Dean Jensen Gallery, located near the theater district on Water Street, presents “Big Bangs, Small Bucks 2”
This eclectic exhibit displays a variety of mediums from artists all around the world, including Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Sweden, as well as stateside artists from Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, along with several Milwaukee favorites.
Erie, Penn.’s Suzanne Proulx sends an intriguing sampling of her inventive sculptures in the form of Dust Bunnies. Seven life-size bunnies, each with its own personality and carefully constructed from dryer lint, wire and thread, come to life in Jensen’s front window. On another table Proulx casts 14 evocative hands from new and used soap resembling marble. All of the hands have been modeled from people in her own family, including a newborn’s tiny fingers. In a separate work close by, Proulx presents baby birds wriggling from oranges in realistic sculptures titled Hatchlings, another artwork that tweaks the familiar into fantasy.
Paintings appear on the gallery walls with acrylics by Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design graduate Huey Crowley and watercolors by the Netherland’s Pi eter
Kusters. Milwaukee’s Santiago Cucullu and Kevin Giese provide unique watercolor and graphite images while San Francisco’s Francesca Pastine delicately cuts the mutual funds page from The New York Times. These fragile newsprint webs may be positing an opinion on financial success or ruin.
Jensen’s back gallery features a photographic essay worth studying. The alcove displays Susan Worsham (Virginia), Wendel A. White (New Jersey), Susana Raab (Washington, D.C.) and Wisconsin’s own Sonja Thomsen, who displays sensitive suites of miniature digital C-prints in shadow boxes.
The “Big Bangs” exhibit impresses and entices viewers with a wide array of celebrated artwork, regardless of whether the viewer is a casual shopper or serious art collector.
“Big Bangs, Small Bucks 2” continues through Jan. 30, 2010.
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