The Bird & The Hand: The Art of Benjamin Pollock & Carey Watters

Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point will present “The Bird & the Hand” on July 17, 2026 from 5-9pm, a show that brings together the work of artists Benjamin Pollock and Carey Watters who share a fascination in the search for meaning in the natural world. Pollock’s drawings combine precise geometric structures with birds, hinting at hidden forces and questioning the arbitrary boundaries between humanity and nature. Watters’ intricate cut-paper works result from years of photographing hands as sites for humans to create meaning through ritual, belief, symbolism, and folklore.

Benjamin Pollock has a formal training in chemical physics plus a fascination with ornithology. His work combines symmetry, straight lines, and perfect circles alongside the delicate form of birds, revealing the invisible framework of forces shaping reality. Of his work, Pollack says, “Here is a continuous picture of reality where all things, living and not, are connected through a framework of forces interacting in delicate order.” 

Carey Watters is an artist and professor who creates layered paper installations or “cabinets of curiosities” that blur the boundaries between artifact (human-made) and specimen (nature-made). Influences include Byzantine iconography, religious reliquaries, and vernacular traditions from her travels to southern Italy, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Watters describes the work as “Hands, eyes, and other familiar objects removed from their original context and presented as fragments of larger narratives—evidence of humanity's enduring desire to classify, interpret, and assign meaning to the world around us.”

Opening Reception: Gallery Night & Day!
Friday, July 17th 5-9pm & Saturday, July 18th 12-5 pm
Gallery Open Hours: Open on Saturdays, 12-4pm, through August 15th, 2026.

About the Artists

Carey Watters is a professor of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin–Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. She received her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and her MFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Benjamin Pollock is a self-taught artist who earned his master’s degree in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016. He served on the board of directors at Polka!Press, a community printshop in Madison, before relocating to Milwaukee in 2022 and joining Anchor Press, Paper & Print (AP3). He currently serves on the executive committee at House of RAD, a warehouse collective of 70+ artists in Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley, which is also the home of AP3.

Max Went West: An American Tale III - Woodcut Prints by Max Hautala

Wisconsin-raised printmaker Max Hautala is returning from the mean streets of Seattle for his prodigal gallery show “Max Goes West: An American Tale III,” opening Friday, May 22nd at Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point. The exhibition will showcase a series of woodcut prints that reflect Hautala’s wild adventures through the Midwest and West Coast, scenes in which fish embrace warmly, and horses gallop along mountainous landscapes. In this show, you’ll meet old friends, new enemies, see a young mouse who can stand tall and witness a cowardly cat getting a new start as a dog.

These prints demand engagement and deciphering, allowing viewers to contemplate their environment and inner selves through symbols, pictographs, and imagery that function as a visual language. The bold, graphic nature of woodcut printmaking is emphasized by the labor of carving, cranking, repetition, and the transformation of raw materials. While conceptually Hautala’s work fancies a fable, the woodcuts themselves stand fully in the physical world, having been hacked together by chisels and knives.

“Carving and printing blocks the old way resists reliance on the digital world even though printmaking was what brought on digital communication,” said Hautala. “As images are near-unthinkingly reproduced, reposted, and repurposed through algorithmic channels, I present handmade images as a tactile counterpoint to digital overstimulation.”

Opening Reception: Friday, May 22nd 5-9pm
Sketchbook Workshop: Saturday, May 23rd 12-5pm
(Pay what you want, supplies provided)
Gallery Open Hours: Open on Saturdays, 12-4pm, through June 20th, 2026.

Artist Bio
Max Hautala (@NoMaxPrint) is a Washington-based artist with an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to making woodcuts for over ten years, Max has been an adjunct professor, diaper call center representative, and a shopping cart attendant at a grocery store. Recently, Max received the Pratt Fine Arts Center/Seattle Print Arts grant, and was a resident at BYO Print in Philadelphia, PA. His work has shown from New York City to Seoul, South Korea, and is in collections such as the Chazen Museum of Art and has rotating works at the Franconia Sculpture Park. Previously, he taught at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and led woodcut workshops across the United States and in Tokyo, Japan.

Cynthia Brinich-Langlois – Inklings

Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point neighborhood will next display Cynthia Brinich-Langlois’ latest solo exhibit, “Inklings.” Opening 5-9pm on March 20th, “Inklings” is a show of lithographic prints and collaged forms that depict fantastical creatures and the places they inhabit. Merging the artist’s autobiographical experiences and ecological research, these works present a dreamlike view of our world, one where rocks, roots, and feathers all have faces. Geese fly in space using starlight to navigate their migration. Time is compressed in a portrait of a caribou with all her antlers, past, present and future. 

Brinich-Langlois points out how moments of wonder are created by the contradictions of science, magic, suspicion, conflict, and confusion. Unnamed ideas linger at the edge of consciousness, becoming a force of fear and disruption as faceless entities are formed from folded paper. These floral, winged, many-legged monsters are made of many worlds and meander through the spaces in between. As Brinich-Langlois says of her work, “Universes come together and break apart. Everything is in motion. Everything is alive.”

Opening Reception: March 20th, 2026 from 5-9 pm.
Gallery Open Hours: Saturdays, 12-4pm, through April 18th, 2026.

