Tuesday, May 13,2008

Rooting Local Talent

Art Review

Hotcakes’ last hurrah is this year’s “Third MARN Mentors Show,” highlighting the outcome of a year-long collaboration between established local artists and those just getting their feet wet. The MARN Mentors program is supposed to encourage new talent to stay in Milwaukee, so it’s hard to ignore the incongruity: There’s a stark contrast between work born of such a hopeful concept and Hotcakes’ liquidation sale atmosphere. There’s nothing to buy here anymore, except the art; all the t-shirts are gone and the shelves are empty. The space itself has an echo you only hear after everything’s been packed up and the furniture is on the moving van. That’s not to say owner Mike Brenner is actually hightailing it out of town; he’s not. His focus on his role as MARN’s executive director has increased in recent months and so, in spite of closing his gallery because of what he sees as a lack of support for local arts, Brenner will continue his efforts to lift up the art community in Milwaukee, as he’s done for years, Bronze Fonz or no.

The show, of course, is not about Mike Brenner, or Hotcakes, or the Bronze Fonz—but you can’t entirely separate the backstory from the art on the walls. It takes a minute to get oriented, to settle in and shake off the feeling that something is missing. Once that’s accomplished, though, the intention of the MARN Mentors show comes through.

While ordinarily cohesiveness is an asset to any gallery show, here it’s the breadth of work that is striking. Joe Ventress (mentee under photographer Robert Smith) shows vivid black and white portraits of people given labels like

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Punk or Black/Death/Crust Metal. They stare across the room at Kamryn Boelk’s sculpture Buyproduct, a weaving made of plastic shopping bags. Between them stand two Richard Taylor sculptures, on loan from Tory Folliard Gallery. Taylor is Boelk’s mentor, and while each artist’s work is wildly different from the other in both intent and execution, you can’t help imagining how the two may have informed each other over the past year.

While some of the work is clearly less professional, more often it’s a tough call—at first look—to distinguish the mentors from the mentees. That’s not an insult to the mentors, but a compliment to the program. Mentors choose the artists they will work with, and provide regular critiques, obviously to a good end. And besides, the mentees are no slouches; Della Wells, a nationally known contemporary folk artist with a page full of credits to her name, was not a mentor but an arts administration mentee working with MIAD’s Josie Osborne. Both artists’ work is on display.

The Third MARN Mentors Show is a small but hopeful peek at the vibrant work of active artists right here in Milwaukee, collaborating and uplifting one another. It’s also proof, even as he shutters the windows on Hotcakes Gallery, that Mike Brenner’s passion is well-placed: Milwaukee has some amazing talent, and we need to keep these people in town. Let’s hope someone is paying attention.

The “Third MARN Mentors Show” runs through May 24 at Hotcakes Gallery, 3379 N. Pierce St.

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Elections 2008

Obama seeks greater rein on financial institutions (AP)

AP - President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to pass legislation giving the government greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like American International Group.

Sources: Pentagon to stop forced tour extension (AP)

AP - The Army will substantially reduce use of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates and will pay $500 to those still forced to stay in the service, defense and congressional officials said Wednesday.

AIG head shares US anger of bonuses but backs them (AP)

AP - The chief executive officer of failed insurance conglomerate AIG acknowledged Wednesday that the company's multimillion-dollar bonuses were "distasteful" to many and had provoked a firestorm of wrath. "I share that anger," Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of the American International Group Inc., said in testimony prepared for Congress.

Analysis: White House, Dems backpedaling on AIG (AP)

AP - For the first time since last fall's election, Democrats and the Obama administration are backpedaling furiously on an issue easily understood by financially strapped taxpayers: $165 million in bonuses paid out at bailed-out AIG.

Pence: Return AIG donations (Politico)

Politico - House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence is urging politicians from both parties to strongly consider returning campaign contributions from AIG.

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