Exhibition
Guest curated by Amal Azzam and Nayfa Naji, the exhibition Wherever Home Is will focus on the feeling of belonging and being at home. Azzam and Naji have been collaborating since 2019 as Fanana Banana; Fanana means ‘artist’ in Arabic, and Banana, as Naji says, “just gave it a goofy twist.” Fanana Banana uses art and community events to raise awareness of the issues faced by American Muslim and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) communities, and to reflect on how first and second-generation immigrants and their families cope with the challenges of finding a home in a new land and bridging communities while maintaining their cultural identity. Their projects investigate how having “an identity within an identity” affects mental health, body image, and political outlook, and the emotional toll exacted by facing racial, ethnic, and religious prejudice. Azzam and Naji themselves are Palestinian Americans from Milwaukee.
Organized through a statewide open call, Wherever Home Is will draw artists from farther afield than their previous exhibitions, which have been focused on Milwaukee artists. We anticipate that it will encompass artwork in all media, from traditional forms like calligraphy to mixed-media sculpture, video, and painting. Bookmark this page for information about gallery talks and public programs that will create opportunities for deeper engagement.
To learn more about the open call, visit @fananamke on Instagram.
Nina Ghanbarzadeh’s art practice is rooted in the desire to share her personal experiences and understanding of the culture and history of Iran, where she was born. She often works with geometric patterns, calligraphic letters, clay, and the color turquoise, inspired by their importance in the history of Iranian art. “Living between two cultures (American and Persian)," says Ghanbarzadeh, "I find myself in constant translation. Culture is so much more than language. It is a shared visual sensibility, humor, music, rituals, past times, food, spiritual commonalities, shared history and understanding. I draw inspiration for my art from all of this and from the limitations inherent in language. I search for the universal abstractions of lines, curves, dots that are the building blocks of the symbols that make any language and that help to describe a culture.”
Maureen Fritchen’s exhibition showcases the impact of consumerism on our environment. Fritchen uses industrial waste materials as her principal medium, repurposing non-biodegradable polyethylene foam (PE) used in a wide variety of packaging. While PE is technically recyclable, in practice there are very few options for collection and most PE ends up in landfills or the natural environment. The biomorphic shapes and forms Fritchen creates are beautiful and sensual, in bright happy hues of pink and turquoise. They are both alluring and disturbing.
Working collaboratively--and with materials like thread, ink, video, photography, and ceramics--Nirmal Raja’s investigations can be intimate, beautiful, and wrenching. An interdisciplinary artist and curator, she carves a brave and questioning path via a persistent and focused practice.
5-10-100 is an exhibition celebrating the groundbreaking Women Artists Forward Fund, the 5th anniversary of the Forward Art Prize, and the 10 artists who have received the award to date.
Lisa Marie Barber's ceramic assemblages and textiles encompass her imagined, decorative conceptions of home, gardens, peacefulness, playfulness, and celebration.
Jayne King's ceramic vessels explore the nature of memory, nostalgia and personal narrative, and how Jewish tradition informs their relationship to their family’s past and present.
Mary Burns' hand-woven jacquard portraits celebrate and honor water, as well as the women who work with it, protect it and advocate for it.
In collaboration with her father who passed in 2021, Madeline Grace Martin's work honors his life as poet and writer.
Featuring textile works by Heidi Parkes and sculpture by Glenn Williams, Siara Berry, Sylvie Rosenthal, and Jaymee Harvey Willms, artists whose work touches on diverse aspects of mending and repair.
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Wisconsin Academy Offices
1922 University Avenue
Madison, Wisconsin 53726
Phone: 608.733.6633
James Watrous Gallery
3rd Floor, Overture Center for the Arts
201 State Street
Madison, WI 53703
Phone: 608.733.6633 x25