Steven Potter
Jason Levy, left, and Jake Furnald: ‘Making it up as we go along.’
If you travel along East Washington Avenue, you’ve probably noticed the big blue building with the phrase “Word is Bond” painted on the north side, facing East High School. And if you peek in the window, you might see art mounted on the one wall you can see. Another window is covered with paper, hand lettered with the words American Feral Gallery.
Jason Levy says the American Feral Gallery — and its name — is loosely based on two principles.
He and co-founder Jake Furnald “curate the people, not the artwork. Every artist is invited to put up whatever they’d like,” he says. “It can be sculpture, photography, painting, whatever. These are folks who will be making art whether they have a show coming up or not. We interrupt their creative cycle every once in a while and give them some space on the wall so other people can see their work.”
The second principle is that “we don’t know how to do a gallery. We don’t know how they make money. We’re making it up as we go along.” So far, this free-flowing arrangement has led to a fair amount of growth and success. After taking a couple of years off during the pandemic, the gallery, at 2150 E. Washington Ave., held its seventh public event in May to coincide with the MMoCA’s Gallery Night.
Held on the first floor of Furnald’s workshop, this spring’s exhibition included more than two dozen individual artists and collectives specializing in a variety of styles and mediums.
When it’s not an art gallery, Furnald, who lives upstairs, uses the former construction storage warehouse to create unique contraptions such as a three-wheeled car-boat.
Levy, who is also an artist, says that art can be viewed by appointment by messaging through the gallery’s Facebook page, “should anyone have interest in the building and Jake’s sculptures. I tend to leave my art up as well.” The two are working with a local print collective on a show, too, with dates yet to be confirmed
Local artists exhibiting their work at the gallery have included old-school tintype photography from Eric Baillies, vivid portraits by Philip Salamone, colorful and abstract masks from Karolina Romanowska, realistic watercolors from Ced Ba’etch’ and the highly-detailed wood-burned illustrations of animals, fungi and other items by Owen Tuohy.
Levy and Furnald occasionally contribute to the AFG shows. This year, Furnald displayed a detailed drawing that envisioned an expansion of Dr. Evermor’s “Forevertron” sculpture. Furnald worked closely with Evermor for over a decade to imagine and design an addition to the sculptor’s famous Sauk County installation. A painter, Levy presented a few of his capricious, cartoon-esque works.
Galleries can feel “really sterile,” says Furnald. “I don’t like when paintings are separated by big distances.” So, American Feral packs the art pieces closer together, creating interesting juxtapositions. “To me, having the pieces so close to each other is more exciting. The differences really stand out.”
American Feral began in 2017 when the impending demolition of Winnebago Studios left a void for artists, not only in terms of having a place to create and show their work but also to interact with fellow artists.
Levy sees an increase in professionalism among the artists they feature. “Artists are now showing up with their work framed, with QR codes and with artist statements. They’ve raised the bar every time we’ve had a show. And that’s an important aspect of community that I don’t think you’d get if you’re working alone.”
Equal representation among women, artists of different ages and backgrounds, and artistic media is important to them. Beyond that, the two are open to taking American Feral Gallery to a new level.“We have some people interested in expanding to digital media stuff. We’ve imagined a permanent gallery,” says Levy. “What it can be is really going to be up to the art community. But it will continue to be an artist-founded gallery for artists by artists.”
