FEBRUARY / MARCH 1992 COMPLIMEHTflRV

VOLUME ^

•' • . '•". • :'.. • ., •• . . ... •••.••.. . •• .. .•'.''.'." ••:::•.••••• " Editor-in-Chief UPAF Debra Brehmer Debra Brehmer Spalding Gray Mark Anderson Associate Editor Poets Judtth Ann Moriarty Calendar Editor Business Manager WyattOsato Frank Lewls/Wyatt Osato Therese Gantz

Associate Editor-Music Bobby DuPah Letters Review/Preview Editorial Assistants AGOG Judith Ann Moriarty, Mark Bucher & Niccona Teichert Calendar Madison Roundup Photo Editor Francis Ford Chicago Calendar

Design Chris Bleiler Eric Timm, intern FROM THE EDITOR Sales Angel French, Sales Manager With all the gloomy news on the '90s horizon, holiday cheer was a little hard to come by this year.

However, I did manage to find some small closes of sentiment and good feeling in rather unexpected

places (you guessed it) within the local arts community. Printing by Port Publications

Three different events reminded me of the family of artists and entertainers who offer so much to this city. FRIENDS OF ART MUSCLE Two of the events — a radio play reading of The Christmas Carol to raise money for the Milwaukee AIDS Perry & Bobbie Dinkin Ellen Checota Project, and a gun control benefit on the anniversary of John Lennon's death — brought home the idea Barbara & Jack Recht Barbara Kohl-Spiro Jim Newhouse Thelma & Sheldon Friedman that there are numerous talented individuals in this city who are willing to put out a little extra beyond Mary & Mark Timpany Peter Goldberg their normally generous commitments, to help others. The organizers, Mark Bucher and John Seeger, Theo Kitsch Dr. Clarence E. Kusik Gerald Pelrine Tina Peterman probably had plenty to do in the pre-holiday season without taking on the burdens of fund-raising. Jay Brown Babcock Mechanical Christine Prevetti Katie Minahan Bucher's theater friends and acquaintances who read The Christmas Carol at Cafe Melange, raised Richard & Marilyn Radke Richard Cler Dennis Hajewsky Patti Davis about $350 for MAP. It was one of those quiet evenings that managed to take on an enchanted quality. Harvey & Lynn Goldstein Robert A. Holzhauer The hand gun control benefit brought together numerous Milwaukee musicians who volunteered to do Robert Johnston Judith Kuhn Polly & Giles Daeger Joel & Mary Pfeiffer Lennon songs. These are the people who do make a difference in our lives. Even when times seem the Gary T. Black Nicholas Topping Dorothy Brehmer C. Garrett Morriss bleakest and many people begin to look at the arts as unimportant compared to world hunger and other Karen Johnson Boyd Geralyn Cannon Tim Holte/Debra Vest Roger Hyman ills, it becomes dear that this is when the arts function to their strongest advantage by bringing an Jack & Ellen Weller Dean Weller audience together in a way that focuses positive energy and hope on rather dismal situations. Arthur & Flora Cohen Remy Sandra Butler David & Madeleine Lubar Jimmy G. Scharnek Sidney & Elaine Friedman Mike & Joyce Winter Carolyn & Leon Travanti Of all the pre-Christmas events I took in, however, it was the Acoustic Christmas party at Shank Hall, Mary Joe Donovan James B. Chase Jerome J. Luy Cynthia Kahn organized by At Anderson, that had the most emotional impact. The place was filled, wall to wall, at $7 Nate Holman Chris Baugniet Patrick Farrell Riveredge Galleries a head. From Paul Cebar and Robin Pluer to Tony Jarvis to Semi Twang, each group or individual did Bob Brue Albert & Ann Deshur various well-known and obscure Christmas songs in their own inimitable styles. The personalities of these Pam Jacobs Jewelry Burt & Enid Dinkin Ginny & Gerry Robbins Elk) & Guido Brink people who we tend to take for granted as being ever-present and available to entertain us at whim, Taglin Enterprises/Access Milw James & Marie Seder Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops Randi & John Clark seemed even more accessible and vulnerable in this acoustic format. The event had the tender simplicity Robert E. Klavetter Keith M. Collis Linda Richman Jewelry Mary Paul of a family gathering, as so many of the city's foremost musicians did what they do so well — which Joan Krause Richard Warzynski is reach us ata personal yet shared level where we know our differences, but for a moment, feel as one. Janet Treacy Morton & Joyce Phillips Monica Cannon Haskell Delphine & John Cannon Jim & Julie Ansfield Daniel S. Weinberg Sharon L. Winderl Mary Streich There are many artists who give a great deal to us as an audience. We need them even more when Dori & Sam Chortek Carole & Adam Glass Janet & Marvin Fishman Diane & David Buck external realities worsen. And no one ever brought home this point more directly than another well- Steve & Amy Palec William James Taylor known local entertainer, Holly Brown. The last time I saw her perform (then not knowing it would be the Kathy & Neal Pollack Julie & Richard Staniszewski Blue Dolphin Gallery Jamie Ross last time I would ever see her), she was preparing to move back to Australia. This was at least a year Brookfield East H.S. Arts Club Toby & Sam Recht Thomas A. Fulrath ago, at a small gay bar that was packed beyond comfort. At the time, Holly Brown must have known

To become a FRIEND OF ART MUSCLE, she had AIDS, but we didn't. I remember watching her take the stage and work the audience. She send a check for $50 which entitles you to receive Art Muscle for two years and gets your immediately energized the crowd. Holly had the rare ability to transform a place, to gather attention name on the masthead! and allow everyone to feel all right about themselves for a while. She died recently, leaving me and

Art Muscle is published bi-monthly by Art probably a lot of other people, feeling a bit remorseful for never having told her directly what a difference Muscle-Milwaukee, Inc., 909 W. National Ave., P.O. Box 93219, Milwaukee, Wl she made in my life in this city at this time. This issue of the magazine is dedicated to the memory of Holly 53203, (414) 672-8485. Third Class postage paid at Milwaukee, Wl 53202 and additional Brown, with a reminder that the Milwaukee AIDS Project can use your donations, however small, and mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address in whatever form you are best suited to offer them. changes to Art Muscle, P.O. Box 93219. Milwaukee, Wl 53203. Debra Brehmer

Entire contents copyright ©Art Muscle- Milwaukee, Inc. All rights reserved, except in reviews. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Art Muscle is a trademark of Art Muscle-Milwaukee, Inc.

Subscription rates in continental U.S.:$12 one year; elsewhere, $16 one year. Special thanks to Jim Catel of Design North for cover design. 1

w%im$m ^•k'v * -^ w« • *?:'.-• •>«?•- fc*5 ysU •}•'••, •*r*ftJ •k-vTfc* •?"•£ •'-'"• •*«5.J •?-»» Aft B'~-*""-IP KS *" LI^^I ome toast to the ake this Valentine's

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Wisconsin Bell Presents BBilOflB«B MEXICAN SKYLIGHT LlmviililiriUiJIl TIN WORKS \ 813 N.Jefferson St. * MARCH 1 - APRIL 26

I THE ITALIAN GIRL IN ALGIERS I A delightful 1 Now-February 16 Devotional Art array of tin Decorative Art works from Intrigue abounds when Rossini's madcap opera takes the Mexican the stage at the Skylight Theatre. A cast of quirky Museum in characters including an Algerian potentate taken with Opening San Francisco. I all things Italian, a bored fashion model on an Reception The works international quest and her long-lost lover mix it up in Sunday, display the high style, Don't miss this uproarious contemporary March 1 ingenuity and • staging. 1 1 to 4 p.m. skill of Mexico's Group tours artists and and tin tinsmiths in workshops March 11-April 5 creating and available lor beautifying Everything's coming up roses in this funny, warm and groups by objects for poignant story of the quintessential stage mother, reservation. daily use or Mama Rose, and her daughter, stripper Gypsy Rose spiritual Lee. The Tony-award winning show is loaded with enrichment. I memorable hits by Broadway greats Jule Styne and 1 I Stephen Sondheim. .'•'.'• 1

Mexican Tin Works, organized by the Traveling Exhibition Program of the Mexican Museum, is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Ford 1 Tickets $26 & $19 1 Foundation, Pacific Telesis, and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund. Local funding through Wisconsin Bell, I Call the Skylight Box Office, 271 -88 i 5 1 coy. Wisconsin Arts Board and CAMPAC. Walker's Point Center for the Arts TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW! 911 W. National Avenue. Milwaukee, Wl 672-2787 4 Art Muscle Paper/Arts Festival April 1992 Regional Exhibitions of Handmade Paper

Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Hotel Bilbao), 1952, Collection of the artist, New York. R o b er^Rauschenberg The Early 1950s

February 8 through April 19, 1992

See 100 works which include early paintings, conceptual pieces, and pre-combine collages completed before Robert Rauschenberg's rise to prominence.

Also on view: John Cage: Scores from the Early 1950s February 8 through April 19, 1992 Options 44: Yasumasa Morimura January 11 through April 19, 1992

Museum of Contemporary Art 237 East Ontario Street Chicago, Illinois 60611 Call 312 280-5161 for information.

gjtoto • Apple Studio Gallery Participation AGA-Center for Visual Arts University of Wisconsin TfjEPUANE MJCHAL5 SHOW Appleton, Wl Center-Fox valley Aaron Bohrod Fine Arts Gallery Avenue Art Menasha, Wl February 7 - April 5 Appleton, Wl Lawrence University Bergstrom/Mahler Museum Exhibition organized by the Music-Drama Center Neenah, Wl Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego Appleton, Wl The Hang Up Gallery University of Wisconsin Neenah, Wl Lawton Gallery Collectors Gallery Green Bay, Wl VUANE DUCK Oshkosh, Wl Holland Area Arts Council Holland, Ml The Paine Art Center Oshkosh, Wl Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters Jura Silverman Gallery Madison, Wl Spring Green, Wl "Glory of the Morning" An Original Theatre Arts Production April 9, 10, U, 12, 1992 Appleton West Auditorium Appleton, Wisconsin Sponsored by Miron Construction Co., Inc.

The Paper/Arts Festival is a month-long series of events celebrating paper. Duane Duck, 1984, courtesy MoPA For more information call the Fox Cities Convention and Visitors Bureau 1-800-236-6673

MILi^UJKEE ART MUS EUM

MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM 750 NORTH LINCOLN MEMORIAL DRIVE MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN USA 53202 414.224.3200 • -f .".» Carol Emmons, Sculpture • Karen M. Gunderman, o Rise Petersons. Mixed Media • Brenda Baker, Painting a>

3 C o c CO Q. $ N CO CO Wisconsin Arts Board (D as 0 Q < Role of the artist questioned 1990-1991 0 tion of art/artists today? What are our I appreciate the important role you play next steps? Possibly Art Muscle could al­ in supporting the arts and individual art­ CD < locate a column for such concerns in each ists. Our community derives significant issue. What do you think? CO zr C cz benefit from your commitment to pub­ Gene Galazan c VISUAL ARTS o o 0) lishing Art Muscle. How appropriate the (D Milwaukee -D o name is with the idea that artists, through O CQ < o communication with each other and our Enjoyed article 0 AWARD o surrounding community develop our "Memory's Eye" is the best article you've Q. 3 CO individual and group art muscle (power). had in Art Muscle for ages. (Dec. 1 - Feb. - © I3 c O 1 issue). It was fascinating from begin­ _l In this context, I have some thoughts and ning to end. Vanderbuilt and his vision, feelings to share as an artist who feels the collection itself, and the way the li_ RECIPIENTS O sometimes as if his own art muscles are images are sorted all got me perking. To 33 O o CQ approaching a dangerous state of atro­ think about the way we arrange informa­ c O" phy. tion and the impact one person can have 05 ~3 March 6 to April 12, 1992 on others directly and indirectly. Thank Sometimes, I'm not sure whether it's me you Gregory Conniff for an insightful and CO CO Opening Reception or the rest of the world. For the third con­ thought provoking piece. r • Q. secutive year, I wasn't chosen for a Mil­ o H Pegi Taylor Friday, March 6, 5 to 8 p.m. zr waukee County Artist's Grant. Haven't Milwaukee DC O CD o received any NEA or WAB, Guggenheim 0 3 C or Rockefeller awards that I can remem­ Responds to letter co o IT D) O 0) ber, although, I have filled out countless criticizing critic Auer E co 7T <: forms and have gotten very good at cut­ Who does this guy from Cudahy think he « CD 0 ting out miniscule labels for slide entries. is? (Letters column, Dec. 1-Feb. 1 issue). I^^Sss^gj^B Tl No recent exhibitions or gallery openings A cross between Gore Vidal and Art o © for my work. Haven't performed my yet Kumbalek? > o 3 to be completed performance work. CO CD 241 N. Broadway Stopped reading art magazines (except It's been my experience that James Auer CQ CO Art Muscle). Forgot why I was reading o Milwaukee, Wl 53202 (414) 289-0855 "O " of The Milwaukee Journal and one must CO them. Not so sure about art galleries, admit Jeff Worman of the Shepherd- CD c Hours: Mon. - Sat. 10-5, Sun. 10-3 <: museums, theater. For what purpose? C X Express, at least have the guts to review < 0 CO © Why? For whose good? the hippest shows that the other main­ CO Q. CD stream press find too low-class. I mean if E Seems that being an artist, or trying to Frank Lewis fell in the woods would he QQ . © CO Carol Pylant, Painting • Catherine Veit, Painting • CL figure out an artist's place in society often make a sound? ~3 leaves me confused and frustrated. I keep L ee A 0) inn Garrison, Painting • David Genszler, Sculptu re » looking at the quote above my desk. As an artist who happens to paint birds "Should the arts seek only to entertain, or (in the Karl Priebe aka Elke Sommers do they have the mandate of heaven to style) his stereotyping of us wildlife art­ inspire and warn, to lead and ferment the ists bordered on Art Fascism. As Adolf Flame Work Glass aspirations of people?" And what is my Hitler said, "anyone who sees and paints continuing through Feb. 29 role in all of this? Why does it seem so the sky green and pastures blue ought to difficult at times being an artist' be sterilized!" John Littleton and It appears as if there is an invisible, some­ In closing, his comments on Fargo, North Kate Vogel times very visible force restricting, con­ Dakota were totally off! Anyone who's Glass - New Works stricting. . .allowing artists a very narrow, ever been to Fargo knows that it's just as Opening Sat. March 7 monotonal channel to move. That has us trendy as Cudahy or Milwaukee. (Though (artist will be present) rehearsing certain rituals that have lost Cudahy does have the best craft shows any meaning. That are not to our benefit, and The Club Baghdad). FINE ART nor to society's as a whole. That leaves us New Vitreograph Jimmy von Milwaukee separate, no matter how close in proxim­ Milwaukee Glass Prints ity we are to each other. That leaves us Through April 25 EXCITING feeling powerless.

I have wondered whether the $10,000 THEY NIGHT BE GLASS grants given to individual artists in the Milwaukee County fellowship program BIGGER BUT contribute to or detract from our advance­ WE'RE BETTER. ment, our movement forward as artists. Is '"BEST THRIFT STORE" NEW there any other way that community re­ -SHEPHERD EXPRESS sources could be used to support artists, READER'S POLL both as individuals and as a group that "BEST PRICE OH LEATHER" would break from the mold of "mirror, -DETAILS MAGAZINE GIFTS mirror, on the wall, who is the best (by some criteria) of us all?" In Sweden, artists are given a base stipend to do their work. All artists! If all artists (anyone who con­ sidered herself or himself an artist and worked as an artist) were given this sup­ port . . .what would be the implications for ourselves and our community? -«|*- BUT -*jw- SELL -«j»- TRADE • 2213 N.FARWELL AVE. With the thought that there must be other artists who may also share my questions GALLERY LTD^-^^^ as to our role as artists, one may ask where this uncertainty leaves us? I be­ Cambridge Pottery Festival lieve it leaves us with each other. What an and U.S. Pottery Olympics JUST WEST OF 1-43 opportunity for artists and performers to get together to map our own destiny. 1400 WEST AAEQUON ROAD June 13 &14 1992 Where do we see ourselves now and MEQUOM WISCONSIN 53092 where do we want to be tomorrow? Sell pottery to enthusiastic ^Ti.:>-4'I-704C- buyers. Juried booths, competitions, awards, seminars, It would be wonderful to have a running auction and potters dance. dialogue in Art Muscle on our visions as HOURS: SUN a MON - BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Deadline for entries: March 31 TUES-FRI11 AM-4PM SAT 11 AM - 4 PM artists. What do you think about thedirec- THURS11 AM-8PM (608) 423-3780

