Newcity Chicago July 2021

Arts &JULY 2021 Contents Culture The8 Art JULY 2021 Newcity Conver- sation The Chicago Arts Census hopes to make the arts Jennifer O’Brien helps us deal with ecosystem more equitable .......................... 4 3 love and death Design Tending12 to Queer Chicago comics history Histories with a dash of design ................................... 4 8 Mood: Outdoor Living.................................. 5 0 Edie Fake returns to Chicago in a big way Dining & Drinking Big in18 Chef Don Young of Venteux Sheboygan and his path through Les Nomades, Le Francais and… Culver’s.......................... 5 3 How the new Art Preserve will transform coastal Wisconsin Film Succession38 Chicago filmmakers 5 5go to the movies............................................ Or, the circle of life systems Lit The essential wisdom of Brenda Myers-Powell ............................... 57 Music 5 9Locals take Lolla ............................................ Stage Lyric Opera welcomes new roommate Joffrey Ballet to refurbished opera house.......................... 61 Reviews Art openings abound 6 3this summer ................................................... 3

Letter Suddenly I heard a sound, the door was open- from ing and someone was in my room! I called out, the and a man popped his head in. “This is my Editor room,\" he said. “I just checked in.\" “This is my room!\" I responded. The front desk must As you'll read in my feature about the new Art have made a mistake. (These were the early Preserve in Sheboygan, I first, and last, visited days of electronic keys and clearly they'd cod- the area a couple of times on business in the ed his incorrectly.) I'm not sure if I was more late eighties and, with an expense account at embarrassed to literally be caught naked by my disposal, stayed in the American Club. a stranger, or by the strange act of afternoon bathing I'd been caught in. I expected he'd Thirty-plus years later, I can still count on one quickly leave the embarrassing situation and hand the number of times I've stayed in five- head to the front desk to straighten it out, star luxury anywhere, so my memories of the but instead, he said he was going to use the experience stayed with me. Especially since phone in the bedroom to call the desk, would there was that time I had the strangest expe- I mind? Of course I'd mind, I was naked in rience I've ever had in a hotel… the bathtub in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, but I was also in no position On this particular trip, I arrived in the after- to quibble, so I acquiesced. noon, with my business meeting the next morning. Since I had some time, and the bath- I was fortunate enough on this recent visit rooms were fit for a prince, I decided to take a that the Kohler Company offered to put me up bath, something I never did in Chicago. Who in the American Club for old times’ sake. I can takes a bath on a weekday afternoon? I filled report that both the keycard and the bathtub the giant tub, turned on its whirlpool jets and performed without incident. eased into its waters, magazine in hand, not even bothering to close the bathroom door. I was staying alone, so why bother? It felt dec- adent, in a very clean way. Brian Hieggelke Newcity JULY 2021 4

FEATURING ARTWORKS BY KEHINDE WILEY & AMY SHERALD JUNE 18 – AUGUST 15 FROM WHITNEY YOUNG TO THE WHITE HOUSE THE OBAMA PORTRAITS TOUR IS ORGANIZED BY THE SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C. Lead Corporate Sponsor The Art Institute thanks the many supporters who have funded the Amy Sherald. Michelle LaVaughn for the Chicago Presentation Chicago presentation, as well as access, education, and programming. Robinson Obama (detail), 2018. Oil on linen. National Portrait Lead support for the Chicago presentation of The Obama Portraits is Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. generously contributed by Lester Coney and Denise Gardner. The National Portrait Gallery Leadership support is contributed by Illinois Tool Works and the Leadership is grateful to the generous Advisory Committee of the Art Institute of Chicago. Major funding donors who made these is provided by the Blanchard-Nesbitt Family; Suzette and Ally Bulley; commissions possible and Francesca and Liam Connell; Anne and Don Edwards; Paul, Dedrea, and Ian proudly recognizes them at Gray, In the Works Foundation; Guida Family Foundation; Cheryl and Eric npg.si.edu/obamaportraitstour. McKissack; and Peggy A. Montes. Special support is contributed by Julia Support for the national tour Langdon Antonatos and Larry Antonatos, Ariel Investments, Caroline Brown has been generously provided and Cairy Saltwell Brown, Ann Collins, Kevann M. Cooke, Marilyn and Larry by Bank of America. Fields, Nickol and Darrel Hackett, Mellody Hobson, Linda Johnson Rice, The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection, the Langdon Neal Family, Fay and Daniel Levin, and Marisa Murillo.

Newcity JULY 2021 Contributors ON THE COVER Cover Photo Brian Hieggelke Brian Hieggelke Cover Design (Writer, “Big in Sheboygan”) is Newcity’s co-founder. Dan Streeting Annie Howard Vol. 36, No. 1416 (Writer, “Tending to Queer Histories”) is a housing organizer and freelance PUBLISHERS journalist based in Bridgeport. You can find her on Twitter @t_annie_howard. Brian & Jan Hieggelke Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett Carl Kozlowski EDITORIAL Editor Brian Hieggelke (Writer, “The Conversation”) started his writing career at Newcity and is thrilled Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke to be back in its pages. He was arts editor of Pasadena Weekly for seventeen Art Editor Kerry Cardoza years, is a Rotten Tomatoes film critic and his work has appeared in the Chicago Design Editor Vasia Rigou Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Esquire.com and GQ.com. Dining and Drinking Editor David Hammond JJ MC Luckie Film Editor Ray Pride Music Editor Robert Rodi (Cartoonist, “Succession”) is a Chicago-based muralist, illustrator and tattoo Stage Editor Sharon Hoyer artist with a focus on documenting queer culture and the way beings interact ART & DESIGN with the world. Most of their days are determined by the needs of the wildlife Art Director Dan Streeting habitat they manage, the bpm of the music over the speakers, and the weight Senior Designers of the books in their backpack. Fletcher Martin, Billy Werch Designer Stephanie Plenner Anne K. Ream MARKETING Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke (Writer, “Joy as an Act of Resistance:”) is the founder of The Voices and OPERATIONS Faces Project, a global storytelling project, the author of “Lived Though This: General Manager Jan Hieggelke Listening to Sexual Violence Survivors,” and a founding co-chair at World Distribution Nick Bachmann, Without Exploitation, the national coalition to end human trafficking Adam Desantis, Preston Klik and sexual exploitation. On Facebook: The Voices and Faces Project • on Twitter: @VoicesandFaces • on Instagram: thevoicesandfacesproject Retail price $10 per issue. In certain locations, one copy is available on a complimentary basis. 6 Subscriptions and additional copies of current and back issues available at Newcityshop.com. Copyright 2021, New City Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. Subscribe at Newcityshop.com

Wassef Boutros-Ghali Paintings: 2000–2016 JUNE 25–JULY 30, 2021

THE CONVERSATION Jennifer O'Brien Helps Us Deal with Love and Death Newcity JULY 2021 Jennifer O’Brien by Carl Kozlowski has some unique insights into death and how to best photos by Lori Sparkman handle the passing of loved ones. She lost her mother Now she’s helping others face the hardships of death and caregiving and brother when she was with a book called “The Hospice Doctor’s Widow,” which compiles the highlights of her young, and eventually extensive journals from the period she cared for her husband and offers them to read- spent twenty-two months ers in a highly artistic way. Filled with drawings, collages and stylishly crafted text, “Wid- by the side of her beloved ow” is an eighty-page, premium-color salve to the emotionally wounded that reminds husband, Dr. Bob Lehmberg, us all that death is universal. as he battled cancer. The former longtime Chicago resident now lives in Little Rock, where she discussed 8 the book and the remarkable experiences she had with her husband in his final years. Her own long-standing career in medical-practice management has given her plenty of insight into how we can improve the way the medical profession deals with these issues. Considering that an estimated fifty-three million Americans are providing long- term uncompensated care for loved ones, this is a hot-button topic worth exploring. The book is built off of your very personal, intimate journals. How were you convinced to share them so publicly? I kept a journal while Bob was sick and kept it up a year-and-a-half after he died. I had a conversation with a neurologist who was treating three patients with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), a terrible disease. I brought the journal to him and said, “You might want to take a look at this.” He took it home, and the next day said “Jennifer, you’re not getting it back. I’m going to loan it to these patients and their spouses, because it’s got some really helpful stuff in it and you need to figure out a way to get it published because it closes the gap between what a physician can provide and what the family needs.” When he was clear about how helpful it would be to these people and others in this situation, I de- cided I had to do it.

JULY 2021 Newcity 9

Newcity JULY 2021 Your husband specialized in What are some specific things you him, to be treated with comfort care but hospice and palliative care. learned from his approach? allowed to die. His mother was on the oth- Were you influenced by the insights er end of the spectrum, wanting any means and philosophy he developed There were two things that I recall most necessary to stay alive. Bob let his patients through his years in that field? from his dealings with hospice care. One know that he honored both his parents’ is that he said that people in hospice were wishes and that their wishes will be re- The uniqueness of our situation is that entering what he called “precious time.” He spected too. There was no wrong answer Bob had helped families and patients who would tell patients and their families that for what a patient wanted, but Bob wanted had a life-limiting disease like cancer, and means it’s time to say what you need to the whole family to get on the same page I had lost members of my family. So his say, and not say what you’re going to re- as the patient. experience was professional, mine was gret later. It was a great, subtle and simple personal. And that’s why I started keeping language to say this person is dying and What are some things that are the arts journal, just doing it as self-care. you’re going to go on after they die. And surprising to people when they really I was working through my thoughts and so think about what that’s going to feel like. consider the issue of caregiving? You feelings like many people do, but mine I certainly feel like we’re trying to avoid re- quote a study that says fifty-three just happened to be through an arts jour- gret. You can’t keep putting it off thinking million people average thirty-seven nal. But it’s still pretty devastating when you can say these things later because hours of caregiving for a loved one you get that news. No one wants that, there may not be a chance—you have to each week. That’s a huge number. even when you have experience with it. face these things realistically. I think that’s totally surprising to people. We worked really hard together as Bob Bob used to say, “I’ve seen death thou- Sometimes family members don’t even faced down cancer, as I took detailed sands of times. It’s peaceful. The patient is identify as caregivers. They say “Oh, I take notes while he made his own determina- going to be fine. It’s the family I’m worried my dad to the doctor,” or, “I just stay over tions on which chemotherapies to explore. about, their regrets after the loss of their at my mom’s house three nights a week.” I also include a list in the book of all the loved one.” They know they’re living in a hard situation, things we did administratively, and a cou- but they don’t bring it up in conversation. ple we failed to do because I didn’t know The other thing that stays with me is That figure was in response to a survey better. We came to realize the mistakes, so that Bob talked with his patients about his question. But the caregiver is really the why not share them? own parents. His father wanted, as soon as his faculties were shown to be leaving 10