About the Artist: 

Cynthia Brinich-Langlois grew up in Alaska before studying studio art and environmental biology at Kenyon College. While completing an MFA in printmaking from the University of New Mexico, she participated in Land Arts of the American West and the Tamarind Institute’s Collaborative Lithography program. She has exhibited throughout the United States and abroad, including at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, NM, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Purdue University Galleries, and Creative Research Laboratory in Austin, TX. Residencies include Elsewhere Artists Collaborative, Montello Foundation, Iowa Lakeside Laboratories, and Ucross Foundation. Her work is included in the archives of the University of Iowa, Zuckerman Museum of Art, and the Nevada Museum of Art. Brinich-Langlois instructs printmaking and digital art at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Husks - Michael Laurito

On Friday, January 16th, 5-9pm, Grove Gallery will present “Husks,” a solo show of Michael Laurito’s collagraphs. By using handmade paper and textural plates to make low-relief prints, Laurito investigates an aquatic world of evolution and decay. Laurito’s prints primarily depict fish, in life and in death. Curious viewers will strain to identify parasites and crustaceans without habitat, context or geological time. These are creatures forgotten and left unseen within the watery depths or hanging in a market, covered in discarded skin and paper pulp. 

Initially, this series was intended as a meditation on the man-made landscape and bountiful fish market, but now at its completion, the series has turned to focus on individual creatures and their role in the world. “Rot is a force of creation,” said artist Michael Laurito. “As things die, they transform, becoming reborn. ‘Husks’ shows the muck of evolution through the discarded.” 

This series of collagraph prints was made by placing paper pulp over an inked plate and letting the pulp dry. The dried paper serves a cast, holding the form of the collagraph plate as a physical object. Laurito uses this type of print to explore texture and line as DNA. The final pealed paper cast is real, mirroring the scale and contours of its counterpart. 

Gallery Open Hours: Open on Saturdays, 12-4pm, through February 21st, 2026.

Bio

Michael Laurito is a print and paper artist in Milwaukee. He recently earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Milwaukee School of Art and Design. Originally from Florida, the chaos of the swamps and jungles informs his work and its focus on human-influenced environments. He has exhibited in West Palm Beach, FL, Milwaukee, WI, and New York City, NY, and has a nationally recognised portfolio from the Young Arts Organisation. He has taught collagraph at Anchor, Press, Paper, and Print, Milwaukee’s community access print shop.

Forms of Support - A Salon of Fine Furniture by Brent Budsberg, Delia Lopez, Matthew Gramling, and Christopher Brooks

Just as Milwaukee retreats indoors to seek warmth and comfort, Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point will unveil “Forms of Support,” a show of fine furniture by Milwaukee artists Christopher Brooks, Brent Budsberg, Delia Lopez, and Matthew Gramling. Reimagining the gallery’s historic space as a furniture salon, visitors can interact with the most current offerings from the artists, each with a varied approach to woodworking and design.

All the artists in the show belong to Table Saw Supper Club, a group of nearly 50 local woodworkers who gather at each other’s studios. Started twelve years ago by Gramling, the group offers woodworkers a platform to discuss their latest projects and exchange advice and resources. The Table Saw Supper Club is a much-needed resource as the career of woodworkers is often a lonely one. The group not only uplifts psyches with community support, but also fosters meaningful exchange about the current state of the woodworking industry and individual challenges.

“As an exhibit, ‘Forms of Support' offers both literal interpretations and more conceptual ideas of comfort,”  said Gallery Manager Adam Beadel. “Budsberg creates attractive forms rendered in simple and accessible plywood, Gramling enlarges and celebrates the deceptively simple craft of joinery, and Lopez bends wood into unexpected arches to form the graceful legs of her standing case.”

Show Opening: Friday, November 21, 5:00-9:00pm 
Show Closing: Saturday, December 20, 12:00-4:00pm
Grove Gallery is open all other Saturdays during the exhibit run 12:00-4:00pm

All the work in the exhibition is for sale, and commissions of new work from the artists are welcome.

About the artists:

Brent Budsberg is an artist, woodworker, and exhibition designer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He runs Current Projects, a design and fabrication studio whose clients include the Chipstone Foundation, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Oriental Theater. With his wife and collaborator, Shana McCaw, he creates interdisciplinary projects that blur boundaries between craft, design, and fine art. Recent furniture commissions include work featured in “Frank Lloyd Wright: The Modern Chair” at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, as well as a sideboard inspired by George Mann Niedecken for the Niedecken-designed Demmer House on Milwaukee’s East Side. His current plywood furniture series explores planar geometry and modernist influences, drawing inspiration from artists and designers such as Russel Wright, Georgia O’Keeffe, Donald Judd, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Delia Lopez is a furniture maker, artist, and educator based in Milwaukee, WI. Her work balances curiosity and functionality, believing furniture should bring a sense of delight to a space. The high level of craftsmanship in her furniture invites a tactile relationship of daily use, while Lopez’s greater goal remains presenting objects not previously seen. She owns and operates Domo Fine Furniture, a two-fold business where one wing specializes in freestanding object furniture, and the other focuses on comprehensive woodworking classes meant to teach furniture-making from the ground up. 

Christopher A. Brooks is an artist and woodworker specializing in fine, handcrafted furniture, architectural pieces, and architectural restoration, with an emphasis on unique design and alternative finishing methods.  He currently lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  

Matthew Gramling is a furniture designer and fabricator who lives with his family in the Cold Spring Park neighborhood of Milwaukee. He works predominantly on custom commissions in both residential and commercial settings. His furniture is a blend of modernist lines, experimental finishes, and collected live-edge wood pieces, focusing on attainability, materials of abundance, and midwestern economic feasibility.