6 Art Muscle Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater

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7 WATERCOLOR heads,Doub1ePink. Elegantly simple, they as complacent campers — subservient spent Coburn's deceptively approach­ held the magic of watercolor's translu- victims with no expression of anger or able Fonsia and the volcanic Weller have WISCONSIN: cency. I wanted to peek inside their glow­ rage. The subjects appeared depressed, spent their lives chasing goals and dreams CELEBRATING 25 YEARS ing skins to see if they were lit from psychologically overwhelmed and anes­ that are moored on selfishness and self- September 29-December 22 within. Anne E. Miotke's formal concept thetized by their hard luck. Unfortunately, deception. Through the device of Fonsia's Wustum Museum of Fine Arts of a game of checkers had a similar "reach the stress of these situations was never run of victorious gin games over Weller, out and touch me," surface, through her investigated. Despite extended periods Coburn creates, in a series of superbly use of a dark, rich palette and faultless of deadened living, collection hassles and crafted vignettes, the image of human composition. Does photo-real ism intrigue improper diets, there was no discussion frailty and a tragically avoidable lack of you? Well, the still life section had plenty, of the physical, mental or substance abuse self-awareness. As the play progresses, and the best of it was witty not weighty. that reportedly plagues the American Fonsia and Weller painfully extract family. As complacent campers, the new- glimpses of unpleasant truth about each The abstractions of Doris White relied too world-order working class was featured other. The cast — particularly Prinz — much on material and not enough on as "good people," idealized, with teflon earns these dramatically explosive content. This is a reoccuring problem facades displaying the trickle down of moments. But the individual artistic with her work, and Threshold, a poorly Reagan's jingoism about family-centered triumphs of the actors fail to add up to the balanced and mushy re-hash of White strength and pride established through script's jarring and disturbing conclusion: doing White was no exception. Lack of humility and meekness. what a person does (or does not do) in control and content in Celeste Sprans/s their lives will return to reward or haunt Bruce Hustad, Double Pink, 1990 big color splash of runs, drips, and errors, The determination of the program's sub­ them. By the second act, the script reminded me that you are bound to hit on jects for self survival is admirable. How­ mutates from its slick commercial begin­ something if you play with paint long ever, the malaise of apathy and futility nings to a cynical and unsettling tragi­ In a show of works culled from artists enough, and Glad Surprise was no sur­ that greets America's newer, lower, stan­ comedy. While the cast seemed fully who have entered Watercolor Wisconsin prise at all. A former Wisconsin teacher, dard of living is the actual issue that this capable of making this transition, direc­ shows since 1966, Wustum director Bruce Steven Samerjan reflected his Sierra Madre program should have addressed. Instead tor Appel was either unable to explore Pepich and assistant curator Caren Heft lifestyle with a vibrant diptych in electric of being an avenue of critical insight into the script's dark underpinnings or chose juried in 53 of the most respected and shades of blues, greens, reds, and purples the economic reordering of America, to ignore them in favor of exploiting the honored of hundreds of past participants. integrated gracefully into shapes pulsat­ Minimum Wages romanticized the hope­ comic veneer. Formerly this well established annual ing with the life forces in seed pod and less wonder of existing only as a flicker­ show was primarily associated with the stem. Lisa Englander admits her pieces ing point of light. Appel's direction delivered fine comic portrayal of Wisconsin's east coast water are "shamelessly decorative in their use interplay colored with dramatic touches, scenes; it has since evolved into an ex­ of pattern," however, she knows exactly Jerome Schultz yet because of the constant reliance on hibit of watercolor and just about any­ how to manipulate color and design into humor and avoidance of The Gin Game's thing else that works with water. The intelligent work with clear historical ref­ full (albeit bleak) viewpoint, a true cli­ division of selections into four themes: erences. And the small and unpretentious THE GIN GAME max of the play was never attained. As a fantasy, landscape, still life and abstrac­ Blue Ascending by Roland J. DeBaker result, the ending seemed completely tion, resulted in a (generally) unexciting was successful for its quiet and painterly Milwaukee Repertory Theater unexpected and forced. One awaited but full-bodied and handsome exhibi­ simplicity. It didn't shout abstract! December 7-January 12 another entertaining vignette in which tion. Considering the diversity of materi­ Fonsia and Weller would be united in a als and styles, the obvious problems with If you missed this comprehensive ex­ mutually understanding friendship, in­ overlap in the four-category format were hibit, it opens at the Paine Art Center and stead of the sadly bitter conclusion Co- inconsequential, and the Wustum staff is Arboretum in Oshkosh July 26-Septem- burn wrote. to be commended for inaugurating the ber 6, and the Rahr-West Art Museum in museum's 50th anniversary celebration Manitowoc, September 20-October 25. Despite the talented cast, this Gin Game with this event. came to little more than a draw. Judith Ann Moriarty Representing the old guard, were master Mark Bucher painters Nancy EkholmBurkert, John Colt, Warrington Colescott, and JoAnna MINIMUM WAGES: Poehlmann (the latter two were in the WHEREVER YOU GO, fantasy section). Other reliables whose THE NEW ECONOMY skills rarely fail were included, and as is to Bill Movers THERE YOU ARE be expected in a show of this scope, there January 8 A Novel by John Hampel were some disappointments. Tom Ut- PBS tech, (who is good enough to know bet­ If a dictum has emerged in contemporary ter) painted a silly "bear spirit cursing the Bill Moyers' Minimum Wages: The New fiction, it is this: Show, Don't Tell. A good whole bloody lot of us." Standing in a Economy focused on Milwaukee's na­ story's message, assuming there is one, deforested landscape, the bear gives the tionally recognized economic renais­ emerges slowly through plot, character viewer The Finger for causing rampant sance, symbolized by the city's and the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Gin Game and dialogue. Stories become a game ecological damage. Uttech's Up-North state's low unemployment rate and con­ with the reader, on whom lies a respon­ paintings are well known for their lush tinued creation of new jobs. Moyers' in­ sibility for understanding. Wisconsin D.L. Coburn's acidic Pulitzer Prize win­ color and virtuosity, so his choice to vestigative report targeted workers who writer John Hampel, in his self-published ning play The Gin Game featured Rose­ produce such a sappy painting in the had lost high-paying, unskilled jobs dur­ novel Wherever You Go, There You Are, mary Prinz and Jon Farris as two senior name ofenvironmentalism was puzzling. ing the 1980's new-world reordering of ignores this dictum, and the result is a citizens passing their golden days by Tamlyn Akins' perspective on a Winter the global marketplace. Left with either book with serious flaws that spells out in engaging in card games of gin while Aspen brushed with snow and set against limited or highly specialized skills, these no uncertain terms exactly where it is verbally playing with, and at, each other. a luscious blue sky was strongly rendered innocent victims of global competition going. As Fonsia and Weller, Prinz and Harris with a subtle hint of Impressionism. and the trade deficit lost jobs and their supplied skilled characterizations for the Nearby was another extraordinary work, middle class standard of living. Wherever You Go is a wacky book in the Maple, by Laurence Rathsack. It exempli­ audience, who appreciatively devoured their sharply-timed repartee. Michael C. tradition of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying fied the famous Rathsack touch: a whis­ The new "poverty-with-a-paycheck" life­ Smith's naturalistically detailed set illus­ of Lot 49, almost anything by Tom Rob- per of image. On the opposite end of style highlighted in the special is explored trated a down-at-the-heels retirement bins and, more recently, The Broom of the lightness was M.P. Marion's House through the adaptations of an unmarried home in all its shabby glory. Libby Appel's System by David Foster Wallace. With Concept, a dreary and heavily airbrushed white male, a nuclear black family and a direction was ultimately facile and alert. these books it shares overtly quirky char­ installation of handmade paper, thread nuclear white family — all blue collar acters, uncanny coincidences and a plot and overkill. Had she simplified the pat­ workers currently making ends meet with that is not bound by the laws of physics. Yet, despite the audience's wholehearted terning and eliminated the largest of the drastically reduced incomes and benefits Wherever You Go, however, is hindered acceptance, The Rep's Gin Game failed seven house assemblages (it stood on and on the verge of losing their homes. by a lack of focus. The story of private in­ to be true to the tone and intent of Coburn's clumsy legs), her concept might have The effect upon white collar workers is vestigator Basil Lexington's journey from perceptively dark script. The level of succeeded. For sheer imagination and featured in a segment about an unem­ self-absorbed, but good-hearted, boor Coburn's writing deserves a production balance, Tom Selle bent the mind over ployed manager, who ironically spent his to culturally sensitive, environmentally which at least attempts to fulfill the script's environmental issues with Tree Bends. whole career "solving problems," but now aware citizen of the earth is fraught with provoking and balanced insight into Prodding us to consider whether artists can't find a solution to the real economic compositional problems and complicated human existence. The Rep's production answer or ask questions, he used a care­ problems facing his suburban family. by stylistic artifices that do little to further clearly chose not to delve any deeper fully painted and fractured cubist style, the story. There are far too many subplots than Coburn's clockwork comedic lines which was both fun and academic. While the program introduces viewers to for a book of 300 pages: a time machine, (of which there are many) and the re­ the real faces of economic life in the James Dean, the Great Pyramid, a shal­ wards of their precise punch. Still life artists often put too much still and 1990s, the show overall painted a chilling low gloss of native American animism, an not enough life into their paintings, and portrait of poverty-with-a-paycheck as a oblivious Ronald Reagan, a virgin sacri­ Prinz and Farris often hinted at greater though they may be fine technicians, the kinder-and-gentler style of economic and fice and (literally) earth-shaking sex atop understanding of the characters and of result is a jumble of well-painted objects mental depression. Despite the humiliat­ a hill in Door County all share the spot­ the murky levels beneath the surface of and little more. Not so for Bruce Hustad's ing bondage of belt-tightening and pride- light. Each diversion is given equal dra­ Coburn's exploration of two lives literally frontal study of two large tulip swallowing, the subjects were portrayed matic weight, causing the central plot to 8 Art Muscle fizzle and sputter in aimlessness and to create a playing area that effortlessly and Bridge in the Sky project isolation A FAR CRY FROM HOME turned pages. Likewise, "unconventional" enriched the actors' work. Additionally, and dissonance rather than unification Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theatre stylistic elements (Hampel coins words Erven's set assisted the audience in read­ and rhythm. The remaining pieces alter­ February 21 & 22 frequently, for example, and uses more ily believing the action was occurring in a nate from collaged, smaller work, to large FOR THE LOVE OF DANCE ellipsis points than Barbara Cartland) wealthy and powerful family's New York scale, painted landscapes with ample Edward Burgess & Dane LaFontsee seem at best merely a nod to the novel's mansion in the 1920s. passages of advancing color. Her large March 20 & 21 pieces present a Bacchic view of nature tradition and y4at worst ponderous, Alverno College self-conscious overwriting. Unfortunately, due to Ron Peluso's scat­ as hillsides bursting with effervescence. tered and inconsistent direction, the There is no evidence of civilization, no These problems could be easily cleared production as a whole never achieved people, no animals. Is the message, then, up by an astute editor (like many the clarity of Erven's set, Andrew Myers' that nature is best when isolated? It is dif­ self-published books, editorial sensibil­ lighting and the majority of Barry's witty, ficult to reconcile her untouchable im­ ity is acutely absent). However, Wherever though overwritten, script. While (ironi­ agery with the romantic vision of her You Go has a deeper flaw, which makes cally) a majority of the actors achieved statement. its classic postmodern stylistic and organ­ some fine individual performances (the izational conventions particularly inef­ smaller caricature roles, including the What does work, however, are her finely fective. Pynchon's seamless but eventu­ servants, were especially sharpened to executed small collages. She utilizes cut­ ally empty conundrums, Robbins' implau­ precise portraitures), the main characters outs, small strings of matter and paint sible moral tales and Wallace's twisty seemed to not listen to each other or be textures to build surface tension. Her story all reinforce an idea about the ap­ affected by the dialogue. As a result, surface handling is inviting as she creates parent unreasonableness of contempo­ movement patterns tended to be robotic intimate visual spaces to explore while rary life. In Wherever You Go, the weird- and unmotivated. her overall imagery remains pensive, cool Valerie Robin & Valdemar Sanchez-Lombardo ness is more an end in itself, and thus and mysterious. The smaller works, Photo by Tom Bamberger becomes merely glib. Throughout the This lack of a rooted quality in the main primarily Renascent Layers #25 and #10, book, a black-and-white morality is made best demonstrate her orchestration of cast and in the often mechanical block­ Continuing a season of innovative pro­ explicit. Hampel calls this a "tale of the hypnagogic landscape imagery with ing, coupled with the director's slight nod gramming, Alverno Presents will entice great midwest," and stereotypical mid- clean, linear perspectives. to Barry's airy "Cowardesque" style, re­ Milwaukee audiences out of hibernation western moral platitudes crop up again sulted in an attractive production with with two concerts of new dance in Febru­ and again. The narrator comments on the many fine separate elements that, finally, These smaller pieces squeeze the eye and ary and March. fact that "there's no excuse for poor lead­ fell short of cohesiveness. Had Peluso are curiously demanding. There is some­ ership," shakes his head condescendingly unified the disparate elements, he would thing unsettling about nature cut off - A Far Cry From Home, recently commis­ at "rich people's problems" and marvels have solidified the theatrical pillars of the sliced on four sides by logic and angular sioned by Columbus Ohio's Wexner at how surprisingly "good it feels to do production. This would have resulted in construction. It is with her juxtapositions Center for the Arts, represents Pimsler's honest, hard work." Basil's redemption is connected dialogue, which might have that Schwartz excels. Her use of texture current thoughts on the theme of house signalled with his decision to give up led to smoother pacing and motivated and layer act as trickster - bouncing the and home expressed in an intriguing, cigarettes. It is completed thanks to the movement. And that would have al­ eye from whole to part, gesturing inward. process-oriented combination of dance power of love, a power "as omnipotent as lowed this production of Holiday lo sur­ She urges us past the surface into nega­ and theater. Six dancer/characters, rang­ it is irrational, that creates bravery in the pass being mere entertainment and crys- tive spaces that suddenly pop positive. ing from a real estate agent to a Russian grip of fear, that is greater than the forces talize into the delicate and shimmering immigrant, evolve on the stage through a of nature," etc., etc. comedy which Barry intended. Most of the large pieces, though visually series of vignettes. "Each separate char­ entertaining, lack substance. She seems acter moves through the piece on his or This banal, middle—America moralizing Mark Bucher to get lost in the enormity of her subject her own - having their own experience - creates a simple-minded picture of the matter, as if the vastness of nature over­ so when they do have an interaction, or world. A clear division of good and bad is whelms her. She replaces the soft, ab­ something happens to make them aware not necessarily unattractive (it works well LENI SCHWARTZ stract quality found in the smaller works of each other, it's very powerful theatri­ in Dickens' novels), but Hampel's book with a bucolic abundance of shape and cally," states Kimm Marks. Marks, for­ Paintings from Santa Fe falls flat because its moral scheme doesn't color. merly of Milwaukee's Wild Space Dance LaGalleria del Conte unfold slowly through the characters' Company, has been with the Pimsler December 6-January 3 actions. Instead, it's spelled out in the Her most moving piece is a large painting company for five months, and will ap­ narrative, up front and repeatedly. And titled Bridge in the Sky and it is a strong pear with them here in the character of a unfortunately, it's just not very compel­ example of how a painted surface can woman given to "fast, sharp movements" ling. The good people stay good and the pull the viewer in and shift his or her and "fits of passion." bad people stay bad, but neither is ex­ frame of reference. This diptych is a fury of cool blues, greens, slashes of red and treme enough to really be interesting. In contrast to the Pimsler work, Lisa James, purple, and it most successfully addresses Instead, because the predictably odd Fine Arts Manager at Alverno, describes her message. She taps into the chthonic characters are in predictably odd situ­ the Burgess/LaFontsee collaboration as reality of nature and exposes the viewer ations, Hample is forced to consciously "more pure dance - movement for the to his or her unending relationship to explain his simple moral vision, eschew­ sake of movement. Audiences will be these forces. This work demonstrates the ing the ambiguity that informs our lives surprised by the vocabulary." Edward power of nature as it seductively exposes and leaving no room for the reader to Burgess, Professor of Modern Dance at itself developing into environmental move around in the story. UW-Milwaukee and Dane LaFontsee, power. Forms are suspended in atmos­ Artistic Director of the Milwaukee Ballet, pheric transformation. Energized with As it stands, Wherever You Go, There You Leni Schwartz, Harvest Fields have chosen to stretch their choreograph ic the forboding of oncoming weather, the Are is a book that's easy to pick on. But muscles, given a setting in which the image invades our psychic space, push­ Wi that doesn't mean it's hopeless. In fact, it's structure, the corps of dancers and the a fun novel. With publishers currently ing us back. Leni Schwartz wisely sidesteps what has potential audience are all wide open. pushing a product of consistently differ­ now become the widely held misconcep­ LaFontsee has created a male duet for ent character - molded by, say, Raymond It is unfortunate that Bridge in the Sky is tion that art about the Southwest is splashy, Burgess and Milwaukee Ballet dancer Carver or Ann Beattie - novels that don't the only piece that effectively deals with colorful patterns, exotic animals and Valdemar Sanchez-Lombardo to David assume the world is a lost cause are a nature as power and movement. In her playful (or politically correct) imagery. Lanz' Skyline Firedance Suite and a solo breath of fresh air. What this book really statement Schwartz admonishes us to be She portrays the Southwest figuratively, dance (to be performed by Valerie Robin, needs is a stern editor, someone to focus more aware of the rhythms and cycles of utilizing collage and vibrating colors. In also of The Milwaukee Ballet) choreo­ its construction, work toward a stylistic nature in order to end alienation and frag­ her best work, this Santa Fe artist focuses graphed to the music of Ennio Morricone, consistency, weed out the superfluous mentation. Ironically enough, what is our attention on how colors and shape- composer of the film scores for The Mis­ loose ends and most importantly, allow missing in her work is the lusty, wild face shifting forms alter our perception of what sion and Bugsy. Burgess will premier a the reader to do some of the work. of nature. Where is the cohesion and dis­ is real. new sextet featuring Yves de Bouteiller, solution, the truly great cycles of birth Principal Dancer with The Milwaukee Nathan Guequierre and death, growth and putrefaction? If Ballet, Robin, Sanchez-Lombardo, UWM Like many artists,Schwartz felt compelled she is to instruct us to be in tune with graduate Barbara Kruse, Wild Space's to provide a written document of her these cycles, I want to see her address Melanie Lien-Palm and Burgess himself, personal vision. But her statement did them herself. Failing to represent the danced to six Cole Porter selections per­ HOLIDAY not reflect the art presented - a disso­ sexual and volatile within the beautiful, formed (on tape) by Bobby Short. Bur­ November 27-December 15 nance that was difficult to overlook. In she sanitizes her images, which ultimately gess will also perform James Donlon's American Inside Theatre her statement, Schwartz grandly suggests fail to inspire. Desert Cafe, portraying the lone occu­ Otteson Theatre/Carroll College that we must learn to harmonize with the pant of a roadside diner. Burgess' roman­ rhythms and cycles of nature to solve Valerie Vail tic duet, No Tomorrow, (danced by Robin The first glimpse of Charles Erven's set problems inherent in the social/human and Sanchez-Lombardo) which was first design for this production of Holiday im­ condition. Are the viewers supposed to performed as part of The 1991 Dance mediately suggested the perfect environ­ place these shackles upon her art, and Project, will complete the program. For ment for Phillip Barry's comedy of social look to her to show the way?- a provok­ ticket information, call the Pitman The­ and romantic graces. Designer Erven ing thought indeed. atre Box Office, 382-6044. combined style with function by grace­ fully placing period furniture against a It is interesting that her most powerful spacious, mahogany-hued background pieces, Renascent Layers #25 and #10, Therese Gantz. 9 t

Milwaukee Art Museum anticipate the response and plan how to dancers. Translated, "Hey you, do you sionals from across the country. Renowned clarifies statement manage it." dance?", the company will be directed by artist Laurie Anderson will perform at a about "controversial" content Yves de Bouteiller. One of its goals is to offer Valentine's Day Dinner Dance, Feb. 14 to Early in January, James Auer, critic for the Journal of Art folds employment to gifted American dancers benefit the association. Tickets are $35 at Milwaukee Journal, stated in a year-end Art historian Barbara Rose's four-year-old during their lay-off time. The company in­ the door. The conference's keynote speaker roundup article that the Milwaukee Art monthly magazine, The Journal of Art, re­ tends to bring artists from diverse disciplines will be installation and performance artist Museum announced at a luncheon meeting cently suspended publication. Rizzoli was together to create innovative works. For ad­ James Luna. For a program and registration that it would "no longer do controversial taken on as publisher in February 1990, ditional information, contact Marie-Armelle materials, send SASE (52 cents) to: Confer­ exhibitions." This rather shocking comment investing $600,000 to save the publication de Bouteiller at 962-4781. ence Program, College Art Association, 275 has created quite a buzz in the arts commu­ from bankruptcy. Since then it is purported Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001. nity. In response, Christopher Goldsmith, that Rizzoli has invested $1.5 million more. Personnel news executive director of the museum, who made Rizzoli attributed the publication's demise to Wild Space Dance Company has named Arts Midwest releases the statement, said it was taken out of con­ "today's economic climate." Rose, however, Elyse Cohn as its new managing director. new publication text. "At that luncheon, we were talking about indicated that circulation and advertising Cohn previously workedattheSkylightOpera Arts Midwest has completed a new 20-page, arts organizations in the '60s, '70s and '80s," had been increasing. Theaterfortwo years andwas special events free publication, Voicing Support for the Goldsmith said. "Then, any arts organiza­ coordinator for Narada Productions. John Arts, that outlines how and why to build tion could get away with doing almost any­ Survey indicates few Dillon, Artistic Director for the past 15 sea­ public support for the arts. It outlines ob­ thing. The general public was very forgiving. artists live off work sons at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, stacles and opportunities facing the arts and In more recent years, the general public is A recent nationwide survey of 920 painters has resigned. He will complete the current lists 40 steps to achieve goals. For a copy not forgiving and you have to be concerned conducted by Columbia University's Re­ season, while the theater searches for a contact Arts Midwest at (612) 341-0755, or in advance about the response and then search Center for Arts and Culture, reveals replacement. Terry Hueneke (Manpower write: 528 Hennepin Ave., Suite 310, Min­ manage it. So, when scheduling an exhibi­ that only 14 percent support themselves executive) and Joan Michaels-Paque (art­ neapolis, MN 55403. tion that's going to be a hot one, you have to exclusively by their creative work. Only 10 ist/teacher, Cardinal Stritch) have been plan how you're going to respond to the percent of those polled make more than chosen as co-chairpersons for the 1992 Art Correction criticism. It's not that the museum will not do $20,000 annually from their art. Of that 10 for AIDS Auction to be held May 31. In the Dec. 1 to Feb. 1 issue of Art Muscle, controversial programming, but we have to percent, half earn above $30,000 and 37 we failed to identify a work of art that ap­ plan in advance how to communicate it. percent above $40,000. CAA in Chicago peared behind a portrait of Janet Treacy in There are a lot of people exploiting these The nation's only forum for the visual arts will our T-shirt ad. The mixed media folding kind of issues. There are organizations out New dance company convene at the Chicago Hilton and Towers screen by Michalene Groshek was entitled there looking for targets. That doesn't mean Et toi, tu danses? Ltd. is a new company Feb. 12-15. The College Art Association "Surroundings #2." We apologize for the you change what you do. It means you founded by a group of Milwaukee Ballet expects 5,000 artists and related profes­ omission.

grants

Arts Midwest fellowships for workshops on on-line editing and the an animated experimental narrative about Beyond Baroque (LA). The program will Arts Midwest is accepting applications for post-production of Out Loud, an experimen­ the life of a girl who is agoraphobic. K. Erin team national writers with regional ones, the 1992 Arts Midwest Visual Artists Fund, tal documentary for and about gay and les­ O'Meara and Brian Smith received $11,000 who will tour to each center. through which 25 artists will each receive bian youth; and Claudia Looze and Anthony for a series of cable access programs ex­ $5,000 (15 in painting and 10 in works on Wood, Milwaukee, a consulting award to ploring contemporary issues. Rob Yeo re­ Present Music paper). Deadline is March 31. To request an support developing effective marketing ceived $5,000 for an experimental film about Advancement grant application, write: Arts Midwest, 528 Henne­ strategies and materials for Paulette, a half- a Great Lakes tugboat company. Christine Present Music was selected as one of 46 pin Ave., Suite 310, Minneapolis, MN 55403, hour narrative about a young boy's con­ Ciano received $3,000 for completion of a national organizations to participate in the or call (612) 341-0901 after 5 p.m. fused response to the disappearance and short narrative film about four women who National Endowment for the Arts Advance­ accidental drowning of a mentally disabled meet when one of them is stranded on a ment Grant Program. Through the program, Healing through arts girl. highway. Present Music will receive professional A grant of $2,000 is available to an artist, assistance from Richard Evans, a New York musician or performer who demonstrates Bradley Foundation Intermedia Arts consultant, in developing a long-range plan the relationships between art and healing at The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Evelyn Patricia Terry and Dena Aronson of and will receive $5,000 as a special needs a personal, community or environmental has recently asked a panel of nationally Milwaukee recently received $4,455 for allowance. level. Write to: Healing Through Arts, P.O. prominent scholars and authors in the arts Subtle Memories and Empty Promises, an Box 411, Wayland, MA 01778. Deadline is and humanities to study the various means installation that reflects the unique orienta­ Milwaukee Foundation March 20. of funding the performing arts in Milwaukee. tions of Aronson (a Russian, Jewish Ameri­ The Milwaukee Foundation recently awarded The new five-member commission will re­ can) and Terry (an African American), each $1 million in grants. Those involving the arts Career Development view local performing arts operations and evolving and recovering from their own cul­ included: American Inside Theatre, $10,000 Arrowhead Career Development grant dead­ research two questions: How can the Bra­ tural and personal views on sexual orienta­ for a feasibility study on the development of line is March 10. Artists from the Arrowhead dley Foundation best assist performing arts tion. The grant was awarded by Intermedia Ten Chimneys; Milwaukee Artists Founda­ region of Northern MN and Wisconsin are through its grants; and what sort of policies Arts 1991 Diverse Visions Regional grant tion, $10,000 for Arts in Education Initiative; eligible. Write to: Arrowhead Regional Arts should the Foundation support in the com­ program. Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Council, 101 E. 2nd St., Ste. 201, Duluth, munity to achieve a harmonious relationship $35,000 to supplement its capital campaign; MN 66802, (218) 722-0952. between the means of funding and the artis­ Gallery, museum grants Theatre X, $10,000 toward creating a man­ tic goals of the organizations? Committee Arts Midwest's Artworks Fund for galleries aging director position; Walker's Point Cen­ NEA deadlines members are Samual Lipman, New York, and museumsin the midwest provides money ter for the Arts, $7,000 to strengthen admin­ Copies of the NEA Guide to Programs and publisher of The New Criterion; John Agresto, for exhibiting and purchasing works by the istrative needs; and Wisconsin Black His­ Program Application Guidelines and Forms, Santa Fe, president of St. John's College; recipients of 1991 Arts Midwest visual arts torical Society-Museum, $25,000 toward in addition to a calendar of deadlines, can be Joseph Epstein, Evanston, IL, editor of Ameri­ fellowships. Organizations may apply for a renovation and expansion. obtained by writing the Public Information can Scholar; Kay Huffman Goodwin, Ripley, single matching grant of up to $1,000. Call Office, National Endowment for the Arts, WV, Board of Trustee member of the Univer­ (612) 341-0755 for more information. Sculpture commission 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington sity of West Virginia; and Samuel Hope, The Milwaukee Arts Board has selected DC 20506, (202) 682-5400. Specify pro­ Fairfax, VA, director of the National Office Woodland Pattern grant Susan Walsh of Madison for a $10,000 gram when requesting application forms. for Arts Accreditation. The study will be Woodland Pattern recently was named one commission for the newly completed Engine Upcoming grant deadlines include: Sculp­ completed in May. of five national literary centers to receive a House No. 16,10320 N. Fond du Lac Ave. ture, Feb. 14 and Crafts, March 16. major grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Twelve other artists competed for the com­ UWM film grants Digest Fund. A grant of $130,000 will sup­ mission. New Television awards Several graduates of UWM's Film Depart­ port a National Readings Tour between five The Center for New Television recently ment received awards from the 1991 Re­ literary centers: Woodland Pattern, St. Mark's awarded $47,500 in awards. Wisconsin gional Film/Video Grants Program of Film in Poetry Project (YNC), Just Buffalo, (NY), recipients include Sadie Benning, Madison, the Cities. Cathy Cook received $12,000 for Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco) and

