Perhaps the most interesting architects are the ones reluctant to define themselves as such. It’s seems those who straddle the fringes of the profession are in the best position to vault most spryly over its boundaries. Such certainl

Call me a contrarian but when I perceive mass movement in one direction I usually gravitate towards the other. There’s something eerie about public consensus. I hope (but am not entirely convinced) a similar streak of dissent broods beneath the self

Two of the things I find most exasperating about Discovery World also happen to be the very qualities that make it shine. The first is that there’s no hand-holding here. Signage, when it exists, avoids exhaustive explanations of how the various con

Some artists don’t offer up their secrets too willingly. Such is the case with the Dennis Balk, whose work is currently on display at Inova Kenilworth. Balk deploys a vast arsenal of media and disciplines, from mythology to nanotechnology, to arouse

Milwaukee's not a city that immediately conjures up a riot of colors in the mind's eye. That said, a number of architects and developers seem intent on challenging that outlook. Colorful new developments are popping up in different corners of the city. F

What has digital design got to do with craftsmanship? Quite a lot, according to Maria Ponce de Leone, a Venuezuala-born architect who was guest speaker at a lecture last Friday at UWM’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). Ponce de Leo

Earlier this year we ran a series of articles on Milwaukee’s rising talent. It wasn’t just meant as an exercise in optimism for what the city has to offer by way of young talent, but a way of opening up discussions on what the city can do to k

It's that time of year again. The Department of City Development (DCD) is accepting your nominations for the best new buildings and spaces in your neighborhood. Some past winners have proven the categories - and the very definition of "good design" - to b

Unprecedented forms of cruelty and carnage call for unprecedented forms of expression. Ordinary language fails us in the wake of horror – existing in a petrified form that lingers somewhere between the pre-event innocence and post-event knowledge

Each semester UWM’s School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP) hosts a series of weekly lectures for the benefit of its students and the public, introducing them to both exciting national firms and occasional developments abroad. On Friday th

Some of you may have read the newsletter circulated by the marketing department of the BreakWater condos near N. Prospect in response to a recent article by Milwaukee Magazine architecture critic Tom Bamberger that discusses the new development. Largely t

The canons of art history tend to be rather jealously guarded. Few historians have occasion to flip them on their head and give them a good shake. Prompted by Milwaukee Art Museum’s Laurie Winters and the thesis of his student Lloyd DeWitt, National

On Feb. 7 the Milwaukee Art Museum opens it’s new feature exhibit “Jan Lievens: A Dutch Master Rediscovered.” Among the exhibit’s chief organizers is Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of northern baroque painting at the National G

In a recent article in the Washington Post Michael Conforti, the President for the Association of Art Museum Directors, said that despite the financial troubles faced by so many of the nation's art institutions - the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA and t

Another worthy addition to last weekend’s Gallery Night were local artist Shane Walsh’s “Shipwreck Paintings” at the Cedar Gallery (above the Starbucks on Water Street).   Landscape painters have faced a long and endu

A formal suit is the ubiquitous uniform for any rite of passage. Aside from its occasional ministerial function, or the vampiric associations lent to the black-suited male in the poems of Sylvia Plath, a man dons a suit not to stand out but to blend in

"It Came From Milwaukee” sounds like the title of a lurid, low-budget horror flick. In actual fact it’s the newest effort by the plucky Luckystar gallery to broadcast the artwork of Milwaukee artists by taking them on the road. Th

Founded in 2000 by husband and wife team Grace La and James Dallman, La Dallman Architects is one of a handful of local practices challenging the stultifying output of many of the city’s corporate design firms. Since their formation they’ve wo

             Recent economic meltdown notwithstanding, the past decade has many positive developments in the city’s architecture scene—one of which is the small, four-person architect

Robert Rauschenberg, widely regarded as a revolutionary who helped pave the way between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, died in May. Anexhibit at the Haggerty Museum pays tribute to the late artist by displayingaround 20 of his prints - a medium of wh

  Pure wilderness, in all its unaccountable mystery, is a state to which children are probably most susceptible. It’s no surprise then that in his book, Urban Wilderness: Exploring a Metropolitan Watershed, photographer Eddee Daniels embarks

According to German expressionist artist Ernst Kirchner you could tell a lot about an artist from their prints. That’s certainly true of Richard Haas. Though best known for his large trompe l’oeil murals grafting the unsightly wounds of pos

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog, though unequalled in verity and wit, are entirely my own. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Shepherd Express, nor are they written for the enjoyment of peevish public relations ma

Here are a few gallery openings which we weren't able to include in the print issue of the paper.  Here's a link to the print listings. Paper Boat Gallery and Boutique 2375 S. Howell Ave. Prints by Kimberly Weiss (Milwaukee)

An air of uneasiness lingers over the “Unmasked and Anonymous” exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum and it has little to do with the severe, antiquated faces gazing at you from beneath glass vitrines. Perhaps it arises from the sense of history