Milwaukee International Art Fair

Paper Boat will be representing artist, designer and illustrator Kate Bingaman-Burt of Obsessiveconsumption.com at the 2008 Milwaukee International Art Fair
Kate Bingaman-Burt, Plastic Forks , 2008

Kate Bingaman-Burt, Chase Bill , 2007

Milwaukee International art fair
Polish Falcons Beer Hall
801 E. Clarke St.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USAFriday, May 16, 5-9 pm
Saturday, May 17, Noon-9 pm
FREE!

*****
The second Milwaukee International art fair arrives to the Polish
Falcons beer hall, May 16-17, 2008. This location puts amazing contemporary art from around the world against a backdrop of real
old-world charm, in the midst of the quaint working-class Riverwest neighborhood. Stroll through the aisles to get a glimpse of new
drawing, painting, video and sculpture while the sweet sounds of the Falcon Bowl rumble up from the basement. The Falcon Bowl sports the
4th-oldest bowling alley in America, and for two days, possibly the coziest art fair you'll ever visit.


This year, the Milwaukee International team (Elysia Borowy-Reeder,
Nicholas Frank, Scott Reeder, Tyson Reeder and John Riepenhoff) is
pleased to announce that Joey Chang Art will join the art fair line-up
all the way from Beijing, along with Cuban gallery project Espacio
Provisional (Havana/Miami). From Puerto Rico, Milwaukee International
veteran Luis Agosto-Leduc brings his new gallery, Mano Izquierda, and
the artists' project Repuesto from San Juan will visit for the first
time. Additional first-timer (and former Milwaukeean) Hiromi Yoshii is
coming from Tokyo. This year we also feature a special fair t-shirt
designed by David Shrigley of Glasgow.

Other M.I. veterans from our first successful fair making their return
are: Gavin Brown's Enterprise (New York), Canada (NY), The Suburban
(Chicago), Swiss Institute (NY), Locust Projects (Miami), Western
Exhibitions (Chicago), Other (Winnipeg), Zieher Smith (NY) and
Angstrom (Dallas/LA).

We are pleased to welcome the esteemed non-profit Midway Contemporary
Art (Minneapolis), along with galleries Daniel Hug (LA), Marianne
Boesky (NY), Small A Projects (Portland), Leo Koenig (NY), Rowley
Kennerk (Chicago), Golden Age (Chicago) and Shane Campbell (Chicago),
and a special project by new Chicago gallery Old Gold. Milwaukee
galleries and non-profits joining the line-up are: Paper Boat, Borg
Ward, Green Gallery, General Store, and Inova.

Please join these 28 art spaces in celebrating Milwaukee culture.
Delicious local beer will be flowing, there will be polka dancing in
the aisles (with the welcome return of Vern and the Originals!), and
unexpected art around every corner (including work by current Whitney
Biennial artist Amanda Ross-Ho, and Milwaukee Art Museum collection
veteran Michelle Grabner, among many choice offerings), and a big Mad
Planet dance party to wrap things up Saturday night, featuring DJs
from New York and Milwaukee. For the extra-adventurous, local legend
Paul Finger will lead bus tours of area treasures during the fair.

For more info:
http://www.milwaukeeinternational.tk

Please feel free to pass this message along to any interested friends.
See you there!

New Gallery Opening Tonight!!

From Onmilwaukee.com

Introducing the latest addition to Milwaukee's burgeoning art gallery scene: The Armoury.

Established in January 2008, and inspired by the Armoury at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, the gallery lengthens the list of new art venues seeking to promote contemporary fine art in Milwaukee.

Join us tonight for a Gallery Opening celebration. Owners Jessica Steeber and Cassandra Smith will be showing new work for the opening, along with Karin Haas, Eduardo J. Villanueva, and Emily Siegel Belknap. Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be served.

Please call 414.265.2806, email info@thearmourygallery.com, or visit our website through the link above for more information

This Friday! Steve MacDonald & Rachel Budde

Work by Steve MacDonald (San Francisco, CA) & Rachel Budde (Brooklyn, NY)
May 2nd- 31st 2008
Curated by Faythe Levine

Steven MacDonald, Cargo Ship 1, 2008
Canvas, Gesso, Thread 2' x 3'

Please join us for the opening reception May 2nd 7-10pm
Both artists will be in attendance from their respective coast!

For additional information & further print images please contact Faythe Levine

Curator's Statement:
I can't remember when I first came across the stitchery of San Francisco based artist Steve MacDonald, however, once I saw it, the bold lines and imagery was burned in my brain. MacDonald has shown his machine stitched wall based work in gallery's around the world, from Tokyo to Jerusalem and I am very pleased to bring his work to the walls of Milwaukee. Aside from his machine stitched gallery work, MacDonald has a creative resume that extends into all mediums and methods from film and music to fashion, including design work for Modest Mouse, Timbuk2 to name a few, of many, impressive clients. Since Paper Boat loves artists who cross the lines of the creative world we are happy to be selling a brand new line of MacDonald's t-shirts along with his show.

