• From the print edition of our May-August 2013 issue of Chicago Gallery News.

Chicago is wonderful in the summer, but everyone needs a break.  Just behind the ‘Cheddar Curtain” our northern neighbors in Wisconsin have a lot to offer, particularly if you’re on a quest for the artistic. This season just pick a weekend and set out to find illuminating exhibitions in every town. You’ll come to love a whole crop of art centers you didn’t realize were within an afternoon’s drive. -GV

Above: From Milwaukee Art Museum’s 30 Americans: Left to right: Rashid Johnson, Nick Cave, Kalup Linzy, Jeff Sonhouse, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, Barkley L. Hendricks, Hank Willis Thomas (front row), Xaviera Simmons, Purvis Young, John Bankston, Nina Chanel Abney, Henry Taylor, Mickalene Thomas (front row), Kerry James Marshall and Shinique Smith. Photo Credit: Kwaku Alston

Racine Art Museum        

www.ramart.org

RAM holds the largest + most significant contemporary craft collection in North America, with more than 8,000 objects from nationally and internationally recognized artists. 

• Top 10 at 10: Favorites from RAM’s Collection, May 12-October 6

John Michael Kohler Arts Center        

www.jmkac.org

• Heroes Surround Us: An Exhibition Without Borders, May 26-Sept 8. 

Featuring portraits on paper or newsprint depicting inspiring people. Subjects range from pop culture, to community leaders, to friends + family. Works displayed on selected building exteriors in Sheboygan. 

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art      

www.mmoca.org

• Focal Points: America Photography Since 1950, May 18-September 1

Over 100 works from MMoCA’s permanent collection by American photographers of regional, national, + international reputations

• Art Fair on the Square, July 13-14

Music, entertainment, outdoor dining, + more than 450 artists exhibiting paintings, prints, photographs, sculpture, jewelry + fine craft around Madison's Capitol Square, drawing 200,000 visitors each year.

Milwaukee Art Museum        

www.mam.org 

Celebrating 125 years of collecting, MAM welcomes over 350,000 annual visitors. From its roots in Milwaukee’s first art gallery in 1888, the Museum has grown today to be an icon for Milwaukee and a resource for the entire state. 

• 125th Anniversary Celebration, thru August 10

• 30 Americans, June 14–September 8

Showcasing works by many of the most important African American artists of the last three decades, focusing on issues of racial, sexual, and historical identity in contemporary culture.

Third Ward Galleries, Milwaukee

www.historicthirdward.org

The Historic Third Ward is Milwaukee's Arts + Fashion District, offering the city's most dynamic array of restaurants, theaters, galleries + boutiques all in a historic warehouse setting. The neighborhood was named a Top 12 ArtPlace in 2013. A full list of member galleries + institutions, including Tory Folliard, Gallery 218, Gingrass Gallery, INOVA, and Elaine Erickson, is online.

This week Kamp Gallery will be hosting an indoor sidewalk sale from 10-5pm through July 25. Paintings, open frames and jewelry will be on sale for 10-80% off the original price. This includes every painting in their selection, from period, modern and decorative paintings, jewelry includes, estate and handcrafted pieces.

(Vitali Bondarenko, Collecting Seashells, ca. 2007, 16" x 12")

Was 2,400, Sidewalk Sale price 1100- 55% Off

Kamp Gallery offers an array of contemporary, contemporary Russian and modernist paintings, From Georges Ames Aldrich, Tobin Richter, Peter Paul Rubens, amongst other well-known artists. Kamp serves their customers from two locations: one downtown in the Drake Hotel Arcade on 140 E. Walton, and a store front in Winnetka on 563 Lincoln Ave.  The gallery also offers restoration and custom framing services.

("Paris Boulevard", Elena Leus, 2004, 30" x 40" inches)

was 12,000, Side Walk Sale price, 8,400- 30% Off

Locations:

North Shore

563 Lincoln Ave

Winnetka Il, 60093

(847)441-7999

M-Sa: 10-5:30 or by appt.

Downtown

Drake Hotel Arcade

140 E. Walton Place

(at Michigan Ave.)

Chicago Il, 60611

Th-Sa: 11-6pm or by appt

www.Kampgallery.com

kampgallery@gmail.com

also visit them on Facebook!

There is something exciting happening in suburban Lisle at the Morton Arboretum, just in time for the arrival of summer: eleven international artists have been commissioned to create large-scale works of art addressing our relationship with nature, trees and their living presence.  After the many months of cold and dreary weather, we’re all ready to be outdoors, embracing nature and all its colorful splendor.  For this exhibition, the many artistic touches and interpretations act as links between the natural and creative world.

Included in this exhibition are a series of fiber pieces from several artists, including Carol Hummel (Ohio), Philippa Lawrence (Bristol) and Régine Lehman (France). Also included are sculptures from You Are Beautiful (art collective from Chicago), Thomas Matsuda (Massachusetts) Juan Angel Chavez, (Chicago – recent large-scale installation at Art Chicago) and Actual Size (collaborative team of Gail Simpson and Aristotle Georgiades from Wisconsin).

Most of the works in the exhibition defy confinement and exist freely in nature, but featured artist Letha Wilson (New York) has taken a different tack with Blue Ash Tree, creating a 16 foot canvas around the tree, in order to explore the space around and gesture of the branches against a neutral plane.

(Carol Hummel installing Lichen It! 2011)

Larry King, another artist and Chicago native, will be displaying Celebranch, a sculpted piece completely composed of bamboo, standing 30-40 feet tall. This piece pays homage to the tree as a gift to earth and humankind as a whole and includes subtle curvilinear shapes from bottom to top.

(Larry King's Celebranch 2011)

Nature Unframed, at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois

Exhibition runs May 20 thru November 27, 2011.

The Arboretum will be open from 7 a.m. until sunset. Take a few friends, the dog and your family and spend the day in celebration of art and the natural environment!

There will be guided walks and Strolling Salons from 6-7:30pm on opening day (May 20) and from noon to 1:30 p.m on Saturday the 21^st and Sunday the 22^nd. Also on Sunday there will be an opportunity to meet and speak with the artists from 1-3pm.

All Events are included with the cost of admission and parking is free!