10 Art Muscle opportunities

Children's scripts two weekend festival of 10-minute plays for ety, 1342 North Astor Street, Milwaukee, Wl The Big Broadcast, a 1920's style radio The African American Children's Theatre in­ the spring of 1992 at the Stiemke Theater at 53202 or call 347-0206 for more information. show, on May 8 at the Marc Plaza Hotel. vites directors/playwrights to submit resu­ the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Cash Singers and comedians are wanted to take mes and finished scripts of plays for consid­ awards will be presented. Ten-minute origi­ Off Our Backs on celebrity characters, ranging from the eration. The format should be fresh works nal plays are wanted, eight to twelve pages Deadline is March 2 for Off Our Backs, a Andrew Sisters to Glenn Miller. Auditions for children ages 8-16 to perform. The group long. The plays should be single set or no set juried exhibition of works that have confron­ will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 15 at MATC T- seeks full-length and one-act plays. For in­ productions and contemporary dress is tational or expressive reactions to the patri­ Auditorium, 1101 N. 8th St. Costume and formation: African American Children's preferred. Submit plays to: Submissions archal status quo. Send entry with SASE, $5 sheet music required. Call 374-1900. Theatre, 2821 rf. 4th St., Suite 308, Milwau­ Reader, Playwrights Studio Theater, P.O. fee for four slides or prints. Awards. Contact: kee, Wl 53202, or call Constance Riemer at Box 11069, Milwaukee, Wl 53211-0069. Ann Preston, Gallery X, 800 W. Madison, Literary publication 263-2233. Entry deadline is Feb. 15. Phoenix, AZ 85007. The Nobody Quarterly seeks prose, poetry or articles for publication. Send SASE for Blatz Gallery Film/video comedy North American Sculpture guidelines to: 2843 N. 47th St., Milwaukee, The Blatz Gallery, under the new direction of The Lucille Ball Festival of New Comedy in This juried sculpture show is open to all U.S. Wl 53210, c/o Dean Karpowicz. Brian Bailey, seeks artists interested in dis­ association with Paragon Communications artists. Send SASE for prospectus. Work is playing work. Contact: Brian Bailey, 6818 W. is now accepting submissions for the sec­ juried from 8 x 10 inch photos. Fee is $10 per ArtWalk coordinator needed State St. #109, Wauwatosa, Wl 53213. ond annual Film and Video Festival to be photo, limit of three photos. Cash awards. The Riverwest Artists Association is seeking held May 17 to 24. Entries must be recently Contact: The Foothills Art Center, 809 15th a coordinator for ArtWalk 1992 in Septem­ Yarns of Yesteryear completed comedies up to 30 minutes in St., Golden, CO 80401, (303) 279-3922. ber. Deadline for applications is Feb. 21. Wisconsin writers age 60 and over are in­ length. Physical comedy and slapstick is the Deadline is March 10. Preliminary work begins in March. For infor­ vited to enter their reminiscences in the UW- focus. Cash awards. Submit in 1/2" VHS mation, send SASE to Artistry Studio Gal­ Madison "Yarns of Yesteryear" contest. format for evaluation. Deadline is March 1. Illuminance '92 lery, 833 East Center St., Milwaukee, Wl Deadline is March 1,1992. Send one manu­ Contact: The Lucille Ball Festival of Comedy Photographers are invited to submit work to 53212, 372-3372. script, original and unpublished, from 500 to Film and Video Festival, 116 East Third Illuminance '92. Send SASE. Fee is $15 for 1,500 words. Manuscripts will not be re­ Street, Jamestown, NY 14701, or call (716) three entries, $5 each. Cash awards. Con­ Lakeside Gallery turned. Provide a separate cover sheet with 664-3829. tact: Lubbock Fine Arts Center, 2600 Ave. Lakeside Gallery seeks artists using title, name, address, phone, age, name and P., Lubbock, TX 79405, (806) 767-2686. Goethe's color theory. Call 276-2838, or address of local newspaper and word count. Art fair Deadline is March 6. write Lakeside Gallery, 809 N. Cass St., Entry fee is $4. Cash prices range from $10 Artists are invited to submit work for the June Milwaukee, Wl 53202. to $25. For a brochure listing rules write: 28 Celebration of Arts in Elmhurst, Illinois. Crafts National Yarns of Yesteryear, Kathy Berigan, Room Fee is $35, plus $5 jury fee. Send four slides Deadline is March 20 for this juried craft Artists' books 727N Lowell Hall, 610 Langdon St., Madi­ of work, one of display, resume and SASE show of ceramic, fiber, metal, paper, glass Gallery Ten in Rockford announces a na­ son, Wl 53703. by March 9. Contact: Elmhurst Park District, or wood. Send SASE for prospectus. Fee is tional juried exhibit of the book as an art form 130 W. Madison St., Elmhurst, IL 60126 or $20 for three slides. Cash awards. Contact: as well as a national poetry competition for Sculpture show call (708) 530-0960. Crafts National 26, Zoller Gallery, 101 Visual artists and poets. Slides/poems due April Local and national sculptors are invited to Arts Bldg., Penn State U., University Park, 24. Fee is $15 for three slides or four poems. enter work in "Sculpture on the Plaza, '92," Wausau festival PA 16802, (814) 865-0444. For prospectus send SASE: Gallery Ten, a juried exhibition in a setting overlooking Applications are now being accepted for the 514 E. State St., Rockford, IL 61104. (815) Lake Michigan at St. John's Home of Mil­ Wausau Festival of Arts in September of Paper Art 964-1743. waukee. The exhibit will open July 25 and 1992. For information write: Wausau Festi­ Entries are being accepted for a statewide run through Aug. 16. Each sculptor may val of Arts, Dr. Mary Jo Freeman, P.O. Box handmade paper competition being con­ Chiaroscuro submit up to three entries by a March 15 1763, Wausau, Wl 54402-1763. ducted by the AGA-Center for Visual Arts as Chiaroscuro is looking for innovative furni­ deadline. For information call Carol Harding, part of its Paper/Arts Festival, saluting the ture artists to participate in an April show. gallery coordinator, 291-4993 or write to: Flower photos paper industry in the Fox Valley. Deadline Send slides or photos, prices, biography Uihlein Peters Gallery, 1840 N. Prospect The 5th annual Wildflower Photographic for entries is Feb. 12. Winners will be notified and SASE to Chiaroscuro, 750 N. Orleans, Ave., Milwaukee, Wl 53202. Competition at the Milwaukee Public Mu­ by March 1. For a prospectus, write Jan Chicago, IL 60610, (312) 988-9253. seum will accept entries through May 4. Hughes, Director, AGA-Center for Visual Small art Amateur and professional photographers Arts, 130 N. Morrison St., Appleton, Wl Artists over 60 2 x 2 x 2, a juried exhibition of work measur­ may submit in three categories: Macro pho­ 54911. Artreach seeks entries to Exposure '92, an ing no larger than 2", including frame or tography, plant close-ups and plants in the exhibition of work by Milwaukee, Waukesha pedestal, will run April 17 to May 29 at landscape. Call 278-2711 for information. Parkside festival and Ozaukee County artists over 60. Dead­ Gallery Ten. For information, send SASE to: Applications are now available for UW- line is Feb. 17. Call 271-4704 or 271-5185 Gallery Ten, 514 E. State St., Rockford, IL Water Street Bar seeks work Parkside's Summer Arts and Crafts Festival (TDD, hearing impaired) for an entry form. 61104, or call (815) 965-1743. Tony's Water Street Bar and Cafe seeks on June 27. Entry fee is $40. Call 595-2457 work for spring shows in March and May. or write: Summer Arts and Crafts Fest, UW- Bill T. Jones auditions Utopia show The March show is entitled, The Roars of Parkside Music Department, Box 2000, Ke­ On Feb. 22, auditions will be conducted in The Forum Gallery invites artists to submit March, and the May show is entitled Dainty nosha, Wl 53141-2000. Chicago to locate 39 dancers from the local work to Utopia: Envisioning a Dream, an Little May. Interested artists should call Mary community to perform in Bill T. Jones/Amie exhibition to generate discussion on the K. Shisler at 355-0589 for further informa­ Tools by artists Zane and Company's Last Supper at Uncle components of an ideal socio/political real­ tion. Work needs to be applicable to the The Charles Wustum Museum of Fine Arts Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land. Dancers ity. Work in any medium acceptable. Dead­ theme, preferably two-dimensional, and in Racine invites artists to enter Just Plane of different races, sexes and ages are line is Feb. 21. For information call (716) ready to hang. Screwy; Metaphysical Tools by Artists, an needed. Dance experience is preferred but 665-9107 or write The Forum Gallery, exhibition running June 7 to Sept. 13. All not required. To audition, call Brenda E. Jamestown Community College, 525 Fal­ Common Room Gallery media eligible. Send up to 10 slides, a res­ Walls at (312) 663-1628. The performance coner St., Jamestown, NY 14701. The Leenhouts Common Room Gallery is ume, and SASE by March 1. Call 636-9177 will be March 11, 13 and 14 at the Chicago considering artists for its 1992-93 exhibition for information. Civic Theatre. season. Exhibitions are for one month. To Call for scripts apply, send slides and a resume with SASE Si ngers/com ed ia ns Playwrights Studio Theater has scheduled a to: Gallery Committee, First Unitarian Soci­ The United Negro College Fund will present

gossip

Well, I'm still here for another round. Let's Apple. . .Milwaukee painter Tim Haglund the American Film Institute in LA. . .In the ment of the Hotel Wisconsin. . .NOW, can see if I can warm up to the task of slinging has a solo show up now at Class of 1925 sorry to hear that category, Gareth Ste­ you believe what architect Peter Renner some news on this cold day. In the FYI gallery, UW-Madison. . .MlAD teacher and vens, Inc., the local children's book pub­ has done to the Third Ward. Though still category, did you know there's a 10:30 p.m. sculptor Jim Matson has been hired to lisher, has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. . under construction, so far it looks like a train that runs Chicago to Milwaukee, so you design a set for the National Children's .Local music moguls Peter and Mary Buffett blueprint of postmodern, architectural multi- can actually attend an event down thar and Repertory Theatre production of Free to be, have filed divorce papers.. .Despite the fact personality syndrome. There's phallic, con­ get back to Tiny Town in time to tuck the kids You and Me. The production will travel to 50 that several distribution sites have decided crete doo-dads dropped everywhere. One in??? Then again, one could take the ap­ US cities. Mario Thomas, who wrote the not to carry the Public Record because "it's store owner's comment: "The pillars are ex­ proach of local Goal Zero poet Nick book on which the play is based, personally too scary," Jim Romenesko remains opti­ tremely continental. They're used in certain Lippolone who is trying to bring Torso approved Matson's set sketches.. .Milwau­ mistic about his new, every other week rag countries to impale virgins." The arching Theatre's production of Cannibal Cheer­ kee Magazine was featured in an article in as it enters its fourth month of publication. Third Ward gates strive for old world charm, leaders on Crack to Milwaukee, to see if it the January issue of the Photo District News Created entirely on his home Mac, Romene­ yet plopped in the middle is a po-mo key­ gets busted by the censors. It's been run­ . . . Local artist Pat Grace graduated from sko says he'll soon be launching a new four- stone reminiscent of a Kansas corn hopper. ning in Chicago for nearly a year.. .Get this: UWM's architecture program and is headed page supplement in the Record called "The Resting on awkwardly proportioned brick Connie Grauer of Mrs. Fun recently audi­ to Paris to celebrate. . .The Milwaukee Art Scene," covering the local entertainment pylons, one of the gates actually obscures tioned for a keyboard player position in M.C. Museum's exhibition, The Eight, was actu­ landscape. "Aren't those crime report col­ the beautiful historic fire house it rests in Hammer's band and got it. They wanted her ally reviewed in the December issue of Art umns getting a little redundant?" we asked front of. And what about those benches and for a two-year commitment, $75,000 a year, News... UWM art history prof Barry Wind him. "Well, maybe, but we're going to be Lilliputian red brick walls, incidental to say and she turned it down!! She felt that two is organizing a.show of Lawrencia Bem- moving into more personal interviews with the least. We can't wait to see how the years was too long to tie up her life. benek's prison art for the art history gallery. the victims now," he said. Romenesko will gazebo turns out — a touch of Disney in .Milwaukee's Present Music has been in­ Gosh, maybe that's something I could do my be dropping to part-time status at Milwau­ what was once a perfectly reasonable street. vited to perform at the Bang on the Can master's thesis on. How about it Barry? ... kee Magazine, to devote more effort to the Festival of new music in New York in May — Local artist Jodi Castagnozzi recently had Record.... Although Eddie Jackson (most On that cranky note, signing off, quite a prestigious invite.. .Former Milwau­ a show at Serendipity Gallery in Los Ange­ unfortunately) closed his supper club, he as always, kee artist Henry Kiimowicz, also known as les. . .Milwaukee native Patricia Backhaus hasn't disappeared. He'll be pulling together the wizard of cardboard, recently had a has been commissioned to create the musi­ some jazz musicians to play at the Feb. 22 Miss Yvonne show at Cleaver Callahan Gallery in the Big cal score for an upcoming film produced by World Green Cross fund raiser in the base­

11 Small arts groups oppose UPAF's new structure

BY DEBRA BREHMER

On Nov. 8, Milwaukee's United Perform­ program will give them more flexibility munity to adequately support. Pease When two years ago, one of the associate ing Arts Fund (UPAF) released a new and see UPAF as abandoning its respon­ states, "The GMC report called for the members, Clavis Theater, folded, this long-range plan that called for restructur­ sibility to them. elimination of a number of the smaller created concern among UPAF members ing some of the organization's funding arts organizations. Icannot stress strongly about the "fiscal responsibility" of associ­ categories. The most dramatic change in Susan Dragisic, UPAF's executive direc­ enough that the most important thing we ate members. The new report empha­ the report calls for eliminating the associ­ tor, explained it this way: "The grant learned over the eight years of coalition sizes that "UPAF has an obligation to its ate member category, which since 1987 program will give us more flexibility to building and joint fund raising was that it donors to assess the fiscal responsibility served 16 arts groups, and in its place fund different programs, but we intend to was in everyone's best interest to insure of all its recipients." Whether UPAF sees implementing a grant program. As asso­ continue funding operational support. the health of all." the Associate Members as too unstable to ciate members, the groups received fund­ There is a concern from the associate bank on and whether that had any influ­ ing each year ($263,000 of the $6.2 mil­ members that we would only fund proj­ Betty Salamun of Dance Circus called the ence on its decision to drop the category lion raised by UPAF in the *90-'91 cam­ ects and programs and it would be com­ GMC "merger mania" report a "corporate remains uncertain. But as Pease points paign), based on their budget size and petitive. We intend to continue providing model." "That is fine in the corporate out, "Some of the majors have been the participation in UPAF fund raising activi­ some operational sup­ world, but the arts world most flagrantly irresponsible in fiscal ties. If the new plan is implemented (it is port and want the asso- functions differently," management. When a Clavis Theater gets scheduled to begin in 1993), the smaller ciatesinputindetermin- " Jf yQU take away she said. Salamun also into financial trouble, not only is nothing arts groups will compete with one an­ ing their part of the re- <* * pointed out that while done to help them, but potential funding other each year for a pool of money. structuring. The intent -. . ^ the rest of the world sources run for the hills; when a Milwau­ UP AF has not yet stated how much money is not to leave anybody tile COIlSlStenCy 01 seems to be increasingly kee Ballet Company threatens bankruptcy would be put into this grant program. in the lurch. One nega- interested in cultural di­ for the third time in less than 10 years, live aspect of the Asso­ versity and pluralism in funds are showered upon them from all Reactions from the 16 associate members ciate Members program funding and start the arts, UPAF remains directions." have been unanimously negative. None was there was no re­ adhered to a white, of the smaller groups likes the idea of view of the appl ications a grant program, European "historically The practical consideration of how to competing for yet another grant and they each year. It was an correct" vision. The implement a grant program also troubles question why UPAF remains set on main­ automatic renewal. This it is not report emphasized that the associate members. Peer review taining strong practical and philosophi­ way the groups will be the major members "sig- panels pose complicated problems. In a cal divisions in its view of "major" versus reviewed each year." nificantl enhance the small city, it is difficult if not impossible to "minor" arts groups. According to Karen stabilizing the art cultural yimage of the find panels of impartial yet informed Spahn, director of the Milwaukee Artists Dragisic said that many community," yet goes professionals to fairly award grants. Foundation, after being presented with of the details of the community." on to say that member­ Administering a grant program seems far the report, the associate members met program have not been ship diversity is impor­ more complex than the mechanics of the and sent a letter of response to UPAF, worked out yet. There -Anne Kingsbury, tant. Diversity, however, associate program, which UPAF funded asking the organization to reconsider its will be certain criteria Woodland Pattern is no more apparent the Milwaukee Artists Foundation to ad­ plan. Acknowledging that UPAF's execu­ established for arts than at the associate minister. "How could any semblance of tive committee had the best of intentions groups to qualify to level where many of the impartiality be achieved?" Pease asked, in creating the new grant program, the apply for the grants, such as a budget of 16 members are committed to develop­ regarding a peer panel system of evalu­ associate members feel a grant program at least $50,000 for three years. ing new works that explore contempo­ ation. would be misguided, difficult to admini­ rary concerns in the art field. The UPAF ster and that it would set the arts groups Anne Kingsbury of Woodland Pattern, a report repeatedly links size of budget to While all of the associate members sup­ in competition with one another. current associate member, responded this "cultural enhancement and community port the establishment of the new "Cor­ way, "If you take away the consistency of image," as if there is a direct correlation porate Member" category, and in gen­ UPAF apparently orchestrated the funding and start a grant program, it is not —the bigger the budget the more impact eral, believe that UPAF committee mem­ changes in an attempt to "build more stabilizing the art community." on the community. This vision overlooks bers have good intentions, they hope flexibility" into its funding programs. In the less tangible input of the smaller arts UPAF will consider maintainingthe Asso­ addition to the grant level, a "Corporate" Even Dan Petry, general manager of Pres­ groups who consistently present eye- ciate Member category. "At this point," membership level was added for arts ent Music (one of the groups that may opening, challenging work of an original Karen Spahn said, "I remain optimistic groups with budgets in excess of $200,000. qualify for the new Corporate status), had nature, who generate new works, attract that there may be some changes. The Groups in the "Major" member category, reservations about the grant plan. "There younger audiences and serve as a train­ associate groups are committed to work­ formerly called the "Corporate" category, are two real problems," he said. "The first ing ground for artists. "This plan denies ing with UPAF to effect some changes." now must have budgets in excess of is that it's a subtle form of corporate the voice of the 'other' and it's the voices $800,000. Major members now include mainstreaming. They just want to sup­ of women and minorities that give bal­ the Milwaukee Symphony, the Milwau­ port the mainstream. But some art forms ance to our culture," Salamun said. kee Ballet, the Florentine Opera, the are not market driven. Where does it Milwaukee Repertory Theater and the leave emerging groups. The other prob­ Skylight Opera Theater. The report states lem is that this is fine today, but what will that "UPAF will provide major support for happen in 10 years to this economy? If the the four performing arts disciplines that economy's in trouble, what will happen historically comprise the center of public to UPAF. We know the grant program arts interest in America: instrumental will be the first thing to go and that's scary music, dance, vocal music and theater." for the smaller groups who don't have the The report also states "UPAF will also personnel to go to every corporation and provide a significant amount of support foundation for support. Furthermore, you to a second strata to be known as Corpo­ won't know from year to year if you'll get rate Members who have smaller budgets a grant. I think it will force these groups to and programs but who substantially not do controversial works. Take a group enhance the culture and image of the like Cream City Chorus (a gay and lesbian community." They list Bel Canto Chorus vocal group). Their budget is growing. and the Milwaukee Youth Symphony as Are they going to be let into UPAF? I don't two groups who would qualify for this think so." status. These two groups previously were in the Major membership category, since Jim Pease, who has formerly been affili­ the inception of UPAF in 1967. This caused ated with the Bauer Contemporary Bal­ problems, however, because other arts let, in a letter to Barry Allen (who chaired groups had grown to the size of Bel Canto the committee that devised the new plan), and the MYS, yet the UPAF structure states, "Wiping out Associate Member­ lacked the flexibility to move them into a ships and turning them into a competitive Major category. Several of the former grant program is the single most destruc­ Associate members, such as the Milwau­ tive thing that UPAF can do to the small kee Chamber Theater, Ko-Thi, Great arts community." Pease, as well as other American Children's Theatre and Present associate members, believes that last Music will probably now qualify for Cor­ year's Greater Milwaukee Committee porate status. report calling for the consolidation of smaller arts groups, may be providing At the heart of the new plan is a response some of the impetus behind the restruc­ to this need for "greater flexibility." But turing. That report implied that there were associate members question how a grant too many small arts groups for the com-

12 Art Muscle 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD by Helene Hanff

She was a New York writer.

He was a London bookseller. m She wanted a few hard-to find books. m He found the books for her and a whole lot more.