Birds and Blooms - Art Tiles by Ben Tyjeski

Grove Gallery in historic Walker’s Point will next unveil “Birds and Blooms, Art Tiles by Ben Tyjeski.” This exhibition will serve as Tyjeski’s first public display of art faience tiles, a handmade technique typically associated with craftsman style architecture. Tyjeski’s prolific, detailed work includes 40 tiled panels that explore casual encounters with nature. The gallery will host an opening with the artist 5-9p.m. on Friday, September 19, 2025.

It was Tyjeski’s appreciation for Milwaukee’s iconic craftsman buildings that first led him to publish several books on architectural terra cotta and faience tiles. This type of tile is made from plastic clay, and is either individually cut with a knife or pressed into carved molds and liberally painted with glaze, resulting in varying edges and rich surfaces imperfect like nature. This show presents something more unusual in the built-environment: motifs of native flora and fauna. As such, the tiles reveal a familiar natural world usually hidden.

“These designs come from taking walks with my sketchbook in nature, plus a reverence for the handmade craft of many of Milwaukee’s old homes and buildings,” said Tyjeski. “Each tile believes in a lifestyle, one at our fingertips, where we can take our time, noticing loveliness that grows around us.”

Gallery Hours for Birds & Blooms with artist Ben Tyjeski:
Opening Night, Friday, September 19th 5-9p.m
Doors Open Milwaukee, Saturday & Sunday, September 27 & 28 10a.m.-5p.m.
Gallery Night, Friday October 17th 5-9 p.m.
Show Closing: Gallery Day, Saturday October 18th 12-5p.m.

Grove Gallery is open all other Saturdays during exhibit run 12-4p.m.

Ben Tyjeski brings his field experience to his studio called the Tyjeski Tile Company, where he designs and creates handmade tile installations for homes and buildings. He has published numerous books on historic tiles and terra cotta, including Carl Bergmans and the Continental Faience & Tile Co. and Architectural Terra Cotta of Milwaukee County, and writes columns for Urban Milwaukee and Wauwatosa Historical Society. He gives architecture walking tours on terra cotta in various Milwaukee neighborhoods and has given presentations for local and national institutions. In 2012, Tyjeski earned his BFA in Ceramics from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. He was also a Milwaukee Arts Board Mildred L. Harpole Artist of the Year in 2023.

Art and Infrastructure - Marina Lee, Celine Farrell, Melanie Ariens, Ceci Tejeda, and Ann Mory Wydeven

On Friday, August 8th, 5-9pm, Grove Gallery will present “Art and Infrastructure” a group exhibition of artworks by Marina Lee, Celine Farrell, Melanie Ariens, Ceci Tejeda and Ann Mory Wydeven. These artists were selected to add their artwork to a green infrastructure installation at W Washington and S 5th and 6th Streets in Walker’s point. The infrastructure project includes a cistern, bioretention basins, stormwater trees, rain gardens, native plantings and porous pavement. The area invites the neighborhood in for use as a community plaza and educational space. Artists will be exhibiting a range of work from their individual artistic practices, including drawings, sculpture, printmaking, papier-mache, ceramics, and mosaic.

A sculpture by Marina Lee from Arts @ Large has been installed in the plaza's center. A bronze slab sculpture by Celine Farrel will be installed adjacent to this and mural work has been done on the cistern and surrounding area by Milwaukee Water Commons, with Melanie Ariens, Ceci Tejeda, and Ann Mory Wydeven, who worked with 180 students from the United Community Center’s Acosta Middle School.

About the Mineral Street Overpass Project

In October 2023, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) invited Arts @ Large to collaborate on an exciting public art initiative—the transformation of the Mineral Street Overpass into a vibrant expression of community, creativity, and sustainability. With generous support from the Milwaukee Department of City Development and Joy Engine, and in partnership with MMSD, the Department of Transportation, and other civic agencies, Arts @ Large mobilized Milwaukee’s artist ecosystem to reimagine this space. At its core, this project is an arts education experience—engaging young people in hands-on learning that connects public art with environmental awareness. More than just infrastructure, the newly imagined Mineral Street Overpass is a Creative Commons—an open space for Milwaukeeans to gather, experience public art, and celebrate our city’s identity as a global leader in freshwater innovation.”

OPENING: Friday, August 8th, 5-9 PM & Saturday, August 9th, 2025 12-4 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, August 30th, 12-4 PM
Grove Gallery is open to the public, noon-4pm on Saturdays.

Exhibiting Artists

Celine Farrell is a cast bronze sculptor and printmaker. She owns and restored the Lamers Building in Walker’s Point, a High Victorian Italianate commercial building designated a historic landmark by the City of Milwaukee. She earned her MFA in painting and sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and an MFA in Sculpture from the Pius XII Institute in Florence, Italy. Celine was a lifer in the metals shops at Milwaukee Area Technical College where she studied metallurgy, foundry work, and welding, making the school her defacto metal casting studio for 30 years. She was commissioned by the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhoods to create a cast bronze slab sculpture of Native Butterflies to be installed at the Mineral Street Overpass in 2025.

Marina Lee is an artist working in sculpture, painting, and mixed-media with an extensive resume as a teaching artist creating community involved public art. She explores the interconnection between earth and humans in her personal work and brings this spirit of unity into her community art. Her vibrant and imaginative sculptures can be seen all over Milwaukee and beyond, in schoolyards, parks and other public spaces.

