Jess T. Dugan, Kayden
Who are you? How would you answer such a simple, yet fundamental question? Merely stating your name wouldn’t be sufficient—not only might you share it with others, but a name does not capture an individual’s uniqueness.
Perhaps there is no answer that could adequately encapsulate one’s identity, but “Identity Check: Works in Contemporary Photography,” opening at UW-Milwaukee’s Union Art Gallery on Friday, Feb. 27, explores the visual answers we give to the question “Who am I?” There’s more to a book than its cover but our outermost layers do reveal our innermost convictions about gender, race and class.
Contributing artists include Milwaukee’s own Lois Bielefeld, Cámaras Latina, Kevin Miyazaki, Joseph Mougel as well as out-of-towners Joel Pares and Jess Dugan (who will give an artist’s lecture on Thursday, March 5 at 7 p.m.). “Identity Check” opens with a reception from 5-8 p.m. on the 27th, during which there will be an artist panel discussion at 6 p.m.
“The Shadow Show”
The 10th Street Gallery
628 N. 10th St.
From the torch-lit caves of prehistoric painters to Fred Astaire dancing before an enormous scrim, the unshakeable presence of our shadows has long provided artists with a resource and an inspiration. The 10th Street Gallery’s new exhibition, “The Shadow Show,” follows in this grand tradition. The shows opens with a Sunday, March 8 reception (5-7 p.m.) featuring an original shadow puppetry play by local interdisciplinary creatress and “Shadow Show” co-curator Anja Notanja Sieger. Eight local artists contribute the paintings, sculptures and drawings on display, which runs concurrently with In Tandem Theatre’s new comedic production Come Back by Neil Haven.
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“Robin Jebavy: Recent Paintings”
Lynden Sculpture Garden
2145 W. Brown Deer Road
Although Robin Jebavy is a painter, it is not inaccurate to call her an artist of glassware, which forms the subject matter of her kaleidoscopic compositions. Through repetition, representational images take on a hallucinatory quality that invites the viewer to get lost in the patterns. And by varying the density and color of her still lifes, Jebavy invests each canvas with a unique emotional charge. “Robin Jebavy: Recent Paintings” opens on Sunday, March 1 with a reception from 3-5 p.m. The exhibition is on display until the end of May.