A story of love letters. Starring Ruth Schudson and Montgomery Davis,

A Milwaukee Chamber production Feb. 21 -March8, 1992 at the Stiemke Theatre, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets, call 224-9490

Milwaukee's Longest Lunch.ilam-Midnight. iie'5 1111N. Water 274.7213

13 SPALDING GRAY M

Spalding Gray is probably the best-known of all the performers who do what Spalding Gray does. When performing arts presenters want somebody like Spalding Gray, they won't really be satisfied with anybody else; what he does is unique. What he does is talk to the audience. He sits behind a table, with a microphone, a notebook and a glass of water, telling stories of things that have happened to him, thoughts he's had, observations he's made. He once described h is work as "poetic journal ism," meani ng that he reports on events he's witnessed or participated in, but with less objecti vity and more subjectivity than most journalists will acknowledge.

I've seen Spalding perform many times, and have talked with him before, and there is very little difference between the two. His performances are extremely engaging because he presents such a natural and personal character. You leave the theater feeling that you know him. He stirs the mind as much as he warms the heart. You wonder about that relationship he's established with you, while you are thinking about the ideas and experiences he's related.

I interviewed Spalding in anticipation of his upcoming appearance in Milwaukee, as part of UWM's Great Artist Series. He will be performing his most recent work, Monster in a Box, which he describes as "a monologue about a man who can't write a book about a man who can'ttake a vacation." The performance is at the Pabst Theater on February 29 at 8 p.m.

n n w w

Mark Anderson: How do you describe your work? conversations and stories of audience members he Spalding Gray: God, you know, recently, about a invites onto the stage with him]? month ago, I went to meet the President of the SG: In Interviewing the Audience, it's much more United States and Jim Baker at the Kennedy Center immediate and there is no agenda — the idea of it Arts Awards, and I was back to ground zero with ev­ THE is to talk about living in this world, without an eryone at my table. I was sitting between Walter agenda. Also, I act much more as editor than as Cronkite and Sid Caesar. I think I was the only one reporter. What I'm trying to do is shape and bring below Fourteenth Street [his residence in lower out each person's personal story, and see if there is Manhattan! there. I don't know howl got there. And one there, in the course of the interview. It's not just Walter Cronkite finally turns to me and says "Do to get information, but to find stories as well. It TALKING gives the people telling the stories a sense of you call yourself a monologist or a monologuist?" And I said, "You know, Walter, I've always kind of history, and they begin to discover through that left it up to you people to make the definition." But oral fabric a tradition of retelling or telling their he did get out his card and write down Swimming story. To Cambodia [Gray's monologue on acting in the film, The Killing Fields]. So he's going to research it. MAN It's funny, because I just have been rereading, or listening, actually, to a tape [Spalding has a touch of The best definition I ever heard was from a little ten MA: In moments whenyou'resitting next to Walter dyslexia, so he listens to audio-books] of Memories, year old girl who was at the Performing Garage in Cronkite, do you still feel that you need to explain Dreams, Reflections, Jung's autobiography. And he NY for one of my monologues, maybe it was Sex or prove yourself? opens the book by saying "I have no theory, all I and Death. I was kind of surprised to see her there SG: No, not in that case because Jim Baker and I have is simple stories to tell, and it doesn't matter if alone. Actually she was with her parents, but I were at that table; he assumed something must they are the truth or not, they are my truth. And I'm didn't see them. And I said, "Why did you come have happened that he had missed, and so in that going to tell them at 82 years old." Then he goes on tonight?" She said, "My dad told me I had to come context, no (laugh). But yes, and only because to say that "I've discovered that in my process of and see the talking man." So that's kind of it I'm a people were asking, and they were asking the therapy, everyone has a personal story—a private man who talks at a table, and I tell stories from my most basic questions — and sometimes it was personal story that is somehow central to their life. stimulating, but I guess I'm kind of tired of it now, private mythology, their individual being, their because I would both like to be a household name history." His attempt is to bring the story out. I think The form and shape that the stories take grows or­ and not. In other words, once you are, then you're that that barely exists in me anymore, but it does ganically out of the continual performances in front kicked upstairs and you're no longer accessible to exist in the audience, and they are surprised and of an audience. So in a sense the audience is a everyman information, and you can't make regular pleased, often, by how making that story public has collaborative editor. Not that I'm asking them di­ stories. a healing effect — both in the sense of communi­ rectly for their responses—although I've done that cating and sometimes being entertaining. But also before — but I am certainly attuned to them, be­ Another part of me likes the confusion, and to be in giving them a stronger sense of themselves. cause I've worked in front of a live audience for 30 able to perform in various spaces, and have the years. range of audience and not be pinned down. I'm a MA: Do you find it difficult, this far down the road, man who sits behind a table and tells stories from to maintain freshness in the act of placing yourself So, I work from an outline, where I think that I know my life. You say that and they go "What's so inter­ in front of an audience? basically what the stories are, but really what I'm esting about your life?" And I say, "Well, I tell a SG: Well, no, because one of the things that's doing is trying to figure out, through storytelling, good story about it." You know, (laughs) it's not different from me and, say, other "performance what's happened to me, and what I've thought that special. I probably make it more special in the artists," which I don't consider myself as one, is that about, for the past two or three years in between story than in the living. Renee [his wife] refers to it the original impulse for repetition was in there and monologues. It's a wholly organic process that as a histrionic personality. I would refer to it as led me to studying acting. I get pleasure from grows from tape recording the early shows—audio historic histrionic, or histrionic/historic. But it's a repetition, because it's a form of ritual that origi­ taping. terrific pleasure that I get out of dramatizing, and nally drew me to theater, and that I don't psycho­ editing, sections — it's not the whole life story, analyze. The fabric is never broken as long as the reporter is ever. there, as long as the reporter voice is in me, as long But there are performers who talk — Terrance as I choose to watch my life both as a life and as MA: How do you describe Interviewing the MacKenna, the mushroom man, who says he never potential material. Audience [a performance based on unplanned repeats himself, and he's proud of that. I'm just the 14 Art Muscle opposite, because the more I work on a mono­ community that crosses over. That's part of why I don't have a new one yet. Or I do, but I haven't logue, the closer it comes to music. So that I can made the film of Monster in a Box, because there's been able to look at it yet. now step into a very solid text of Monster in a Box. a whole generation of people who won't step I don't have to think my way through it, think about into a theater, because they only want to go to a MA: Considering all the things you've done, act­ it before I do it. It is like a song. It is something I can movie. They'll go see the film of it. ing, writing, etc., is there anything you'd rather be step into and play like a text, like an actor ap­ doing or be doing more of? proaching a text, because I know it so well. I am So, I like the mix, the crossover. Some producers SG: I would love to hang-glide, downhill ski, and also able to empathize with the audience, and from National Geographic saw Monster in Wash­ windsurf. But I don't know how to do any of those. sympathize, and understand, that they are seeing ington, D.C. and want me to propose to them — I just went cross-country skiing when I performed and hearing this for the first time. That connection and I'm doing it now — my own National Geo­ in Aspen, and fell down. I have to go to a sports makes it aiirst time for me. When I get real tired of graphic special, seen through my eyes. I can't doctor now because my shoulder's in such bad it, I begin a new work or I do Interviewing the Au­ believe them, that they would really go through shape. dience, which is wide open. But I think that's an with it. original theater impulse and that's where I have my In the real world of where I am now I know a lot of roots. I just got tired of doing other people's lines. So when things like that start to happen, it gets into things are on the horizon, and I have to be careful I never felt authentic when I was doing other the poetic journalist again, and it would be a col­ so I don't do the thing that caused Monster in a Box people's lines. I felt embarrassed. I mean, there are laboration, and something that would take me to be a monologue, which is to say yes to too many great actors that are conduits, that can say a line and away from myself, or throw me out into the world projects. I'm being very cautious. Impossible Vaca­ make it absolutely real. But, I'm always a little to see other structures besides what happens to me tion, my new novel, is being published in June. I'm distant from someone else's lines. mainly when I'm alone and just mulling and wait­ just reading the galleys, and it was cut in half. ing to see what comes up next. What happens is I There's another half of the book sitting on my desk, 1,900 pages long. There's a second book there, I absolutely know it, and I'd love to get to it. This is a big year for product, and once I tie up all those, (three audio tapes, two books and a film, coming out all within three months), I think I'll be freer to goon.

MA: Is there anything else you want to say? SG: I'd like to talk a little more about performance and acting, because I think I'm doing both at the same time. What was most important for me, what changed my life, was working in the Performing Garage, beginning in 1970, with Richard Schech- ner and the Performance Group, which eventually evolved into the Wooster Group, with Elizabeth LeCompte. We had our own, call it ritual space, sacred space— and at that time, that's how it was approached, because we were asked not to speak outside of the space about stuff that went on in there, so that we delineated between the art world and our creative world, although we could bring everything from the outside in and work with it. But it was going in there every day that taught me something that I had never had before, that disci­ pline of working every single day, that an actor in (professional actors) are doing is waiting — and how can they do creative waiting unless they're working on themselves? And what happens is that the self becomes more important than the Holly­ wood call, right? And then it can develop into art, which it did with me.

I remember once, when I first got a Hollywood agent after The Killing Fields, she said "You've got to take your savings and move out here and wait, and you will have a film career." I've never waited in my life! I would start doing a monologue about what happened while I was waiting, and then I would resent them calling me in. That happened when I was in a film called Stars and Bars, that Daniel Day-Lewis was in. We shot it down in Georgia. I got there, and, you know, "You'll have to wait." They were a week behind because of rains. So I was in this motel in Helen, Georgia, in the red hills. There was nothing to do. And I worked on this book, Impossible Vacation, in my motel. I found it to be a perfect writing situation! It was like being in a writer's colony. I'd write all day, then have dinner with the actors. When they started calling me into shoot (laugh), I felt my work was being inter­ rupted. And I liked that feeling because I was able to have a strong identity. That's where the years in the Performing Garage taught me that it has to be a daily thing. It has to be about that process, and not about waiting for someone else to initiate, or bring in a script. That changed my life, having that center.

It also allowed me to develop the monologues MA: How do you find yourself fitting within the art usually begin to see what I would call repetitive because I could go in there and treat it like my living world and the theater world? neurotic structures that have already been worked room. There was a kind of trust in the space that I on in the monologue and also in the book. I mean would never have had in any other theater. That's SG: The way I place myself now is in a more I've sort of covered all those bases (laugh). I'm a very rare and important thing, now, in this coun­ theatrical setting. I've been working more and always working from a particular mcguffin [Alfred try. I know that the Wooster Group still thrives more in proscenium stages, because the ending of Hitchcock's term for central dramatic hook, around because of it, because of that physical center, that Monster in a Box takes place in a proscenium which the plot turns. Usually an insignificant de­ space. stage, with the re-enactment of Our Town [Spald­ tail]. In Terrors of Pleasure, it was about the house ing played the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's I was buying in upstate New York. In Swimming to (Mark Anderson is a Milwaukee-based performance Our Town, at Lincoln Center in 19891. But within Cambodia, it was the making of the film. In Mon­ artist. He currently is writing a new play, Toute une nuit, that, what I like, is that there's a certain artistic ster in a Box, it's the writing of the novel — and I for Theatre X, scheduled to open this month). >•<*». 15 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS EXOTIC The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore! PRINTABLE PAPERS NEW AND NOW IN STOCK Exciting array of paper choices for special resumes, invitations & projects. (Many textures and colors!)

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16 Art Muscle c^^^J erialists. Minimalists. "1st" after "ist" dominated Ameri- ^1 ^F can "serious music" in the decades following World War II. Pity the young composer growing up in that atmosphere, who was expected to pick an "ist", and march with it like a soldier under his flag.

John Downey, music professor at UW-Milwaukee, was one of those exceptional souls who refused to pledge allegiance to anyone's musical orthodoxy. Not that Downey was disdainful of the 20th Century's musical breakthroughs. He loved the silence of John Cage and the 12-tones of Alban Berg, as much as he loved a Bach fugue or a Beethoven symphony. He couldn't make up his mind to marry his creativity to the aesthetics of any of his beloved composers, so he kept them all as musical mistresses.

"I pride myself in not writing the same composition over and over," Downey says. Soft spoken, a bit diffident, a tad forgetful (he searches his studio for the CD he left at his elbow only moments before) and a charming conversationalist, Downey is everyone's idea of a lovable professor as he putters around his rambling Shorewood home.

"Sometimes you gain notoriety by being labeled with a style," he continues. "It helps promote your image. I, fortunately or unfortu­ nately, never belonged to a stylistic group. The hope is that my own voice emerges progressively, bit-by-bit, from works that sound different from each other."

Downey's composition "Jingalodeon" serves as a partial catalog for his restless yet subtle imagination. Stravinksian savagery and Bartokian exotica meld effortlessly into introspective Debussy re­ flections. A snatch of "Jingle Bells," in a minor key, evokes childhood memories of wonder and anxiety. Then follows a jazz- inflected rendition of that Christmas melody, played like a Benny Goodman combo with arrangements by Salvador Dali, which dissolves rapidly into tempest-tossed strings.

Photo By Jim Brozek

THE BENIGN ECLECTIC COMPOSER

The jazz segment suggests memories of Downey's high school Downey's benign eclecticism was a foretaste of today's open-ended, catholic approach to com­ years, spent behind the pianos of Chicago jazz clubs. Improvisa­ posing. Downey, however, is uncomfortable even with such a loose-fitting label as eclectic. tion plays a role in some of Downey's mature work. So does the "Although some use the word in the sense that the style of an individual embodies many things, precision of architectural design, using chords as wet building eclectic to me has a connotation of plagiarism." blocks, molding them into cantilevered shapes. So do musical con­ figurations that evolve organically. Downey has composed for Since arriving at UW-Milwaukee in 1964, Downey's work has been performed periodically by piano, woodwinds and cellos. In the '60s and 70s he experimented the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and other local ensembles. Ironically, the London Sym­ with composing for synthesizers and computers, but has since phony Orchestra has recorded five of his pieces, while the MSO has released none. Downey moved back to acoustic instruments. smiles and shrugs, attributing it to the vagaries of fate. England has not been the only foreign clime to acclaim him. In 1990, Downey conducted his own compositions in Ukraine with the "Innovations in musical materials are not to be equated with Philharmonic Orchestra of Lvov. musical originality," he says. "Originality has more to do with the handling of those materials. That's where the true individual A half-dozen Downey albums have been released, including the recent CD "Music of emerges. I enjoyed working with new technology, but from a more John Downey" on the Gasparo label, a reissue of a 1976 LP. Another London Sym­ mature standpoint I make choices as to what materials will serve phony recording of four symphonic works is scheduled for release in 1992. Many of as the best vehicle for whatever I'm trying to express." Downey's albums are available in Milwaukee at the UWM Bookstore.

After receiving his masters degree from Chicago Musical Col­ Downey belongs to no school, and has no intention of founding one. "I'm trying to lege, he went to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship, and express my individuality as best as I can," he says, "through probing the language of music, studied at the Sorbonne under Boulanger (whose other and seeing if I can render it with something personal, without the help of a movement." American pupils included Copland) and Milhaund (who brought jazz and Latin American music into the Euro­ (Dave Luhrssen is a Milwaukee freelance music writer who recently completed a master's pean compositional tradition as early as the '20s). degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). ***<

"There were many trends that went through my life," Downey recalls. "I ab­ sorbed enough of each of the different stylistic movements without feeling the necessity to jump on a particular band­ wagon." OHN DOWNEY

17 O.P. Stojcevic Veteran of the word

George Stojcevic, an extraordinary and tal­ ented veteran (of both Viet Nam and the poetry world) has been around a long time, and knows what he wants to say about where he's been. He hauls gourmet cheesecakes around Wisconsin during the daytime, but he's also "George Peters" the velvet-voiced night-watch disc jockey for classical WFMR-FM. As organizer of Poets Monday at Melange he glues the scene together with his tenacious personality. Recently, he premiered a reading of his nightmarish experi­ ences at Viet Nam's Hamburger Hill. For most of ' ne of the earliest poems in existence was written by a Sumerian on the packed and attentive audience (many were weeping) it was a powerful moment, with few a clay tablet 4,800 years ago. Though the historical stretch is lengthy words spoken afterwards. The summation of the Obetween an ancient poet mourning for the raped goddess of Lagash and horrors of war through the poet's mouth had said it all. toda/s poets reading in various spots around Cream City, the art of making words remains

alive and well in 1992. The final year of G.P. Stojcevic's formal educa­ tion took place at St. Patrick's Catholic elemen­ Cafe Melange tary school on the corner of 7th and Washing­ Huddled in friendly knots at small tables, poets congregate for "open-mike" nights every ton. Though he later earned a G.E.D., attended Monday at Cafe Melange in the historic Wisconsin Hotel. Located just off the ornate lobby, a few university classes, and took a one year this Cafe really is a melange of sailors, three piece suits, hard hats, visiting firemen and advanced certification in Radio/TV communica­ local celebrities. The generous bar buzzes with business and the upbeat ambience of tions in Texas, he says that, "everything else I people coming and going at all hours. This is the night of the poets; the night they come know I've learned either by self-teaching, doing out to be seen and heard. They clink glasses of enhanced liquids while keeping their the work, or some private classes."This includes antennae tuned to who's showing up. Will the occasional drunk at the bar (who probably his skills as a chef, welder, newspaper reporter, wonders what in the world is going on) hurl cat-calls when they read? The room is set with security investigator, graphics designer, pho­ an ample stage back-dropped with a wild abstract painting. It holds the equipment poets tographer and drug re-hab therapist. Traveling dream of - decent lighting and microphones to get the word out above the rattle of extensively over the years, he's called many glassware and the excited chatter of patrons. Jolee Noel Peters, a places "home." His time in Viet Nam "was Po-et n. social worker/poet with the prettiest name on the scene, hangs out important only in that it developed a higher from the with her literary cohorts. In her poetry she talks about the not-so- pretty process of human growth and development (where reason sense of political awareness in me, teaching me Greek overcomes obsession). Four months in Frankfurt, Germany with a how and why to fight for what one really poietes, team who treated Desert Storm burnouts gave Jolee plenty of mate­ believes in." At age 43, he's back in Milwaukee rial. On the bar stool next to her, Joe Smith gulps a beer and wonders where everything started. He's back, he says, one •what direction his poetry should be taking. His friends like it when "to complete the cycle of my life by putting who he writes about growing up in middle America; Smith agrees it's everything in order." makes what he knows best A writer for a local magazine interrupts to say that Smith's solid down-home verse packs an authentic punch, but This month, Stojcevic introduces a four page that he falters when treading on unfamiliar ground. Smith accepts the left-handed compliment for what it's worth, and turns to watch the stage. Broadside (printed on his home computer), to increase the range and impact of what Poets Tim Kloss wears a generous fringed muffler and grips a walking stick as he clumps into Monday is about. He also sees a possibility of the spotlight. He smiles big and the audience smiles back and waits. He's known at incorporating the group as a non-profit organi­ Melange for his wit, at least some of which -was genetically inherited through his father zation, which could lead to the development of Gerald Kloss, a former Milwaukee Journal writer. There are appreciative giggles offstage a writer's support group or workshops dealing as he unreels lines of memorized text, delivered in a highly theatrical style. He's tweedy, with self-publishing (he already does this with his he's romantic. When not performing poetry, he paints, draws and writes song lyrics. As own work), and the legal and business aspects a third shift nursing assistant, Kloss warbles Bing Crosby tunes to sensory deprived pa­ of functioning as a writer. tients who are lucky to have such a zany caretaker. Next up is long, lean, ponytailed T.J. Richter. He springs into place, and using taped music (ranging from Kronos to Bauhaus) with projected slides drawn in marker and charcoal, he skateboards his audience through electrifying urban dangers. Is this guy for real? Should the couple from Des Moines be laughing? Speaking in Brooklyn-ese Oie's a recent transplant) that's fueled by rock and roll rumbles andshreiks, he rambles about the perils of commuting, Fifth Avenue prostitution, suicide, and the prickly possibility of falling off life's tightrope. Richter, who describes himself as a multi-media performance poet, is an alien not unlike the angular Everyman characters who live on his slides. He denies his accent is meant to be to be funny; however, when his version of the "dagger speech" from Macbeth cuts through the air with all the grace of an east coast dockworker, me-thinks he pulleth our ear.

