Three new exhibitions will open at Portrait Society Gallery in the Third Ward on Gallery Night, January 20, from 6 to 9 p.m.
The Third Annual Winter Chapel installation will be presented by artists Keith Nelson and Paula Schulze. Nelson is building a structure within the gallery. Paula Schulze, using geometric patterns, will design the altar component and interior of the chapel.
This year’s annual Snow Sermon by Dr. Jeff Filipiak will be at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, February 3. This year, Filipiak has been awarded the semi-official title of Milwaukee’s Ambassador of Snow, and will extend his message of positive engagement with winter to broader audiences.
The Winter Chapel project was initiated three years ago to add dimension and insight to the harsh climate in which we live. Each year, a different artist or team is invited to build a chapel of their choosing, dedicated to a kind of meditation on winter. The chapel is meant to offer an experiential encounter with visitors.
In the front room at Portrait Society will be Lucid Dreams: New Paintings by Rafael Francisco Salas. Salas is a Wisconsin-based painter who last had a show at Portrait Society in 2010. His new work delves further into the ambivalent middle zone between abstraction and representation and how it speaks, obliquely, of the portrait.
The third room of the gallery will host a small group exhibition called Wisconsin Self-Taught, in conjunction with the Milwaukee Art Museum’s major exhibition, Accidental Genius: Art from the Anthony Petullo Collection, opening February 10. Portrait Society represents a number of Wisconsin self-taught artists and this exhibition will feature three: Bernard Gilardi, Rudy Rotter and Mike (Ringo) White. (A short video about Ringo White, made by Sara Caron, will be shown as well).
In conjunction with these shows, there will be two other Bernard Gilardi exhibitions opening at Wisconsin Institutions in January.
The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MWA) in West Bend, WI will host a Bernard Gilardi retrospective, Into the Light, from January 11 to March 25, 2012. Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin is hosting an exhibition of Gilardi’s religious themed paintings January 6 to March 11, 2012.
For additional information please contact Debra Brehmer, Portrait Society, portraitsocietygallery@gmail.com or call 414.870-9930.