hero of our times, especially in the pan- demic. And yet they don’t get recognized and much of society is on their backs. You mentioned sharing some of the mistakes you and Bob made in the book. Can you give a couple of examples? There were two main oversights. One was that I didn’t have all the passwords, while I thought I knew them. I thought I’d always be able to figure them out. Then when I couldn’t, and on top of that a loved one dies or something else happens that has major emotion, and your brain just doesn’t work. So it was a mistake not to have a password repository. And the second one was that we didn’t put the utilities in my name. We put all the property in my name and did all kinds of preparation, but overlooked that and it was very painful to have to call the utility com- worse than loud noises in the waiting room, you don’t even know what the next steps are. Sometimes people have to wait a cou- panies and tell them my husband had died, whether it’s someone else’s phone or TV, ple weeks and the access issue has got to be dealt with. and be on hold a long time while they tried but they all think they need a TV. “Widow” is making an impact on to adjust things. And in some cases, Bob’s It’s especially bad now that everyone people, as you’ve seen through personal comments from its readers has their own devices and also through the fact that the book has won three awards including and most are looking the Nautilus Book Award’s Silver award in the Death & Dying/Grief & down at them. It’s es- Loss category, beating more than 550 entries from across the United States. The caregiver is really the pecially bad when hero of our times, especially you have “scanxiety,” I’m thrilled that a book about family care- in the pandemic. And yet which I call anxiety giving and preparing for end of life has from cancer scans. been recognized in this way. We all need The next scan tells to do a better job of that. Most people won’t even talk about end of life, yet it’s the they don’t get recognized you whether cancer is one thing that happens to every one of us. progressing, slowing It’s costly both literally and emotionally and all of that can be mitigated quite a bit and much of society is on in growth or staying by just having open conversations about their backs. the same. An obnox- it and saying it’s not if, but when. ious blaring television It’s a lovely book to just hold and that’s is not what you need one of the things that helps people when they’re going through things like that— at that time. There’s being able to hold onto something literally is so important. The pages have art on no care there, and them, then my very personal notes and ob- servations. Some have some pretty prac- name would still appear on the phone magazines are just germ vehicles. All we tical stuff on them, but it was never meant to be a book. It’s a picture book about a when I’d call people. And we overlooked need is some beautiful art, we’ll bring our very serious situation, which is a difficult combination. When you’re going through putting the credit cards in my name, or me devices with us to watch things on our own, this you don’t have the capacity to read a heavy-duty chapter book on the topic. having my own with my name on them, and please just see us on time. “The Hospice Doctor’s Widow: A Journal” and I had to deal with them being canceled By Jennifer O’Brien after he died. Systems need to be put in You also have strong opinions Et Alia Press, 86 pages place to handle things better. about the issue of doctor access and how long it takes people to see You’ve endured plenty of waiting their physicians amid life-and-death rooms over the years. You believe struggles. You note that Bob had a that there needs to be a major quicker wait than those outside the overhaul in how doctors’ offices are medical community normally have, run, especially in that regard. because of professional courtesy from his specialists and the fact I realize now how special that time is going that he had helped countless people to appointments with the loved one you’re as quickly as possible throughout caring for, because I went to all of Bob’s his career. JULY 2021 Newcity appointments with him and that has a certain intimacy to it. I learned things Even as short as our wait was for the spe- like there is just absolutely nothing caring cialist meeting about Bob’s metastatic or soothing about a large television in a cancer diagnosis, those hours that day waiting room. It’s absurd. There’s nothing were too long. It’s excruciating because 11

Newcity JULY 2021Tending It’s been seven years since the artist Edie Fake to Queer last lived in Chicago, having decamped first for Histories Los Angeles and then a desert area outside that city in 2014. But with their new solo show at Edie Fake Western Exhibitions, “The Pieces,” as well as their appearance in “Chicago Comics: 1960s to Returns to Chicago Now” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the With Two Exhibitions city continues to play a key sustaining role in their work. Fake describes feeling “tethered to by Annie Howard [Chicago] in almost a magical way,” the city 1 where they worked at Quimby’s Bookstore and first found the themes that have guided their 12 work ever since. With “The Pieces,” Fake drew inspiration from their san- dy surroundings while continuing to explore themes of queer community that have been at the core of their work for years. In paintings reminiscent of earlier works like the “Memory Palaces” series, as well as a series of collages which play with sandcastle-like structures built with disparate objects like seashells, googly eyes and butterflies, things shape themselves together as much as they’re held apart, gaps which bring to mind the ev- er-present six-foot gaps separating us over the last year. As with all of Fake’s work, abstract representations of community form and collapse, cohere and dissipate, re- flective of the real experience within queer lives and their ever-shifting constellations. Newcity spoke with Fake about their new Chicago exhibitions, their ongoing focus on transitory communal spaces and why it’s important to tend to queer histories. Sand is a defining element in your show at Western Exhibitions. When did that focus come into your work, and how does it operate in these new pieces? There are these little sand particles that have been showing up in work I’ve been doing without kind of much of the focus. Then, throughout the pandemic, I’ve been thinking about the question: What is a queer ar- chitecture for the Anthropocene? It’s something that seems like it can be so easily swept away, and yet, it’s something that gets rebuilt constantly or reformed with pleasure, and vision and joy. Thinking about how fragile structures have seemed, especially in the past year, and how that can be reimagined. Trying to think of a title around sandcastles, every- thing with them is so corny, but it really is this concept for the work: it’s something that gets built with the knowledge that imminent destruction could be very close at hand, and yet it’s built with joy, and for pleasure, even with that kind of temporary-ness of it at the fore- front. Also, living out in the desert, constantly looking at sand and having a real appreciation of all these different elements that go into it, and the magic of it holding to- gether and falling apart too.



23Newcity JULY 2021 That sense of transitory communal space has been Though you haven’t lived in Chicago for a 14 there in other pieces of yours, most notably the few years, the city has obviously remained “Memory Palaces” series, where futuristic queer important to your work, especially with facades seem like they might exist in one moment your ongoing connection to Western and be gone in the next. Is there a through line in Exhibitions. What does it mean to come those themes between these works? back to Chicago for this solo show and your MCA appearance? This year has been such a revelation about the value of physical space. As someone who thinks about it all the I feel like I spent a lot of years as a nomad, but time and really values physical space, this has been a real I feel like I have an umbilical cord relationship exercise in seeing how important it is to be able to share to Chicago. At the same time, I know that my physical space with others. Thinking about the separate- idea of what the city is isn’t set in stone, and ness between all the little particle elements in these paint- that every time I come back to it, it’s a changed ings and collages, and in the way that actual sandcastles place. It’s the first place where I started having work, there’s this thing called liquid bridges, where a little art shows and I feel close to the integrity and bit of water holds together these separate elements, and the resourcefulness of the art scene in Chica- how they erode when they dry up. go. I also don’t know what to expect, because every time I return to it as a place it’s different. There’s some lovely wording at the Palm Springs City Still, I do feel tethered to it in almost a magical Hall, which says “the people are the city.” I think about that way. It’s a formative place for me, and a place with these sand structures coming together: there’s this where I solidified something that my work con- community that’s abstract and fragile and constantly re- tinues to grow out of, looking at queer history forming itself or having different boundaries. Sand also has and queer space, why I do that, and different a lot colliding with it. Where I’m living, I see climate change methods for doing that. making the environment much hotter and much drier very quickly, and at the same time having sea levels rise, which is a huge threat to something like a sandcastle. Sand as a construction material is also becoming more and more scarce as development with concrete accelerates.



4Newcity JULY 2021 Your work sits against a backdrop of So much of your work is about tending significant growth in the trans community, to what we’ve inherited as queer people. 1 and a frightening spate of new anti-trans Why is that kind of attentive approach to Edie Fake, “Cohabitat #1,” legislation in most states in the United States. 2021, collage on paper, history so essential in your work? 16¼ x 12¼ inches. How do you sit with those conflicting 2 forces hovering over trans life today? Tending is such a powerful word, because I think Edie Fake, “Before that’s exactly how we see the potential of what’s hap- Stonewall,” 2015/Courtesy “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” pened and make connections to history that’s still of the artist and Western Not only that, but the present is not enough. The living. We can also tend to histories that have passed Exhibitions, Chicago. world is becoming much more specifically restric- where the people and places aren’t accessible any- 3 tive for trans people, and then at the same time more, but you can still say, “This demonstrates this Edie Fake, “Old Language,” there’s simultaneously a lot of things that are better, mode of life.” It’s complicated, and it’s not something 2021, gouache on panel, like accessing trans affirmative medical care has that could ever be duplicated, but it is something that 24 x 18 inches. become much easier for me over the past decade. it brings roots into what happens next. 4 Having complex identities, and language around Edie Fake, “Future trans identities has become much more widely ac- There’s also the act of touching the past or hang- Presence,” 2021, Gouache cepted in the past few years, and open to nuance in ing on to a vision of it that can touch the future. on panel, 18 x 24 inches. a way that it hasn’t been a wide way before, which I feel like I’m not interested in like a first-ness. I’m I think is very exciting. But this legislative targeting interested in legacies of things, and specifically a 16 is really ferocious and terrifying and part of these legacy of queer and trans lives in space, place, city larger patterns of oppression. and world. “The Pieces” is on view at Western Exhibitions, 1709 West Chicago, through July 17. “Chicago Comics: 1960s to Now,” Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago, through October 3.