Melanie Ariens is a multimedia artist whose work focuses on the Great Lakes and freshwater issues. She uses art as a tool to create awareness around water issues, often using a simple metaphor to frame how we perceive the state of our shared waters. Because of her belief that our dependence on clean, safe water unites us, and that everyone needs access to it to thrive, she works as the Creative Arts Manager for Milwaukee Water Commons. MWC is a social and environmental justice organization that uses the arts as a way to capture hearts around water issues. Melanie has worked on public art projects for the Urban Ecology Center, the City of Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage district and the Watermarks project.

Ceci Tejeda was born and raised in Mexico City. Her parents are from Michoacán, Mexico, which is why she has Purepecha blood in her veins. Ever since she was a young girl, she’s admired her culture. She creates Alebrijes, a colorful, fantastical creature made from various parts of different animals, made of “cartoneria,” a unique and traditional papier mache technique from Mexico City. She also creates large-sized pieces that support various social justice movements and activism using the same technique.

Ann Mory Wydeven is a storyteller, colorist, and naturalist working with terracotta clay, mosaic and concrete. Wydeven holds a Bachelor’s Degree from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Masters of Fine Art from Rhode Island School of Design. She is the owner of AMW Sculpture Studio in the production of mosaic installation, sculpture and pottery.

Teddy Dean Lepley III - You Are Welcome!

On Friday, June 21st, 5-9pm, Grove Gallery will present “You are Welcome!” an autobiographical exhibition of prints and drawings by Teddy Dean Lepley III.  Through figurative drawings, caricature-esque etchings and expressive woodcuts, Lepley shares a life shaped by queer shame, love, loss, and irony. This work represents a decade of their life and embraces contradiction and familial complexity, reflecting both personal vulnerability and the emotional weight of our current political climate. Lepley charts relationships, memories, and evolving identity as drawings from life and reimagined memories. This work doesn’t try to hide a deeper meaning, so enjoy the visual variety and forthright message. 

Translating a drawing into a print becomes an editing process for Lepley. Even the mirrored image of a block or plate challenges them to think differently, opening up the work to fantastic surprises. Their etchings use overbitten metals that swell and enhance embellishments of soft-ground lifts of fabric textures and slurries of salt and hard ground. Plates are scraped and burnished until they find balance. Woodcuts are drawn directly with gouges, forming light and texture through an improvised process.

Each image holds a moment: a feeling, a person, or a place. Life is shaped by the spaces and people we spend time with, from conservative family members to liberal friends, childhood homes to gay bars. Places can either encourage us to move freely or tighten up with constrictions. Love can also be both freeing and limiting. This exhibition speaks to the complexity of human experience by sharing a life that is not simple, but honest.

OPENING: Saturday, June 21st, 12-9 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, July 19th, 12-4 PM

Grove Gallery is open to the public, noon-4pm on Saturdays..

About Teddy Dean Lepley III

Teddy is an artist-printmaker and bookmaker, born and raised in a small town in northeast Indiana. They hold an MFA in Printmaking and Bookmaking from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BFA in drawing and printmaking from Ball State University. Teddy currently lives and works in Milwaukee as the Printmaking Lab Technician and adjunct instructor in printmaking at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. Teddy is also a board member of Anchor Press, Paper & Print, a local printmaking studio that serves the Milwaukee community.

"Rina Yoon—Desert Notes"

On Friday, April 11th, 5-9 PM, Grove Gallery will present “Desert Notes,” a body of recent work by Rina Yoon inspired by life in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, known for its exceptionally diverse biome, fierce climate, and iconic cacti.  This series of paper-cast works mimic both the jagged desert terrain and its vegetation’s embrace of the extreme heat and sunlight.  The work reimagines the desert’s contours, distilling its raw textures into a tactile exploration of survival and adaptation.

Rina Yoon’s practice is rooted in non-traditional printmaking techniques,  integrating large-scale prints, paper installations, and multimedia elements such as video and sculpture. Her approach, marked by a deep sensitivity to materials, embraces slow, intentional processes that foster reflection and meditative engagement. This thoughtful methodology allows her work to resonate on both tactile and conceptual levels, inviting viewers into a dialogue about resilience, impermanence, and renewal.

About Rina Yoon

Rina Yoon is a Korean-born visual artist whose work pushes the boundaries of traditional printmaking to explore themes of materiality, process, and transformation. A retired professor of Fine Art at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Yoon earned her BFA from Southern Methodist University and her MFA in Printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis. .

Yoon’s work has been exhibited extensively across the United States and internationally in South Korea, China, India, Italy, and Poland. Her works are held in several permanent collections, including the Museum of Wisconsin Art (WI), Jeonbuk Museum of Art (South Korea), Gyodong Art Center (South Korea), Daeseung Hanji Center (South Korea), Warehouse Museum (WI), and Southern Graphics International. Whether working with the raw remnants of nature or exploring the interplay of modern and traditional methods, Yoon’s art speaks to the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds, inspiring contemplation and connection.

OPENING: Friday, April 11th, 5-9 PM & Saturday, April 12th, 2025 12-4 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, May 24th, 12-4 PM
Grove Gallery is open to the public, noon-4pm on Saturdays.

Neil Horsky - Can We Talk With Spirit Friends?

An amalgam of paranormal ponderings and discreet directives rendered in print

On Friday, March 7th, 5-9 PM, Grove Gallery will present a massive show of 48 surreal collage posters and 43 zines. “Can We Talk With Spirit Friends?” feature collage compositions of images and text found in publications from the 19th-Century to the present, that invent interpretive picture books, illustrated poems and epic narratives. This ongoing series explores archetypal themes such as: Awakening, Cosmic, Dada, Destiny, History, Journey, Patriarchy, Play, Shadow, Survival, Tragedy, and Unraveling. This show promises to reveal humanity’s hidden truths, condemn our evil deeds, reconcile our complex nature, and celebrate our boundless potential. 

