Arts + Literature Laboratory exhibits

media release: On view from Tuesday, March 18 to Saturday, April 12, 2025. A reception for current exhibitions will be held Friday, April 4, 2025, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am to 5:00pm; Saturday 12:00pm to 5:00pm.  

All the while, the earth was humming, an MFA thesis exhibition by Paulina King. King is a recipient of the 2025 ALL Prize, awarded to graduating MFA students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: In her exhibition All the while, the earth was humming, Paulina King collaborates with natural phenomena in a series of site-specific installations at the Arts + Literature Laboratory and the UW-Madison Arboretum. These works contribute to a growing body of work cataloguing poignant, ephemeral experiences the artist has had with nature. Inside ALL, a grouping of acrylic forms flutter in response to a wind sensor placed in the arboretum, mimicking the mesmerizing dance of leaves high above. Outside at the arboretum, terracotta vessels capture rainwater to create reflection pools, visually reconstructing the surrounding environment into a mosaic of sky and trees. In both locations, prose highlights the sites of experienced phenomena, inviting the viewer into King’s process. Together, these works ask the viewer to be swayed by the impact of natural phenomena, and be present in experiencing the nuance and beauty around us. Through this reconnection to the physical world, King encourages contemplation of our relationship with our environment and suggests a more symbiotic existence on earth.

Continuum, an exhibition by Sally Hutchison: Sally Hutchison describes her work in Continuum explaining, “My paintings, drawings and collages are primarily offshoots of the geometric style, sometimes classically abstract geometry, other times semi-abstract, gesturing toward landscape, still life or architecture. Early on I was influenced by the artists Mondrian, Malevich and Morandi.”

In this exhibition, the artist presents “series” of imagery; architecture, snippets of political history and images of meteorological events. Hutchison uses canvas, paper and wood paneling and notes, “Since the Paleolithic era, humans have made symbolic imagery in one form or another. I feel fortunate to be a participant in this somewhat mysterious endeavor.”

Describing her process, Hutchison adds, “I usually begin with something I see that provokes my interest. I then explore ways of representing new subject matter. I draw many images which then work their way into a series. While the paintings in the “Versaille Series” were inspired by the geometrically designed hedges of the Versaille gardens, I’ve then employed the hedge shape in the drawings of the “Weimar Series,” with collaged banknotes. Years ago an elderly German born neighbor gifted me with the banknotes as seen on the drawings. The banknotes were issued during the disastrous inflation in Germany, 1914-1923. A few months ago, I decided to use the banknotes in this exhibition’s drawings. At the same time, I came across a new book on the political and artistic significance of the banknotes. (“Emergency Money,” by Tom Wilkinson). The five paintings explore the wood surface as an aesthetic element. The paintings gesture toward landscape and still life.”

Recombination, an exhibition by Vera Scekic: Adopting the visual culture of biology as metaphor and armature, Vera Scekic treats paint as if it were an organism, exploring its material, chromatic and formal properties using a process that combines chance occurrences with a systematic approach. The Racine-based artist’s practice is an analog response to developments in the life sciences that are enabling alterations to the genomes of a range of organisms, including humans. Recombination, the show’s title, refers to a process whereby genetic material from disparate sources is combined, either naturally or in the lab, to create new DNA, proteins and organisms. The biological process parallels the way Scekic creates her paintings: by repeatedly inserting chance into a “rules-based” method of working while reintegrating elements from prior paintings into new works.

In the Vernacular: People, Places and Things, an exhibition by Hannah O'Hare Bennett:  In the Vernacular is an exhibition of low relief, multimedia tapestries from Hannah O'Hare Bennett's People Places and Things/Gente Lugares y Cosas project exploring memory, cultural dislocation and adaptation, and love of a very specific place. Twenty years ago, the artist was a Peace Corps volunteer in a tiny village in southern Ecuador called Quillin. This exhibition is a celebration of incongruity, imperfect language, and incredible luck.  On Friday, March 28, 2025, Bennett will give an informal artist talk at noon, followed by a market from 1 pm to 5 pm.