©Nickolas Muray Photo Archive JUNE 5 - SEPT 6, 2021 Cleve Carney Museum of Art | Glen Ellyn FRIDA2021.ORG | 630.942.4000

Newcity JULY 2021Big in Sheboygan 18

How the new Art Preserve JULY 2021 Newcity will transform coastal Wisconsin by Brian Hieggelke PHOTO The Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI. Photo by Durston Saylor, courtesy John Michael Kohler Arts Center. 19

In 1967, a twenty-six-year-old Ruth DeYoung Kohler II took a road trip obsession that made sense: her father, Herbert Vollrath Kohler Sr., was the leader of one of the largest and old- Newcity JULY 2021 north to Price County, Wisconsin with Frank “Jake\" Jacobson, est manufacturers of bathroom fixtures in the world. the founder of what is now Jacobson/Rost advertising agency, to When Fred Smith died in 1976, the most likely out- see something he'd insisted they check out. As they approached come would have been that his heirs would liquidate the Rock Garden Tavern, she saw a giant concrete Paul Bunyan, the property, and sell or even demolish his artworks, approaching twenty feet in height, along with more than 230 oth- depending on marketability. But Ruth had a better idea, and was in a position to act. She had become the direc- er concrete sculptures, sculptures crafted from concrete, rock, tor of the then-fledgling John Michael Kohler Arts Cen- beer-bottle glass and other humble materials. Cowboys and ter (JMKAC) in 1972, and two years later, she also chaired the Wisconsin Arts Board. Using the resources 20 Native Americans, frontiersmen and farmers, animals found in of the Kohler Foundation, she led the effort to buy the the surrounding Northwoods, even a full team of Clydesdales property and the art, restore it, and turn it over to Price County, where a foundation was created to maintain it pulling a Budweiser beer wagon: All were created by retired lum- to this day as a tourist attraction, a high point on the “Wandering Wisconsin” map of art environments. berjack Fred Smith, the tavern's owner, who called his menagerie The passion for preserving entire art environments the Wisconsin Concrete Park. “It changed my life,\" Kohler said. shaped the life and career of Ruth Kohler, culminating “I mean, I'd been to museums all over kingdom come, in Europe, with the opening of the $40-million 56,000-square-foot the United States and Canada… I don't think I'd ever seen any- Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin this summer. thing that made my heart sing, in his words, ‘It's gotta be in ya.'” Expect to see some of Fred Smith’s concrete sculptures on display. But Ruth won’t be there to witness the occasion—she died last November 14. (Her quotes in this story are drawn from videos and other documents.) Her presence, though, will be in spirit and more, as JM- KAC is opening a simultaneous exhibition in the old John Michael Kohler home that pays tribute to her life “The first few minutes with Fred—and a glimpse of his and influence by recreating her environment with art, concrete wagoner with cast-glass Red Crown gasoline furniture, books and objects from her residence. ‘hat,’ his poignant Sacajawea, Mable the Milker with her not-so-compliant cow, and the curious concrete deer Halfway between Milwaukee and Green Bay, along the peering from behind trees and shrubs—transformed the Lake Michigan shore, lies the quintessential Wisconsin way I thought about art,” she said. town of Sheboygan, the very name of which sounds This love for vernacular art was already inside Ruth. custom-made to roll off the tongue of the characters in When she was a young girl, her father liked to blow off the classic “Saturday Night Live” skit “Bill Swerski’s steam by piling his family into the car and going on Superfans” when discussing the Packers, arch-foes of drives in search of bathtub shrines constructed by rural the Bears, up in the land of the Cheeseheads. The town Wisconsinites, the more elaborate the better. It was an had its big pop-culture moment in the John Hughes

JULY 2021 Newcity 21

movie “Home Alone,” when John Candy, playing Gus a company with annual revenues estimated at $6 billion, Polinski, the Polka King of the Midwest, declared, “We’re with 31,000 employees and forty-nine factories on six very big in Sheboygan.” continents. There’s even a Mount Kohler in Antarctica, Sheboygan prides itself in its status as the “Bratwurst named for Ruth and her brother Herb, as a gift from their Capital of the World,” an honor earned in competition father, a benefactor of the expedition that mapped it. in 1970, and for which it has constructed an oath of al- legiance that is proclaimed on its municipal website, and In the 1940s, a young Bernard Langlais set out on prominently displayed in its visitors center: a path that led him into the epicenter of the art world. The Maine native's trajectory included studying painting at “I, (insert name here), do solemnly swear before all the Corcoran School of Art, the Skowhegan School of brat-certified sausage makers, bakers and backyard chefs, Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and the Brooklyn Mu- that I vow to respect the brat ritual, with all its rights and seum School, as well as a Fulbright Scholarship to Oslo, privileges endowed upon its practice, and I will hold Norway. When he settled in New York City, he was includ- steadfast to its meaning and tradition. ed in seminal group shows, including at the Museum of “With resolution I proclaim the promise to always fry Modern Art, and he caught the attention of the gallerist brats, to always serve them on a hard roll and to always Leo Castelli, who signed the emerging artist to a roster protect them from non-sanctioned preparation tech- that would become the best in the world, ranging from niques. I hereby swear that I denounce pre-boiling. I de- abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly nounce overdressing with pickled cabbage and other and Willem de Kooning, to the likes of Jasper Johns, Rob- offensive forms of condimentation. I denounce the oblong ert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and just about everyone bun, and I will deny all temptation to engage in inter- who charted in American art in the sixties and seventies. relations between brat and cheese rituals. Langlais made abstract work that stood alongside his “It is my duty and intent to become now and forever a peers, but for one difference: his principal medium was pillar of strength in the foundation of the Brat Capital of wood, not canvas. the World, and with that duty and intent, I shall never, “At some point, he kind of feels the pull of Maine,\" Newcity JULY 2021 even in the shadow of the face of death, deny a brat eater curator Laura Bickford says, “and starts wanting to go a beer.\" back to Maine, and kind of live in Maine, and this really shifts his work.\" He moved away from abstraction, No word on whether the mayor swears the oath upon becoming more representational. This shift was already inauguration. But given that the largest sausage brand underway when he had his 1961 solo exhibition at Cas- in the United States, Johnsonville, remains a fami- telli, epitomized by the work, “The Monitor or the Mer- ly-owned company in next-door Sheboygan Falls, per- rimack,\" which, in using wood and screws to evoke the haps he should. (The other well-known brand, Sheboy- side of a ship, was abstract by historical standards, but 22 gan Sausage Company, is now owned by Rosen's not where Castelli wanted him. “And Leo Castelli kind of Diversified, Inc, in Fairmont, Minnesota.) slapped his hand and said, ‘This isn't selling, no one When you stop by the Sheboygan Visitor Center, an wants this,'” Bickford says. “So Bernard Langlais put operation of impressive size for a city of just under a huge seagull on it and shipped it back to him and said, 50,000 residents that opened during the pandemic, you ‘Is this what you wanted?' And that was the end of their see that it also proclaims itself the “Malibu of the Mid- relationship.\" Langlais retitled the revised work “Gull on west.” This unlikely title is derived from its status as one Pile,\" and pulled his work from the gallery, writing to the of the best places for surfing on Lake Michigan. (Yes, it dealer, “It seems from indications of the last months that is a thing.) But the association with the California town the pictures have not been selling well and it is natural where wealth and celebrity fill the air hints at another that I should prefer more movement.\" part of the Sheboygan region’s identity: as the home of If you were to visit the ninety-acre property of Bernard the Kohler Company and its sprawling influence on em- and Helen Langlais in the early seventies, you would have ployment, travel and leisure, and arts and culture. been surrounded by more than a hundred large-scale sculp- This story begins and ends with Kohler—the compa- tures, mostly of animals, but also caricatures of folks like ny, the family, the village that bears its name. And that Richard Nixon, all rendered in wood. But that was just a story begins in 1865 when an Austrian immigrant and fraction of the works he made there across a ten-year peri- child of successful Minnesota dairy farmers, John Mi- od, including paintings, sculptures and wood reliefs. The chael Kohler, moves to Chicago to become a traveling vastness of the output, the out-of-favor nature of the sub- salesman. His travels took him to Sheboygan, where jects, and the overall whimsy of the environment might fool he met and eventually married Lillie Vollrath, the daugh- you into thinking you'd discovered an outsider artist. ter of a successful industrialist. Before long, he, along Langlais was anything but. In fact, he'd been inside at the with partners, took over his father-in-law’s factory and, highest levels, and chose a different path. over time, he and his heirs built the Kohler Company Bernard Langlais, currently the subject of the first of into a powerhouse in the design world, manufacturing two planned exhibitions of the artist's work at JMKAC, high-end bathroom and kitchen fixtures alongside a left behind the Maine property and more than 3,000 art- growing array of complementary businesses. Today, works when he died at the age of fifty-six in 1977. His David Kohler, the great-grandson of John Michael, runs widow later donated the estate to Colby College, which

JULY 2021 Newcity owns the largest collection of the artist’s work. Colby sub- a summer arts festival and a vigorous performing arts 23 sequently gave 3,000 works to the Kohler Foundation, program. When I asked the curators what institutions which is in the process of restoring and then redistribut- might be of comparable size and ambition in the Mid- PREVIOUS ing most of the work to institutions in Maine and around west, they cited a leading contemporary art institution SPREAD the country. The Art Preserve will be one of those insti- with an international brand, the Walker Art Center in tutions. Hannah W. Blunt, who curated the current ex- Minneapolis. The Walker is more than twice the physi- Photo: Brian hibition at JMKAC, said in a video made several years ago, cal size of JMKAC and attracts about four times the vis- Hieggelke “The way that Kohler works is they come in and take tem- itors, but the new Art Preserve will go a long way to porary ownership of a property and do great terrific con- narrowing both gaps. And according to IRS filings re- ABOVE servation work and basically prepare the site to be gifted quired of all nonprofits, the institution is financially Bernard Langlais to a long-term steward who will care for it and provide strong. In 2018, the most recent year available, JMKAC public access.\" reported $13.5 million in revenue versus $7.9 million in with untitled expenses, with net assets of more than $76 million. (By (Three Lions) and Thanks to the Kohlers in all their manifestations— comparison, Chicago’s much higher-profile and larger family, company, foundation, art museum—Sheboygan Museum of Contemporary Art had $22.4 million in rev- Alligator, 1976. punches far above its weight in the visual art world, and enue that year versus $23.8 million in expenses, with Photo: David Hiser. will soon be even stronger. The John Michael Kohler net assets of $171.5 million. The Milwaukee Art Museum, Arts Center was established in 1967 in the company the largest in Wisconsin, has comparable numbers to founder’s house in downtown Sheboygan; when Ruth the MCA.) This little museum tucked away in a small Kohler took the helm a few years later, she led a build- town has some deep pockets indeed. ing growth spurt and a focus of the mission that today has become a regional museum of 100,000 square feet With the opening of the Art Preserve, the Arts Center (more than triple the size of Chicago’s Hyde Park Art will be able to focus its exhibition strategy entirely on Center) reaching 160,000 visitors a year and mounting contemporary art, which is good; the exhibitions I saw a dozen or so exhibitions of contemporary art annually, on my visit were impressive in scope and structure. while operating the country’s first arts-based pre-school, JMKAC creates an overarching theme for each year— this year it’s “Return to the Real”—and then assembles

