davila
Joseph Donohue
Madeline Gassner
Jennifer Han
El Hein
Katie Hopkins
Sam Kalies
Lindsay Kropp
Emma May
Kayla Mitchell
Cate O’Brien
Morgan Pennings
Nicolette Sylvain
Elizabeth Schaal
Artist statements explaining the artists’ work and visions are provided by each artist and are available for viewing in a binder found inside the doors of the Baer Gallery. Come celebrate the hard work of the graduating art class of 2019 while you can!
Sandra Martinez is a symbolist painter based in Door County, WI. Martinez renders contemporary works on paper, vellum and other materials that reference human, plant, and shelter forms. As part of Martinez Studio, she was recently awarded a prestigious USA Artists Fellowship. Her work has been exhibited at many institutions, including the Smithsonian Craft Show and the Museum of Wisconsin Art.
Martinez’s exhibition, Between the Lines, displayed in the Baer Gallery, is a mixture of paper sculptures and wall hangings, paintings, and woven rugs. Her bold sense of shape and design transports the viewer into entirely new physical and mental spaces: a feat well worth the time to come and experience. Come see her work before it moves on!
Martinez will also be giving an Artist’s Talk in the Bush Art Center on Friday, March 1 from 12-1p.m. Refreshments will not be served, so feel free to bring your lunch while listening and learning something new.
Details on this exhibition’s reception can be found at the bottom of this post.
Recently returned from a fall semester sabbatical, Brian Pirman, Associate Professor of Art at the BAC, has taken over the Godschalx gallery with an explosion of color and pattern. From wall to wall and floor to ceiling, Pirman’s Experiemental Digital Patterns is a visually kinetic space that refuses to be ignored. Don’t miss your chance to experience this show and be struck with wonder.
A reception for both shows will take place on Thursday, February 28 from 5-7p.m. in the Bush Art Center lobby. Both Martinez and Pirman will be in attendance, and light refreshments will be served.
This past Thursday, November 15 marked the 2018-2019 Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition Awards Reception. Students, both art majors and non-majors, put out a strong showing for this year’s exhibition, creating a monumental task for awards judge Dr. Carol Bruess.
Dr. Bruess is an alumna of the St. Norbert College Art Program and received her M.A. and Ph.D from Ohio University’s School of Interpersonal Communication. She is the author of numerous books spanning topics of family relationships, marital relationships, and communication in the digital age. Dr. Bruess remains an active supporter of the arts and was a jovial and inspirational presence for the students at last week’s event.
The awards shook out as follows:
Honorable Mentions:
Morgan Pennings, A Day in the Life, Short film
Lukas Thornton, Dysphoric, Watercolor on paper
Emerson Bartch, Flesh Eater, Wax, soil and wood
Third Place:
Katie Hopkins, Communio, Screen print on paper
Second Place:
Elizabeth Hein, Reliance, Screen print on paper
First Place:
Devin Morrisroe, Eavesdropping, Charcoal on paper
To see even more of the artwork in this exhibition, come visit the gallery when its regular hours resume after Thanksgiving Break: MTWF from 9am-3pm, and Th from 9am-7pm. The show is up until December 7.
The Needle has Moved: A Retrospective Exhibition Celebrating the Fifty-Year Career of Tattoo Artist Rick Harnowski is the most recent installment at the Bush Art Center Galleries of exhibitions that have generated physically palpable and widespread excitement across the campus community as well as the greater Green Bay community.
Spreading across all three gallery spaces at the BAC, The Needle Has Moved is a visual, auditory, and tactile experience that refuses to be contained by any single medium. The show is about tattoo artist Rick Harnowski and while the walls are plastered with photographs of his tattoo work, it is so much more than that. The show a wunderkammer of memorabilia from Harnowski’s life. With examples of his painting, drawing, graphic design, photos from his childhood, news clippings, an actual motorcycle, and reflections on his immigration from Poland at a young age, this show is a study of Rick Harnowski himself.
In hopes of diving behind the scenes of The Needle Has Moved, I was lucky enough to be able to sit down with the curators of the show themselves—Brian Pirman and James Neilson—and discuss the workings of the show, and find out just what makes this show tick.
From left to right: Brian Pirman, Rick Harnowski, and James Neilson
Katie Hopkins: Curating a retrospective exhibition for Green Bay tattoo artist Rick Harnowski is no small feat when considering his accomplishments, but for those who don’t know, what has made Harnowski so monumental in the tattoo scene that raises him above and beyond other artists?
Fr. James Neilson: Well the staying power, having a career of fifty years has its merits of course, but Rick was so instrumental in recognizing the need for reform in the industry. He appealed to government agencies and the state itself to have higher standards of excellence for the safety of the clients as well as for the practitioners of this artform.