The gathered Spirit Friends wish to convey to all visitors the following message… “Fantastic energies await to find those who are open to Truth, trusting of Intuition, dwelling in Mystery. The spirit friends call and the artist answers, excavating, translating and amplifying their untold stories. Discover your Truth from codes laid forth in poetic visions, page-by-page. In short, the answer is YES.”

About Neil Horsky

Neil Horsky is an artist, educator, musician, writer and consultant who recently relocated to Milwaukee from Boston. Neil’s creative influences include Fluxus, Dada, Surrealist games, The Situationist International, Taoism, and DIY culture such as zines, house shows, and street art. Neil is currently an Adjunct Instructor at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Learn more about his work at HorskyProjects.com.

Many of Neil’s "Can We Talk With Spirit Friends?" zines and posters are housed in several library collections, including the Somerville Public Library Zines and Small Press Collection, the W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design, and most recently at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Library Special Collections.

OPENING: Friday, March 7th, 2024, 5-9 PM & Saturday, March 8th, 2025 12-4 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, March 29th, 12-4 PM

Grove Gallery is open to the public, noon-4pm on Saturdays. The show will close on March 28th.

Anja Notanja Sieger - Playing Possum

On Friday, January 17th, 5-9pm and Saturday, January 18th, 12-4pm, a show of intricate paper cuttings by Anja Notanja Sieger will debut at Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point. Just as possums simultaneously access both living and deceased realities when threatened, at Playing Possum, you'll view life and death at the same time through these positive / negative silhouettes. Present will be large single sheets of paper sliced so finely by knives that they resemble woodcuts and shadow puppets that have appeared in local theater productions—both in raw paper form and as individual solar prints.

Sieger's influences include the possibly-dead-possibly-alive creatures she sees on her walks. “One night I watched a possum amble into the weeds. It had clumpy, uneven fur. When I moved by it, it just froze in place,” describes Sieger. “A couple days later I saw that possum in the middle of the street looking very dead—or was it? I’ll never know but it got me thinking about how closely possums study death.”

Sieger will be at the gallery during open hours on February 15th to offer “Voices of The Animal Kingdom” alongside friends: comedian Becca Segal, performance artist Kirsten Meier, biologist Emma Kraco, and Iowa typewriter poet Andrea Becker. Each will represent an animal species and provide insightful prose inspired by a study of that creature. Please arrive with a question and a donation to receive the typewritten thoughts of animals. 

On February 22nd, the closing day of Playing Possum, there will be a free 3 PM shadow puppet and poetry performance. The spectacle will feature performances by participants from the Shadow Puppetry & Poetry Workshop held in the gallery earlier that day. The workshop costs $25 and includes all supplies. Sign up for the workshop here.

Anja Notanja Sieger, B. 1987, BFA Kansas City Art Institute. Sieger is a predominantly analog artist living in a digital world, and is known locally for her custom typewriter poetry service, advice tents and shadow puppetry. She also hosts The Subtle Forces, an experimental podcast that is impossible to accurately describe even in the most stalled of elevators. Previous venues for her work include The Pfister Hotel; QWERTYFEST MKE; Woodland Pattern; O, Miami Poetry Festival; Quasimondo Physical Theatre; Milwaukee Opera Theatre; Fringe Fest Milwaukee; 104.1fm Riverwest Radio; RedLine Milwaukee; 10th Street Theater; Renaissance Theaterworks; St. Kate Arts Hotel; The Museum of Wisconsin Art; Walker's Point Center for the Arts; Gallery 2622; and the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.

GALLERY NIGHT & DAY:
Friday, January 17th, 2024, 5-9 PM & Saturday, January 18th, 2025 12-4 PM
CLOSING:
Saturday, February 22nd, 12-4 PM
FEBRUARY 15th:
“Voices of The Animal Kingdom,” a typewriter poetry performance, 12-4 PM.
SHADOW PUPPET WORKSHOP & PERFORMANCE: Saturday, February 22nd with a 1pm Workshop and 3pm Performance.

Grove Gallery is open to the public, noon-4pm on Saturdays. The show will close on February 22nd.For More Information about the Anja and her work, please visit her website at: anjanotanja.com

Jeff Morin - Truth, White Noise, and The Vote

A man with significant arts community influence presents works of concern for his nation’s future

On Friday, November 15th, 5-9pm a show of political art will debut for the public at Grove Gallery in Walker’s Point. Consisting of three series of monoprints (one-of-a-kind single-edition prints), these painterly compositions ask timely dark questions of truth and democracy. Morin mixes visual elements such as the human figure, words, and patterns to draw attention to the concept of truth and its growing irrelevance in political and social discourse. 

Within the past six years, Morin’s monoprints have developed tattoo-inspired designs and the presence of the phrases he has noticed as becoming more prevalent in conversations. These words often gain or change in context as they become central to larger community dialogues. Each piece in the show responds to a larger democratic concern such as the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade or the January 6th Insurrection in Washington D.C. 

Because his work will be on display in the days after the election Morin knows viewers will feel confronted by a whole gallery of repeating figures and a multitude of popular expressions. He suggests “Let the words sink in and think about your relationship to them. How negotiable is truth, how important is your vote, and how influential is white noise?”