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group and solo shows to fit. “High Touch,” for example, JULY 2021 Newcity brings together artists who work from digital sources to craft tangible objects and installations. And Anthony 25 Olubunmi Akinbola’s “Magic City” delivers a powerful exploration of Black America to a town with an over- LEFT whelmingly white population. The Art Preserve In late-forties and fifties West Allis, Wisconsin, of the John Michael a baker named Eugene von Bruenchenhein, with his wife Kohler Arts Center, Marie as his muse and frequent subject, spent forty years converting their home into an art fantasia, one that they Sheboygan, WI. kept to themselves until his death in 1983. He made thou- Photo by Durston sands of elaborately staged pinup photos of Marie. He created surreal paintings that got at the very essence of Saylor, courtesy the atomic age that was gripping the nation with fear and John Michael opportunity. He made crazy cool little sculptural thrones and towers out of poultry bones. He worked with clay, Kohler Arts Center. with poetry. And so on. When I visited his environment at the Art Preserve, I was astonished by the quality and variety of his work. If he'd been inclined to play the game, any one of his art practices would have made him an art- world sensation in his lifetime. As it is, he's one of out- sider art's superstars. When he died, a friend contacted Ruth Kohler and she visited his wife Marie at her home. If Ruth's encounter with Fred Smith and his Wisconsin Concrete Park sixteen years earlier was the spark for her, and consequently the JMKAC's passion for this type of work, the visit to Eugene von Bruenchenhein's home started a fire. “Without doubt, that first visit was the most aston- ishing and moving experience in the arts that I have had. Surrounded by relief heads of painted concrete— Asian warriors and royalty that served as sentinels— the Von Bruenchenhein home was painted inside and out in large shapes of vibrant colors: turquoise, bright blue, phthalo green, deep yellow, salmon, pink, and moody reds,” she wrote. “The tiny foyer was stacked floor to ceiling with Kentucky Fried Chicken boxes filled with chicken bones from a nearby restaurant’s refuse—all to be used for Eugene’s exotic thrones and towers. Marie, then age sixty-two, allowed us to wander at will; seeing the immensity and power of Eugene’s output left me forgetting to breathe.\" In the wake of this visit, the JMKAC eventually acquired 6,000 Von Bruenchenhein objects—setting the stage for what is now the Art Preserve, thirty-eight years later. Situated three miles from JMKAC and just two miles from Kohler on a thirty-eight-acre campus, the Art Pre- serve greets visitors as a stunning work of sculptural architecture created by Denver-based Tres Birds. The three-story, 56,000-square-foot center built into a hill- side is enclosed in its own forest of vertical beams that create a sense of modernity that co-exists with nature— not such an easy proposition. Interior floors are spare and open, with ample natural light pouring in from vistas shaped from the inside by the angular timbers of the building's design.

Everything about the space feels connected to the natural world and disconnected from other art spaces. In an interview included in the press kit, Tres Birds says, “The building is designed to shade itself. The plan of the building undulates in reaction to the hillside on the site, the trees on the hillside, and the annual path of the sun. Direct sunlight is kept to a minimum to protect the art. The building’s shape engages the hillside in a non-rec- tilinear fashion. This was done to have moments where the building protrudes into nature and then recesses so that nature can enter. Tres Birds was tasked with creat- ing a space that provides different experiences and in- spires a sense of wonder. This was achieved by creating unexpected corners, spaces, differing proportions of rooms and specific views to the natural world outside.” The open floor plans, and the ample room for growth or use of outdoor space in other ways—perhaps an en- tire house could be moved onto the grounds, for exam- ple, if the situation warrants—speaks to the opportunity to reinvent the idea of a museum that this new enter- prise presents. And the curators are thinking about this. In the debut publication, “Art Preserve Reader, Vol. 1,” they write, of their “exhibition strategies”: Newcity JULY 2021 “Contemporary artist commissions, public programs, and ongoing reinterpretations of the collections chal- lenge the presumed neutrality of museums. Institutions are made up of people, and at any given time, the deci- sions to display certain works to the public often repre- sent hours of private internal conversations, research and bias. As a platform for experimentation, the Art Preserve aims to examine the assumptions that dictate museum practices and the authority of the ‘institutional voice.'\" 26 I visited the Art Preserve at the end of April, on the final weekend of its four-month preview before it closed for all of May and most of June to put finishing touches in place before its June 26 grand opening. I was not sure whether this idea of a museum preview was an interrogation of traditional practices around institutional “reveals” or simply an accommodation to the pandemic and that way it upset timetables. So while I expect some installations and aspects of the RIGHT place will be more finished upon its opening, there’s The Art Preserve an intentional rawness to the space. Art storage is a includes tableaux visible part of the exhibition space, indicating that there evoking the is always more to any story. Ongoing research and apartment of Chicago artist restoration projects, like the preservation challenges Ray Yoshida presented by Loy Bowlin’s “The Beautiful Holy Jewel (1930-2009). Home,” are conducted in the open, with explanatory His was a lived-in text. In fact, curator Bickford described the Art Pre- art environment that elevated serve as such: “We don’t really think of these as exhi- vernacular bitions. It’s just a visible storage space.” aesthetics, commingling Ray Yoshida was the insider's insider. The Hawaiian fine art with the native landed in Chicago after the Korean War, in a par- broader visual culture. Photo: ticularly fertile time for creativity here. He started teach- Rich Maciejewski, ing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1959, courtesy of John and stayed there into the 2000s. As an artist, he was Michael Kohler associated with the Imagists; as a teacher he was con- Arts Center.

JULY 2021 Newcity 27

sidered a mentor of many of the best-known of that November 2016. All in all, the leadership team, none of group. His students included Roger Brown, Jim Nutt whom comes from the region, is a pretty new group in and Christina Ramberg. In his apartment at 1944 Wood contrast to the extended stewardship of Ruth Kohler. Street, his passions for collecting art and ephemera were The ebullient Bickford, barely a decade out of college manifest. He was drawn to comics, which appeared in (she earned dual master's degrees at SAIC and briefly his work, African masks, folk art, vernacular parapher- guest curated at Chicago’s Intuit), has been tasked with nalia and all forms of creation of self-taught artists. His getting the Art Preserve up and running. It's a formida- finds surrounded him in his home, in carefully arranged ble undertaking opening a new museum under any cir- groupings, and informed his work and his teaching. (He cumstance, but add to that her still-young career, the described his collecting impulse as “afflicted by this af- death of the longtime guiding hand of the project, and fliction\" in a short video tour of his home made around the mandate to create something completely new in 1990.) Not long after his death in 2009, most of the terms of both content and approach, and it’s kind of epic. contents of his apartment, including many of his orig- But Bickford is nonplussed, even confident, and the inal works, were acquired by JMKAC—some 2,600 or state of the new museum when I visited less than two so objects and artworks. months before its official opening reflected it. “When Ray died,\" Bickford says, “I think there would The ethos behind the Art Preserve is that traditional have been tons of interest in some parts of his collection museums have collected objects to represent things, because he had a lot of Imagist work, a lot of really valu- whether natural history museums taking mummies from able outsider—awful word—work. I think a lot of muse- a tomb or art museums getting one, two or a few paint- ums would have liked to cherry-pick specific pieces but the ings to represent an artist’s output. The Art Preserve be- Arts Center was interested in it as a collection, in every- lieves that the best way to understand an artist is to see thing. And so that is what we were able to talk to his fam- the environment in which they created their work, which ily about. Ray didn't care that it was a Roger Brown, Ray can mean collecting hundreds or thousands of artworks cared that this Roger Brown looked really good next to along with physical spaces—a studio or perhaps an en- this tin man, and we will put the tin man and the Roger tire house—and then restoring them. Thanks to the pas- Newcity JULY 2021 Brown together forever.\" At the Art Preserve, a section of sion of Ruth Kohler and her resources, the Art Preserve his apartment has been recreated—not beds, bathrooms is the largest collection of art environments in the world. and sinks—but rather desks along long curving walls, Of course, the JMKAC did not invent the idea of pre- lined with shelves filled with masks and other objects. serving artists’ homes and studios. Not far from Paris, Claude Monet’s restored house and gardens at Giverny Upon entering the Art Preserve, you are greeted by attract a half-million visitors each year. La Casa Azul, a long bar. At one end, someone sells you a ticket or a the home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, is one of the book or a postcard from the highly curated offerings. most-visited sites in Mexico City. Other artists’ homes (There’s no gift shop; that resides downtown at JMKAC. to be preserved and open to visit include Auguste Ro- 28 All of the books sold here are directly connected to the din, Donald Judd, Salvador Dali, Georgia O’Keeffe, JMW artists on display.) At the other end of the bar, is, well, a Turner, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Jackson Pollock and bar. John Riepenhoff, founder of The Green Gallery in Lee Krasner. (The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios Milwaukee has a project called The Beer Endowment program maintains a directory of forty-eight museums that brews beers for artist-run spaces; he’s creating a that were the homes and working studios of artists in beer for the Art Preserve inspired by the artist Fred the United States.) The Judd Foundation not only main- Smith, who also ran a tavern. tains his New York City apartment, but huge chunks of The first floor is concerned with artists of the upper the town of Marfa, Texas, where Donald Judd did much Midwest: Frank Oebser, Albert Zahn, Eugene Von Bru- of his work. But perhaps the most famous of all artist enchenhein and most of the artists who make up the environments, Andy Warhol’s The Factory, is long gone. “Wandering Wisconsin” trail. The second floor challeng- In Chicago, the Roger Brown Study Collection is es conventions that associate art environments with ru- maintained by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago ral settings or with masculinity by featuring big-city art- in much the same way he lived and worked within. And ists like Ray Yoshida and Lenore Tawney and their Intuit, the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, has Chicago and New York City apartments and the third reconstructed much of famed outsider artist Henry floor offers three fully immersive environments by Em- Darger’s Lincoln Park apartment within its space. RIGHT ery Blagdon, Nek Chand and Dr. Charles Smith. All told, While it’s easy to describe the type of art the Art Pre- Installation view thirty artists are represented, drawn from the Art Pre- serve is presenting with the word “environment,” it’s of works by Fred serve's holdings of 25,000 artworks. more challenging to describe the artists. The term “out- Smith (foreground This new museum and the JMKAC are overseen by sider artist” has fallen from favor in an era where the and right) and idea that the white patriarchal establishment is the “in- Ernest Hüpeden just two curators, senior curator Kaytie Johnson, who ar- (back, center) at rived at the museum in February 2020 after a career at side” and deems those not anointed as such as outsid- the Art Preserve, university museums, and curator Laura Bickford, who has ers. The term is widely used, however; it’s in the name 2021. Photo been with JMKAC since September 2018. Museum di- of Intuit, there is a very successful Outsider Art Fair, and courtesy of John rector Sam Gappmeyer took the reins from Ruth Kohler so on. The Midwest, and especially Chicago, have been Michael Kohler Arts Center. when she stepped down to focus on the Art Preserve in fertile grounds for such art practices with Darger, Lee