Brian Pirman: Another part of the equation [in curating this exhibition] is his son Josh, who Rick shares the studio with. Basically Rick has a chair, and just down the way Josh has a chair. Josh went here to St. Norbert, studied art, graduated in 2007, and he’s become part of the equation over at Tattoos by Rick. Knowing Josh, is how we got to know his dad. We actually took a couple of Art Thursday* field trips out there and that started the beginning of this relationship. But to Jim’s point, you know, working with local government to make sure that it’s safe, he won’t tattoo anyone that’s underage, and there are certain tattoos that he refuses to do. He has these ethics that apply to hygiene as well as symbols and concepts.
*Art Thursday is educational programming put on for the Art majors and minors here at SNC.
KH: Looking at Harnowski’s work, the artistry, care, and technique behind each piece, it’s not hard to see why you’ve decided to dedicate an entire show to his career, but tattoos—no matter the quality—are often met with social prejudice based on appearance and assumed personality traits.
What do you hope the response to this show will be based on the marriage between the subject matter and the formal gallery setting?
JN: I hope there’s a greater consideration for the history of this artform by having it here. I’m actually offering a tutorial to twenty honors students in conjunction with this, so we actually have an embedded educational experience. After twenty five years in the art department, I’ve noticed a shift among the students who have ink. A greater number of students today have ink than they did fifteen years ago, so we want to of course recognize and acknowledge this. We want to think deeply together about what’s going on here. I think the personal narrative of tattooing is always fascinating and the ink wants to speak. These images want to speak and so this is about a dialogue, this is about a huge conversation across campus, within the local community and this is a world phenomenon as well. It’s hardly isolated right here, but we have one of our own who has dedicated his life and has passed his skills onto the next generation and that’s worthy of celebrating.
BP: Speaking more to this sea change within the last ten to fifteen years, there’s been a shift when it comes to people acknowledging, appreciating, and getting tattoos. It used to be the biker who would get the Harley logo, or the sailor who would get the anchor, and its really evolved into something much more. Tattooing has gone from pieces of spot art or line art, like an anchor or a ladybug, something that’s high contrast, to highly illustrative pieces and Rick and Josh both have embraced that. And in some regards I think that they’re the best there is in terms of the quality of the work they do. I think the main thing is that there’s that sea change. Now as far as what’s caused it, personally I think it’s professional athletes. Dennis Rodman, twenty years ago, had tattoos all over his body and many people thought he was strange or a freak, but more and more athletes started getting tattoos and I think it eventually meshed itself into the culture of who we are.
I had the pleasure of meeting Rick when the exhibition was getting its dress rehearsal check, and he was nice enough to let me take his photograph.
KH: Since I have two art professors here to speak to my next query, I want to ask about tattoos from an art history perspective. Tattooing has been around for centuries, and anything that’s survived that long, albeit undergoing transformations, has to have inherent value. What is it about marking our bodies that speaks to us on such a basic level that it has allowed this art form to endure for so long?
BP: I’ll let Jim answer that one—how long have tattoos been going on?
JN: Oh, some say prehistoric times. We can find the evidence with mummified figures. This is ancient. This is a way we understand who we are. It’s as much about memory as it is communicating correctly and mysteriously with others. It’s all part of the whole notion of how we reveal ourselves. Tattoos can be rewards, our own specialized memories, or so many other things. We reveal ourselves through mystery, memory and symbols.
KH: Besides simply coming and enjoying the exhibition as a viewer, are there other opportunities for community members to get involved with The Needle Has Moved?
JN: We’re going to be having live tattooing in here so people can observe how this looks and sounds, and see the process of the artist himself at work. We’ll be teaching the students how to use the tattoo guns, under the supervision of Josh Harnowski, a tattoo artist himself. They will be working on prosthetic skin, learning the basics as Josh learned from his father, which I think he learned on grapefruits maybe.
*Interested parties can keep an eye out for information on these special events through the BAC Galleries Blog, the Gallery website, the SNC Art Facebook and Instagram pages, and SNC News.
KH: Any parting thoughts or tidbits about the show you would like to pass along to the readers?
JN: There is no typical type of tattoo, there’s a huge variety and we hope that the show reveals this. Tattooing has evolved—what was popular in the 50’s or even the 90’s is no longer popular now. It’s a response to the sign of the times and I’m very very curious with new technologies and new ways of thinking to see how this will be understood, received, and inked into the future.
BP: I think the biggest part of this is just to acknowledge Rick Harnowski and his involvement in the community in terms of making tattoos a respected art that follows good hygiene. Rick puts on an international tattoo show every year, but he’s kind of a quiet guy and not much of a self promoter, so I think it takes others like Jim and I to basically get him out front and center to the local population. And from what I understand there’s going to be people visiting this show and reception from not only the United States, but from France and Germany as well. So the reception, I think, is going to be a big to-do and it’s all about paying respect to Rick.
End.
Rick interacting with the timeline of his life located in the Permanent Collection Gallery.
To see this exhibition for yourself come stop by during the gallery’s regular hours, MTWF, 9am-3pm, and Th 9am-7pm. Keep an eye out on all SNC Art media avenues for information on extra events in conjunction with this show and make sure to attend the gallery reception on Thursday, October 11 from 5-7pm.