Jeff Morin is a writer, artist and educator. Originally from Madawaska, Maine, Morin’s BFA degree is from Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His MA and MFA degrees are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Morin has remained active as an artist throughout his career in higher education, exhibiting since 1983 with works in roughly 140 public collections from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to The Smithsonian and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Jack Ginsberg Artists’ Book Collection in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has also been an active graphic designer with clients ranging from the University of Georgia to the U.S. Women’s Rowing Team. His career outside of higher education started with the St. John Valley Times (Maine), Ardsley Advertising (New York) and the National Geographic Society (Washington, D.C.). He is active in the Milwaukee community through the Greater Milwaukee Committee and nationally through the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design as a Board of Directors member and treasurer. Morin currently serves as the president of the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. 

OPENING NIGHT: Friday, November 15, 2024, 5-9 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, December 28, 2024, 12-4 PM
OPEN HOURS: Saturdays, 12-4 PM
For more info, visit sailorboypress.com

Conhg Lopez - Cultures Between Roots

On Friday, September 20th, 2024, Grove Gallery is proud to show Conhg Lopez’s solo exhibition “Cultures Between Roots.” These large wood cut prints on canvas are inspired by his analysis of society. The artwork reflects how he’s adapted to and became involved with new cultures while holding onto the culture of his childhood in Oaxaca, Mexico. In the 20 years Lopez has lived in Milwaukee, he’s learned to adopt the culture here and mix it with ideas from his AYUUK roots as myth, legends, and stories which you can see in his artwork.

He enjoys carving wood blocks for the texture it brings to the work. The challenge is to find carving techniques when working against the woodgrain. By employing different tools in his process, he’s steadily working on larger and larger blocks.

Conhg Lopez is from Oaxaca, Mexico and descendent from Mixes (mijes), also known as AYUUK JAAY (people of the florid language). In 2005, he graduated from Bellas Artes College in Oaxaca with a focus on painting and printmaking. His studio is located at the House of RAD, in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood.

OPENING: Friday, September 20th, 2024, 5-9 PM
Open for Doors Open Milwaukee: Saturday, September 28th, 2024, 10-5 PM
Open for Gallery Night and Day: October 18th (5-9 PM) & October 19th (12-4 PM), 2024
CLOSING: Saturday, October 26, 2024, 12-4 PM
Gallery Hours: Open Saturdays, 12-4 PM

For more information, visit: https://morello241990.wixsite.com/conhglopez;
on Instagram: @2ndlimbo

Team Nerd Press Ten Year Anniversary Party

Ten Years of Team Nerd Press? Let’s Party! 

A free one-day-only exhibit and party celebrating a decade of letterpress and community.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Hey, Milwaukee, you’re invited. On Saturday, August 31st, 2024, Team Nerd Press will celebrate its 10th Anniversary as a brick-and-mortar letterpress print shop in the Historic Lamers Building in Walker’s Point. The event is free and open to the public. Team Nerd Press is the private art studio of Nathan Adam Beadel, who custom prints old-school letterpress posters with wood-type and carved illustrations. He also manages the activities of Grove Gallery with his friend, landlady, and fellow artist Celine Farrell, curating solo shows for local artists and printmakers

This is no ordinary party—yes, tasty treats and beverages will be served, but Beadel will be sharing a ton of brand new work, including his latest typographic bird song mnemonics, a series of posters advertising imaginary book titles, and other special prints produced exclusively for the occasion. In addition he will have displays of his favorite work from the last ten years and many free prints will be given away. You also can expect the announcement of an exciting new arts publication and the upcoming exhibiting artists at Grove Gallery. 

Don’t miss this party, or you will miss the entire show… and have to frequently hear about how epic it was for the rest of your life. 

###

Team Nerd Press was founded by N. Adam Beadel who received his MFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from UWM Peck School of the Arts. Team Nerd has taught workshops on letterpress printing and relief printing with UWM, MIAD, Woodland Pattern, Arts @ Large, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Bike Fed. Team Nerd has produced prints for Jazz Estate, the Bike-In Movie Series, 5th Street Fest, and Grove Gallery. Other exhibitions include “Chews Your Words,” a collection of typographic poetry broadsides at Grove Gallery in 2022, and “Spring of the Year: Bird Songs in Wood Type” at Beans and Barley in 2024. Team Nerd was awarded a mini-grant by the city of Milwaukee in 2021 to produce a series of free community-produced posters with WPCA and the Wisconsin Bike Fed that address reckless driving in Milwaukee. 

Adam Stoner - Your House is Your Larger Body

… Your house is your larger body. It grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night; and it is not dreamless.

… And though of magnificence and splendour, your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing. For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.”

-Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

Beginning June 21st, 2024, Grove Gallery will be proud to show Adam Stoner’s latest solo exhibition: “Your House is Your Larger Body.” In this collection of new and recent work, dreamlike architectures entwine with religious iconography. Pilgrimage paths meander above the town; a tangle of wooden scaffolding entraps a shadowed form; and noble saint George binds a roiling serpent. But the text of this myth — a story of cities, perspective, winding streets and grand arches — has been smoothed over and polished. The subject of the icon has been covered with a cloth.

Drawing on the forms of Romanesque cathedrals, the empty cityscapes of Giorgio De Chirico, and the cryptic scenes of early monastic painter Fra Angelico, this work gestures toward the archaic; yet the sleek, untextured surfaces call to mind computer renderings, unmoored from place and culture. In the time-based work, sand takes the shape of walls and doors, appearing to breathe and transform of its own volition. 

