Sculpture Milwaukee 2021 begins installing outdoor artworks in May

Sculpture Milwaukee will begin installation of its fifth season of outdoor public art this month, adding new works to 15 holdovers from the 2020 exhibit along Wisconsin Avenue and in the Historic Third Ward.

Guest curators Theaster Gates and Michelle Grabner are introducing a titled exhibit for the first time in this project, "there is this We," drawn from a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks. In a statement from Sculpture Milwaukee, Grabner said the title reflects works that honor "belief in social change through the provocations of the artistic imagination." 

Planned new sculptures include:

• A work by Betty Gold to be installed permanently on the Milwaukee Art Museum campus.
• Art by Salvador Jiménez-Flores that was created through the Arts/Industry program at the Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan. 
• A work created on site by Matthias Neumann with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee architecture students.

Other artists in the 2021 exhibit will include Thaddeus Mosley, Jason Pickleman, Brad Kahlhamer, Kevin Beasley, Allison Janae Hamilton, Kara Hamilton, Deborah Kass, Virginia Overton, Dan Peterman, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, John Riepenhoff, Christine Tarkowski, and Lauren Yeager.

This year, Sculpture Milwaukee will bring back limited in-person tours and programming while also making free self-guided audio tours available through its website.

The guest curators are internationally acclaimed artists and curators, with Gates based in Chicago and Grabner in Wisconsin. An untitled bronze by Grabner displayed during Sculpture Milwaukee 2017 now has a permanent home in the Historic Third Ward near the Milwaukee River. 

Sculpture Milwaukee 2021 will be on view through autumn.

Contact Jim Higgins at jim.higgins@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.