"Men and Boys" at Walker’s Point Includes UWM Artists

MILWAUKEE—“Men and Boys,” an exhibition Sept. 10-Oct. 16 at the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, 911 W. National Ave., is curated by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Professor of Visual Art Leslie Bellavance and features several artists with UWM connections. There will be an opening for the exhibition on Friday, Sept. 10, 6-9 p.m. The Web site for more information is www.wpca-milwaukee.org

From UWM’s Peck School of the Arts are Christopher Davis-Benavides, associate professor, Visual Art; Deborah Generotzky, senior lecturer, Visual Art, and photographer, Visual Imaging; and Robert Johnson, associate lecturer, Visual Art department.

According to Bellavance, the exhibition brings together the recent work of artists who are engaged in an examination of masculinity through pictorial and sculptural representation. “The works specifically confront the genre of heroic portraiture,” says Bellavance.


"Indian Summer 11," by Deb Generotzky

“The work presented here will inspire discussion and controversy rather than arrive at a definitive conclusion about masculinity. All of the artists treat this sensitive content with intelligence and wit. Their artwork is provocative and optimistic in its approach toward complicating a topic that touches everyone: the idea of what it means to be a man,” she says.

Says Bellavance: “No single conclusion about masculinity can be drawn from the work in this exhibition. The viewer is engaged in a consideration of the relationship of representation to the performance of masculinity in everyday life. The work gives license to move beyond the generic and conventional images of men and manliness. It may go too far to suggest that these artworks offer an alternative to the conventional construct of the hero, but they do tease at the borders of this prevailing image. By doing so, they suggest multiple manifestations, rather than a singular configuration, of masculinity.”
Descriptions of the artists and photographers who are participating in the exhibition follow.

Christopher Davis-Benavides, Milwaukee, Ceramic Sculpture

In straddling two cultures, the United States and Peru, Christopher Davis-Benavides acknowledges the conflict of aesthetic and conceptual forces in his work. His equestrian statues set on ceramic vessels that suggest funerary urns were developed from his interest in Santos figures of post-conquest America. Niño conquistador depicts a boy warrior mimicking Santiago Matamoros or Santiago Mataindios, truly a manifestation of the archetypal hero of Western culture. However, Davis-Benavides is interested in the ironic paradox that the original image of Santiago from Spain has been transformed into the cult hero of the conquered indigenous peoples in Latin America.

Deborah Generotzky, Milwaukee, Photography

Deborah Generotzky’s series of photographs, “Indian Summer,” documents Native American dancers. The pictures present detailed portraits of the participants; the specific nuance of expression and gesture as important as the ceremonial clothes. She shifts her camera perspective so that the viewer, no matter who, is always looking up to the person depicted. The result is a portrait that conveys a sense of a living monument.


"Nicolas," by Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson, Milwaukee, Photography

Robert Johnson’s shadowy portraits from the series, “Of Human Countenance,” center on the face and the mask of identity. He foregrounds the monumentality of the individual while obscuring the substance with shadow. Despite the fact that these are still photographs, there is a sense that the image itself is mutable. In Nicolas, a shadow passes over the eyes, creating a Lone Ranger mask. The portrait of Dean reveals a face half dark and half light.

Juan Juarez, Milwaukee, Drawing and Installation

One could conclude that Juan Juarez is reconstructing the typical white guy as the ‘other’ in the installation “Rays of Sunshine.” Juarez points out that these “whites guys,” inspired by photographs from a 1960’s Texas football magazine, are different from him. Juarez points out that the activity of drawing these faces performs his own ambivalence toward the stereotype of the white hero. The soft colors and embellishment in the form of sparkles on the drawings encourage a dance of affection and disdain.


"Hapa Soap Opera #5," by Laura Kina

Laura Kina, Chicago, Painting

In her new work, Laura Kina creates what she describes as a fantasy world, “populated entirely by Hapas.” Hapa is a Native Hawaiian word meaning both fragment and person of mixed blood with partial roots in Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry. Kina’s large, lushly colored oil paintings are inspired by Asian film posters.

New Catalogue (Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler), Chicago, Photography

The conceptual framework for the photographs of “New Catalogue” (a collaborative project of Luke Batten and Jonathan Sadler) inform the works selected from it for this exhibition. Batten describes “New Catalogue” as a think tank of images. For this exhibition the two categories that speak to image problems of masculinity are Boy Recording Ambient Sounds for His Independent Film and Men in Briefs. Boy Recording Ambient Sounds for His Independent Film is a collection of images of artistic heroics. Here we have the earnest young artist on a solitary quest to observe nature. There is a combination of feigned guilelessness and deadpan humor in the photographs themselves, and in the form of “New Catalogue,” that interfaces precisely with the dilemma of representing masculinity today.

John Stachowicz, New York City, Painting

John Stachowicz has been painting portraits of African American men for over 10 years. He is a plein air painter who works on the streets of New York City. In the work shown here, he paints portraits of homeless men against the backdrop of urban graphic representation, posters, billboards and boxes found at the site. The juxtaposition of the portrait against the graphic messages or advertisements for pop cultural narratives creates sophisticated dichotomies through which the viewer must examine his or her own sense of the heroic in this milieu.

“Strongman” combines the graphic text of a large plastic bag for collecting cans with the man depicted in the foreground to enforce an idea of heroic. In other paintings, the relationships between figures and grounds are more ironic. Subtle, and some not so subtle, prejudices are examined rather than reiterated throughout this work.

Amber Lynn Woods, Madison, Performance, Photography, Fiber Sculpture

Amber Woods investigates beards as signifiers of masculinity. To allow the power inherent in the beard to be transferred, she constructs, through art, false beards. These are not simply masks or costumes, but sculptures in their own right. Their meaning is complete when those who wear the beards appropriate the role of masculinity. The beards themselves are crocheted out of cotton, wool or acrylic yarn. Using this medium associated with women’s work and domestic decoration, Woods incorporates irony and wit into her work. Since the beards must be worn to activate their power, Woods records the preformed masculinity through the medium of photography. It is not simply the beards as props that are recorded, but the incongruous relationship of the youthful, not always masculine, faces that acquire power through the disguise of manliness.

###

Return to News Index