Wisconsin Triennial

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Gina Litherland

The celebration of Wisconsin’s artistic talents kicks off with hors d’oeuvres and live DJ mixes to accompany the art. Taking place only once every three years, the Triennial is a survey of Wisconsin’s collective contributions to the visual art world. Ranging from sculptures to screenprinting, photography to paintings, each piece of art in the collection was selected by a rigorous vetting process and is truly a work to behold.

press release: Main Galleries • October 19, 2019 through February 16, 2020. MMoCA Opening Reception • Friday, October 18 • 6–9 pm

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Wisconsin Triennial, a highly anticipated exhibition that charts the latest art being made across the state, will feature works by 32 individual artists and two groups of artists working in collaboration. Paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, and video are among the media represented, reflecting the diversity of approaches artists undertake in their explorations of process and content. MMoCA’s curatorial staff selected new works of art by established and emerging artists through a rigorous review process, organizing an exhibition that will provide audiences with a visually engaging and thought-provoking experience.

This year's Wisconsin Triennial will open with a reception beginning at 6 pm on Friday, October 18. The exhibition will be on view in the museum's lobby, State Street Gallery, Imprint Gallery, main galleries, and rooftop sculpture garden through February 16, 2020. A cornerstone of MMoCA's exhibition programming, the Triennial captures the richness and variety of artistic expressions across the state, and showcases emerging ideas being addressed within the contemporary art world while also honoring artists who engage with timeless themes, technques, and materials. 

Artists participating in the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial include: Saif Alsaegh (Milwaukee); Emily Arthur (Madison); Tom Berenz (Milwaukee); Timothy Brenner (Madison); Jennifer Bucheit (Middleton); Ed Erdmann (Menomonie); Marianne Fairbanks (Madison); Ben Grant (Milwaukee); Rachel Griffin (Madison); Helen Hawley (Madison); John Himmelfarb (Spring Green); John Hitchcock (Madison); Jon Horvath (Waukesha); Chele Isaac (Madison); Tomiko Jones (Madison); Tom Jones (Madison); Diane Levesque (Kenosha); Gina Litherland (Cedarburg); Dakota Mace (Madison); Francisco Mora (Fox Point); Stephen Perkins (Madison); Jeffrey Repko (Madison); Suzanne Rose (Forestville); Andy Rubin (Madison); Dane Schumacher (Green Bay); Peter Schwei (Dodgeville); Anders Shafer (Eau Claire); Pranav Sood (Madison); Spatula and Barcode (Madison); SPOOKY BOOBS (Madison); Ariana Vaeth (Shorewood); Leslie Vansen (Milwaukee); Shane Walsh (Milwaukee); Della Wells (Milwaukee).

MMoCA’s Triennial jury is comprised of Mel Becker Solomon, curator of the collection; Leah Kolb, curator of exhibitions; Sheri Castelnuovo, curator of education; and Stephen Fleischman, the Gabriele Haberland director. The jury process involved a careful review of material submitted by hundreds of artists, followed by visits to over 70 artist studios across the state.

The 2019 Wisconsin Triennial serves as a platform to engender and celebrate artistic invention, and stands as a testament to the dedication and sophistication of the artists working throughout the state. Approximately two-thirds are participating in the Triennial for the first time, with the final roster including a diverse mix of artists at all points in their careers, from professional artists with national reputations to current BFA students.

EXHIBITION EVENTS

FRIDAY, OCT 18 • 6–9 PM :Join us at MMoCA on Friday, October 18 for a special evening dedicated to the opening of the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial. Widely regarded as the state’s most prestigious showcase of contempo­rary Wisconsin visual art, the Triennial reflects a broad range of art representing current directions in contemporary visual art. Join the artists and other art support­ers at this celebration of Wisconsin con­temporary art. Enjoy live DJ mixes, a cash bar, and hors d’oeuvres in the MMoCA Lobby.

This event is free for MMoCA Members/ $10 for non-members. MMoCA Openings are sponsored by Newcomb Construction Company and The Alexander Company with additional support from Fresco and media support from Isthmus.

FRIDAY, NOV 1 • 6:30–7:30 PM: IN CONVERSATION: CHELE ISAAC AND HELEN HAWLEY. Phenomena and rhythms of nature are among the ideas that Chele Isaac and Helen Hawley make vis­ible through their video installations on view in the Wisconsin Triennial. Together, they will examine their individual approach to making their work and describe its conceptual underpinnings.

Chele Isaac’s films and multimedia installations have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has been an adjunct faculty member in the Art Department at UW-Madison, where she also serves on the Board of Visitors. In 2017, her seven-chan­nel film, the understory, was installed in MMoCA’s State Street Gallery. Helen Hawley is accomplished in various art media, including sculpture, printmak­ing, painting, and video. She has been an artist in residence at the Vermont Studio Center and her work has been exhibited at the Flux Factory, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and in the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial.

THURSDAY, NOV 7 • 1–1:45 PM, STEPHEN PERKINS ON LATIN AMERICAN ART AND THE DECOLONIAL TURN: Stephen Perkins will discuss his installation, Latin American Art and the Decolonial Turn (1963-2018): “Memories of Underdevelopment” Revisited, which is a response to the exhibition Memories of Underdevelopment: Art and the Decolonial Turn in Latin America, 1960-1985, which the artist visited at the Museo Jumex in Mexico City in 2018. Perkins’s installation includes materials from his archive cou­pled with works by Latin American artists that are a rejoinder to “the forces that created modernism or development in Latin America” and how they “pro­duced radically different effects from those in the colonialist and imperialist centers.” (Luis Camnitzer et al.,1999)

Stephen Perkins is an artist and independent art historian specializing in alternative artists’ period­icals and printed matter. He curates his home-based gallery, Subspace, from his extensive archive and maintains a blog dedicated to artists’ accordion pub­lications. He was director of the Lawton Gallery at UW-Green Bay, where he taught courses on gallery and museum practices and policy.

SATURDAY, NOV 9 • 1 pm; SATURDAY, DEC 14 • 1 pm, DROP-IN TOUR: Drop by MMoCA for a lively and informal discussion of the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial. Expertly led by MMoCA’s docents, these free, 30-minute guided tours consider artists’ creative decisions and provide insight into their meth­ods, ideas, and influences. Meet in the museum lobby.

FRIDAY, DEC 6 • 6:30–7:30 PM, IN CONVERSATION: TOMIKO JONES AND TOM JONES: Tomiko Jones and Tom Jones each extend the bound­aries of photography to explore identity, tradition, and intergenerational understanding. In this joint gallery talk, Tomiko Jones will discuss her photographic installation memorializing her father through the Japanese Buddhist ritual of Hatsubon. Immediately following, Tom Jones will describe his incorpora­tion of traditional Ho-Chunk beading designs in his photographic series Strong Unrelenting Spirits.

Tomiko Jones’s interdisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally and she has held residencies at Museé Niépce in Chalon-Sur-Saône and at The Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Tom Jones’s photographs have been widely exhibited and are included in the permanent collection of the National Museum of the American Indian, among others. He is co-author of the book, People of the Big Voice, Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1943. Both are faculty members in the UW-Madison Art Department.