James Watrous Gallery

Come on through…we’re open this weekend 12-5PM!

Please note, the Gallery will be closed on July 4 & 5 and will reopen Saturday, July 6 at noon

Couldn’t join us for the reception?

Attend the Behind-the-Scenes Open Studio Day! Visit the artist studios of three Forward Art Prize Winners in Madison as part of the 5-10-100: Women Artists Forward exhibition.

Join us Sunday, June 16, 2024 anytime between 11:00am and 3:00pm for an exclusive artists' open studio tour in Madison. Visit one, two, or all three participating artists' studios where Adriana Barrios, Angelica Contreras, and Katherine Steichen Rosing create their amazing art.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in art, support local talent, and be part of a creative community. The artists will be at their individual studios to answer questions and sell art. See and learn more about how and what they are creating these days.

Details and directions to the studios will be provided in the confirmation upon registering for this event.

Registration for this event is on a pay-what-you-wish basis, with a suggested contribution of $5 to $15. Your donation helps keep the Academy's programs accessible to everyone.

To register scan the QR code in the graphic above or visit https://www.wisconsinacademy.org/evenings/5-10-100-women-artists-forward-artist-open-studios

5-10-100: Women Artists Forward!
On view May 24-August 8, 2024
Artists’ Reception June 6, 5:30-7:30pm

The exhibition celebrates the fifth anniversary of the groundbreaking Women Artists Forward Fund and its Forward Art Prize winners. Come see what they have accomplished!

Co-founded by artists Brenda Baker and Bird Ross in 2019, the Women Artists Forward Fund was established to address gender disparity issues that affect women artists, providing them with financial resources to strengthen their work as well as recognition and community support.

The Forward Art Prize offers two annual, unrestricted $10,000 awards for female-identifying artists living in Dane County who show exceptional creativity and compelling prospects for the future. Apply Now through June 15, 2024 at https://www.womenartistsforwardfund.org/grant-recipients

Artwork shown by Katherine Steichen Rosing .cheong

Wisconsin Academy staff are ready to welcome you to Ada Limón’s “Poetry and the Natural World” tonight! Still want a ticket? You can attend online or in-person by purchasing a ticket at wisconsinacademy.org/events

5-10-100: Women Artists Forward!
On view May 24-August 8, 2024
Artists’ Reception June 6, 5:30-7:30pm

The exhibition celebrates the fifth anniversary of the groundbreaking Women Artists Forward Fund and its Forward Art Prize winners. Come see what they have accomplished!

Co-founded by artists Brenda Baker and Bird Ross in 2019, the Women Artists Forward Fund was established to address gender disparity issues that affect women artists, providing them with financial resources to strengthen their work as well as recognition and community support.

The Forward Art Prize offers two annual, unrestricted $10,000 awards for female-identifying artists living in Dane County who show exceptional creativity and compelling prospects for the future. Apply Now through June 15, 2024 at https://www.womenartistsforwardfund.org/grant-recipients
Artwork shown by Yeonhee Cheong, Alice Traore, and Mary Bero .cheong

Behind the scenes installation!

Katherine Steichen Rosing is one of the Forward Art Prize winners whose artworks will be shown in the upcoming exhibition. Helping out are our fabulous gallery assistants Matti and Yong Cha and gallery director Jody

Opening next week! 5-10-100: Women Artists Forward! Celebrating the Forward Art Prize: 5 years, 10 winners, and 100K in awards!

It’s been a busy week at Watrous Gallery! Never a dull moment prepping for a new exhibition. Especially with so many talented artists!

5-10-100: Women Artists Forward opens May 24, 2024

.cheong

The Wisconsin Academy’s spring 2024 issue of Wisconsin People & Ideas magazine is out now! Lots of great content including this piece about ceramic glazes at the Center for the Visual Arts written by Sarah E. White

Visit wisconsinacademy.org to read more!

Jayne's Friday (and last) post:
o switch things up a little, I’m going to finish off our takeover week with some images of one of the handmade books in the show. Titled “my beloved is mine”, I made this book for my BFA exhibit in the fall of 2021 as I was graduating from SAIC to accompany the porcelain vessels. Housed in a deconstructed anatomy textbook, the collages that make up “my beloved is mine” include my dad’s black and white film photography, old maps and atlas pages, buttons, antique snapshots, my braided hair, fossilized crinoids I collected as a child, my grandma’s handwritten recipes, and more. I think of this piece as a catalog of the many forms a ghost can take.

I also wanted to give a little sneak peek of my current work in progress, no title yet but thinking of music and the vividness of the memories it can capture ✨Thanks so much for following along this week, and to Watrous Gallery for giving my work a home for my first solo show!! It’s been a delight every step of the way :)

unearthed is on view until May 5 ~

That’s all! Be well,
Jayne

Jayne's Tuesday Post: Today I’d like to begin by talking about where the creative process starts and how I get the ball rolling on a new project :) Images here are some of the earliest sketches and thought maps of the works currently on view at James Watrous Gallery for unearthed, which is on view through 5/5.