Adam Stoner (b. 1989) received his Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia Studies from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2019, and his BA in Studio Art and Theater from Williams College in 2011. Stoner is the recipient of UWM’s Chancellor’s Graduate Student Award, Layton Fellowship, and Williams College’s Gilbert W. Gabriel Prize in Theater. Originally trained in theatrical scenic design, Adam’s research frequently explores the language of space, the latent agency of materials, and the architectures—visible or invisible— which resonate endlessly in our daydreams. Adam lives and works in Milwaukee; he teaches drawing at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts.

OPENING: Friday, June 21, 2024, 5-9 PM
Open for Gallery Night and Day:
July 19 (5-9 PM) & July 20 (12-4 PM), 2024
CLOSING: Saturday, August 3, 2024, 12-4 PM
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, 12-4 PM

For more information, visit: adamjamesstoner.com; on Instagram: @adamjamesstoner

Matthew Presutti - Negative Capability

On April 19th, 2024, Grove Gallery will be proud to show Matthew Presutti’s first Milwaukee solo exhibition. “Negative Capability” is a collection of handprinted photopolymer gravures by printmaker and educator Matthew Presutti. Shot with a 4 x 5 camera and printed on handmade hemp paper, Presutti uses long exposure techniques to illuminate the hidden landscape of the subconscious. Coined by the poet John Keats, a person with Negative Capability “is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” These images invite the viewer to contemplate where the boundaries between the known and unknown blur.

The project seeks to unravel the uncanny nature of time itself. Each image serves as a visual meditation, prompting us to confront the paradoxes that shape our perceptions of the past, present and our unknowable future. These landscapes document the complexities of our existence, urging us to find comfort in the uncertain and to recognize the language that resides in the shadows of our shared human experience. 

Matthew Presutti is a print and paper artist originally from the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains nestled in rural southeastern Ohio. The region's rich history of social activism and the beauty of its forgotten landscape are the driving force behind his artistic practice and research into sustainable studio methods. Presutti received his BFA from Ohio University in 2006 and MFA in printmaking from the University of South Dakota in 2013. He is an Adjunct Faculty Member and Printmaking Lab Technician at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design where he teaches printmaking, papermaking and book arts. Presutti is the founder of HOAX, a non-commercial research exhibition space & print shop located in the Bay View, Milwaukee. He’s currently researching papermaking with raw hemp fibers grown in southeastern Wisconsin courtesy of Dr. Shekinah of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.

OPENING: GALLERY NIGHT AND DAY
FRIDAY, April 19, 2024, 5-9 PM
SATURDAY, April 20, 2024, 12
CLOSING: SATURDAY, May 31, 2024, 12-4 PM
OPEN HOURS: SATURDAYS, 12-4 PM

For more information, visit: matthewpresutti.com; on Instagram: @captainprintypants

Rachel Foster - Empathetic Objects

On Friday, February 16, 2024, Grove Gallery is proud to present Empathetic Objects, a solo exhibition of printwork by the Milwaukee artist, Rachel Foster. The prints in this series started as found images sifted from the internet, are photoshopped to strip away their surroundings, and reconstructed as limited-edition screen prints.  

These remaining objects with their contexts removed, their users long gone, allow for closer examination.  Move between any of the prints in this series and new narratives and relationships are revealed.  Anthropologists will tell you that the materials produced by a culture reflect the desires, needs, and mindset of that culture. If we learn about ourselves from the objects we create, and the objects we produce reflect who we are,  who are we?

Rachel Foster is an artist, writer, and printmaker living in Milwaukee with an MFA from the California College of the Arts. Her work has been shown at Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, and Western Exhibitions, amongst others. She has been featured in the collections of the Ryerson Library at the Art Institute Chicago, ArtNow International, and The Museum of Contemporary Photography.  She sits on the board of Anchor, Press, Paper and Print, Milwaukee’s community access print shop, and believes in supporting print education and opportunity.

OPENING: Friday, February 16, 2024, 5-9 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, March 23, 2024, 12-5 PM
Gallery Hours: Open Saturdays, 12-4 PM

David Jones - Shadow Play

On December 15th, 2023, Grove Gallery will be proud to show printmaker David Jones’s solo exhibition, “Shadow Play.'' Over the years, David has documented his walks, drives, and journeys, recording moments of shadow and light, the interplay of objects and space, of images seen in the periphery and of the passing of time. Those are his inclinations for capturing fleeting occurrences.

Somewhere In My Dreams

He uses this documentary material to explore the relationships images have with abstraction, memory and random chance operations. Using the computer software MAX/MSP, he compiles layers of images that build up texture, density of movement, and the interplay of forms through his homemade multichannel projector. He inputs the images and programs the software to manipulate the color, density, tone, contrast, and the speed of transition between layers. The device processes and outputs randomly projected images which merge and dissolve as they transition.

Offramp

The system has the added ability to create and record videos and snapshots of output. The images in the exhibition "Shadow Play" are generated by this process. In the final step, David produces the captured image as an archival inkjet print, or as a hand printed and hand colored 4-color monoprint.

On display in the gallery window, David has installed a monitor showing the process described above playing recorded images which in some cases are the source for the prints in the exhibit.

