November 7, 2025 – The Miller Art Museum is pleased to announce the opening of Patrick Farrell | Ever After, the first comprehensive museum survey of the Wisconsin painter’s five-decade legacy, from 
formative studies to late allegorical masterworks on November 22, 2025. The exhibition will be on view in downtown Sturgeon Bay through March 28, 2026. A public reception is scheduled for Friday, November 21, 2025, from 5–7 pm. Light refreshments will be served and live music will be provided by Craig Schultz.
Patrick Farrell (1940-2016) was an American painter whose unwavering discipline and devotion to his craft defined a self-taught pursuit of artistic mastery. Born in Hardwood, Michigan, and raised in Cudahy, Wisconsin, he left home at seventeen with an eighth-grade education. A childhood affinity for art was rekindled by simple necessity when he began creating works to decorate his first apartment. What started as a hobby soon became a calling, and with a leap of faith, he turned a pastime into a profession. Following an uncharted creative path with a singular purpose, he drew steady strength from his mother and older sister Charlotte, whose closeness grounded his independence and resolve.
In 1965, at age twenty-five, Farrell had dedicated himself entirely to painting when he was offered his first solo exhibition. During these formative years, his still lifes and figurative works, created amid the turbulence of the 1960s, served as quiet counterpoints to the era's intensity and marked the emergence of his artistic voice. Studying the masters through a self-devised method of interpreted imitation, he spent the following decades refining a personal style distinguished by complex composition that was both cathartic and professionally fulfilling. He achieved national recognition for his eloquent synthesis of trompe l'œil, Art Nouveau, and magic realism. "He was a master of illusion," observed critic Welch D. Everman. Later, as a consummate student of art and the human form, he turned to an allegorical portraiture series titled Faust, casting himself and his friends as mythic and literary figures rendered with cinematic restraint and emotional gravity. His practice remained in continual evolution, revisiting established motifs while absorbing new influences, sustained by the restless curiosity of a lifelong learner.
Throughout his career, Farrell nurtured a circle of creative and critical voices who both sustained and advanced his art. Among them were artists Aaron Bohrod and John Wilde, critic and documentarian James Auer, glass artist and curator Judy Ramazzini, and photographer James W. Schroeder, his life companion who ceaselessly championed Farrell's career. His artistic practice was chronicled through Auer's documentary film titled “The Magic World of Patrick Farrell,” a series of self-published exhibition catalogs, and thoughtful coverage by regional journalists who recognized the singularity of his vision. A devoted network of gallerists and collectors, drawn to his precision and quiet intensity, offered enduring support through representation, acquisitions, correspondence, and lifelong advocacy. In turn, Farrell tended these relationships with uncommon care, often expressing his gratitude through beautifully handwritten notes, handmade seasonal cards, and formal invitations to lunch.
The exhibition brings together more than one hundred works spanning Farrell’s entire career, with a principal selection drawn from the private collection of Christopher Baugniet and Dale Husted. Additional works are on loan from Farrell’s family and longtime collectors throughout Wisconsin, reflecting the enduring relationships that shaped and sustained his artistic life. The exhibition’s foundation includes eight works acquired by the Miller Art Museum through a 2018 gift from the Kohler Foundation, Inc., which served as the genesis for this larger survey. The presentation also features the twenty-minute film “The Magic World of Patrick Farrell,” directed by James Auer and presented courtesy of Charles Auer, offering viewers a rare glimpse into the artist’s studio practice and personal world. A key painting featured in the film is on loan from the Rahr-West Art Museum of Manitowoc, offering a tangible link between Farrell’s studio life on screen and the work experienced in person.
“Patrick Farrell's fifty-year studio practice forged not merely a career but an ethos of beauty and perseverance, fueled by his adventurous spirit that turned labor into transcendence,” writes Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Suzanne Rose. “His legacy, luminous and profoundly human, endures, ever after.”
Patrick Farrell | Ever After will be on view in the main galleries of the museum through March 28, 2026 and is presented with financial support from Christopher Baugniet and Dale Husted, The Cordon Family Foundation, Door County Medical Center, the MMG Foundation, Huehns Family Charitable Trust, and additional grant support from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts. The museum will be closed to the public from November 9 – 21 for the installation of the exhibition.