Along with MacDonald's wall based work will be the mixed media work of Brooklyn based artist Rachel Budde. Budde has recently been published in two books "Graffiti Women" by Nicholas Ganz and "Stencil Pirates" by Josh Macphee and has also assisted street artist SWOON from 2004-2007. For her upcoming exhibition at Paper Boat she will be installing a collection of her paintings in a way that references shrine building. Budde says "I hope to take the viewer into the paintings while also calling attention to the everyday objects outside of the paintings, creating a juxtaposition and a dialogue."

The combination of MacDonald and Budde's work will bring attention to urban landscapes, over-looked objects, and detail's of the handmade in innovative presentation and form. Both artists will be joining us from their respective coasts, please join us opening night, Friday May 2nd 7-10pm.


Steve MacDonald Artist Statement:
www.ramblinworker.com

Characteristic of Steve MacDonald's work is crimson thread, making its way across a sea of golden canvas and arriving at surreal destinations. A close-up examination of the red stitching is required in order to understand the laborious and compulsive nature of the process employed by nothing more than hands, paint and an old Singer sewing machine driving its red thread. The mood of the stitching varies from one painting to the next and many times within a single painting, describing the texture and lines of any given element; whether it be foliage, water, the grooves carved into a mountainside or lineament of buildings. Tailored patches of peaks, fog, superstructure and shrubbery adorn these unusually luminous vistas, a perfect backdrop for myth and magic.

Read an interview with Steve MacDonald on Razor Apple HERE

Rachel Budde Artist Statement:

In my work, I am attempting to express (through a multiplicity of symbolic images) a relationship between the ethereal and the mundane, the sacred and the profane. An individual’s physical orientation can contradict that individual’s ideological, spiritual or political orientation, one is able to exist on many levels within one space. I am interested in the places where art and the everyday meet, whether it be through adornment of a car, or through creating religious shrines in a home. Adornment and ritual infuse banality with a sense of transcendence. Symbols in our churches or on our billboards are a part of a continuum of evolving ancient symbols; symbols that maybe profane in a contemporary context may have at one time been sacred. Symbols flip and flop, and I am interested in a symbols ability to carry historical residue with it, creating vast complexities within each given symbol. My aim is to take my own interpretation and experience with a number of given symbols and activate them, adding yet another layer to a symbolic history.

Juxtapoz & Milwaukee heads up!

Juxtapoz did a nice little blurb about our Amy Rice and Abby Glassenberg show that will open April 3rd.

Also if you are in the Milwaukee area make sure to swing by the "Seeing Green: Art, Ecology and Activism in Milwaukee" show opening on Friday April 12th curated by Nicolas Lampert at Woodland Pattern.

Hotcakes is closing!

I am sad to pass on the news that Gallery director Mike Brenner officially announced the closing of his space Hotcakes yesterday via email [which I have reposted below]. Galleries like Hotcakes are what this city needs to grow and it's sad to know there will be one less awesome art space (out of the very few this city has to spare) in Milwaukee.

Thank you Mike Brenner for all the hard work you have done for this city........ read on to hear what Mike has to say:

via email February 1, 2008
Hotcakes Gallery Will Close July 3, 2008 at 5PM
It's official. In less than 3 months, Visit Milwaukee (Miwaukee's convention and visitors bureau) has raised the $85,000 it needs to erect the Bronze Fonz, a monument to the small-town Milwaukee of old. It's with great sadness, I announce that on July 3rd, Hotcakes Gallery will close it's doors for good. I cannot see running a contemporary art gallery in a city who's "leadership" is so eager to invest it's limited resources in garbage instead of fostering it's burgeoning arts community.

February 6th marks Hotcakes Gallery's 4th Birthday. It has been a wonderful four years. I truly appreciate everyone who showed up and supported me in my attempt to engage, excite and educate the general public with affordable, contemporary art and music. I made many new friends and had many incredible experiences I will never forget. I extend special thanks to those of you who put your money where your mouth was and invested in art.

My plan for the near future is to focus on my role as Executive Director of MARN (Milwaukee Artist Resource Network). MARN has been working closely with the Eastside Business Improvement District to build an arts incubator on the Eastside of Milwaukee, and I would like to see the project through to completion. I plan to spend the next couple years trying to raise the necessary funds to create a truly cutting-edge arts center that will nurture the next generation of artists and arts supporters.

My goal is to put Milwaukee on the map and make it an international destination for creative thinkers and doers. I want the world to see what I see... a city full of warmhearted, hardworking, creative individuals who deserve to be defined by so much more than beer, brats, cheese and Arthur Fonzerelli.

Sincerely,
mike brenner