Before I go to the studio, I go to the library, spend hours going through photo archives of museums, analyze maps, observe natural areas in person, and conduct interviews, then organize the information into groups of relevance that later become the defined strata you see on the finished works. Once the research phase is complete, I do a series of sketches to narrow down the final design, then get myself to the studio to start working with the clay.
One of the other main ways I work through ideas and how they relate to one another is through word mapping. I choose a thematically familiar starting point and begin branching out from there, forming connections and associations. I then fill in the spaces between the words, which helps me to see new relationships between ideas and find points of inspiration to work with. I totally recommend trying this out if you ever feel “stuck in one place” in the studio!
My other favorite ways to generate creative energy include spending time working in my garden, rock climbing, foraging, reading, and cooking :)

Hope you enjoyed this little behind the scenes look at how the ideas get from the brain to the page! I’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the studio process itself 💗 Have a lovely day!

-Jayne
Jayne's

Get ready for our guest artist social media takeover!

Exhibiting artist Jayne King will run the Watrous Gallery Instagram account as a collaborator Monday, April 15 through Friday, April 19! Make sure to follow along! 👉

Jayne will highlight their artistic journey, influences, and current practice in addition to discussing their favorite pieces of work!

You can view Jayne’s exhibition, “unearthed” in-person at the gallery through May 5.

The sun is out and the gallery is open until 6pm today! Come by and see some unique and inspiring ceramic and textile art

Photo of Watrous Gallery as viewed from across the Overture Center rotunda with shadows

Come see for yourself!
Paired solo exhibitions, Lisa Marie Barber’s “Playground” and Jayne King’s “unearthed” on view now through May 5

Finding bright cheery flowers and garden scenes in the gallery on this gloomy spring day!

Stop in the gallery Thursday through Sunday to view paired solo exhibitions “Playground” by Lisa Marie Barber and “unearthed” by Jayne King

SAVE THE DATE: APRIL 14, 2024
For the Wisconsin Visual Art Achievement Awards (WVAAA) ceremony honoring individuals and organizations that are significantly enriching the visual arts of the state.

The three founding organizations—the Museum of Wisconsin Art, the Wisconsin Visual Artists, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters—recognize educators, writers, visual artists, exhibitions, and advocates in our creative communities.

Exhibition Now Open!
Artists’ Reception and Talk Saturday, February 24, 5:30-7:30pm

Free and open to the public. Overture Center for the Arts, 3rd Floor. Remarks at 6pm with light refreshments.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by

Images:
Details of artworks currently on display in the James Watrous Gallery as part of Lisa Marie Barber’s Playground exhibit and Jayne King’s unearthed exhibit.

Lisa Marie Barber:
Slide 1-Blue Bird detail with Flower Friends in background
Slide 2-Pillow Flowers detail
Slide 3-Playground detail
Slide 4-Star Girl detail with Mamacita’s House in background
Slide 5-Angels detail

Jayne King:
Slide 6-Freak of Nature detail
Slide 7-Moonlight Sonata detail
Slide 8-Hibernation (Tulipiere) detail
Slide 9-Sunset Over the Chicago Skyline detail
Slide 10-Home Sweet Home detail

Exhibition Now Open!
Artists’ Reception and Talk Saturday, February 24, 5:30-7:30pm

Free and open to the public. Overture Center for the Arts, 3rd Floor. Remarks at 6pm with light refreshments.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by

Images:
Details of artworks currently on display in the James Watrous Gallery as part of Lisa Marie Barber’s Playground exhibit and Jayne King’s unearthed exhibit.

Lisa Marie Barber:
Slide 1-Blue Bird detail with Flower Friends in background
Slide 2-Pillow Flowers detail
Slide 3-Playground detail
Slide 4-Star Girl detail with Mamacita’s House in background
Slide 5-Angels detail

Jayne King:
Slide 6-Freak of Nature detail
Slide 7-Moonlight Sonata detail
Slide 8-Hibernation (Tulipiere) detail
Slide 9-Sunset. Over the Chicago Skyline detail
Slide 10-Home Sweet Home detail

"Brimming with bold color and sculptural energy, both Barber and King's work in clay and mixed media is closely connected to their personal experience and cultural heritage," says Watrous Gallery Director Jody Clowes. "Barber's ceramic tableau recall Latin-inflected Catholic shrines from the American Southwest, while King's vessels are layered with stories and histories drawn from their Midwestern Jewish family."

Come celebrate the opening of these exhibitions with the artists! Artists' talks begin at 6:00pm.

Admission is free and the public is welcome. The James Watrous Gallery is located on the third floor of Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison.

The James Watrous Gallery is dedicated to celebrating Wisconsin artists. A program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, the Watrous Gallery focuses on solo exhibits by contemporary Wisconsin artists and curated shows that reflect the Wisconsin Academy's interest in drawing connections between art and other disciplines.

These exhibitions are made possible in part by a grant from Dane Arts.

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Sending a big thank you to Hilary Dugan from the UW-Madison Center for Limnology for such a fabulous talk at the gallery in conjunction with Mary Burns’ exhibition Women and Water ! If you missed the talk, Science on Ice: Why Winter is the New Frontier for Freshwater Sciences, you can watch the recording online on our website or on our Vimeo page