Winter 2019 MMoCA Newsletter

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EXHIBITIONS NATHANIEL MARY QUINN THIS IS LIFE State Street Gallery • On view through Mar 3, 2019 Taking an unconventional approach to portraiture, Nathaniel Mary Quinn prioritizes emotional resonance over accurate renderings of physical appearance. His portraits offer a composite vision of personhood, where gender, ethnicity, age, race, and other markers of identity are scrambled together like a Surrealist exquisite corpse or a Dadaist collage. At once haunting and beautiful, Quinn’s disjointed figures suggest that we are each a rich compilation of histories and experiences—a mélange of past, present, and future—always in process. In many ways, Quinn’s art is informed by his own life story. When he was fifteen, he faced the dual traumas of family death and abandonment. During the process of piecing together his own sense of self, he developed a deeply intuited awareness of the human condition and the multifaceted nature of identity—what we alternatively reveal to, and conceal from, others and ourselves. In his portraits, he expresses this idea through formal means. Predominantly using black charcoal and soft pastel over gouache, with careful interjections of oil paint, paint stick, and oil pastel, Quinn combines mediums and artistic techniques on a single sheet of paper. In this way, he generates varied textures, surface elevations, and fractured fields of imagery. Simultaneously layered and flat, unified and splintered, the surfaces of his works slip in and out of focus, reflecting the complexity of the human psyche. Quinn holds up a mirror to each of us, asking us to confront our own jagged edges. He suggests that self-reflection can offer a path toward cultivating a deeper understanding of, and empathy for, one another. Speaking to our shared humanity, he observes, “We are all broken in some way, and in the midst of being broken we find ways to embrace our brokenness and carry on life. But we are all like this. We all experience happiness, grief, joy. This is life.” Generous funding for Nathaniel Mary Quinn: This is Life has been provided by Holly Cremer Berkenstadt; Mary Ellyn and Joe Sensenbrenner; Sara Guyer and Scott Straus; Art & Sons; Betty Harris Custer and J. Corkey Custer; Dynee and Barney Sheafor; Deirdre Garton; a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts; and MMoCA Volunteers. PAGE 4: Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Choir Rehearsal, 2017. Black charcoal, gouache, soft pastel, oil pastel on Coventry vellum paper. 31 1/4 x 31 1/4 inches. Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH. Image courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery. Photography by Alex Yuzdon. PAGE 5: Jim Nutt, Rosy Comon (detail), 1967-68. Acrylic on reverse Plexiglas, 37 3/4 x 27 inches. Collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The Bill McClain Collection of Chicago Imagism. 4
-Madison NEW PROJECT Design Thinking for Exhibitions Imprint Gallery • Apr 20–Sep 29, 2019 The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is partnering with the University of Wisconsin on an Art History course called Design Thinking for Exhibitions. Taught by professor Anna Campbell, the class develops an exhibition over the course of the academic spring semester, using MMoCA as a critical training ground for hands-on application. Stemming from a shared interest among both organizations to leverage the space of the museum for direct learning, this cross-institutional venture seeks to cultivate the next generation of museum professionals by introducing participants to the practical and theoretical matters of curation. The resulting exhibition opens in the museum’s Imprint Gallery on April 20, and will be on view through September 29, 2019. For this course, classroom-based learning with Professor Campbell employs the strategies of design thinking—a human-centered approach to understanding and solving real world problems. Discussions focus on the politics and ethics associated with exhibitions as social engagement and on the curator’s role in articulating conversations between art objects and the public. Students will engage in extensive dialogue and collaboration with key museum staff on practical concerns such as exhibition timelines; installation logistics, design, and oversight; internal and external didactic materials (exhibition texts and brochure, press release, etc.); and on scheduling educational talks, tours, and other related programming. As the nature of this project is based on the University’s academic calendar, information about specific exhibition details—including the selected artist, artworks, related context, and educational programming—will unfold as the semester progresses. Generous funding for Imprint Gallery programming has been provided by Willy Haeberli in memory of Gabriele Haberland. EYE DEAL Abstract Bodies of the Chicago Imagists On view in the Henry Street Gallery through June 9 Exhbitions in the Henry Street Gallery are generously funded through an endowment established by the Pleasant T. Rowland foundation. 5
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Winter 2019 MMoCA Newsletter

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