Godie, Mr. Imagination, Joseph Yoakum and Wesley Wil- pressure of gallerists, curators, the art press—not igno- JULY 2021 Newcity lis among the best known. Chicago’s Carl Hammer Gal- rant of prevailing art practices but willfully ignoring them. lery has long shown such art; its current exhibition, “In In that sense, they lived the ultimate romantic ideal of 29 From the Cold,” is described as a “celebration of the the artist, making art for the sole purpose of creation. self-taught brilliance of ‘outsider’ art and artists.” Mary Nohl, for example, had enough money to do what she wanted and then some. Outsider artists are presumably self-taught, thus the term “intuitive,” though I would expect most art- Stella Waitzskin was in the center of everything. schooled artists would take offense at the implication After a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a success- that they lack intuition for their work. The stereotype ful immigrant businessman, in her thirties she became sometimes implies mental illness as well, although that’s an art student, with Hans Hofmann and Willem de Koon- a sticky wicket in and of itself. Vernacular art, naive art, ing as her teachers. She got caught up in the swirl of cre- folk art—all of these terms are fraught with issues. ative New York in the fifties—the Beats, the jazz scene, other artists like Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Louise Ultimately it comes down to whether or not a particu- Nevelson—and by the end of the decade, she'd left her sub- lar artist is part of the “art establishment” or whether they urban marriage and moved into the Hotel Chelsea. There conduct their art practice outside of it, by choice or sim- she embarked on her life's great art project, “Details of a ply lack of access. Some of the artists in the Art Preserve Lost Library,\" which was made up of vintage leather-bound fit the traditional description of “outsider artist,” but many books that she cast in polyester resin, arranged on a vast do not. Bernard Langlais was at the epicenter of the art array of shelves along with other ephemera. Though her establishment, living in New York City and represented work now resides in the best museums in America, in her by Leo Castelli Gallery, where Jasper Johns, Roy Lichten- lifetime she cared more about art and artists than about stein and Frank Stella had their first shows, until he de- the trappings of the art establishment. cided to go in another direction. Mary Nohl was an SAIC In a memorial on her website (she died in 2003) her grad who left the art scene when she inherited a home. son tells this story: Ray Yoshida was the ultimate insider—he spent his career teaching and mentoring artists at the SAIC. “I recall one time she was scheduled to have a one- man show at the prestigious Lee Witkin Gallery Sometimes the decision not to play the game was a on West Broadway. This was a huge opportunity for reflection of personal resources. Though many of the Stella–surely her exhibition would receive notices in artists at the Art Preserve were poor or of modest means, others were wealthy and did not need to sell art to live. They chose not to live under the influence and

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all of the top magazines and newspapers. But two JULY 2021 Newcity weeks before the opening she called an incredulous Witkin to tell him that the opening date for the show 31 was not advantageous to her in terms of numerology. She demanded he reschedule. Witkin was enraged LEFT and never spoke with her again. But Stella didn’t care. She believed Lee Witkin was trying to take advantage Stella Waitzkin, of her in some dark manner. untitled (detail), “Making art meant the world to my mom. But making n.d.; resin and it in the art world meant very little.\" plaster; 8 3/4 x 14 1/2 x 5 in. John Four years after her death, JMKAC acquired a three- Michael Kohler wall section of Waitzskin's Chelsea Hotel apartment and later more than a hundred of her works. The Art Pre- Arts Center serve has reconstructed her Chelsea Hotel apartment; Collection, gift of I can just imagine the parties that the ghosts that she and the Stella Waitzkin her legendary friends from the New York School will Memorial Library have inside. Trust and Kohler Fourth-generation family businesses, especially those Foundation Inc. worth billions of dollars like Kohler, and especially still Photo courtesy managed by the founding family, are increasingly rare in of John Michael American industry. And it’s equally rare to see them re- Kohler Arts Center. main based in such small towns as Sheboygan, though Kohler is no longer technically in Sheboygan, instead headquartered in the next-door Village of Kohler, popu- lation 2,100. The early history of the Kohler Company is, in part, a story of experimentations in labor, designed to ensure the business had enough factory workers to feed its rapid growth. One of the ideas in vogue at the end of the nine- teenth century was, literally, the company town. In this model, the company offered its workers not only jobs, but also places to live and, in these towns, the necessities of daily life—grocery stores, post offices, schools and churches. These towns sustained a stable labor supply for growing industrial companies, and also inspired a form of founder paternalism; by controlling virtually all aspects of a worker’s life, the idea went, the company could mold the character and lifestyle of its workers. At their peak, the United States had about 2,500 company towns. The most famous of all of these was the town of Pullman, then immediately south of Chicago, but later annexed and now a city neighborhood. When the Pull- man Company laid off workers and lowered wages with- out reducing the rents its workers paid to live in compa- ny-owned homes, they went on strike in one of the most famous and most violent uprisings in American labor his- tory. Not long after the strike ended, the Illinois Supreme Court forced the company to sell off its housing. And the labor movement, which sought to achieve a better bal- ance of power between a company and its workers, com- bined with the growing middle class, soon rendered most company towns obsolete. Kohler, Wisconsin seems to be an exception to the demise of the company town. It was started as such in 1900 and incorporated as the Village of Kohler in 1912. Since the beginning, it’s enjoyed a legacy of planning by some of American architecture’s most storied names: First the Olmsted Brothers firm crafted a fifty-year plan.

They were the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, the de- a story about the new Art Preserve nearby, the Kohler signer of New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Jack- Company made me their guest. Was my fondness for son Park, Washington Park and University of Chicago the place simply a byproduct of the limited experience Campus. A second fifty-year plan was created by the of my twentysomething self back then? I can now report Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. that the Club’s bathroom game remains unparalleled. According to the Sheboygan Press, “Walter Kohler, As much as the charm I’d once experienced remains Sr., president and CEO of Kohler Co. from 1905 to 1937, intact—my mother, who along with my wife, visited with and Richard Philipp visited Europe to learn about gar- me, observed that it was like a Ralph Lauren ad—the den communities. When they returned, they met with scope has expanded exponentially since my first visits the Olmsted Brothers and laid out a plan for the village, in the eighties. which was to be a garden community at the factory gate Today, the Inn on Woodlake and the Kohler Cabin because Kohler believed workers ‘deserved not only Collection join the five-star American Club, in rounding wages but roses as well.’” out the lodging portfolio. In addition to its world-class Over time, the village became less of a haven for golf courses, Kohler has a focus on wellness, especially workers, especially as the company sold ownership of via its Kohler Waters Spa, a spot for hydrotherapy ser- the homes to its workers at cost (in contrast to Pullman, vices and other treatments at prices approaching $200 which refused to do so); the bulk of the company’s em- an hour. Just as the hotels extend the Kohler bathroom ployees are now scattered around the world. Today the brand in an experiential direction, the spas, which have village is part company town, part living laboratory for expanded into the Chicago area (Lincoln Park opened Kohler Company’s increasing role in tourism. The com- in late 2019), keep the company in the business of what pany might not own the homes any more and its em- they might see as their essence: water. Not to mention ployees are no longer the majority of its residents, but lots more bathrooms to show off their best products. Kohler operates many, if not most of the businesses that Speaking of which, the Kohler Design Center is a pro- serve the town, and still plays the role of real-estate de- genitor of the brand-as-entertainment idea that has veloper—in 2019 it announced it was developing a sub- flourished (Niketown, Apple) since its opening in the Newcity JULY 2021 division of seventy-five homesites called The Clearings eighties. Occupying three levels in a vintage building of Kohler—and keeper of the design aesthetic. Accord- near the American Club, the main floor of the design ing to Wikipedia, “The Kohler Company continues to center is called the Product Pavilion, with wares dis- retain final authority over the design of home and busi- played by type and sometimes brand (they own Ann ness additions, outbuildings and fences in the village to Sacks and Kallista in addition to the Kohler brand) and, keep them within a certain aesthetic standard.” famously, a wall of toilets. On the mezzanine level the Today, Kohler is still home to the company’s global company has partnered with leading names in interior headquarters and much of the family that controls it still design, including Jonathan Adler and Mick De Giulio, to resides in the region. And, perhaps most importantly for create showcase kitchens and bathrooms. The low- 32 the future of the town, it’s also the headquarters of the er-level ground floor has been built out as a museum of growing Destination Kohler division. Kohler Company history, going back to the beginning Back in the late 1980s, I was working for Goldman but also showcasing many of the company’s legendary Sachs and Wisconsin was my territory. At some point, I follies and successes—it’s hard to believe it now, but landed a client in Sheboygan: an older woman whose there was a time when manufacturing bathroom fixtures wealth was unconnected to any of the local companies— in colors other than white was revolutionary. The com- she owned shares in a family business in Milwaukee that pany’s catchphrase “The Bold Look of Kohler” was born had been sold, leaving her with a couple million dollars around the time when bathtubs started coming in all to invest. When I went up to meet with her and her hus- the hues of the rainbow. band, I got a chance to see the area for the first time and Bathrooms, naturally, are a signature element of the was intrigued. It was a charming small city on the lake JMKAC, a tradition continued at the Art Preserve. Each and its tiny little next-door neighbor, the Village of Kohler, designed by a different artist, you’ll find yourself happy was really special. I remember being wowed by the to say “excuse me,” and explore men’s and women’s Woodlake Market, the kind of upscale supermarkets still rooms alike. Chicago and Milwaukee artist and educa- RIGHT rare then in big cities like Chicago. And the new Kohler tor Michelle Grabner has designed one of the loos at Design Center was a fascinating museum of fancy toilets. the Art Preserve, “Patterns and Practicalities,” which is Incorporated into I stayed at the American Club, which just a few years ear- a “granny square blanket” made out of tile. Joy Feasley the stairwell walls are representations lier had been converted into a luxury resort by the Kohler and Paul Swenbeck’s “Listen, the Snow is Falling,” en- of hobo symbols, Company. I remembered a couple of things about the compasses two bathrooms in a diorama of “a wintry a collaboration American Club. One was its easy comforts, the kind you alien landscape.” between Ruth only get at five-star hotels. The other was its bathrooms, DeYoung Kohler II which took the absolute best of Kohler’s products and Levi Fisher Ames pre-dates all of the other artists and Tres Birds. Photo: Rich gave its guests a chance to try them out. featured at the Art Preserve. Born in 1840, he served in Maciejewski, All these years, I remembered the American Club as the Union Army in the Civil War and settled in Monroe, courtesy of John Wisconsin after its end, making a living as a woodworker Michael Kohler one of the more pleasurable hospitality experiences of who specialized in making and repairing violins. He also Arts Center. a lifetime, and I was thrilled when, after deciding to do



