MMoCA Fall 2016 Newsletter

EXHIBITIONS
WISCONSIN TRIENNIAL
September 24 through January 8
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The 2016 Wisconsin Triennial, MMoCA’s exploration
of contemporary art statewide, will feature
works by 34 individual artists and three pairs of artists
working in collaboration. The museum’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
compelling and thought-provoking experience.
Opening with a celebratory reception beginning at
6 pm on Friday, September 23, the Wisconsin Triennial
will be on view in the museum's lobby, State Street
Gallery, Imprint Gallery, main galleries, and Rooftop
Sculpture Garden through January 8, 2017. A cornerstone
of MMoCA's programming since 1978, the
Triennial represents a longstanding tradition within
the history of the institution while simultaneously
retaining a freshness that imbues the exhibition with
continued significance. It reflects the state of art in
Wisconsin today, capturing the richness and variety of
creative expression and showcasing prevalent themes
being addressed within the contemporary art world.
The 2016 Triennial will feature site-specific sculptures
and installations designed for distinct spaces
within the museum, as well as completed pieces
selected from artists’ existing bodies of work. Paintings,
drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, performance,
and new media and video are among the media represented,
reflecting the diversity of approaches artists
undertake in their explorations of process and content.
The included artworks will address topical issues such
as ecology and the consequences of environmental
destruction, personal identity and its representation
through visual storytelling, and the individual and
communal impacts of our current political and racial
climate.
Some highlights of this exhibition include:
Emily Arthur is a printmaker who works within
the tradition of the natural history print to address contemporary
environmental concerns. Her recent body
of work layers together scientific diagrams of DNA
sequencing, maps tracking forced wildlife migrations,
and delicate renderings of birds, butterflies, and plant
life varieties. The elements in each print combine to
poetically express the ways in which species of flora and
fauna carry the story of human impact on the natural
world.
Brendan Baylor is an interdisciplinary artist who
mobilizes his various mediums to explore the history,
economy, and ecology of specific places, including
his current home of Ashland, Wisconsin. Blending
together rigorous research and artistic practice, he creates
work that interrogates the motivations behind land
management practices, giving image to those entities
(human, animal, vegetative, etc.) least served by the
economic and political systems governing land use. His
print-based works that are included in the Triennial
question the far-reaching consequences of a nonholistic
approach to the landscape, and even map
the artist’s own unintended environmental impact,
OPENING
RECEPTION
Friday, September 23
6–9 pm