Añamarié America Edwards, Warren King

media release: From October 31, 2025 through January 11, 2026, the James Watrous Gallery will feature two concurrent solo exhibitions by artists Añamarié Edwards (Milwaukee) and Warren King (Milwaukee-New York) steeped in themes of home, family, joy, identity, healing, migration, and community.  

Join Añamarié Edwards, Warren King, and Wisconsin Academy staff to celebrate the opening of The Home of Joy and Homecoming at the James Watrous Gallery on November 15 from 5:30-7:30 pm. Remarks begin at 6:00 pm. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments served. 

Regular gallery hours are non-5 pm Thursday-Sunday. Closed on Thanksgiving and December 25 - January 1. 

What does healing through joy look like for Black and Brown communities? 

With her exhibition The Home Of Joy, Añamarié Edwards seeks to create welcoming, vibrant spaces for Black and Brown communities to facilitate healing through joy. She creates artwork to invite opinions, conversation, celebration, and open-ended expression. Raised in Alabama, Edwards' brilliantly colored paintings and mixed-media sculpture embody her experience as an Afro-Latin woman in America. For this exhibition, she is collaborating with fellow artist, Nazir Freeman to create an immersive experience that incorporates fashion design alongside her own creations. 

Añamarié Edwards' interdisciplinary arts practice is driven by a desire to represent the complexity of the Black American experience. She received a B.F.A. from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and a Certificate in Studio Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Edwards lives and works in Milwaukee.

What does healing through joy look like for Black and Brown communities? 

In his exhibition Homecoming, Warren King explores his family’s origins in Shaoxing, China and their journey to the suburbs of Wisconsin, while seeking to understand this background in light of his own Western upbringing. King masterfully transforms cardboard into life-size figures and wall pieces that recall traditional lacquerware and woodcarving. His sophisticated sculptures often combine thematic and aesthetic elements from Chinese and Western traditions. 

Warren King is an artist known for his sculptures made from corrugated cardboard.

Raised in Wisconsin and currently based in New York City, he explores cultural roots and the connections that shape communities. He has exhibited internationally and is a recipient of the National Sculpture Society’s Alex J. Ettl Grant and the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship.