January 7, 2022—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is set to unveil the first exhibition of 2022, Marine Life from Shore to Floor by Peggy Macnamara, which is scheduled to open on Saturday, January 15, 2022. The exhibition presents 35 large-scale watercolors depicting ocean life as well as behind the scenes research activities at the Field Museum, Chicago and will be on display through April 11, 2022.
Peggy Macnamara is an internationally recognized painter and has been the sole artist-in-residence at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History for the last thirty years. Macnamara has years of experience as both a naturalist artist and author and is often paired alongside scientists and conservationists to illustrate the subjects of their research.
The soon-to-be-released book, Marine Life from Shore to Floor, features the artist’s series of large-scale watercolors depicting the research of the Field’s Ocean Conservator Janet Voight, whose work takes her from coastal tidepools to deep-sea ocean basins. The paintings featured in the exhibition burst with color and depict in great detail the intricacies of the inhabitants and environs of the marine world.
Above from let to Right: Peggy Macnamara, Blue Ringed Octopus, watercolor, 2020; Peggy Macnamara, Aqua River Underwater, watercolor, 2020; Peggy Macnamara, Angler Fish, watercolor, 2020.
The Miller Art Museum is excited to host a free lecture given by Nancy Aten and Dan Collins of Landscapes of Place on Saturday December 11, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. Titled “Re-Meandering,” their talk will focus on the ecological restoration work at Crossroads at Big Creek and how it has influenced their artwork currently on display in the Museum’s Wildlife Biennial XX, which can be seen through Thursday, Dec. 30, 2021. The event will take place in the main gallery of the museum at 107 S. 4th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay; admission is free but donations are welcomed and appreciated.
"We strive for a wholeness to our lives that supports our efforts to have a restorative effect on the earth and in our community,” says Nancy Aten. “Our monotypes are inevitably about natural places we know or wild places we hope to restore. In between printing episodes, we are collecting ideas, experiences and stories we want to convey in our monotypes, and a leaf or image or grains of soil from these wild places to use or inspire us.”
Nancy Aten, PLA, ASLA, and Dan Collins, P.E., form the award-winning Landscapes of Place, an ecological restoration and conservation planning firm with projects in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. Nancy is a printmaker whose monotypes (unique original prints) are inevitably about natural places she knows or wild places she hopes to restore, telling the stories of her ecological restoration practice. Dan creates monotype prints an works in wire and stone that are inspired by the exuberance, grace, and raw beauty of Door County's natural places.
The presentation will also be streamed virtually live through Facebook @millerartmuseum. Photograph by Kelly Avenson / Avenson Photography.
November 5, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is set to unveil its Wildlife Biennial XX, which is scheduled to open on Saturday, November 13, 2021 with a free public reception scheduled from 5 - 6:30pm. The exhibition will be on display through Thursday, December 30, 2021.
In continuation of this revered museum tradition, celebrating the 20th rendition in 2021, the Miller Art Museum is pleased to present this year’s exhibition, comprised of forty-six artworks by twenty-four regional artists from across the State of Wisconsin, including three featured artists: Federico Pardo (Sturgeon Bay), Nancy Aten and Dan Collins (Sturgeon Bay).
Featured artist Federico Pardo, a Colombian biologist, photographer and filmmaker, shares eight photographic portraits of animals from around the globe, captured while on expeditions with National Geographic, DDC International and Univision, among others. Pardo’s many accomplishments include been two Emmy’s (2013 and 2017) and a collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago, IL, and Humboldt Institute, Germany. Federico specializes in natural history, environmental and human stories and has documented scientific expeditions in Colombia, Peru and Mozambique.
Above from left to right: Nancy Aten, Finding Abundance, monotype; Federico Pardo, Black Throated Wattle-eye, digital photograph; Dan Collins, Chrysalis Dreams, monotype; and Jodi Rose Gonzales, Timberella #4, mixed media.
Nancy Aten and Dan Collins, partners in Landscapes of Place, present sixteen monotype prints collectively. The colorful works are descriptive of Nancy and Dan’s relationship to the work they do in the local landscape as ecological restoration practitioners. Currently, Aten and Collins are designing forces, and implementing the Re-Meandering project, a long-term ecological restoration of Crossroads at Big Creek in Sturgeon Bay.
“We’re excited to feature a selection of work by local artists this year whose work is focused on wildlife and habitat conservation efforts while also continuing the tradition of an invitational exhibition that surveys artists working within the genre of wildlife,” says Curator Helen del Guidice.
“Although the genre itself is steeped in tradition, artists continue to stretch the definition of how we represent animals, depict the conditions of their lives and interoperate our relationship to them.”
Other highlights of the exhibition include a grand centerpiece by world renowned taxidermist Mike Orthober (Egg Harbor) who presents a full-sized bust of a mud-soaked cape buffalo in full motion. Jodi Rose Gonzales (Sister Bay) presents the newest installation of her Timberella series with a full-sized mixed media gown made of found natural debris. New works by Shan Bryan-Hanson, Seth Taylor, Gary Eigenberger, Craig Clifford, Bill Reid, Hans Nelson, Ellen Anderson, Amy Eliason, Jan Comstock, Jeff Logic, Jeff O’Keeffe, Kristin Gjerdset, Sandra Place, Tom Seagard, Mary Hood, Darla Jackson, Joseph Kaftan, Kelly Thorn Dulka and Peggy Macnamara are also featured.
Accompanying the Wildlife Biennial XX on the Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine are Ruth Wedgewood Phillipon’s Kenya Suite from the permanent collection, a series of embossed, hand-colored etchings depicting the artist’s 1985 experience on safari in Kenya and her interactions with the Masai.
Wildlife Biennial XX will be on display through Thursday, December 30, 2021. It has been made possible with financial support from Jack and Sue Anderson, Dennis and Bonnie Connolly, and Woodwalk Gallery with additional financial support from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
October 21, 2021—On September 25, the Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay unveiled its 46th Juried Annual—a survey and celebration of contemporary work by Wisconsin visual artists—with a scaled back in-person reception, where 8 regional visual artists were recognized by a three-panel jury for their works exuding excellence, originality and that were experimental in nature. This year’s award recipients are:
Blanche Brown (Milwaukee), awarded the Bonnie Hartmann Award for Outstanding Creativity for her work titled Eye Has Not Seen What God Has Prepared.
Randall Dettmann (Algoma), awarded a Special Merit Award for his work titled The Price of Progress.
Brad Krause (Milwaukee), awarded a Special Merit Award for his work titled George Floyd.
Stephanie Lord (Sturgeon Bay), awarded a Juror’s Choice Award for her work titled Rustic Red.
Tim Nyberg (Egg Harbor), awarded a Special Merit Award for his work titled Europe Bay.
Dane Schumacher (Green Bay), awarded the Gerhard CF Miller Award of Excellence for his work titled Hear, no evil. See, no evil. Speak, no evil.
Tracy Wiklund (McFarland), awarded a Juror’s Choice Award for her work titled Ace of Hearts.
Sara Willadsen (Sheboygan), awarded a Juror’s Choice Award for her work titled All Wrong Hours.
The 46th Juried Annual showcases more than 70 works and marks the first year that artists from across the state were eligible to submit work. The increased number of works can be viewed throughout the entire museum on both the main galleries on the lower level as well as on the second floor Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine. The exhibition and accompanying awards are made possible with support from Chez Cheryl Artspace, Herb Kohl Philanthropies and the MMG Foundation with in-kind support from DC Printing & Green Bay Blue. Generous support is also provided by the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
September 17, 2021—The Miller Art Museum in downtown Sturgeon Bay is set to unveil its 46th Juried Annual to the public on Saturday, September 25, 2021. This year’s exhibition features 71 works from 61 artists residing regionally across the state of Wisconsin. It will open with a scaled-back in-person opening reception due to COVID-19 on Saturday, September 25 from 5 – 6:30pm with remarks and awards scheduled for 6:00pm. The 46th Juried Annual will be on view through November 8, 2021.
In continuation of this revered tradition, the Miller Art Museum is proud to present this year’s selections, which represents contemporary two-dimensional work from regional artists in a broad array of media, subjects and styles. Each submission was carefully evaluated and selections were made by a jurors Patrick Smith, Exhibitions Preparator at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Terri Warpinski, Professor Emerita of Art at the University of Oregon of De Pere, WI; and Artist and Educator Leslie Iwai from Middleton, WI.
Juror Warpinski states, “When viewing art, just as in reading a new book, seeing live theater, or even cooking a new recipe, I am most excited by when I am provoked to learn something, or have an encounter that is new and expected. There was much of that to take pleasure in when jurying this show. I was confronted with work that rose above my expectations, work that challenged my ideas about processes and materials, and most importantly, work that provoked me to think anew.”
2021 marks the first year that artists from across the state were eligible to submit work. The increased number of works will be displayed as a full museum exhibition in both the main galleries on the lower level of the museum as well as on the second floor Ruth Morton Miller Mezzanine.