started making shadow boxes, featuring more than 600 there was a strike in 2015, so... He gave a kind of shrug carvings of animals, both real and imaginary—exquisite that said so-so, then told me the company was trying little sculptures—some posing, some contorting in play, to take away state parkland for a big new golf course some fighting. Seeing his anamorphic work conjures up on the lake, that the company felt like, since it had do- cartoon characters that would not be introduced until at nated the land for the park in the first place, that it could least fifty years after his death. By the 1880s, he was a just take some of it back. traveling showman, hauling his works around the state of Wisconsin in a tent show called the L.F. Ames Museum Mary Nohl might be the most interesting perform- of Art. He died in 1923, but miraculously much of his art- er in this circus of creative wonder. Like so many of the work stayed together, finally ending up at the Art Preserve. artists featured at the Art Preserve, she was neither self- His work is arranged in tall glass cases encapsulating a taught nor an outsider, but rather a School of the Art In- set of spectator benches (created as a “contemporary re- stitute of Chicago graduate and art teacher in Milwaukee. sponse\" by the Milwaukee artist Brent Budsberg) where But this daughter of a prosperous lawyer did not need to modern-day art spectacles might be held. Studying these sell art to live, or even to teach for a salary; when her par- amazing boxes of imagination, I could not help but think ents moved into their Fox Point cottage on the Lake Mich- of another self-taught artist who became celebrated for igan shore, she joined them and started making art full- creating imaginary worlds within boxes a century later, time. After they died, she turned the home into a vast Joseph Cornell. artistic palette. LIke so many others featured at the Art Preserve who created work that might have been well re- Though most of my visit to Sheboygan and Kohler ceived in the conventional art world—I'm thinking espe- was bathed in the refined mist of the Kohler influence, cially of her paintings and how they evoke an alien futur- I did get a drink or two of the local flavor when, after ism—she apparently had little interest in such things. But dinner one night, we wandered into a bar called George she was an insatiable creator; every surface in her home, Michael’s, aka GM’s, the name of which has unknown the walls, the floors, the furniture became a canvas. She origins, since its owners are David Haneman and James worked on any material and in any style imaginable: jew- Newcity JULY 2021 Passmore, aka Hondo and JP. To be fair, the place was elry, pottery, wood, even puppets. And her walls were no suggested by the curators at JMKAC when I asked them limit; she transformed the grounds with the same inten- to recommend a dive-bar, so not really a “discovery.” We sity. Milwaukee magazine described it as “a bizarre, mag- mused collectively that the name came from either the ical and transfixing landscape, filled with sculpted stone late pop singer or the character on “Arrested Develop- heads, concrete poets, driftwood sentinels, sea-stone ru- ment,” but I would not bet on either. ins, wooden silhouettes, beach-pebble mosaics, and fig- As we walked into the busy bar on a Thursday night, ures of all shapes and sizes, built out of the elements sur- we met the Wisconsin of “pandemic, what pandemic?” rounding the home and the beach below.\" 34 lore—remember the TV news scenes early in the na- “When she was alive she was called ‘The Witch of Fox tional shutdown more than a year ago, when the State Point' and people would throw rocks at her house and Supreme Court overturned the governor’s order, and break in and vandalize,\" Bickford says, “and so now that images of packed bars crowded with maskless revelers we steward her legacy a lot of the work we're doing is to shocked the nation? That Wisconsin. As we walked past try and undo that.\" the pool table up front, someone growled at us, “Take When she died, she left behind an endowment to the off your mask!” We bellied up to the bar in the back and Greater Milwaukee Foundation of $11 million, which settled in for a couple of hours of conversation with the funds grants to emerging artists and artists in need. The friendly locals, including Alex the bartender—she ex- Kohler Foundation ended up with her house and some plained that the “Try the blackberry” phrase on her 3,500 works of art. The house, now listed on the Nation- shirt and posted around the bar referred to one of the al Register of Historic Places, is her greatest creation, and owners’ Polish heritage and his penchant for Leroux in its usual fashion, the Kohler Foundation was in the Jezynowka Polish Blackberry Brandy, of which she of- process of restoring it and preparing it for the public when fered a sample. This is the kind of a bar that has a two- it hit a snag: wealthy neighbors who covet their privacy. for-one happy hour on Thursdays that runs from 3pm There was talk of moving the house up to Sheboygan. to 1am, where the three of us could have three mixed Eventually a compromise was worked out and the house drinks and a shot, and pay a tab of $12. (The kind of remains intact, though still closed to the public. But the place you could spend a lot of time in.) Art Preserve has brought some of its walls and many of The guy next to me on a stool, with a classic mullet its artworks front and center on display as one of its show- and a black T-shirt, looked like a poster boy for the St- case art environments. urgis Motorcycle Rally. He was a native Sheboyganite (Sheboyganian?) who’d spent most of his working ca- Sheboygan’s lakefront is far from the protected ex- reer in the Mid-South, returning home in late middle age panse we enjoy in Chicago near the southern shore of to be around his daughter and his grandkids. At one the same Lake Michigan. Not far from downtown, a large point, I asked him point-blank what the locals thought parcel of lakefront property, ripe for development, is up about the Kohlers, and that I expected it might be gen- for sale. But the lakefront includes a fair stretch of open erally good due to the jobs and visible largesse, but space, including the city’s Deland Park with its Lottie Coo-

per Shipwreck ruins, the Lake View Park elevated like cliffs JULY 2021 Newcity overlooking the sea and, to the south, the Kohler-Andrae State Park, a picturesque expanse of inland forest and But like a father who feels like his kids are being un- 35 shoreline dunes, carefully protected and visited by tra- grateful when they disobey him, the patriarchy likely ex- versing a “cordwalk” trail that spans 1.3 miles along the plains the company’s history of strikes, four in all, includ- ABOVE coast. The day we visited, a man with an old-fashioned ing two of the more violent and notorious in U.S. labor view camera was capturing some of that lakeside beau- history, in 1934 and 1954, and another as recent as 2015. Works by Mary ty. Curious as to his project—was it vocation or avoca- On our tour of the Kohler Design Center’s company his- Nohl at the Art tion?—I struck up a conversation and discovered he’s a tory display, our guide, an especially enthusiastic wom- Preserve, 2020. truck driver from Utah named David Lyon who is very an who told us she was the third generation of her fam- serious about collecting and operating vintage cameras, ily to work for the company, described the labor unrest John Michael and making photographs of nature’s best vistas, under that came to head during the era when Herbert V. Kohler Kohler Arts Center the professional name, Barefoot Photographer. Sr. was running the company (1937-1968) strictly in terms of his perspective: Collection, gift of A patch of six-and-a-half acres at the northern end Kohler Foundation of this 988-acre park is the source of contention. Des- “He’s going to have a very tumultuous time, because we Inc. Photo courtesy tination Kohler wants to build a destination golf course do allow our unions to come into the factory and we do using a portion of that land, a bookend to its world-class have strikes that do come up over the years he’s there. He’s of John Michael Whistling Straits golf course on the lakefront in northern a very strong bargainer and he has a very strong belief in Kohler Arts Center. Sheboygan, a beauty created by the late legendary letting our people have a union. And so he wants to work course designer Pete Dye and the host of this fall’s with them as best that he can in order to make sure that Ryder Cup, one of the sport's most celebrated compe- everything is kosher and that the strike could be resolved. titions. It's a drawn-out and complicated story that It’s because of that strong leadership that we’re able to involves the company swapping nine-and-a-half acres keep going as a company and to find answers that help of Kohler property for that parcel, along with court bat- both sides.\" tles and chess moves that include the city of Sheboygan annexing the land away from the town of Wilson, where From her telling, it’s almost like the bitter unionization much of the development’s opposition is centered, struggles were simply as if dad capitulated and let his which seem to be giving the company the upper hand. kid go out in a tie-dyed shirt and cut-off jeans. But when we visited, bright orange “No Golf Course” signs lined the road to the park, and just last month, news broke that ancient Native American remains have been unearthed on the site. That the levers of government seem to favor the Kohler Company should be no surprise. The family has a long history of involvement in Republican politics that includes two Kohlers serving as governor of Wisconsin over the years. (Notably, the family gave more to Dem- ocrats than Republicans in 2020. Just as they’d aligned with moderates in the 1950s when the McCarthyites were flexing power, so too, I assume, they could not abide the Trump takeover of their party in 2020.) I came to think about this story as the story of a pa- triarchy in its best and worst senses. Of course, by defi- nition, the Kohler Company is a patriarchy—it’s now run by the fourth generation of the founding family, each of them a male member. But in a larger sense, the compa- ny looks out for its town; it has always seen itself as a provider. This dates back to the creation of the Village of Kohler itself as a place for workers to live, to the Amer- ican Club when it was built to house immigrant factory workers and, today, in the quality of facilities created and maintained for this small town, from the grocery store at Westlake Market to the health club at Sports Core to the world class spas, golf courses and restau- rants. (Kohler even operates Kohler Chocolates, which makes its own brandy.) Without the Kohlers’ continuing presence, it’s hard to imagine Sheboygan as much different than its similarly sized neighbor to the north, Manitowoc, a perfectly nice place to live, I'm sure, but I wouldn’t have a reason to visit.

