UW-Milwaukee Professors Whitney Moon and Jennifer Johung – in partnership with Sculpture Milwaukee and a quartet of local institutions of higher learning – have curated a new show that will open Friday, April 21 at The Avenue, 275 W. Wisconsin Ave.
“Dear Nature” includes sculpture installations by students and faculty from Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee School of Engineering, UW-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts and UW-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The works were created as responses to Sculpture Milwaukee's 2022-23 exhibition “Nature Doesn’t Know About Us,” which had been assembled by guest curator Ugo Rondinone.
As was the case with the exhibit that inspired it, “Dear Nature” considers the many ways humans and nature intersect and, “celebrat(es) the disparate elements of the Earth, self and natural form.”
“Through this experience, students learned crucial facets of professional practice that require careful planning, effective communication, and the logistics of showing art in a public setting,” said Jason Yi, a MIAD art professor and a featured artist in Sculpture Milwaukee’s Legacy Collection.
“Most important, they experienced the inner workings of professional collaboration and built a meaningful community outside the confines of MIAD.”
The installation, which opens on April's Gallery Night, offers students a chance to collaborate, gain experience and show their work.
“These are the artists, architects and engineers who will create the built environment that marks Milwaukee’s creative and innovative expressions,” said Sculpture Milwaukee’s Executive Director Brian Schupper.
“Through ‘Dear Nature,’ Sculpture Milwaukee is fostering future artists who can thrive within the building and urban planning sectors and engineers whose practicality and innovation will be imbued with a greater sense of creativity.”
The free exhibit runs through Oct. 31 and is open during normal operating hours at The Avenue (in the former Grand Avenue Mall).
More on “Dear Nature” and Sculpture Milwaukee, whose 2023 exhibition is being curated by John Riepenhoff. More on that here.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He can be heard weekly on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories.