Grizzled writer George Stojcevic, the superglue holding these events together, introduces the next reader. An ashen-faced nervous first-timer is propelled to the stage by her young companions, who then sit down to wait their turn to read. Starring at her feet, she begins a barely audible ramble about death, the soul, and the meaning of life. The swamp of overkill sucks at her black boots, but blessedly her time's up (each poet is allowed aboutlO minutes, and to date no one has been asked to leave the stage). A few people shift uncomfortably and order another libation, but the generally friendly audience applauds politely. The more mature poets come forward to pat her on the back and encourage her to try again next Monday. Stojcevic rearranges his list of the evening's readers, plugging in a By Judrlrl Ann Manarty classical pianist (sometimes it is a guitar player (Continued on page 20) 1 8 Art Muscle Stojcevic continued

"Knight" is a walker, a hunter, a recorder. He is Stojcevic the writer in search of that "elusive quarry that's called meaning." He meets the "Queen of the Night, her eyes of neon fire, her hair of drifting smoke," and like Walt Whitman named Hugo). Next comes a poem about a coat, read wonderful former students" take the gamble and are and Mark Twain he runs head-on into America. by Jan Benka. She's quiet and self-assured, sitting bumped off by self-taught performance poets from the His sensitive lines are populated with dozens of alone on the stool at centerstage. The feminists beyond world of whacko. But by evening's end, Erica "the glittery-eyed denizens of the dark, influenced the spotlights go wild as she launches into her new tombstone" poet, is chosen as their favorite. Go figure. by writers Joseph Conrad, C.S. Lewis, and work. It's about a turkey who is a woman. A dozen A few grumbles mix with the hearty whoops of "good H3rman Hesse. Meeting along the way, they conventioneers wearing hot pink buttons and hats show!" Chattering about next Tuesday's exciting round merge into words speaking of both slaughter shaped like cheese wedges, head for the door. They of poetry and popcorn, they walk toward the door of are replaced by a group of fans arriving to cheer their and salvation. Like Stojcevic's guide, 20th the Y-Not II, passing the tannery workers who have favorite poets on with whistles and bravos, for like the century genius Yukio Mishima, their force is turned to the tube for the late night news. world of wrestling, wrestling with the word has a born of darkness. Mishima is Stojcevic's hero, seductive charm. The Coffee House his mentor, "the one single figure who has The Coffee House has been located for 25 years in the combined all forms of writing and philosophy." The Y-Not II Fireside Room of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of A few blocks north on East Lyon, the Y-Not II Tavern the Redeemer at 19th and Wisconsin. The inspiration "Coffee is poured by the waitress at the chipped hosts Tuesday night Poetry Slams. Presented season­ of a former pastor of the church who loved music and counter, smoke curling from a half smoked cigarette, ally, the February "Spring" events are getting under­ poetry, it was donated for just that use. Only two filling her hair with strands of dusk." way. The tavern, a neighborhood fixture for many people are in the room when I arrive - tornado-maned years, is long, narrow, and decorated with red leather poet/musician Pamela Means (I remember her from The "good folks" are in Stojcevic's narrative, booths, square formica topped tables, two television Cafe Melange), and 19year old poetDylan Damkoehler. too. They are the resigned workers: the cab­ sets and a pool table. The smell of freshly popped corn As managers of the sparse volunteer staff, they are bies, the waitresses, the wanderers, the people (free) is in the air. Two neon signs (The Y-Not, The Y- adjusting the equipment and preparing the stage for Not), glow on the north wall, and reflected in the large of drug stores, service stations, people heading the musicians and poets who filter in. Finding a mirrors, they spell — you guessed it — Tony. Mus­ west or south, in a stage of "muted transition, wooden table set with a burning candle in a cup, I sit tachioed owner Tony DePalma drops by to check the down and prop my back with a pillow. Everyone is and all of them a part of the Great American business. He likes, he says, "things that get people wearing blue jeans (the basic ones) and plain shirts Dream, gone lost." Segments ore remiscent of together, and the poetry nights do just that." House (the basic ones). Will Bob Dylan be dropping in to play a Hopper painting or a Steinbeck novel. If all painter and former cosmetologist Matthew orders an­ a few tunes? It seems possible. Conversations about of this sounds depressing, rest assured you are other beer at the huge oval bar. He chats with a couple neighborhood activist groups are carried on in hushed on the right track, for Stojcevic's work is de­ about the right answer to the final tones; in fact the room has a pressing. However, it is so darkly beautiful and feopardy question. People come in "Gee Isn't Life Wonderful?" seductive in its mad yet curiously sane path, it daily just to throw a dollar in the innocence. The rigid leftover alternately pushes and pulls the reader to the pot and write their feopardy an­ church pews (blessedly) cush­ final lines and the end of the quest. swers on slips of paper. Matthew, ioned begin to fill up. I'm told who has attended some Poetry the room can hold 50 folks. These words shall be our webs, Slams, confides thatsometimes "I'm There is not a drop of hooch in spun to catch, to hold, driven nuts by the poets; it sounds sight, but smoking is allowed tfie quality of our dreams; like rattling to me. I'm mostly a ro­ out the door and down the hall. hush now as we fade, mantic. I write poetry for my girl­ A big coffee machine pumps these words friends." A local writer sits sipping out caffeine at a half-dollar per these tales, in the corner; a district attorney cup, and a cola machine stands tftese fragments of Vision, plops down for a scotch. But mostly from the vast City, nearby. Cookies (sometimes in the Empire of the Nightside.... the place is filled with blue collar homemade) are set out. A man workers in for pitchers of beer. comes over, shakes my hand They are definitely not "literary" and introduces himself as Jym, And it is not an entirely hopeless quest, for in the types. Bartender Jason says "some­ a composer. He gives me a recognition of the awful void, there is a kind of times the tannery crews find the quick history of the place and "bond of humanity in the sharing." It's a bond poetry hard to take, but things stay T.J. Richter hands me his card inscribed, between the brilliance of words well chosen cool." He mentions the Y-Not II will be featuring a psy­ "folked-up music for folked-up folks." Pamela Means and those who choose to read and understand chic on Sundays as well as the regular Monday night introduces a Peter, Paul and Mary re-run group, fol­ them. To all writers the gifted Stojcevic has this cribbage tournaments. At the north end of the tavern lowed by a sensational poet of the guitar strings, who to say: organizer Geo Kiesow (who also co-ordinates The is into Clapton. He's mesmerizing. Chuck Phillips Coffee House poetry nights) makes final preparations reads his well-rounded verse, and complains later that for the Slam. Wooden ceiling fans whir, the blenders The path cf anyone who chooses art (or some­ he has gained 40 pounds since giving up smoking. The grind. Serious fans of poetry move up front so they can times it chooses you) in whatever form, as their room is crowded. Second and third cups of coffee are hear above the bar schmooze. Notes are shuffled, ordered. Poet Karen Haas sits with me before perform­ life, accepts its joys, and its costs, fully. There throats cleared, for tonight the poems are to be juried ing her poetry/guitar music. "People don't seem to be is no middle ground, no simple way to ap­ by three impartial non-poets, selected by Kiesow, who getting everything they need from the bar scene, their proach this. Over 27 years ago I determined to will rate them on a scale of 1-10. This is the first of the VCR's, or church. Poetry helps them feel alive and fully become a poet, a writer, /"ve had some suc­ seven week competition, and it's anybody's guess who human. The Coffee House meets the needs of the cesses, a lot of rejections, some broken mar­ will win. Black-clad Erica is introduced. Her stance is people, so the people meet here," she says. Haas still riages, bouts with drugs and booze, more jobs rigid as she talks of dusty tombstones and aging. Will accepts an occasional shift as a psychiatric nurse, but than I can catalog, and now, at last I think I may her dark philosophy hook the jurors? Cynical Matt her focus now is on "the milk for the newly awakened," finally be learning how to really write. There is Cook, who read the entire World Book Encyclopedia which is how she describes poetry. Someone talks nothing I'd change, and I ask life for no quarter, as a child, precedes a poet resembling Elvis Presley quietly at the next table about the success of a recent i am a writer, each day I write, I read, I live as whose bass voice spits out The Tobacco Man (a charac­ food pantry event featuring local poets. Sleepy-eyed ter who rolls his own at the Oriental Drugstore). Will wide and deep as I can. Advice is easy, night owl pre-toddlers come in with their parents. A the rating trio like his use of "local color?" Groupie fol­ few hearty senior citizens and clumps of college stu­ practice is a sonofabitch, but if you are serious, lowers look out of the corner of their eyes for signs of dents join them. It is nowlO p.m. and everything is un­ and at least half mad, then you might make it, approval. The audience speculates. Regulars here (the hurried at this non-competitive place where people not always solvent, but most importantly know­ Slams are two years old) know it's a roll of the dice in come specifically to hear poetry and music. ing thai you have done your best. **>*• a word game. University profs wince as their "perfectly Jan Benka Smoothing each line

Jan Benka's earliest writing efforts (she began at age 10) are still stored in the attic at her parent's home. Benka's mother wrote poetry; her high- school administrator father pursues technical writing. Television, "the most destructive single blot on the face of culture," was not allowed to Places And Things run rampant in her family. "It has," she says, Since 1979, East Locust Street bookstore Woodland The Live Poets Society meets on laid back Sundays (the "destroyed the ability to analyze the world Pattern, Inc. has offered local poets a place to not only second in each month) at the Charles Allis Art Museum, through the written word." Although the female consign and sell their works, but to read them as well. and The Die Youngpoelry group meets Saturdays at the faculty at Marquette (where she graduated in Hundreds of Wisconsin poets are featured in a variety UWM bookstore entrance. Alternative art spaces, Met­ 1990 with a degree in Journalism and English Literature) supported her vision, she criticizes the ropolitan Gallery and South Second Street's Gallery of periodicals, anthologies and single author titles. administration as "misogynist" and "repressive." Owners, artist Anne Kingsbury and her stalwart 218, welcome poets. At the opposite end of the creative An open-mind is important to Benka, who rejects writer/helpmate Karl Gartung (he has a new book of spectrum, area kindergarteners patiently pen daily religious formality in favor of a self-defined poems due out soon but Anne can't remember just journals as part of education's bid to upgrade literacy. spirituality. In a slice from At the Salon on when), wanted to offer regional poets a place "other Local publications, some old {The Cream City Review), Sunday she compares her religion to her hair, which she has recently cut. nEven if you cut it, it than basements," where their work could be sold in a and some new {The Nobody Quarterly ) are popular grows. And even though it's dead, hair grows. "national" literary context. Supported by a member­ venues, but the latter's editor, Dean Karpowicz, needs And that's what I'm doing now, fust letting it ship program, with local and national funding, this more local manuscripts to ensure continuation of the grow. Yes, I may cut it again. And I may go back space is a reliable old slipper. The gallery space is quarterly. For the future, he's planning fiction/poetry to Catholicism." usually hung with some of the more innovative art in contests. The Shepherd Express keeps an occasional the city. With a well-earned reputation for diverse and page free for local poets. Six writers in the Goal Zero Poetry, with its "stringent boundaries," forces high quality programs, they schedule approximately Group contribute to the anthology, Goal On Zero. Of if her to select words carefully; to trim and smooth each line. There is military polish, a curious 25-35 poetry events each year. Readers may be fea­ you prefer poetry beamed through television, Where sense of the "machine" and a respect for the tured in tandem with both visual artists and musi­ The Waters Meet and Art's Place occasionally feature work ethic in Benka's vision. It is as if she fears cians. It's an exciting mix. As part of an ongoing jazz poets. Does an ongoing poet's workshop interest you? not working would consign her to a world of and poetry festival in February and March, poets Writing coach and poet Debra K. Vest is holding a lipstick and babies. Benka wants us to see her Suzanne Rosenblatt and Charles McClaine will read. February 27 organizational meeting at her home Call poetry as serious effort. She refers to "produc­ In May local theatre celebrities and other public 278-8933 for information. >**. tion lines," "the factory pounding of metal heavy labor," and in I Need a Machine, the longing for figures will support Woodland Pattern's "celebrity a manual typewriter to "push down feel the reading fundraiser." Last year at this event I heard resistance of each letter. To labor without water Mayor Norquist read, which is a public vote for break dilate." Her word/images talk of birthing literacy, and can't hurt with an election in the wings. (with woman as pumping machine); she uses systems of deconstruction which take apart and put together. She writes of women who request a "tattoo of the Virgin Mary on their left breast," or "paint their fingernails deep red and play circus psychic." She dresses her language in purple, cobalt, bunker grey and perfect pink.

Recalling at age 10 "seeing inequality in her role as a female" she brings it all to the table in her new work, The Turkey is a Woman.

The turkey is a woman and could be me naked table

The graphic branding, burning and basting of the Butterball witch in this poem expresses her feelings about the trials and punishments of contemporary women who are forced to func­ tion in a society dominated by white middle class males. This theme permeates her writing, though she sometimes softens the message with less violent metaphors. Writing about a wild horse, {The Horse is Me, or I am The Horse), she "once thought no one will ever reach a braided rope lasso around my neck, I will never be pulled," In Beating Misinterpretation, the poem becomes the female, insisting on "wanting you to know what it means."

This poem doesn 't want to be inserted, wrapped around or rubbed the wrong way. This poem doesn't have tits and ass, it has a body. Don't stare at the first stanza. Don't pinch the last. Don't wink at the title. This poem won't be impressed...

Benka's charm is that her anger doesn't whine. It is fair to say her venom is not so much directed at males as it is to the general mind-set of those who value the image of the patriarch at the expense of all women. Carrying on the family tradition of teaching interests her, so she's cur­ rently waiting for acceptance into a worthwhile Jan Benka Master's degree program. •«*•< By Frank e wi

Today, many artists are experiencing a particular disorientation of their dreams and expectations. As grant money diminishes, museums and other public venues are announcing cutbacks in programs for non-established and controversial artists. The market is dominated by those who are buying blue chip art as an investment. In typical "fin de siecle" fashion, critics and pundits pompously mourn the death of "Art" and curiously blame artists for a lack of heroism and vision. The greatest blow, how­ ever, is the increasing sense of loss that artists feel as they watch a disproportionate number of their colleagues suffering and dying from AIDS and its attendant illnesses.

Sorte: Fate or Fortune She relented and gave me my fortune and freedom. (After Bronzino) W^Mmmk

Years of training, hard work and dedication offer mental and physical malaise and a feeling of per­ be taken for one more lunatic appeal to irrational­ little guidance in this contemporary environment manence. ity. But as he watches colleagues weaken and die of confusion and premature death. To many, the and as discussions with friends repeatedly turn to past with its promise of rewards for perseverance Osato is intelligent and articulate. These traits, issues of mortality (a subject that he previously be­ and its role models of "noble" artists serving the which in contemporary art schools often result in a lieved was the purview of people much older than "highest of cultural values," only mocks the con­ cynical archness or ennui, conversely allow this himself), the artist continues to act, in spite of the temporary artist's feelings of extraneity. However, artist to carefully and enthusiastically explain his possibility of ridicule. for Milwaukee artist Wyatt Osato the past remains search for spiritual qualities in works of art. These the most fertile source for spirituality and commit­ same characteristics also enable him to recognize While Osato is serious in his belief that modern ment, two necessities that are often suspect in our and consider the idealistic nature of his search. society needs art that is powerful and healing, he materialistic culture which has commodified social Aware that our society has become jaded by both is equally wry and sardonic in act and in conversa­ and spiritual needs for its short term and selfish the cheap and opportunistic appeals to the spirit tion. Born of second generation Japanese Ameri­ gains. Osato believes that both the art of the past from the extreme religious right and the faddish can parents, the artist is known by many in the and contemporary art are still capable of satisfying self- help credos of new age gurus, Osato fears that community for a series of T-shirts which are embla­ our needs for a sense of place, a cure for both his heartfelt desire for spiritual renewal in art will zoned with his own image as a proud flag-waving

23 American or as a Bruce Lee type kung fu master holding fluores­ cent tubes instead of numchuks. Others may be more familiar with his light sculptures. These elegantly cool acrylic and fluo­ rescent wall and table top pieces not only "help pay the rent" but also allow the artist to investigate more strictly formal issues than those in his "Transformation Series," a body of work in which Is heturns himself into figures from art history.

Osato's studio is filled with over-sized art books from all histori­ progress uses a new model who has a curious facial resemblance cal periods, which serve as inspiration and source material for to the saint whose position he assumes. Another photograph of both his transformations and his sculptures. Osato speaks with the artist in the pose of Holfernes, the victim of Judith's sword, intensity about contemporary art and artists, effusive about the makes a playful reference to ah event in the artist's own life. theories which surround its production and excited by the sheer material presence of the objects themselves. Unlike many other artists who use historical imagery to under­ mine our sense of history or to question the sources of its telling, Graduate school in Philadelphia and frequent trips to New York Wyatt Osato seeks a unity with past. Yet this gesture is not a re­ fueled his awareness of contemporary traditions yet exposed affirming of the status quo. Osato's transformations affirm the him to a pedagogy that seemed to stress virtuoso performance past and the present in a world that sometimes seems to conspire and shtick over struggle and experimentation. Although he was to make us forget. His works speak of the desire to be immortal a painting major, Osato's thesis exhibition was an installation/ in what has become, for many, an all too expeditiously mortal environment. Confounding to his instructors and admittedly world. *•«• unresolved, the work at least marked one way that he could alter and transform the viewer's space and experience.

It was much later and almost as a by-product of the process of copying and transforming other works that Osato began to develop a valuable understanding of the formal language of art — not the restrictive language of reductive formalism in the 20th century, but rather an understanding of the complex relation­ ships between form and meaning. Even terms like "decorative," once heard only as a criticism from his instructors in graduate school, began to make sense. He has learned, he says, the true meaning of words which he used to hear mouthed in critiques as if they were passwords, devoid of any meaning but necessary for admission to the club.

Drawing remains the artist's preferred technique. In painting there is a quickness and slip to the medium that does not seem to allow for time and study. The drawings also have a complex yet visible layering allowing the viewer to reconstruct the work discovering not only Osato's process but something of the process of the original piece. Osato feels that painting may occlude this layering, seducing the viewer more by its material elegance than by its process.

The grace of his earlier sources of inspirations, (paintings by Ingres and Bronzino, and the precision of portraits by Hans Holbein), is gradually being displaced by the harsh almost clumsy realism of 17th century Spanish painters and the earthy naturalism of Artemesia Gentileschi. Particularly in the 17th cen­ tury, artists exhibited a preoccupation with the human body's pleasures, pains, sufferings, and functions. Wounded and bleed­ ing saints, horrible and torturous deaths, voluptuous Gods and Goddesses and lactating Madonnas were ever present reminders of the physical body in spite of the desire for spiritual fulfillment. In our present epoch, as AIDS has more than once been pre­ sented as the absolute punishment for sins of the flesh, the iconographic complexity and rich paradoxes of 17th century, principally Catholic imagery, seem especially pertinent to Osato.

As in almost all shamanistic art, the celebration of life plays an important role. There is humor and cleverness throughout Osato's work. The artist, working with a photographer, pays careful attention to details of pose, lighting, and gesture to create the underlying image for the transformation. Posing in his underwear (commonplace BVDs) Osato introduces a level of quotidian reality and a touch of naughty eroticism. A work in 24 Art Muscle EXPOSED/

An artist's statement BY WYATT OSATO

he Transformation Series began as a self indulgent exercise: trans­ When, during a lecture at the Milwaukee Art Museum, I heard Donald Kuspit men­ forming a monstrous photograph of myself into a variety of animal tion that Joseph Beuys felt that an artist has the curative power to heal, this reinforced my desire to create shamanistic drawings with potential therapeutic images culled from National Geographic magazine. I moved away T powers. I thought that due to my upbringing in Hawaii I may unwittingly have been from this hybrid animal imagery when it occurred to me that there might be an ever blessed with some potential toac t as a kahuna or witch doctor healer. Kuspit quoted so remote possibility that I could create curative images for my mortally ill friends Beuys, "My intention is.. .to stress the idea of transformation of substance. That is precisely what the shaman does in order to bring about change and development; much likeakahuna/medicineman. What immediately came tomin d were the Mexi­ his nature is therapeutic." My friends remained ill and I felt bad for them because can paintings on tin depicting saints with an image of a person who was desperately I could possibly effect a cure. How naive to think that by transforming myself into ill or in dire straights. These paintings were tacked up at churches by relatives of the images of Jesus, Mary, St. Sebastian, and other sacred personages, I would be able to miraculously harness the shamanistic power from the psychic world to cure my person in need of some extraordinary spiritual help and guidance. Eventually ailing friends. through faith and prayer this person was helped by the divine intervention of the

curative forces. I thought that due to my My early life in Hawaii was filled with tales of the supernatural forces called amakua that inhabited the earth, sky, plants, mountains and ocean. Then there were gods upbrinqinq in Hawaii I may and goddess, like Madame Pele, the goddess of fire who controlled the volcanoes. I remember being told Hawaiian ghost stories that left me shivering with fear even ULHIU hove been blessed during the day. I was awed that the spiritual forces wielded such power and would become angry if you did not treat them with respect. I remember the stories such as: with some potential to act as a If you take a rock home from a heiau (Hawaiian graveyard) you would be cursed with bad luck; if you pick chelo berries it will rain; if you take lava home from the kahuna or witch doctor healer. volcanoes Madame Pele the goddess of fire will be angry and curse you. There were also other stories of kahunas (medicine men) who cast spells or who exorcised un­ This experience made me realize that the impetus for creating these images was my happy spirits trapped in their heiau burial site by a building built over them. own fear of mortality. I didn't want to die without leaving a mark upon the world. I could become immortal like the persons depicted in the paintings in museums and art history books. I was seduced by the supple flesh that forms the taut muscles of a Michaelangelo male figure and the dewy, ivory, soft skin of a faintly smiling aris­ tocratic woman standing in a luxuriously decorated room. . .1 could transform myself into various paintings of the past and bring myself into the present tense as an artist who has a personal relationship with the art historical past.

The first Drawing Transformations were created by juxtaposing a xeroxed photo­ graph of myself with a photocopied fragment of an old master painting. I wanted the images I was creating to be more than just the act of collaging my head onto another image. The two sections would be woven together by the marks and furrows made by the repeated passings of the sharpened colored pencil. The heavy pressure of pencil on the paper seemed to grind the two images into the very fabric of the paper. I was binding the image of my photographic personage with a his­ torically significant piece of visual art. It now took on larger historical implications. I was now making art about art.

In an effort to make these transfigurations much more visually convincing, I began having myself photographed in the pose of the subject that I would be transforming myself into. Because the over drawing nearly obliterated all trace of my original image, it obscured from the viewer the visual fact that a transfiguration had taken place. I then started to use a "before" image showing myself prior to applications of colored pencil markings juxtaposed next to the completed transformation drawing. This made it apparent that some kind of visual change had occurred. The transformation was process as well as image. . .

I still experience, but can finally get beyond the initial gush of delight I felt when I first encountered these spectacular paintings. I have been able to really explore how the artist's successful realization of formal ideas and painting techniquesgiv e these paintings their extraordinarily seductive yet cool rendering of flesh, fabrics and decor. One can see that these master paintings are constructed in such a way that forms are repeated and interlocked, giving the painting a sense of formal com­ pleteness. I believe that becoming concerned with the whole painting as a total idea of forms is a sign of maturation.

Recently, these drawings have taken on a more conscious autobiographical slant by taking personal events from my life and "matching" them with paintings from the history of art. The drawings are captioned with short sentences that create an overall narrative text. The art historical subject matter I now consciously select for my transformation seems to have a closer affinity to events in my life. The transfor­ mations serve as a constant reminder that the human condition has been the same for centuries and will be for years to come. Art will always be the visual diary that survives the ravages of time to remind us of our desire to be immortal. -a*< 25 Pabst Theater Presents

The Chenitte Sisters Friday, March 13,8 p.m.

Also appearing at the Pabst this spring: Betty Salamun's Laurence Luckinhilts Hal Hotbrooks DANCECIRCUS Friday and Saturday "Lyndon" "Mark Twain Tonight!" March 6, 7 and 13, 14 Friday. February 14, 8 p.m. Thursday March 26, 8 p.m. Spring Concert Series 8:00 PM Featuring repertory works by Valerie Williams, Rika Burnham, Tickets $10 The Kingston Trio The Chieftains Ann Rodiger and new works by Discount Price $7 Friday February 28, 8 p.m. Saturday March 28, 8 p.m. Betty Salamun and Robert Nehring. For ticket information, Bauer Contemporary Ballet call Studio/Theater 272-6683 TICKETINFORMATION AM PHONECHARGE: 278 3663 727 N. Milwaukee Street Group discounts and gift certificates available.