Newcity JULY 2021 36 ABOVE The dispute over lakefront parkland and its potential “They set up a studio in the middle of the factory, both in creating a golf course that will likely burnish the re- in the foundry and in the pottery,” Bickford says. “They Emery Blagdon's gion’s reputation and tourism (and, of course, add trea- work hand-in-hand with the associates, learning all the \"The Healing sure to the Kohlers’ fortune), fits this theory as well, es- associates’ process and then they produce work there... Machine\" at the pecially when regular Joes at the local saloon describe Kohler has later hired artists to design stuff, artists have Art Preserve, it as the family wanting back something they gave in the invented new processes, like new glazes, the first female 2020. Photo: first place. resident of the AI program was named Karen Massaro Rich Maciejewski, and she actually invented a new glaze process that courtesy of John Perhaps nothing reflects the depth of the Kohler fami- Kohler still uses.” Michael Kohler ly’s commitment to art as the Arts/Industry residency. Arts Center. Started in 1974 by Ruth Kohler with her brother Herb, “The Kohler Company also has this program called the who at thirty-three had taken the helm of the family Waste Lab which is a new initiative for them,” Bickford says, company two years earlier, the residency brings in “where they are trying to come up with ways to use a lot of visual artists to make work inside the factory, rubbing the pottery coal and the foundry dust and the artists are shoulders and begging knowledge from the work- super into that and will go meet with the Waste Lab and ing-class “associates” who produce toilets and bathtubs. go, ‘I want all of the detritus,’ and so the Kohler Company Twelve artists a year go through the program, each leav- is learning from the artists and of course the artists usual- ing a creation or two behind, which often end up dis- ly leave blown away by the skill of the associates and go, played to the public somewhere in Kohler Village or at ‘They’re the actual artists,’ because all the Kohler products the Arts Center. are handmade. There is not a lot of mechanization. There is some, but each toilet and sink is finished by hand.”

The death of a force like Ruth Kohler could leave a 3 Sheeps, whose lager is on tap around town, offers a JULY 2021 Newcity vacuum at an organization like this, since she was, for huge barn of a tasting room and package carryout fa- fifty years, the hands-on manifestation of the family’s cility that I explored in the name of research. Highly rec- 37 commitment to art. But the curators are confident about ommended: Chaos Pattern Hazy IPA. Sadly, I had to the continuity of that commitment, citing the role of save ax-throwing and cocktails at the Longhouse Axe Ruth’s niece Laura Kohler, who works for the company Bar for my next visit. as well, as a longtime board member of the Arts Center, and who is very involved in the Arts/Industry program Sheboygan itself shows up on the Wandering Wis- and sits on the Arts Center’s collections committee. Plus, consin map, for the James Tellen Woodland Sculpture they point out, the current and previous CEOs of Kohler, Garden just south of town. It was a serene spot in the David and Herb, are both supporters who show up at woods the day we visited, part nature trail, part religious all of the Arts Center’s events. shrine and a whole bunch of delicious kitschy Ameri- cana. We are in the heartland after all. Speaking of The energy around art and design and upscale hos- which, a case could be made for adding one more site pitality emanating from all things Kohler is spreading to a tour of the area—the Acuity Flagpole, which de- beyond the reach of the brand. I was intrigued by the scribes itself as the “world’s largest free-flying American entrepreneurial energy of restaurateur Stefano Viglietti. flag” and boasts a height one-hundred-feet taller than A Sheboygan native and James Beard nominee, Vigliet- the Statue of Liberty and a weight of 250 pounds. Vis- ti came home from college to open Trattoria Stefano, a ible from the highway, you have to park and get up close restaurant that offers authentic, farm-to-table renditions to really take it in. From the base looking up, the wind of Italian cuisine rather than the spaghetti and red sauce contorts the red, white and blue like waves on an ocean, we might expect in an industrial midwest town. Across forming abstract sculptural shapes. Looking down, you’ll the street, he operates the insanely popular pizzeria, see 750 paver stones, each inscribed with the names Il Ritrovo, again harnessing Italian authenticity; it serves of Sheboygan residents killed in active duty going back creative versions of the thin wood-fired and simple Ne- to the Civil War. The pavers are arranged in the shape apolitan pies and has a Vera Pizza Napoletana certifi- of a teardrop. cation to go along with it. Add to it the creative breakfast and sandwich shop next door, Field to Fork, and the The opening of the Art Preserve will elevate the pro- well-stocked Italian food market (a mini-Eataly) and the file of the region more than ever before; glowing pieces nearby gastropub Duke of Devon and you’ll find yourself have already been published in the New York Times and immersed, not in the influence of one company like the Chicago Tribune and the Ryder Cup golf tournament Kohler, but in the influence of one man. Any one of his in the fall will push it into an international spotlight, at places would hold up in Chicago’s West Loop, and he’s least for a weekend. The opportunity is great but the drawing heavily from the tourists lured in by Kohler. challenge is too. Will artsy Sheboygan or sausage She- While having a glass of wine at The Winery Bar at the boygan prevail? Will nature lovers or golf bros win the American Club, we heard a couple of regulars at the day? Or is there room for all, as long as the patronage table next to us lamenting the demise of Kohler Com- of the Kohlers never wavers? pany’s own Italian joint, Cucina; later, when we told them where we were headed, they said Stefano’s was why When Laura Bickford gives tours of the Art Preserve, Cucina did not make it. she always ends on the third floor, inside a creation of an early twentieth-century rural Nebraska wander- Sometime this year, Stefano is opening Stefano’s er named Emery Blagdon. When he inherited an uncle’s Slo·Food Market, promising an “8,000 square foot house, he settled down and started on his life’s work, Butcher Shop, Fish Market, Sourdough Bakery, Rotis- converting a large shed into an art environment to rival serie, Grocer, Local Food and World Market.” I hope to all of today’s Instagram-slavish museum popups dedi- visit it soon. I really fell for the region and all it promises. cated to offering Millennials photo tableaux for social With the continuing benevolence of the Kohlers, the lo- media feeds. Blagdon was motivated by his parents’ cation of the town on the shore of the magnificent Lake death from cancer to try and harness curative qualities Michigan and its geographic proximity to Chicago and of magnetic fields and electrical currents, creating ki- Milwaukee, I could see the exponentially growing visu- netic mobiles and sculptures out of tinfoil and wire and al art presence that the Art Preserve adds not only mak- all sorts of other material to fill his shed, that a friend, ing the region as much a destination for art tourism as who saved the work by buying it at an estate auction, it is for golf, but it also has the potential makings of a called “The Healing Machine.” summer art colony, a Midwestern version of New York’s Hudson Valley. And the city of Sheboygan has so “I think the inability to describe what this is or why it much promise, with a healthy downtown district full was made is what’s important about so many of these,” of well-preserved vintage architecture, the kind Bickford says. “It’s that they are genreless. And that they of buildings just calling out to become restaurants, force museums to reexamine how they classify art and bars and boutiques. (Just don’t touch GM’s!) Art they force a kind of reckoning with our history on what’s sprawls around Sheboygan, in the form of public art been included and what hasn’t. It’s not Emery Blagdon’s installations downtown and street-art murals through- fault that no one knows what to do with this. It’s the fault out the city. Not to mention a terrific local brewery, of the structure that he doesn’t fit. Perhaps the structure should be changed.”









Arts & Culture Summer Of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson's feature film directorial debut, which took the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance, constructing an account of the summer 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival in Marcus Garvey Park, a hundred miles south of Woodstock. Starting Friday, July 2 in theaters and on Hulu The 5th Dimension performing at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival/courtesy Searchlight Pictures

Art Normal Isn't Working under stay-at-home orders, Kate Bowen, Adia Sykes, Stephanie Koch and Alden The Chicago Arts Census Hopes to Make the Arts Burke started casual Zoom conversations Ecosystem More Equitable every Sunday, taking stock of how to pivot their work and lives in the face of uncertainty. By Kerry Cardoza They realized that their peers in the art community were having a hard time thinking Howardena Pindell has been keeping In our data-driven world, numbers are about programming and exhibitions while JULY 2021 Newcity receipts on racism and sexism in the art used more and more to make the case for also figuring out how to pay bills or get world for a long time. She has tracked the important policy decisions. They tell us which healthcare, since the pandemic struck demographics of the artists shown at workers have been most affected by the people’s income in so many different ways. galleries and museums and documented pandemic-induced recession, and whether They wanted to find a way to be useful, but where public funding has been used by art the government response to helping those there was no readily accessible information organizations openly discriminating against workers has been adequate. The Chicago as to what might be of use to arts workers. entire groups of people. “I feel that it’s Arts Census was born out of the knowledge Those conversations turned into the idea of a important to cite facts and give credits so that numbers talk, and that we need more census of the city’s arts community, to collect that people can hear or see that I am not the data if we want to be able to make the case real data on people’s lives and livelihoods, on only one who acknowledges this information,” that the current art ecosystem in Chicago what resources exist and what resources are she has said. “I felt that keeping track of the isn’t working for everyone. still required. racism needed to be done through counting. The numbers say everything.” Early on in the pandemic, when Chicago was Bowen, who is executive director at ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibi- tions), an artist-run nonprofit that provides 43

