The 2020 Wisconsin Artists Biennial features 42 works by 39 artists from throughout the state, representing a wide spectrum of media and creative perspectives that both remain and go beyond our borders. Nina Ghanbarzadeh’s complex use of words and language, together with David Najib Kasir and Madeline Glaspey’s trenchant political commentaries reveal heartfelt responses to current events, while Alex Hopkins comments on the cynical and exploitative marketing of addictive products to the social media generation.
In several instances the exhibition moves off the traditional wall onto the less ceiling: Janelle Gramling’s monochromatic Transmuted Vessels hangs quietly in contrast to Daniel Fleming’s riotously colorful painting From Dusk to Dawn. Work and Swim. Yevgeniya Kaganovich’s Tree Intuiting Chair: fractal lies on the floor like a toppled tree, its ever-smaller wooden chairs mimicking barren branches. And these are just a few examples of the breadth of forms and depth of thought exhibited in this year’s Biennial.
This juried exhibition is co-sponsored by Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA) and MOWA. Three artists served as jurors: Amy Baur and Brian Boldon from In Plain Sight Art Studios in Minneapolis, specialize in architectural and sculptural commissions and mixed media public art. They worked together with Tylonn J. Sawyer, an educator and curator in Detroit who creates large scale public art.