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26 Art Muscle Arts Organizations: Please add Art Muscle to your mailing list PO Box 93219 Milwaukee, Wl 53203 Attn: T Ganrz 414/672-8485 Deadline for April 1 -June 1 issue is March 6 Unless otherwise stated, all phone numbers are area code 414

OUT THERE

If UWM art professor Leslie Vansen is a little nervous these days, it's because of the controversy surrounding the exhibition of African American arts she curated, Present Tense {through February 23) at the UWM Fine Arts Gallery. Vansen, who is white, has endured charges of "colonialism and imperialism" for her role in selecting 19 nationally recognized artists for inclusion in the show. She emphasizes, however, that the exhibition grew out of her efforts to broaden the cultural base of the art survey class she teaches. Another show, organized by Michael Flanagan, will be at The UWM Art Museum through March 8. Verging on Emergence: Diverse Visions highlights local African American artists Muneer Bahauddeen, Larry Chatman, Patrick Turner and Phyllis Thompson. One wonders if Flanagan's also been under fire for being a white male curating a smaller but equally important show. Opening March 8 at Peltz Gallery, is a show assembled by Kit Basquin, Curator of Education and Public Programs at Marquette University's Haggerty Museum. It too will showcase contemporary African American artists. With three shows organized by three persons with solid find your valentine aesthetic and academic credentials, ifs doubtful that the exhibits will falter because of the curators' skin color. And it is just as unlikely that the shows would be more successful had they been curated solely by African Americans, given the same credentials. Still, when white curators address exhibitions based on race (all three describe the shows as "contemporary African American art fr exhibitions without any particular focus") doesn't that maintain the paternalistic relationship of the ,o8 o? "in" powers graciously allowing space for the "other?" David Mamet, Amlin Gray and Romulus Linney Visions of Angels ganized by Banaker Gallery of Walnut Creek, Group show on the theme of angels; Mark CA; Katie Gingrass Gallery, 241 N Broadway; February 1-16 Previews: 1/30 & 1/31 Iwinski, Joyce Winters, Jeanine Semon, Celeste 289-0855 Three of America's finest playwrights bring us an assortment of thought-provoking Spransy, Alan Gass, Phil Krejcarek, Terry Groh, one-act plays, aptly titled AN EVENING OF MAMET, GRAY AND LINNEY. Mary Hager, Judith Moriarty & Valerie J Chris- Now-February 29 Discover how things are not always what they seem in THE SHAWL, MICKEY'S tell; Village Church, 130 E Juneau; 481 -5770 Misaki Ando TEETH and YANCEY, three intriguing, highly amusing, short portraits of America. Paintings & sculpture, Michael H Lord Gallery, STIEMKE THEATER 108 East Wells Street Now-February 22 420 E Wisconsin; 272-1007 Two Brothers - The Real & The Surreal Box Office: 224-9490 David Andrews, recent oil paintings; Christo­ Now-February 29 pher Andrews, chair sculpture; Leefer Gallery, Flame Worked Glass Show 817 S 5th; 645-4487 Art Elements Gallery, 1400 W Mequon Rd; 241-7040 Now-February 22 Cultural Trapeze Now-March 1 Sheila Hicks, fiber artist; site specific installation Wisconsin Women in the Arts Biennial Exhibi­ THE GALLERY, LTD. & CAFE JEWELRY using fishnets & unique materials; Walker's tion; also Point Center for the Arts, 907 W National; 672- Cedarburg Complimentary: Holiday Premiums 2787 from Local Merchants; Cedarburg Cultural Center, W62 N546 Washington; 1 /375-3676 THE FINE ART OF GIFTING Now-February 23 Provincetown & the Art of Printmaking Now-March 1 60 works by artists inspired by the New England The Mask & Kite Show Small Precious Objects • Paperweights • Marbles town; also Surrealist event curated by Chris Walker; Ton/s • Glass Candies • Paintings • Sculptures • Glass • 30s America: Water St Bar & Cafe; 1 257 N Water; 278- Selections from the MAM's Collection of Prints TONY Clay • Paper • Acrylic Thomas Hart Benton, John Stuart Curry, Grant Wood; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Now-March 8 Contemporary & Traditional Jewelry Franklin & 12th, Wausau; 715-845-7010 Verging on Emergence: Diverse Visions Up & coming Milwaukee artists; also Elegance & Whimsy Now-February 23 Mende Country Cloth: 6th Annual National Small Print Exhibition A Legacy of the Ancestors Forty Artists' Work on Exhibition American artists; UW-Parkside, Wood Road, Cloth from Sierra Leone, West Africa; UWM: Kenosha; 1/553-2404 Vogel Hall, 3253 N Downer; 229-5070 Located in the Cafe Knickerbocker in the Historic Knickerbocker Hotel • Now-February 23 Now-March 13 1O30 East Juneau Avenue • Milwaukee • 53202 • phone 414-272-1611 Private Sanctuaries 4th Annual Teapot Show • dosed Mondays • open dairy at 11:00 AM • closing hours vary Aletha Jones, watercolors; Mount Mary Col­ Funky & functional teapots from around the lege: Marian Art Studio, 2900 N Menomonee world; A Houberbocken; 230 W Wells; 276- River Pkwy; 258-4810 6002 27 Now-March 15 February 18-March 28 Wisconsin Book Illustrators & Writers Refiguring It UWM Art Museum 20 original works; JoAnna Poehlmann, Nancy Katz, Perfstein, Leslie & Beal Verging on Emergence: Diverse Visions Burkert & Victoria Chess; Kohler Arts Center, Works on paper by artists who resuscitated 608 New York, Sheboygan; 1 /458-6144 figuration in the 1960s; Dean Jensen Gallery, Muneer Bahauddeen, Larry Chafman, Phyliss Thompson, Patrick Turner 217 N Broadway; 271 -7800 Textiles by Marna Goldstein Brauner Now-March 29 Mende Country Cloth: A Legacy of the Ancestors West Art & the law February 20-April 6 through March 8. 49 works by 33 contemporary artists focusing George Rouault, Misere Series Peter Dean: Recent Paintings and Sculptures on the law & Bill of Rights; Haggerty Museum, 58 prints on the Passion of Christ; Haggerty 13th &Clybourn; 288-7290 Museum, 13th & Clybourn; 228-7290 March 27-May 17 Opening Reception: 7-9 pm Now-March 29 February 23-March 22 Privledged Access Ted Gary, Alaskan wildlife photography Juried show; Wisconsin artists; MAM: Cudahy Jon Van Zyle, Alaskan oils Art History Gallery Galleries; 224-3200 Wendy Christen sen-Senk, taxidermy Rookwood Pottery through February 23 St John Uihlein-Peters Gallery, 1840 N Pros­ Now-March 31 pect; 291-4993 Frederick Catherwood Lithographs of Maya Ruins Valentines: The Art of Romance March 5 - April 5 The history of the Valentine; Milwaukee Public February 26-March 29 Opening reception: March 5 from 5-7pm Museum, 800 W Wells; 278-2751 Young at Art Student art selected by art teachers in the West Now-April 19 Bend public school system; West Bend Gallery Fine Arts Gallery H H Bennett: A Sense of Place of Fine Arts, 300 S 6th Ave; 1/334-9638 Present Tense through February 23 Photographs of Wisconsin; MAM: Teweles Gallery; 224-3200 February 29-April 25 Annual Student Exhibition 10x1011 March 8 - 29 February 1-23 Wisconsin Potters Invitational Opening reception: March 8 from 1 -4 pm Present Tense: An Exhibit of Contemporary Opening Feb 29 & Mar 111 am-5pm; Marnie African American Artists Pottery, 2711 N Bremen; 374-POTS Work of 15 contemporary artists from through­ out the US; UWM: Fine Arts Gallery; 229-5070 February 29-March 29 Comic Student Art Exhibition February 1-28 Works by north central Wisconsin 9-12th grad­ National Watercolor Society Travelling Exhibi­ ers; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Fran­ fyfiisde tion; also klin & Twelfth, Wausau; 715/845-7010 Artist in Residence: Tom Uebelherr West Bend Gallery of Fine Arts, 300 S 6th Ave; March 1-29 find 1/334-9638 Student Art Exhibition Works by 1991-92 Layton scholars; Mount it February 1-29 Mary College: Marian Art Studio, 2900 N Terrence Coffman Menomonee River Pkwy; 258-4810 at Evelyn Patricia Terry Paintings & installation; Posner Gallery, 207 N March 1-April 1 Milwaukee; 273-3097 The African American Woman Past & Present Capital Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts; 800 W February 1 -March 8 Walnut; info 263-2555 Rookwood Pottery 50 examples of 19th century decorative pottery; March 1-April 8 City UWM: Art History Gallery, Mitchell Hall; 229- Kenn Kwint 5070 Paintings; opening reception Mar 1 2-4pm; Comics Cardinal Stritch College: Layton Honor Gallery, February 1-March 16 6801 N Yates; 352-5400 Maggie Beal 25659^ Photographs; opening reception Feb 1 7-10pm; March 3-30 Silver Paper Gallery, 825 E Center; 264-5959 The Roars of March 'Dozimer five. Curated by Mary K Shishler; reception Mar 7 3- February 2-26 6pm; Ton/s Water St Bar & Cafe; 1257 N Richard Salter & Victor Salvatierra Water; 278-TONY 332-8199 Paintings; opening reception Feb 2 2-4pm; Cardinal Stritch College: Layton Honor Gallery, March 5-April 5 6801 N Yates; 352-5400 Frederick Catherwood Lithographs of Mayan Ruins February 2-26 Originally published in 1842; opening Mar 5 5- Marc Jacobson, paintings 7pm; UWM: Art History Gallery, Mitchell Hall; Jeff Noska, ceramics 229-5070 The Bradley Galleries; 2639 N Downer; 332- 9500 March 5-April 11 Artists in Paper: Wisconsin '92 February 2-March 1 Closing reception Apr 11 5-7pm; UW-Green Scholastic Art Awards Bay: Lawton Gallery, 2420 Nicolet, Green Bay; 65th Annual High School Art Exhibition 1/465-2271 MAM: Journal/Lubar Galleries; 224-3200 March 6-29 February 2-March 15 Jim Toth & Fred Stein Alverno Faculty Art Exhibit Sensual sculpture & abstract photography; Tom Hovorka, Julie Knotek SSSF, Nancy Lamers, opening reception Mar 6 7-10pm; Gallery 218, Dara Larson, Tricia Moran, Ann Mory Wydeven 218 S 2nd; 643-1732 & Morgan T Paine; opening reception Feb 2 3pm; Alverno College: Art & Cultures Gallery, March 6-April 12 3400 S 39th; 382-6149 Breaking the Silence Juried exhibition of the Central Wisconsin February 7-March 1 Women's Caucus for Art; opening reception Invitational: Riverwest Artists Association Mem­ Mar 6; Lawrence University: Wriston Art Cen­ bership Show ter; info 1/832-6645 Opening reception Feb 77-10pm; Gallery 218, 218 S 2nd; 643-1732 March 6-April 16 Wisconsin Arts Board February 7-April 5 1990-91 Awards Recipients The Duane Michals Show Katie Gingrass Gallery, 241 N Broadway; 289- All of our customers now enjoy Conceptual photography combining text & 0855 image; reception Feb 6 includes a lecture by the artist 6:15pm; $5 (nonmembers); MAM: Jour­ March 6-April 18 EVERYDAY DISCOUNTS! nal/Lubar Galleries; 224-3200 Tom Uttech: Indigenous Landscapes Paintings; Tory Folliard Gallery, 233 N Milwau­ V You'll save 10%-30% February 9-March 8 kee; 273-7311 African Textiles on most merchandise! Christopher Davis-Benavides: Sculpture March 8-29 Jacqueline Richards: Works on Paper Annual Student Exhibition French-Style Opening Feb 9 2-4pm; Wustum Museum, 2519 Work of undergraduates curated by faculty; Northwestern; Racine; 1 /636-9177 opening reception Mar 8 1 -4pm; UWM: Fine Folding Easel Arts Gallery; 229-5070 For the artist on the move! February 9-March 8 Romance in Art This beech wood easel folds to March 8-April 12 1 Group show of local artists; opening celebration Georgia Kroll 22 /2"x 16"x 6" yet holds a Feb 9 7-10pm; $12; Centre City Espresso's Collages; opening reception Mar 14 7-9pm; canvas up to 33" high! Gallery, 418 6th, Racine; 1/635-0732 Centre City Espresso's Gallery, 418 6th, Racine; 1/635-0732 Reg. $229.95 February 10-March 8 Deone Jahnke: Photoimagings March 8-April 18 Sax Special Price $169.95 Reception Feb 14 4-8pm; 100 E Wisconsin Contemporary African American Art (lobby); info 649-8360 Opening reception Mar 8 3-5:30pm; lecture by Ar curator Kit Basquin 3:30pm; Peltz Gallery, 1119 fv?355 tS & Crafts Retail Store February 14-May 28 E Knapp; 223-4728 4Jmf&? 100A E. Pleasant St., Milwaukee, Wl Chicano Art Exhibit Opening Feb 14 4-6pm; Centre de la Com- Hours: M-F 8:30AM-6:00PM, Sat. 9AM-5PM 414-264-1580 munidad Unida, 1028 S 9th; 384-3100 28 Art Muscle March 13-May 10 February 9-16 Currents 20: Recent Narrative Sculpture Celebrate Families Nayland Blake, David Hammons, Ronald Jones, Free family art workshops; part of city-wide Mike Kelley, Cady Noland, Annette Lemieux & celebration of family virtues; West Bend Gal­ The Casablanca Inn others; MAM: Journal/Lubar Galleries; 224- lery, 300 S 6th Ave; info 1/334-9638 3200 February 14 Eastern Cuisine March 15-April 26 Valentine's Party ;\jjn$ & Dinner Eleanor Spiess-Ferris: Paintings & Works on Friends of the Milwaukee Public Museum Paper; Chicago-based surrealist; also 8-1 lpm; info 278-2731 ***%** i**s£fy A New Look at Wood Jeff Colby, Carole Komarket & Rory Leonard, February 15 wood sculpture; also Art Throb Racine Art Guild Annual Spring Competition Seventh annual Valentine's Day party; MAM: Wustum Museum, 2519 Northwestern; Racine; Friends of Art; info 224-3200 1/636-9177 March 21 & 22 March 20-April 17 Studio Walk-Through Lewis Koch: Photographic Assemblages & Prints Dan Clark, Mary K Shisler, Frank Husemann & Michael H Lord Gallery, 420 E Wisconsin; 272- Robert Livingston; 10am-5pm; Milwaukee For­ 1007 tress, 116 N Pleasant; 355-0589 March 20-June 7 Tin-Glazed Earthenware from Milwaukee Col­ March 23 lections WAMI Awards MAM: Segel Gallery; 224-3200 Wisconsin Area Music Industry Awards; 7pm; Pabst Theater, 144 E Wells; info 259-7816 March 21-May 9 Brad Vendeventer Ttiurs. 11 a.m. -10 p.m. Sat 1 p.m. -11 p.m. Sua 1-10 p.m. New drawings & paintings of Milwaukee's landscape; opening reception Mar 21 7-10pm; Silver Paper Gallery, 825 E Center; 264-5959 Tuesdays & Wednesdays Weekly showings; T5:30-7:30pm,Wl 1:30pm- March 22-April 10 1:30pm & 5:30-7:30pm; UWM: Mitchell Hall Juried Student Art Exhibit room B-91; info 229-6015 Opeing Mar 22 2-4pm; Cardinal Stritch Col­ lege: Layton Gallery, 6801 N Yates; 352-5400 February 6 & 13 Black films,l 939-1956 March 27-May 1 Community Media Project OVOR More Than Just a Hoi stein Feb 6 - GiH in Room 20 Juried Wisconsin collegiate show; A Houber- Feb 13 - By-Line Newsreel #4 bocken, 230 W Wells, Suite 202; 276-6002 6:30pm; free; Martin Luther King Library, 310 W Locust; 229-4578 March 27-May 17 Peter Dean: Recent Paintings & Sculptures February 7 - April 11 IE s New York artist; opening Mar 27 7-9pm; UWM: Black Filmmakers from Great Britain Vogel Hall Art Museum; 229-5070 Community Media Project CANON LASER COPIER Feb 7 - Pressure by Horace Ove March 31-May 4 Feb 8 - Burning an Illusion by Menelik Shabazz Ligea - Artist's Self-Portraits Feb 21 - Street Warriors by Imruh Bakari & The Curated by Brian Tolbert; reception Apr 4 3- Flames of the Soul by Velene Thomas 75$ 6pm; Tony's Water St Bar & Cafe; 1257 N Feb 22 - Handsworth Songs by John Akomfrah Water; 223-3307 Mar 13 - Dreaming Rivers by Martina Attille 8.5 x 11 • 20# White • With Coupon Only. Expries April 1 Mar 14 - Playing Away by Horace Ove 8pm; free; Feb 7,21 & Mar 13 & Apr 10 at Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum, CLARK GRAPHIC^ 2620 W Center; Feb 8,22 Mar 14, 28 Apr 11 2915 N. Oakland Ave. • Milwaukee, Wl 53211> February 13 at UWM: Union Cinema; Mar 28 at UWM: Garth Fagan Dance Mitchell Hall, B-91; info 229-6971 (414) 962-4633 • FAX (414) 962-6463 Mix of African and Afro-Caribbean movement, ballet & modern dance; part of a 3 day commu­ February 9 nity residency; 8pm; $12 & $20; Pabst Theater, The Match That Started My Fire 144 E Wells; 229-4308 Cathy C Cook Premier screening; Cook will also show Mother February 14-17 Nature, Bust Up, June Brides, 26 + & Toe Jam; A Romantic Evening 2pm; $3; Avalon Theater, 2473 S Kinnickinnic; Milwaukee Ballet info 229-6971 Victoria Simon's Romance, Dane LaFontsee's Remembrances, Lisa do Ribere's Noctures & Peter Anastos' Footage; 8pm; $8-$46; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 LE BREAKFAST LE BRUNCH LE LUNCH February 21 & 22 February 4 A Far Cry From Home Rembrandt's Students II: Fredinand Bol Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater Gallery Talk by Russell Bowman; 1:30pm; free Exploration of the concept of home; 8pm; $12; w/museum admission; MAM; 224-3200 Alverno College, 3401 S 39th; 382-6044 February 5 February 22 The Enigma of Expressionism FREE BREAKFAST OR LUNCH Benefit for Global Green Cross Docent Gallery Talk by Pat Baker; 1:30pm; free BUY ONE GET ONE FREE Dancecircus w/museum admission; MAM; 224-3200 Excerpt from A Sand County Almanac; Cafe Buy one Entree and Receive Another of Equal or Less Value FREE. Offer Valid Melange, 3rd & Wisconsin; info 963-9030 February 5 Mon. - Sat. from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at Wisconsin Ave. location Only Good Tax Laws ex Gifts of Art March 67,13 & 14 James W Collins, Atty & Sec, Terra Foundation Through April 1, 1992. Not valid with other promotions. Dancecircus Annual Spring Concert for the Arts will discuss recent changes in the tax Premiering I Live in My House, choreographed laws as they affect gifts of art; 7pm; free; 250 E. Wisconsin Ave 273-PEEP • 3900 W. Brown Deer Rd 355-8188 by Betty Salamun & Robert Nehring and A Sand Marquette University: Straz Hall, 1 block S of Open Mon-Fri 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. / Sal. and Sun. 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. County Almanac by Betty Salamun along with Wisconsin on 13th; info 288-7446 Rags, Split Image & Jigsaw; 8pm; $10/$7; Bauer Contemporary BalletStudio/Theater, 727 February 6 SEEK THE UNIQUE " N Milwaukee; 272-6663 The Duane Michals Show Lecture by the artist; 6:15pm, reception follows; March 20 & 21 $5 (nonmembers); MAM; 224-3200 For the Love of Dance Edward Burgess & Dane LaFontsee; local chore­ February 6 .Riverwest Galleries ographers together for the first time; 8pm; $10; Artists Talk Alverno College, 3401 S 39th; 382-6044 Richard Salter & Victor Salvatierra; 7pm; Cardi­ nal Stritch College: Layton Honor Gallery, 6801 Artisrty Studio Gallery N Yates; 352-5400 833 E. Center Street February 13 372-3372 Art Educator's Odyssey: Lessons Learned Tues.-Fri. 2-5 Sat. 12-5 February 7 & March 6 Albert Hurwitz, emeritus chair, Art Education First Friaay Dept, Maryland Institute, Collegeof Art; 6:15pm; Feb 7 - La Chazz free w/museum admission; MAM: Vogel Hel- Marnie Pottery Mar 6 - David Hazeltine faer Galleries; 224-3200 2711 N. Bremen Exhibition tours, hors d'oeuvres & cash bar; 374-POTS 5:30-8pm; $4 ($3 members); MAM: Vogel/ February 14 & 15 Tues.-Fri. 2-6 Sat. 11-4 Helfare Galleries; 224-3200 Antique Valentines Slide presentation; 1 pm; free; Milwaukee Public Silver Paper Gallery February 8 Museum, 800 W Wells; 278-2702 Cookie Anderson: Exhibition & Workshop 825 E. Center Street Recycle artist will show her work & teach chil­ February 15 264-5959 dren 7+ folding paper boxes;! 0:30am-l 2noon; Art Criticism Tues.-Fri. 2-6 Sat. 1-5 Peace Action Center, 1001 E Keefe; pre-register Pat Malarcher, art critic for the New York Times; 964-5158 $5 (ind breakfast); Walkers Point Center for the Located in the Artists' Community of Riverwest Arts, 907 W National; reservations 672-2787 February 16, 23 Family Sunday Feb 16 • Bodacious Books Feb 23 - Long Looks & Double Takes Art Pottery Mondays Panorama & stereoscope workshop; Poet's Monday Mar 8 - The Great Paper Chase Art dlass Open mike & featured acts; 8:30pm; Cafe Mar 15 - Fabulous Fish with Louise Ehlert Melange, 720 Old World Third; 291 -9889 Mar 22 - Native American Adventures Vintage Clothing Mar 29 - Fun with Found Objects Tuesdays 1 -4pm; free w/museum admission; MAM; 224- Milwaukee Poetry Slam Art Deco 3200 8pm; Y Not II, 706 E Lyon; 347-9972 Aodern, Funky, 50s February 18 & March 31 February 7,14,21,23 The Duane Michals Show The Coffee House Gallery Talks by Tom Bamberger; 1:30pm; free Feb 7 - Talent Contest, $3 The Shaker Shop w/museum admission; MAM: Journal/Lubar • Feb 14 - Family Storytelling Night, $5 Galleries; 224-3200 Feb 21 - Poety Night/Food Pantry Benefit; FURNITURE Susan Firer, Angela Peckenpaugh, Martin Jack February 18 CASTSIDtU Rosenblum, Jim Hazard, Dave Lucht & Bemda DESIGN The Piano as Orchestra: Cardenas; $2 plus 2 cans of food Beethoven, Wagner, Debussy COLLECTIBLES Distinctive Collectibles Feb 23 - Open Stage, $1 With Grand Manner painting & sculpture; Jef­ 8:30pm; 631 N 19th; 962-2135 926 E. Center frey Hollander, pianist & members of the cura­ torial staff; 5:30pm; $10/$8; MAM; reserva­ February 8-27 562-2711 tions 224-3200 OPEN MON-FRI 10-5:30/ SAT 10-5:00 Schwartz Books Writers to Readers Series Feb 8 - Jo Home, author A Survival Guide for February 23 11029 N. Port Washington Rd. Tues. thru Sat. 12-5 Family Caregivers; 1 pm; 415 E Silver Spring Alverno Faculty Forum Feb 20 - John Powers, author The Junk Drawer Mequon, Wl 53092 (414) 241-4660 Faculty will discuss formal & conceptual issues Corner Store Front Porch Blues; 5:30pm; 209 E within iheir works; 1-2:30pm; free; Alverno Wisconsin College: Art & Cultures Gallery, 3400 S 39th; Feb 22 - Janet McGiffen, author Emergency 382-6149 Murder (set in Mihv); 1 pm; 415 E Silver Spring Feb 27 - Gail & Mark Mathabane, authors Love February 23 & 24 in Black 8. White; 5:30pm; 209 E Wisconsin Eleanor Speiss-Ferris; Chicago surrealist free; info 963-9393 "John A. Sayers: Upon Reflection" Feb 23 lecture 3:30pm, Feb 24 workshop 8:30am & lecture 11:30am; free; UW-Green February 9, March 8 New OiL Paintings Through Feb. 29 Bay, 2420 Nicolet; 1/465-2214 Live Poet's Society Opening Sondfj March 8th 3 - 5:30 p.m. 7pm; Charles Allis Art Museum, 1630 E Royall; February 24 info 933-4312 "ContemporM African American Art" Greg Septon v Milwaukee Public Museum Taxidermist; 10am; Curated by Kit Basquin - Talk at 330 am. March 25 free; St John Uihlein-Peters Gallery, 1840 N Showing: Batiwm&een, Delwot Mark Strand Prospect; 291 -4993 Poet laureate of the United States reads from his work; 7pm; MAM: Vogel Helfaer Galleries; and Turner. February 25 224-3200 roup Show, Watercolor: Past & Present Nancy Lamers slide lecture; historical themes & March 28 contemporary issues; 1pm; free; Alverno Col­ kill! Martha Bergland & Judy Grahn lege: Art & Cultures Gallery, 3400 S 39th; 382- Peltz Gal East Knapp Street Fiction & poetry readings 6149 2? Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E Locust; 263-5001 11a. February 27 War, Wilderness & Women Arthur Oilman, executive director of the Mu­ seum of Photographic Arts, San Diego & cura­ tor of The Duane Michals Show; 6:15pm; free w/museum admission; MAM: Vogel/Helfaer February 2, 9,16 & 23 Galleries; 224-3200 Tahlia Chamber Music Artists March 10 Feb 2 - All ages talent show; $5 GOOD EARTH ART Feb 9 - Valentine musical reception; $10 Contemprary Artist's Books Feb 16 - Babar the Elephant; $5 EARTH FRIENDLY COLLECTION OF IMAGINATIVE PROJECTS Dara Larson; 1 pm; free; Alverno College: Art & Feb 23 - Chamber Music Concert; $10 Cultures Gallery, 3400 S 39th; 382-6149 THIS BOOK CONTAINS Joyce Parker Productions, 2685 S Kinnickinnic; OVER 200 ART PROJECTS 744-8866 THAT DEVELOP AN March 12 Young Sculptors Panel Discussion February 5,6,8 & March 18 AWARENESS OF THE Featuring Wisconsin sculptors; 6:15pm; freew/ Neighborhood Concerts ENVIRONMENT museum admission; Memorial Hall, War Me­ PRESENT Music AND ENCOURAGE A morial Center; 224-3200 CARING ATTITUDE Feb 5 - Badger Home for the Blind TOWARDS THE EARTH • March 13 912 N Hawfey; 7pm Feb 6 - Neighborhood House An Evening in Chartres USING MATERIALS 941 N 28th; 4pm Malcolm Miller, expert on the medieval cathe­ COLLECTED FROM NATURE Feb 8 - North Milwaukee Library dral at Chartres, France; 7:30pm; $7 (nonmem­ OR SAVED FROM THE 331 OWVillard; 2:30pm bers); MAM: Vogel/Helfaer Galleries; 224- Mar 18 - Walker's Point Center for the Arts 907 TRASH BIN KIDS CAN 3200 EXPLORE & ENJOY THEIR W National; 7pm; free; 271 -0711 CREATIVITY WITH RESULTS March 14 February 6-8 Watercolor - Not Just for the Drawing Room BOUNDED ONLY BY Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Nancy Lamers lecture/demonstration; 9-11 am; IMAGINATION 16.95 Zdenek Macal, conductor $18; Alverno College: Telesis Institute, 3400 S Alexander Toradze, pianist; music of Dvorak & 39th; registration 382-6200 Rachmaninoff; Th 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm; $12.50- 42.50; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 ARTISTANDDISPLAY 9015 WEST BURLEIGH 442-9100 March 17 MWF 9-6 • TUES & THUR 9-8 PM • SAT 9-5 • SUN 12 -4 Currents 20: Recent Narrative Sculpture February 7-21 Gallery Talk by Dean Sobel; 1:30pm; free w/ Wisconsin Women in the Performing Arts museum admission; MAM: Journal/Lubar Gal­ Feb 7 - Excerpts from Quilters presented by UW- leries; 224-3200 Washington County Theater on the Hill; March 30 Feb 14 - Members of the Florentine Opera; Feb 21 - Arcadia Trio Watercolor demonstration A NEW LINE UP 8pm; $5; Cedarburg Cultural Center, W62 10am; free; St John Uihlein-Peters Gallery, 1840 N546 Washington Ave; info 1/375-3676 N Prospect; 291-4993

