Alison Gates, Colin Matthes reception

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Alison Gates/courtesy Watrous Gallery

Alison Gates, "Vanitas," 2021.

Alison Gates, "Vanitas," 2021.

Paired solo exhibitions take up the Watrous Gallery through mid-July. Appleton fiber artist Alison Gates' “Points of Departure” incorporates traditional craft like knitting and embroidery to explore issues of current interest, from gender identity to climate change. In Milwaukee's Colin Matthes “The Days Go By Like Wildness,” quirky drawings from his “how-to” depictions of survival skills are joined with his unfettered new work. Gallery hours are noon-6 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, and noon-5 p.m. Sunday; an opening reception takes place from 6:30-8 p.m., April 28.

media release: Alison Gates: Points of Departure;and Colin Matthes: The Days Go By Like Wildness; paired solo exhibitions. On View: April 28 to July 23, 2023. Artists' Reception: Friday, April 28, 6:30-8:00 pm.

Upcoming solo exhibitions feature textiles by Alison Gates (Appleton) and drawings by Colin Matthes (Milwaukee), two artists who apply humor and wit to subjects as serious as survival skills and global warming.

"Colin Matthes' lively, direct drawing style reflects his improvisational, stream of consciousness approach. He combines hand-lettering and simple, vivid images that convey an urgent, unfiltered desire to communicate," according to Watrous Gallery Director Jody Clowes. "In contrast, Alison Gates uses traditional knitting patterns and clean, precise embroidery stitches to share mordant observations about communication, surface design, gender roles, and climate change."

Admission is free and the public is welcome. The James Watrous Gallery is located on the third floor of Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison. These exhibitions are made possible in part by a grant from Dane Arts.

The James Watrous Gallery is dedicated to celebrating Wisconsin artists. A program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, the Watrous Gallery focuses on solo exhibits by contemporary Wisconsin artists and curated shows that reflect the Wisconsin Academy's interest in drawing connections between art and other disciplines.

Colin Matthes: The Days Go By Like Wildness: Growing up in a remote rural area, Colin Matthes learned to be resourceful, working with whatever was at hand. In 2011, while living on Ireland’s desolate west coast, he began a project of cataloguing the skills and information he’d need to survive without outside help. This was the inspiration for Matthes' ongoing series of “Essential Knowledge” drawings, which cover everything from surviving grizzly attacks and escaping a riptide to reading body language and the safe way to move a heavy object.

More recently Matthes has been drawing without a fixed agenda, using the quiet hours after his children’s bedtime to let pencil or brush roam freely with his imagination. With this unfettered approach, Matthes says (in his young daughter’s words), “the days go by like wildness.”

Alison Gates: Points of Departure: Alison Gates works primarily in textiles, using knitting and embroidery to explore issues of gender, climate change, and the way language and cultural traditions shift over time and in different contexts. Adding subtly embroidered words to printed textiles, she creates a quiet disturbance, a whisper of new meaning that shifts the pattern in unexpected directions. This exhibition will also include her Global Warming series of wool bikinis, hand-knitted in traditional patterns from northern Europe. These beautifully made bikinis use humor to raise a serious question. As the climate warms, what will happen to these northern knitting traditions, which are such important markers of cultural identity? Will they disappear like other traditions and skills that no longer suit the local climate, or evolve to suit changing conditions?