David Jones was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. At a young age he became intrigued with photography, watching his grandmother take photographs at family gatherings and holiday events. He moved to the Midwest to pursue studies in photography and printmaking. He attended the Center for Photographic Studies, Louisville; Banff Centre for the Arts; and the Vancouver School of Art, and received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. He moved to Chicago to work under Jack Lemon at Landfall Press, after which he co-founded (with his spouse Marilyn Propp) Anchor Graphics, Chicago, where he was Director and Master Printer from 1990 to 2015. He received his MA in Interdisciplinary Art from the Center for Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago, and has taught printmaking at the Chicago Art Institute, Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and Columbia College Chicago. He has served on the Advisory Board of the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis and as President of Southern Graphics Council International, and was Interim Director at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC.

His visiting artist positions include the University of Iowa; Guanlan Printmaking Base, China; U. of Veracruz, Mexico; P.R.I.N.T., Texas; U. of Montana, Bozeman; Cranbrook Academy, MI; Savannah College of Art and Design, GA; and many others throughout the U.S. Among his residencies are Cill Rialaig, Ireland; Presse Papier, Canada; and Grafikas Kamera, Latvia. Solo and two-person exhibits include Columbia University, NYC; Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico; Louisiana Tech University; mn Gallery, Chicago; Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL; State College of Florida, Bradenton: Kenosha Public Museum, WI; Anderson Art Center, WI, and others throughout the U.S. After Anchor Graphics Chicago closed, he and Marilyn co-founded Anchor Press, Paper & Print in Milwaukee. He is passionate about collaborating with other makers and educating young people and adults about creative problem solving through printmaking.

OPENING: Friday, December 15, 2023, 5-9 PM
FEATURED: GALLERY NIGHT AND DAY
Friday, January 19, 2024, 5-9 PM
Saturday, January 20, 2024, 12-5 PM
CLOSING: January 27, 2024, 12-4 PM

For more information: https://www.proppjonesstudio.com/
On Instagram: @proppjonesstudio, @gallerygrove
Gallery Hours: Open Saturdays, 12-4 PM

DAYBREAK - John Fleissner - Relief Prints and Broadsides

On September 15th, 2023, Grove Gallery will be proud to show printmaker John Fleissner’s first solo exhibition, “DAYBREAK - Relief Prints and Broadsides.” Carved from linoleum blocks, Fleissner’s prints agitate for social revolution rooted in people’s everyday lives. The selection of 30 black and white prints, created from 2013 to the present, features images and hand-lettering of pro working-class messages with references to Milwaukee landmarks and historical events. Much of the work on display has been used by social movements as posters and on picket lines. Inspired by the graphic qualities of German Expressionist woodcuts and the Taller de Gráfica Popular, these prints give voice to working class organizing.

The run of the show will coincide with other major events in Milwaukee. On September 23rd, 2023, Grove Gallery will participate with the Lamers Building for Doors Open Milwaukee, a city-wide open house event. The Lamers Building, which includes Grove Gallery, Team Nerd Press and the private art studio of Celine Farrell, will celebrate its newly granted Historical Landmark status. One month later, on October 20th and 21st, DAYBREAK at Grove Gallery will be open for Milwaukee Gallery Night and Day. The show will be open to the public for the remaining Saturdays from 12-4 PM. We hope you’ll take the opportunity to view this exhibit.

John Fleissner is an Art Teacher at Milwaukee Public School’s (MPS) Alexander Hamilton High School and a member of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) Executive Board. He earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his K-12 Certification in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Voces de La Frontera, the National Education Association, MTEA and the Black Rose Anarchist Federation have featured his artwork in their public campaigns. His murals can be seen at Milwaukee Area Technical College and at MPS’s North Division High School. His prints are featured in the Voces de La Frontera Historical Boxset which has been collected in the libraries of Yale University, UC-Berkeley and Stanford University.

OPENING: Friday, September 15, 2023, 5-9 PM
FEATURED: with Lamers Building for Doors Open Milwaukee
Saturday, September 23, 2023, 10 AM - 5 PM
CLOSING: GALLERY DAY & NIGHT:
Friday, October 20, 2023, 5-9 PM
Saturday, October 21, 2023, 12-5 PM

For More Information: johnfleissner.com
On Instagram: @johnfleissner
Gallery Hours: Open Saturdays during the run of the show, 12-4 PM
Press Contact and Other Inquiries:
Adam Beadel, adam@teamnerdpress.com

Salad Days - Ella Dwyer, Thaddeus Kellstadt, Jim Franks

April 21 through May 12, 2023

A two person art show of collaborative works by Ella Dwyer and Thaddeus Kellstadt.

Thad grew up on a farm in Ohio. He abandoned the country life for the big city in 1995. Currently he lives in Milwaukee, WI and is making music, videos, painting and sculpture about pastoral psychedelicism, science fiction and the secret marriage of Apollo and Dionysus.

Ella was born in Milwaukee, WI but grew up in Northern Michigan. Her early days were spent with her mother beach combing and exploring abandoned caving grounds. Her current body of work is influenced by found objects, nature, and memory.

Chicago bread and pastry maker Jim Franks will be joining with baked goods made with only integral grains and exclusively ethical local ingredients. Currently he is trying to save the world one loaf at a time. 

OPEN GALLERY NIGHT AND DAY
Friday, April 21st, 2023 from 5-9 PM and Saturday, April 22 from Noon-4 PM
View by appointment, contact Ella Dwyer
Ella Dwyer on Instagram: @ellaedwyer.
Thaddeus Kellstadt on Instagram: @thaddeuskellstadt
Jim Franks on Instagram: @blessmelordforihavesneezed