April 2 February 7-29 The Coffee House Artists Talk Monday - "poet's monday" an open mike Feb 7 - Talent Contest, $3 Kenn Kwint; 7pm; Cardinal Stritch College: Feb 8 - Dulcimer Concert, $5 Layton Honor Gallery, 6801 N Yates; 352- Tuesday - 'Hie clams" or 'Vie rhythm club" Feb 15 - Midwinter Folk Festival Concert, $6 5400 Wednesday - "la chazz" 9 person latin jazz Feb 22 - No Brakes, bluegrass, $3 1 April 4 Feb 23 - Open Stage, $1 Thursday - "the hip waders' rock-a-billy harmony No Limits Feb 28 - Stuart Stotts, songs &. stories, $3 Women artist's workshop (part of national net­ Feb 29 - Ken Lonnquist, Wise songwriter, $3 Fridays - "mrs. fun" unique, contemporary jazz 8:30pm; 631 N 19th; 962-2135 work); 9:30am-5:30pm; 7621 N Brown Deer; info Mary 355-0589 Saturday - "classic radio theatre" or "John February 9 Schneider & orchestra" Milwaukee Archdiocesan Choir William Erickson, director Sunday - "blomberg & mahaffey" 2nd Sunday only 3pm; $5/$3; Cathedral of St John, 812 N Cafe Melange Jackson; 224-0250 February 9 Fine Arts Quartet lunch, dinner, tap dance & theatre Art /visde 3*i 4t\ 6o?f fo ,7eJ »fe Anatole Koblenz, guest pianist 291-9889 720 N. Old World 3rd rd/ Music of Shostakovich & Mozart; 3pm; $12; 2«J lAiee. I UWM: Recital Hall; 229-4308 30 Art Muscle OUT THERE

In 1964 Terry Riley premiered IN C, a minimalist work which was to influence a generation of ^Inspired- composers from Phillip Glass to PeteTownshend. On February 27 and 28th, through Present Music and the National Performance Network, Riley will make his first Wisconsin appearance at St.Paul's Episcopal Church. Joined by his performance group, Khayal, Riley will perform the groundbreak­ Milwaukee's East Side Health Club ing composition, along with other, newer works. INC consists of 53 measures with the (you guessed it) single key signature of "C." The rhythmic and melodic patterns are written in detail but each Memberships player (and there will be 30 musicians assembled) can play each sequence for as long as they Personal Trainers wish - theoretically the piece could go on all night. But don't bring your jammies to this performance, it won't last longer than 45 minutes. "At first it sounds ridiculous, but the more you Tanning listen to the timbres interacting the more facscinating it becomes," says Present Music Managing Massage Director Dan Petry. For the remainder of the program Khayal will "improvise as if guided by a single y-fhti T'ai Chi Ch'uan mind," combining shamanism, ragtime, jazz and the western classics. Sort of like a cross between Step Aerobics Shadowfax and Joe Jackson. Cocktails • Poetry Slam begins Flo Motion

February 10 February 23 Feb. 4th, continues every ...and much, much more! Music From the Heart Joshua Bell MacDowell Club Benefit for String Academy of Wisconsin; 7pm; Tuesday, 8 p.m., for 7 weeks. 2009 E. Kenilworth PI. 10:30am; free; Woman's Club, 813 E Kilbourn $20-$500; Pabst Theatre, 144 E Wells; info 229-6121 Tony DePalma, proprietor 2 blks. south of North Ave. on Prospect February 11 Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, February 26 706 E. Lyon Street • 347-9972 272-8622 Violin concert; 8pm; $15-30; Pabst Theater, New and Not So New Music 144 E Wells; 278-3665 Music From Almost Yesterday 8pm; $4/$2; UWM: Recital Hall; 229-4308 February 14 N I O N ALLERY The Lost Spindle February 27 & 28 LiveOak & Company Terry Riley & Khayal Early Music Now; Spanish Renaissance com­ PRESENT Music First Floor edy; staging inspired by Commedia dell'Arte; 8pm; $10; St Paul's Episcopal Church, 914 E auction of music-relatea items at 6:30pm; con­ Knapp; 271 -0711 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. cert 8:30pm; $12-14; Scottish Rite Cathedral; Milwaukee 790 N Van Buren; 271 -3335 February 27, 29 & March 1 229-6310 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Spring Shedule February 14 Zdenek Macal, conductor \Jan. 31-Feb. 21, 1992 An Evening of English Song Alessandra Marc, soprano; music of Wagner & Daniel Nelson, tenor William Duval, baritone, Strauss; Th 11 am Sa 8pm Su 7:30pm; $12.50- "From Within" members of the Fine Arts Quartet & Jeffry 42.50; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 *Feb. 24-28 Peterson, piano; 8pm; $6/$3; UWM: Recital Original affordable art "20th Anniversary Events" Hall; 229-4308 Mon, Tue & Wed -11am-4pm February 29 Thursday-11am-7pm Call the gallery for details. February 15 Marches Friday -11am-3pm *March 2-6 High School Honors Orchestra Festival Milwaukee Concert Band Sat/Sun - Closed Print Sale Music of Paul Hindemith & Parcy Aldridge Richard Hynson, guest conductor 'March 13-April 10 Works of Bizet, Glazunov, Dvorak, Ravel & Grainger; 8pm; free (donations accepted); Tchaikovsky; 7:30pm; Pabst Theater, 144 E Cooley Auditorium, 700 W State; 895-6163 "Union Gallery 20" Wells; 229-4308 An invitational exhibit of work by alumni. February 29 'April 20-May 8 February 15 14th Annual Grand Viennese Ball "Culmination" The Honor of Your Presence UWM Symphony Orchestra Milwaukee Skyline Women's Barbershop Cho­ Margery Deutsch, conductor; benefit for UWM Annual UWM Student juried exhibit. rus; concert will culminate with wedding of scholarship fund; 7pm; Marc Plaza Crystal Cathy Simon & David Baxter; 8:15pm; $14 Ballroom; reservations 229-4762 (reception $4); PAC: Vogel Hall; 273-7206 March 1 February 16 Piano Chamber Concert Judit James, piano; Ralph Evans, violin & The UWM Wind Ensemble & Symphony Band This is the Serving the Thomas Dvorak, conductor; guest, Robert Rusk, Sharon Quartet; 3pm; $12; UWM: Recital Hall; tuba; Haddad's Suite for Tuba & Husa's Music 229-4308 place! Open finest BBQ ribs for Prague; 7:30pm; $6/$3; PAC: Vogel Hall; blues jam in Milwaukee 229-4308 March 2 Woodwind Arts Quintet every Assorted 8pm; $6/$3; UWM: Recital Hall; 229-4308 February 16 salads, Elizabeth Vogel, soprano Thursday. Live Civic Music Association; 2:30pm; free; Villa March 3 blues by sandwiches, Terrace, 2220 N Terrace Schoenberg Ensemble Dutch specialists in late 19th & early 20th Milwaukee's century chamber music; 8pm; $12-25; Pabst February 16 premiere tantalizing Music at the Gallery Theater, 144 E Wells; 278-3665 Ensemble from UW-Madison led by Prof Karlos musicians appetizers with March 3 Moser; 2pm; free; West Bend Gallery of Fine Alton most Fridays a vast Arts, 300 S 6th Ave; 1/334-9638 Ireland's hottest traditional band; 7:30pm; $13 array of beers ($10 advance) proceeds benefit Mobilizatin for and February 18 Survival & Beacon Support Group for Survivors Luciano Pavarotti Saturdays. and spirits. of Sexual Assault; Centennial Hall, 733 N 8th; 1000 VIP commemorative tickets are available 372-3060 from the Florentine Opera in exchange for donations of $200-500; 7pm; $17-152; MECCA March 3 & 17 Arena; info 273-1474 Music in the Museum 322 W. State St Art history/period music program featuring 2 2 5-2552 February 19, 20 & 28, March 3 pianist Jeffrey Hollander; 5:30pm; $10 (non- Kaleidescope II members); MAM: Vogel/Helfaer Galleries; 224- Milwaukee Symphony Youth Concert 3200 Neal Gittleman, conductor Elements of music found in various countries March 6 feel great... feel deflated ... feel anything? around the world; 10:30am & 12:30pm (10:30 Ton Koopman, Harpsichord only Mar 3); $4-5.75; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273- Historical Keyboard Society 7206 8pm; preconcert lecture 7:15pm; $15; UWM: Recital Hall; 258-6133 February 20 Serioso String Quartet March 6-8 8pm; $4/$2; UWM: Recital Hall; 229-4308 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Zdenek Macal, conductor Bruno Leonardo Gelber, pianist & Patarice February 21-23 Michaels Bedi, soprano; F,Sa 8pm Su 7:30pm; An American Songbook $12.50-42.50; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 Milwaukee Symphony Pops Harvey Felder, conductor; with Bolcom & Mor­ March 7 ris; F,Sa 8pm Su 7:30pm; $13.50-45; PAC: Greater Milwaukee Youth Wind Ensembles Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 8pm; $6/$3; PAC: Vogel Hall; 229-4308 "A contemporary February 23 pub with Milwaukee Youth Sym phony Orchestra & Cham­ March 8 Prokofiev Remembered old time ber Flute Ensemble MacDowell Club F3ring this coupon or\ your next visit style Works of Berlioz, Stravinsky, Riegger & others; 10:30am; free; Women's Club, 813 E Kilbourn eer at t ie 3pm; $3; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 and receive a roJiDrii?fG? tap ^ '*

February 23 MM rm ^to 157 S. 1st Serioso String Quartet with the purchase of any sandwich. Walker's Point 291-9724 2pm; free; Villa Terrace; 2220 N Terrace 31 March 8 February 29 Fine Arts Quartet Monster in a Box Daniel Benyamini, viola Spalding Gray All Mozart program; 3pm; $12; UWM: Recital Master storyteller; 8pm; $18 & $20; Pabst Hall; 229-4308 Theater, 144 E Wells; 229-4308

March 10 March 15-29 psmzEnm Graduate Conducting Recital American Nervousness Janet Millard de Rold n conducts members of the Drawing Legion Pressed & Printed UWM Symphony & Milwaukee Symphony or­ lowan art & performance company presents a Valentine Psychic Fair Classes and workshops in Papermakinq, chestras; 8pm; free; UWM: Recital Hall fanciful history of American artistic aspirations; Saturday, Feb. 15th, noon - 6 p.m. 8pm; $12 & $14; Stiemke Theater, 108 E Wells; Letterpress, Book Arts and a variety of other related areas. $2 admission March 12 info Theatre X 278-0555 $15 Readings • Reiki • Energy Alignment Northern Lights Chamber Winds E11329 Hwy. 159, Baraboo, Wl 53913 8pm; $4/$2; UWM: Recital Hall; 229-4308 (608) 356-4877. Red Carpet Celebrity Lanes Call or write for more information. 5727 S. 27th Street March 13 The Chenille Sisters Vocal harmonies in a variety of styles; 8pm; $8- Now-February 9 18; Pabst Theater, 144 E Wells; 278-3665 Woman in Mind All living matter is vibration. Alan Ayckboum March 13 Northern Stage Company Learning how to adjust Irish Music & Dancing A woman hit by a garden rake hallucinates a the frequency St Patrick's Day Ceili dancing taught to begin­ fantasy family; W,Th 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm, Su is a pathway ners & advanced; live celtic music by Ceol 2:30pm; $10-12; UWM: Fine Arts Theatre; to wellness. Cairde, Maria Terres Sandgren & craig Siem- 229-4308 sen; 7pm; St Peter & Paul Auditorium; info 372- Language Center 3060 Now-February 16 International The Italian Girl in Algiers March 13-15 G A Rossini Communication by Design A final Tribute to Gershwin, Kern 8c Berlin Skylight Opera Theatre Language Courses Given by Native Speakers breakthrough Milwaukee Symphony Pops Contemporary staging comic opera; W 7:30pm • in good health. Neal GitHeman, conductor; F,Sa 8pm Su F,Sa 8pm Feb 2,16 2pm Feb 9 7:30pm; $19- Translations, Interpretations, Cultural 7:30pm; $13.50-$45; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273- $26; 813 N Jefferson; 271-9580 Herbal nutrition • Iridology Orientation, Organized Trips Abroad Colon therapy • Muscle testing 7206 • Now-February 23 Plus, A Complete Library - Bodes and Tapes March 13-15 All the Tricks But One (video and Audio) free for our students Stringalong Folk Arts Weekend Gilles Segal Pathway to Wellness Classes & concerts with folk artists from across Milwaukee Repertory Theater For complete details call: Jeanne E. Bear • 963-0176 America at a lakeside resort; info 229-4622 In WW II France, a Jewish comic faces a difficult 265-2101 choice; Tu,W,Su 7:30pm Th,F 8pm, Sa 5 & March 14 9pm; W1:30pm Su 2pm; $5-$22; Powerhouse Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir Theater, 108 E Wells; 224-9490 YOUR WINTER B 24 Bulgarian village women who sing with a **£ LU vibratoless sound; 8pm; $18 & $20; Pabst February 1-16 ** Flamenco Dance Classes % Theater, 144 E Wells; 229-4308 An Evening of Mamet, Gray & Linney Village Beat Dance Classes - :£•£-£• The Shawl, Micke/s Teeth 8c Yancey Move to Brazilian African and Latin rhythms March 15 Milwaukee Repertory Theater Helen Jenner & Janet Riordan, vocal duo T,W 7:30pm, Sa 5 8.9pm, Su 2 8c 7:30pm; $7- STRETCH/MOVEMENT Studio Civic Music Association; 2:30pm; free; Villa $12; Stiemke Theater, 108 E Wells; 224-9490 2625 N. Downer Ave. 332-7160 Terrace, 2220 N Terrace February 7-March 22 March 15 Lady Day at Emerson's Bar 8c Grill St Patrick's Day Celebration Milwaukee Repertory Theater 3pm; $5/$3; Cathedral of St John, 812 N Based on an eyewitness account of Billie Holiday's FOR SALE Jackson; 224-0250 final performance; W,Su 7:30pm F 8pm Sa 5pm 8c 9pm; $9-$7; Stackner Cabaret, 108 E Bieffe drafting table (2%'xA') with March 15 Wells; 224-9490 Bel Canto Chorus Vemco V-Track 520 drafting machine, Richard Hynson, conductor February 12-23 includes adjustable chair-lamp; $600. Music of Bach, Hadyn & Britten; 3pm; $8-$l 8; On the Verge New air brush kit; $50. Call 351-0131. Immanual Presbyterian Church, 1100 N Astor; Eric Overmyer 272-7950 Marquette University W-Sa 8pm Su 2:30pm; $8; Helfaer Theatre, March 21 & 22 525 N 13th; 288-7504 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Lukas Foss, conductor February 13 & 14 Music of Beethoven & Foss; Sa 8pm; Su 7:30pm; My Funny Valentine $12.50-42.50; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 T A Productions - Dale Gutzman, artistic direc­ FOR CONTEMPORARY THINKERS tor; humorous sketches about relationships; March 23 12noon; $26 (incl lunch in the Bradley Pavilion Foss & Friends 8c show); PAC: Vogel Hall; reservations 258- "Travel Guide" Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra 4886 to being a Lukas Foss, John Downey, Anne Kammerlinq & QUANTUM PERSON Stephen Colburn; music of Bach, Mendelssohn, February 14 Downey & Hindemith; 7:30pm; PAC: Vogel Lyndon <<>^<1 ^ »° . 6* Hall; 273-7206 Laurence Luckinbill «v Lecture Written by Milwaukee native James Prideaux a departure from being just human March 27 based on Merle Miller's oral biography; audi­ an informational trip to a new state Barbershoppers Concert ence talkback with George Reedy, former press of mind Milwaukee Festival City Chorus secretary to LBJ follows performance; 8pm; 8pm; $6-$16; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273-7206 $12-$30; Pabst Theater, 144 E Wells; 278- 3665 Feb. 14 March 4 March 27 Feb. 25 March 26 Sonny Rollins February 14-March 1 Time: 7:30PM Fee: $5 each 8pm; $17 8. $20; Pabst Theater, 144 E Wells; Cobb 229-4308 Lee Blessing Qpte 7I

Looking for a role model in your quest for the meaning of life? There may be more than one in Gilgamesh February 19-March 1 at the UWM Fine Arts Studio Theatre. This relic of Mesopotamian literature will come to life through the work of students in the Professional Theatre Training Program who have spent the past three years developing script, music, stage and costume design for the production, which is being directed by Theatre X's John Kishline. If you think life is tough now, • imagine the pressures of being a cross between Adonis and Sampson, who "built walls through the GRAPHICS day, through the night" and "left not a wife to her master, not a single virgin to her mother." Enter POSTERS Engidu, with "the strength of a boar, the mane of a lion and the speed of a bird" (not to mention 1 2 0 9 E the smell of a goat). Of course, the two become best friends, but when Gilgamesh spurns the FRAMING BRADY ST. goddess Ishtar, the result of her jealous rage leaves Engidu in Hades and Gilgamesh searching for HOURS: the key to immortal life. Kishline says, "It's extraordinary. It's about mortality and taking respon­ M-F 10-6 sibility for your own life and we're going to tell it in 90 minutes." SAT. 10-5 277.8228 February 19-March 1 W,Th 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm Su 2:30pm; $9-11; G R A V A Gilgamesh UWM: Fine Arts Theatre, 2400 E Kenwood; 961 S. PARK UWM Professional Theatre Training Program 229-4308 608*251-5255 MADISON, Wl G A L L E R Y Adapted by the PTTP from a Sumerian poem; an epic journey in search of immortality; Tu-Th March 11 -April 5 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm Su 2:30pm; $9-11; UWM: Gypsy Fine Arts Studio Theatre, 2400 E Kenwood; Skylight Opera Theatre 229-4308 Based on the memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee; W ESSSSBSCSI 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm Su 2 & 7:30pm; $ 19-$26; February 21-March 8 813 N Jefferson; 271-9580 84 Charing Cross Road ACTORS who SING Nelson Hanff & James Roose Evans March 14 HOLOGRAM & NEON GALLERY Milwaukee Chamber Theater Cinderella SINGERS who ACT Romance by correspondence of a New York Rogers & Hammerstein VARIETY PERFORMERS, MUSICIANS, writer & London bookseller; W,Th 7:30pm F Great Lakes Opera 8pm Sa 4 & 8pm Su 2 & 7pm; $16 & $19; 1,3 & 7pm; $5 & $7; PAC: Vogel Hall; 273- PRODUCTION PERSONNEL Stiemke Theatre, 108 E Wells; 276-8842 7206

1992 SUMMER THEATRE MAYFAIR MALL February 20-March 15 March 20-28 POSITIONS OPEN (414J258A6250 The Diary of Adam & Eve Easy Virtue (based on Mark Twain) Noel Coward for PROFESSIONALS Ephesians (based on the New Testament) Theatre on the Hill and INTERNS Acacia Theatre Company F,Sa 7:30pm; UW-Washington County, 400 F 7pm Sa,Su 3pm & 7pm; $9 & $11; 3300 N University Dr; 1/335-5208 (minority & low & moderate income Personal Touch Portraits JJ Sherman; 223-4996 1 7-30 year olds encouraged Realistic and Affordable b« March 20-29 to apply for internships) (drawn from your photographs) February 21, 28 & March 7 Hansberry Sands Playwrights' to schedule an auditor) send a 367-6344 Animal Farm One Ad Showcase 651 North Ave. Hartland, Wl. 53029 George Orwell Brontosaurus by Aid. Wayne Frank photo/resume to the First Stage Milwaukee A Pale Lion by Michael Neville MILWAUKEE PUBLIC THEATRE Milwaukee Public Theater Swap the Wolf by Adolphus Ward PO Box 07147 MKE Wl 53207 8pm; $7 & $ 10; PAC: Todd Wehr Theater; 273- Local writers employ animal imagery; 8pm; 7206 $15; PAC: Vogel Hall; 273-7206

ARTISITS • CRAFSTSPERSONS February 26-29 March 21 The Wake Hansel & Gretel Go Cajun Your Art: Pottery, Sculpture, Photos, Steve Allen AlphaBet Soup Productions Paintings, Jewelry and more needed for Milwaukee Irish Fest Theatre 1 & 3:30pm; $7.50 (kids $4.50); Capitol Civic consignment to new coffeehouse and Allen stars in is semi-autobiographical play; Center, 917 S 8th, Manitowoc; 1 /683-2184 gallery in UWM area. Call 963-4410. 8pm; Feb 26 preview gala $40 (incl dinner); $12 & $15; PAC: Vogel Hall; 273-7206 March 26 Mark Twain Tonight February 26-March 8 Hal Holbrook ART WORK WANTE D The All Night Strut 8pm; $12-$30; Pabst Theater, 144 E Wells; JCC Theater Company 278-3665 for three salon galleries at LeCourt Musical celebratin of the 30s & 40s; JCC Ritz Salons located in Mequon, Theater, 6255 N Santa Monica; reservations March 26, 28, 29 Brookfield and Downtown. 964-4444 Eugene Onegin Peter Tchaikovsky CALL SHIRLEY, 241-5252 February 27-April 5 Florentine Opera Death of a Salesman Sung in Russian w/subtitles; Th 7:30pm Sa 8pm Arthur Miller Su 2:30pm; $13-74; PAC: Uihlein Hall; 273- Milwaukee Repertory Theater 7206 Tu,W,Su 7:30pm Th,F 8pm, Sa 5 & 9pm; SALES REP matinees W 1:30pm Su 2pm; $5-$22; Power­ March 28 Art Muscle Magazine has house Theater, 108 E Wells; 224-9490 Nunsense positions available for sales reps 4:30 & 8pm; $10-$22; Capitol Civic Center, February 28 917 S 8th, Manitowoc; 1/683-2184 within Metro Milwaukee and the Driving Miss Daisy surrounding suburban area. Photo Opportunity 3 & 8pm; $10-$20; Capitol Civic Center, 917 S 8th, Manitowoc; 1/683-2184 Must be a self-motivated individual with media sales February 28-March 14 February 5-28 The Subject Was Roses Arf s Place experience. Automobile Frank D Gilroy Feb 5,6,7 - Bill Sanders, The Italian Girl in necessary! Sunset Playhouse Algiers, Susan Firer, drama in rural Wisconsin Ari Pulitzer prize wnning drama about a family & Milwaukee's gargoyles Send resume to: dealing with ways to express love; Th,F 8pm, Sa Feb 12,13,14 - H H Bennet, Harvey Taylor, Art Muscle Studio or 6 & 9pm, Su 7pm; $8; 800 Elm Grove Road, Elm Haiky Games with Jim Hazard, a day in the life Location Grove; 782-4431 of a dancer P.O. Box 93219 442-8421 REASONABLY PRICED Feb 19,20,21 - Next Act Theatre's Cobb, Shi­ Milwaukee, Wl 53203 March 4-22 mon & Lindemann, Dale Gutzman, Oscar Mire- Crimes of the Heart les Beth Henley Feb 26,27,28 - Brooks Stevens, Hansberry- American Inside Theatre Sands Theatre's Mule Bones, Gerald Coleman, Tu 11 am W,Th 7:30pm F,Sa 8pm Su 2pm; $1 2 Jim Hazard & Lyle in Buttons & Bows; & $14; $12-$l 4; Otteson Theater, 100 E North W 8pm & Th 10:30 on Channel 10; F 6:30pm ART MUSCLE Ave, Waukesha; 1/968-4555 on Channel 36

PRESENTS \ March 6-29 February 7-March 27 classifieds Pericles Where The Waters Meet n William Shakespeare Feb 7 - Reynaldo Hernandez, Muralist 10x10 The Boulevard Ensemble Feb 14 - Silk for Life, Nancy Siewart Only $20 an inch! WISCONSIN POTTERS INVITATIONAL Lyrical tale of adventure & romance; Th-Su 8pm; Feb 21 - Jim Chism, Artist $8 & $9; 2250 S Kinnickinnic; 672-6019 Feb 28 - Francis Ford, Photographer Curated by: Dick Woppert Mar 6 - Will Durst, Comedian Next issue runs: Opening Reception: March 10 & 11 Mar 13 - Judith Ann Moriarty, Artist Mar 20 - Norman Stephens, Basket Sculpture 11-5 Sat. Feb. 29 & Sun. March 1 Let's Go Cruising April 1 - June 1 T A Productions - Dale Gutzman, artistic direc­ Mar 27- James Vopat&Mark Lawson, Children's Abe Cohn Bill Grover tor; revue about the world of travel; 12noon; Art Show John Dietrich Greg Miller $26 (incl lunch in the Bradley Pavilion & show); F 7pm; Warner Cable Channel 14 & Viacom Deadline: March 6 Willem Gebben Jeff Noska Diana & Tom Johnston Tim & Joan Senn PAC: Vogel Hall; reservations 258-4886 Cable 1 IB; 414/272-4592 Call 672-8485 Bruce Jordan Joanne Kirkland March 11-21 February 22 & 29 Through April 25 for more information Romeo & Juliet Dreams of the Video Terroist 2711 N Bremen Milw 53212 374-POTS William Shakespeare Gene Emory Zanow; 9:30pm; Warner Cable Tues-Fri2-6 Sat 11-4 UWM Professional Theatre Training Program Channel 14 33 SPIRITS IN THE NIGHT

By Gregory Conn iff artist, Xu Bing (closed January 19), while of women — the loving of one of whom In the vast south hall on the museum's the Madison Art Center is showing the might have meant the loss of his being second floor Xu Bing installed A Book paintings, sculpture and monotypes that able to love God. from the Sky, the piece which earned him As ties of family and neighborhood and make up Nicholas Africano's work, "In­ the above critic's censure. It, like Ghosts, religion and nation become daily less nocence and Experience" (to March 1). In Africano's mural-size paintings, sketchy is a work on paper. In this installation it able to bind us sweetly to a place on male and female figures float in isolation consisted of three scrolls, in the manner earth, we are all becoming exiles without These exhibitions carried on a conversa­ from each other in a sandy, frescoish, of Chinese religious writings, swooping a dream of home. It feels in this dark time tion between themselves that rewarded pre-gothic void. The men are anguished, the 79 foot length of the gallery, with their as if we are living in the penumbral light the gray half-mile walk linking the two usually half-dressed, always unable to perigee over the center of an island of 300 of a return to the Dark Ages. Leaderless, institutions. One dealt with the persis­ connect; the women are mostly nude, hand-printed books. The room's walls without direction, hollowed from within tence of the human spirit in surviving the upright and involved seemingly with ritu­ were covered with texts in the way the by the substitution of cynicism for belief, soul-killing pressures of a culture; the als of the bath or, as if overwhelmed, Chinese paste up newspapers out-of- we as a people, are disintegrating from other, the confused pain of the spirit's collapsed clutching their sex in a position doors for their readers. The level of craft the inside out. lonely navigation of the physical world. reminiscent of children in sleep. While in every detail was of the highest order, Moving between the shows was like something is going on that feels like truth, and for someone who didn't read Chi­ The world of art- d(econ)structed, preen­ overhearing the talk of serious people there is no narrative direction. Phrases in nese it was like being in the center of an ing hiply in the mirror of irony - is as whose clarity and self-effacing respect literary reference float on the canvases in exquisite textural aviary filled with songs marked by inner collapse as are sports, made you take up your own life with ambiguous connection to the figures. one couldn't hear. Only there was no evangelical Christianity, some marriages increased appreciation for the depths and any other area of life that has taken as immanent in its day-to-day surfaces. its principles those of the marketplace. The world of contemporary art has or­ Both exhibitions qualifiedas installations, ganized itself around objects too often although Africano's work is divisible shaped in willing accommodation to the without losing much force. His paintings market's invisible striking hand. As a and one sculpture occupy the Art Center's marketplace, this world has grudging main gallery, while the balcony is given room, barely, for art whose central value over to related sculpture and a suite of is its illumination of the daily work of monoprints in which Africano's soul being human — both of failing and of

Xu Bing, A Book From the Sky

Taken singly the pieces have an edgy song in the texts. All of the writing filling modernity; but taken as a whole and the room was the product of 4,000 imag­ routed through the suite of prints, "Inno­ ined Chinese characters which Xu Bing cence and Experience" extends across invented and then carved into wooden time. As it does so it becomes a numinous blocks for printing. It was nonsense and parable built around the eternal human pure sense. It was an indictment of the need for a companion soul on journeys ultimate futility of Chinese ideological Nicholas Africano, Tea, 1990 through the inner spaces of the heart. repression, but it was more than that. As Africano's yearning people find the body Xu Bing left China because there was no to be a confusing messenger, so Xu Bing, being good at it. If the contemporary art seems to fuse with that of "God's fool," St. room for him after Tianenman Square to I think, sees language and culture them­ world is central to our culture it is fre­ Francis of Assissi. This murky group is a make art about ideas instead of ideology. selves, even in the best of situations, as ul­ quently a center without love and with­ deeply felt evocation of a soul's journey At the Elvehjem he occupied all of the timately inadequate before the needs of out hope. With its eyes fixed mockingly toward an unknowable goal and is the museum's large central atrium with a spirits that live in the world, but can find on its past, this world is a center also emotional core of "Innocence and Expe­ rubbing of a section of the Great Wall of no rest in it. without belief in the future. (And in the rience." China — the road atop the wall (soaring Academy artists come and go speaking of from the immediate entrance area to the While Xu Bing's work springs from ideas "post-" or else of "neo-"). St. Francis lived at a time of Christian/ and Africano's from meditations that stand Islamic conflict, when metaphors of love height of the museum), and one of its towers. Called Ghosts Pounding the Wall somewhat to the side of an examination Welcome to the monastery. And happy from both religions twined uneasily in in adoption of an official Chinese critic's of conscience, both of them have chosen New Year. the songs, the courts and the philosophy to walk the path of reason in beauty. It is of the era. In Catholic tradition Francis is phrase rejecting his insufficiently "cor­ rect" work, this physically overwhelming the kind of thing that can restore your As the sun withdrew into winter this year, a figure of oceanic love who embodied installation is a monument to the pain of faith without deluding you that it con­ Madison set lights against the gathering nevertheless an aversion to the satisfac­ the people forced to build the wall. It is tains an answer beyond the hope of an­ dark in both of its major visual art show- tion and pleasures of the flesh. Francis a testimony to the power of the human other spring. places. The Elvehjem Museum exhibited has the reputation of having been a gor­ large works by the expatriate Chinese geous singer, but he was, well, terrified spirit to overcome, eventually, any bar­ rier to its message of life.

ART EXHIBITIONS Madison Art Center Wisconsin Academy Gallery MUSIC Now-March 1 February 3-27 Gallery B-106 Nicholas Africano: Innocence & Experience Eric Hagstrom: A New World Order First Unitarian Meeting House Now-February 23 Strata: A New Installation by Jin Soo Kim Opening reception Feb 7 5-7pm; February 26 Peter Flanary, Sculpture March 14-May 10 March 6-31 Terry Riley & Khayal; Present Music; February 24-March 29 Interrogating Identity; also JoAnna Poehlmann, pencil, watercolor, pa­ 7:30pm; $10; info 414/271-0711 Gregg Willard, Paintings Stephen Whisler, drawings & sculpture pier mache; opening reception Mar 6 5-7pm; Steve Fried, Wall Texts 211 State; 608/257-0158 1922 University; 608/263-1692 Madison Civic Center 644 W Washington; 608/257-7333 Now-March 20 Santa Fe Style Gallery DANCE Madison Brass: lunch time concerts Grace Chosy Gallery Now-February 15 F noon; free; 608/221-8047 Now-February 22 Francisco X Mora Wisconsin Union Theater David Peacock, paintings; 2608 Monroe; 608/233-4223 February 29 The Wisconsin Union Theater March 6-28 Dance Festival Concert February 14 Nancy Marks; works on paper Spaightwood Galleries Flamenco, Hungarian, Azerbaijan & English Turtle Island String Quartet Opening reception Mar 6 6-8pm; 218 N Now-February 16 ritual themes; 8pm; $9-$ll; 800 Langdon; February 20 Henry; 608/255-1211 Interpreting the Other/Representing the Self 608/262-2201 Borodin String Quartet Del prat, Picasso, Schowalter March 26 Jura Silverman Gallery February 21 -March 22 LECTURES Waverly Consort Now-February 28 Antoni Tapies, etchings & lithographs 8pm; $17.50-$18.50/$10; UW-Madison; Hearts & Flowers: Elliot, Murphy, Strobel March 27-May 10 Madison Public Library Memorial Union, 800 Langdon; 608/262- February 29-April 3 Forging the Real-Gerard Titus-Carmel, paint­ Women Artist Series 2201 Wisconsin Through a Lens ings, collages, drawings & prints; 1150 Spaight February 8 - Dalida Maria Benfield Jill Metcoff, Photography; also Street; 608/255-3043 March 21 - Elaine Scheer Furniture as Art; 143 S Washington, Spring 2pm; Central Branch, 201 W Mifflin Green; 608/546-6211 34 Art Muscle ART EXHIBITIONS Paper Press Feb 7-March 14 - Brigid Finucane )3ai)g£pi> Oi?cf)id Abel Joseph Gallery 1017 W Jackson; 312/226-6300 February 9-March 14 Susie Brandt, Laurel Fredrickson & Gail Perimeter Gallery Simpson; 1600 N Milwaukee; 312/384-4959 Feb 14-March 7 - Keiko Hara A TASTE of THAILAND March 13-April 4 HERE IN MILWAUKEE ARC Gallery Jon Friedman, John Colt & Dana Garner March 3-28 - Laurie Wohl: Veils of Light 750 N Orleans; 312/266-9473 California Women's Caucus for Art 1040 W Huron; 312/733-2787 RandoV Street Gallery FREE PARKING To February 29 - Group show on controversies Artemesia Gallery facing women in political & social environ­ February 2-29 - Marya Lee Pitchford Jolly ments; 756 N Milwaukee; 312/666-7737 HUGE NEW MENU Chicago Women's Caucus For Art March 3-28 • Group show School of the Art Institute of Chicago FINE THAI ART 700 N Carpenter; 312/226-7323 To-March 24 -Works by women artists March 13-April 22 - Post-Baccalaureate Show EXOTIC DRINKS Art Institute of Chicago Columbus & Jackson; 312/443-3703 To March 31 - Lithographs, Theodore Gericault To-February 28 - CAA/MFA candidates; vj \ &C4/& ror//£ £Xor/c To April 5 - PoKempner, Kelly, photographs March 13-April 10 - Race, Class, Sexuality & Ij^SMgORCHID LOUNGE To April 19 - Tom Arndt, photographs Family Life;l 040 W Huron; 312/226-1449 £#AVO/£CW 0l#r/£S JM/LASLE/ To April 28 • Imaging the Body Michigan at Adams; 312/443-3626 Stephen Solovy Fine Art To-February 29 - Drawings For The Stage Catherine Edelman Gallery Barraud, Clave, Hockney & Salle 2239 N. PROSPECT AVE. 223-3333 Feb 7-Mar 7 - Richard Misrach: The Playboys 620 N Michigan; 312/664-6726 Mar 13-April 18 - Michael Kenna & Sally Gall 300 W Superior; 312/266-2350 World Tattoo Gallery March 20- April 4 - Alejandro Romero Contemporary Art Workshop 1255 S Wabash; 312/939-2222 To Feb 24 - Bryan Schuetze & Anna Kuntz Feb 28-March 30 - Lisa Erf & Eve Whitaker DANCE 542 W Grant; 312/472-4004 Civic Stages NEON STREET Ehlers Caudill Gallery Lid February 19-23 - Pilobolus Dance Theatre To March 10 - Ruth Thorne-Thomsen March 11-14- Joseph Holmes Dance Theatre March 13-April 14 - Lewis Koch March 11,13,14 - Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane & • necn art • 750 N Orleans; 312/642-8611 Company: Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin March 17-29 - American Ballet Theatre •neon furniture • Gallery Ten 20 N Wacker; 312/346-0270 Feb 28-April 3 - Annual Regional Exhibition 4-828 w. donees bay road 514 E State, Rockford; 815/964-1743 Dance Center of Columbia College February 27-29 - Nucleodanza; $12 414/242-8CC7 Museum of Contemporary Art March 26-28 - Margaret Jenkins Company; February 8-April 19 $12; 4730 N Sheridan; 312/271 -7928 M-Sat 10-5; Wed 10-8 or toy appt. Robert Rauscnenberg: The Early 1950s John Cage: Scores From The Early 1950s Links Hall Performance Space 237 E Ontario; 312/280-5161 February 7-9 - Jellyeye & Avalanche Ranch February 21 -23 - Bob Eisen Nancy Lurie Gallery February 28 - Dance & Drumming from Ghana Feb 21-March 28 February 29 - The Metro Gospel Choir Frank Shaw, Michael Norton, Charlotte Cain March 6,7,13,14- Fluid Measure Performance 1632 N LaSalle; 312/377-2883 3435 N Sheffield; 312/281-0824

The HISTORICAL KEYBOARD SOCIETY predentd a decuon of

TON KOOPMAN, Harpsichord The world-renowned Dutch harpsichordist returns for the Society's FIFTH YEAR ANNIVERSARY CONCERT FRIDAY, March 6, UWM Fine Arts Recital Hall

KAREN HUDSON-BROWN, Fortepiano A portrait of the life and time.) of Beethoven SUNDAY, March 29, at Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum

SANFORD SYLVAN, Baritone, and DAVID BREITMAN, Fortepiano All-Schubert program includes "Die Schoene Muellerin" SUNDAY, April 26, UWM Fine Arts Recital Hall

Concerts: 8:00 p.m. Tickets: $10 & $15

Box Office: 414-271-3335

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