resources to emerging artists, felt disconcert- project, intended to “better understand ed to once again watch the bottom fall out of artistic excellence and cultural vibrancy in our the economy. “There’s nothing here to hold us,” communities.” The website offers resources including a community-sourced map of they say.  different cultural assets across the city and The four spent much of the past year stories about the importance of those people planning and preparing the census project, and places. While the projects overlap in which is slated to open in August. Funding some ways, they also function in distinct received from the Arts Work Fund and the ways. Both groups felt that working together Walder Foundation also allowed the group to would make their projects stronger. “It's been a very nice experience to build this camara- bring on a program manager, Tiffany derie,” Burke says. The collaboration is one Johnson. Part of that prep time was spent way they are modeling how to be more ensuring that stakeholders from many parts abundance-minded. of the arts sector had the opportunity to provide input, to balance out the fact that the “By jumping into this river with people doing lead organizers all have visual arts back- similar work and having similar discussions, ART TOP 5 grounds. Also integral to the rollout was infusing the project with an ethic of care, not all that we’re actually doing is finding ways to 1 Vivian Maier: In Color. augment the discussions that are already Chicago History Museum. Maier's wanting the questions to feel extractive or gift for making the everyday sublime is triggering. That desire has shaped every step happening and together create this resounding on display in these color photographs, of the project, from the way questions will be chorus that will bring about some change,” showing Chicago in the middle of the Sykes says. twentieth century. Through May 2023 framed, to how it will be disseminated, to 2 Joseph E. Yoakum: What I how the data will live once collected.  Once the data from the census is aggregat- Saw. The Art Institute of Chicago. This self-taught artist didn't get his Outreach is a crucial factor; the potential for ed and further anonymized, it will be publicly start until his seventies, when he started creating daily drawings, mostly using the data to change the art world is only accessible. In addition to issuing a formal of visionary landscapes, a selection of as good as the information collected. Folks will report, there will be a data visualization tool, which are on view. Through October be able to take the census online as well as at a bibliography and literature review, and 18, 2021 in-person events throughout the city. “A lot of published interviews with folks involved in the project, among other tools that can be 3 Laura Davis: Books and the work that we’re trying to do now is to Jewelry. 65Grand. Mining her identify and define and create the implications used to spark change. background in jewelry and metalwork, the Chicago artist continues her around which this information doesn’t exist,” exploration of materiality in this solo says Burke, who cofounded the multi-platform Bowen hopes the project can influence exhibition. Through July 17 project Annas along with Koch. “Data on arts people working across the arts sector to workers and labor and livelihood hasn’t been understand that we are all workers. “I think 4 Tiger Strikes Asteroid:  collected in Chicago. So how do we now take that artists understanding themselves as the It feels like the first time. this time to really share that information, and same part of an ecosystem as those who are Mana Contemporary Chicago. This working in the arts is one big thing,” they say. first-ever survey show of artists from share the impact of what it means for arts TSA's five satellite spaces touches on “I would really like to see funders or the city ideas around memory, touch, power workers to use the census?” and belief, plumbing the personal and itself looking at ways to support artists that the political. Through September 30 Sykes, an independent curator and administra- are not in the category of individual grants or 5 Oli Rodriguez: Papi. projects that enliven the visual culture of the Iceberg Projects. Working across tor, says the use of the term “arts workers” photography, performance, archives city. I think that we need some human and other disciplines, SAIC alum Oli was purposeful. “We’re very interested in Rodriguez poignantly explores family preparators and fabricators and the docents resources inside of the arts that would really and queerness. Opens June 19 who give you tours at any institution, and the benefit us all.” 44 security people who hear a lot of conversa- Burke envisions the project both continuing tions and see a lot of things but again are never quite surveyed for the labor that they do,” in Chicago and taking on iterations in other cities.  “This project is so specific to Chicago Sykes says. “The term arts worker in itself, intentionally using that as opposed to artist or and feels so infused with Chicago’s ethos maker or something like that, is to kind of bust and history, but the questions that we are asking are very universal,” she says. open the idea that we are all included in the same economy and contributing to its health and should all be supported as folks doing the All come back to the idea that the data can be used for advocacy, that it can be used as labor as such.” proof of what changes need to be made. Another principle guiding the project is the “One of our other tenets and drivers of this is philosophy of abundance, that there are hope,” Sykes says. “And the very firm belief enough resources to go around and that arts that this ecosystem can function in a way that supports us all in an equitable and workers and organizations don’t have to be liberatory way.” in competition over those resources. “We Newcity JULY 2021 would look for the opportunity to build “The last thing in our FAQ, in our manifesto-y coalition, to be in support of one another, first portion of it, the very last sentence is: We to share what we were doing as a way of don’t want to go back to normal,” she also building power,” Bowen says. This is continues. “Because normal isn't working for how the Census organizers teamed up with all of us. And I think this past year especially the Chicago Park District’s Cultural Asset has very much unearthed that fact. How then Mapping Project (C.A.M.P.). C.A.M.P. kicked do we work toward creating that radically off in 2019, as part of the city’s Year of different future?” The Chicago Arts Census, Chicago Theater initiative. The project is a community storytelling and data visualization one hopes, will be a useful tool in that journey. 

THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY 201 East Ontario Street 1637 W. Chicago Avenue 312 787 3997 312 266 2350 [email protected] / artsclubchicago.org [email protected] / edelmangallery.com Tues–Fri 11-1 | 2-6, Sat 11-3 (subject to change due to COVID-19) Open by appointment, Tues–Sat 10-5:30 Viewing available online @artsclubchicago or artsclubchicago.org June 11–August 28 ��� Marina Black: UNSEEN April 9–August 7 ���� Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Nowhere June 11, 5-7pm �������� Opening reception June 7–April 2 ������� Garden Project: Chicago Mobile Makers CHICAGO ARTISTS COALITION ASPECT/RATIO PROJECTS 2130 W. Fulton Street, Unit B 864 N. Ashland Avenue 312 491 8888 312 285 2998 [email protected] / chicagoartistscoalition.org [email protected] / aspectratioprojects.com Wed 10-2, Fri 3-7 Wed–Fri 12-6 (by appointment only), Sat 12-6 (no appointment necessary) June 25–August 4 ��� BOLT Residency - Longing Compass: June 19–July 24 ������ Alejandro Figueredo Diaz-Perera: Work by Karen Dana Cohen The Problem of Freedom June 25–August 4 ��� HATCH Residency - Residual Marks: July 29–Sept. 4�������� Jovan C Speller: Eulogy Sept. 11–Oct. 9�������� Jean Alexander Frater Works by Naomi Elson and Joshi Radin, Oct. 16–Nov. 27 ������ Sharon Louden Julia Klein and Salim Moore. Curated by Fabiola Tosi and Stephanie Koch THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART CORBETT VS. DEMPSEY At Northwestern University 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 2156 W. Fulton Street 847 491 4000 773 278 1664 [email protected] / blockmuseum.northwestern.edu [email protected] / corbettvsdempsey.com Visit our website and follow us on social @nublockmuseum for online cinema, Tues–Sat 10-5 programs, tours, and resources for teaching and learning with art. June 25–August 7 ��� Molly Zuckerman-Hartung Search our newly launched collection database of over 6,000 artworks. June 25–August 7 ��� Cauleen Smith & Shannon Stratton blockmuseum.emuseum.com/collections April–August��������� Behold, Be Held DAVID SALKIN CREATIVE (outdoors and online – beholdbeheld.org) 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, #2A 504 228-7034 CARL HAMMER GALLERY @DavidSalkin / davidsalkin.com June 5–July 24 �������� Austen Brown: Unquiet Rest 740 N. Wells Street 312 266 8512 DEPAUL ART MUSEUM [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com Tues–Sat 12-5 At DePaul University May 2–July 2 ��������� In From The Cold: Celebrating The Outsider Artist, 935 W. Fullerton Avenue 773 325 7506 featuring Bill Traylor, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, [email protected] / artmuseum.depaul.edu Simon Sparrow, and Howard Finster Fri–Sun 11-5 or visit online at artmuseum.depaul.edu July 9–August 20 ���� Freak Show/Sideshow Banner Art Through August 15��� LatinXAmerican Through August 15��� Claudia Peña Salinas: Quetzalli CARRIE SECRIST GALLERY DOCUMENT 900 W. Washington Blvd. 312 491 0917 1709 W. Chicago Avenue [email protected] / secristgallery.com 312 535 4555 Tues–Sat 11-5 [email protected] / documentspace.com For entry, Directory: #201 Tues–Sat 11-6 May 29–July 17 ������ PLAIN AIR: Leslie Baum, Tanya Brodsky, Through August 8��� Tromarama: Beta Deborah Brown, Spencer Carmona, Andrew Holmquist, Mike Howat, Olivia Schreiner, Sophie Treppendahl and Emma White

EPIPHANY CENTER FOR THE ARTS KAVI GUPTA GALLERY 201 South Ashland Avenue Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., 835 W. Washington Boulevard 312 421 4600 Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., 219 N. Elizabeth Street [email protected] / epiphanychi.com/exhibitions/ By appointment only. Email [email protected] to schedule. By appointment only. Email [email protected] to schedule. 312 432 0708 April 16–July 16 ����� American Roulette [email protected] / kavigupta.com Visit online at website-kavigupta.artlogic.net/ (Group exhibition – Chase Gallery) Opening July 10������ Realms of Refuge May 7–July 18 ������� Juan Arango Palacios: Payasadas (Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., Floor 1) (The Guild Room) Through June 27����� Kour Pour May 21–July 25 ������ Wangari Mathenge: The Expats Studies: (Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., Floor 2) Impressions on Paper Through July 3������� Manuel Mathieu (The Sacristy Gallery) Through July 17 ����� Chicago: Home of House (Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., Floor 2) (The Catacombs) Through July 31 ����� Mary Sibande GALLERY VICTOR ARMENDARIZ (Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., Floor 1) 300 W. Superior Street KEN SAUNDERS GALLERY, LTD 312 722 6447 [email protected] / galleryvictor.com 2041 W. Carroll Avenue, Suite C-320 Tues–Fri 10-5:30, Sat 11-5, Sun–Mon closed 312 573 1400 Please contact gallery for more information. [email protected] / kensaundersgallery.com Tues–Sat 11-4 and by appointment GRAHAM FOUNDATION Opening July 10������ Catharine Newell Opening Sept. 11����� Gary Justis 4 W. Burton Place Opening Sept. 2021��� Neon and Light Museum 312 787 4071 [email protected] / grahamfoundation.org (325 West Huron, Chicago) Visit our website and follow us on social media @grahamfoundation Opening Oct. 2 ������� Anjali Srinivasan Artist-in-residence: Anna Martine Whitehead, FORCE! an opera in three acts LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS GRAY University of Chicago at the Reva and David Logan Center Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 Mon–Fri 10-5 773 834 8377 Gray Warehouse, 2044 W. Carroll Avenue [email protected] / loganexhibitions.uchicago.edu Tues–Fri 10-5, Sat 11-5 Please check the gallery’s website for details on hours and procedures for visiting. 312 642 8877 July 17–Dec. 12������� Carrie Mae Weems: A Land of Broken Dreams [email protected] / richardgraygallery.com Through July 31 ����� Theaster Gates: How to Sell Hardware LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS HILTON | ASMUS CONTEMPORARY 101 W. 2nd Street, Michigan City, IN 219 874 4900 716 N. Wells Street [email protected] / lubeznikcenter.org 312 475 1788 Mon, Wed–Fri 10-5, Sat–Sun 11-4, Tues closed [email protected] / hiltonasmus.com Please check LCA’s website for more details. Open by appointment, Tues–Sat 10-7 June 14–Oct. 15 ������ Phyllis Bramson / Robert Indiana / Mayumi Lake May 31–August 5 ��� HUMANITY: A Survey of Our Times - Group exhibit: July 2, 3-7pm ���������� Opening Reception Hugh Arnold, Susan Aurinko, Nick Compton, Jason Dorsey, David Gamble, Kostis Georgiou, Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen, Jack Perno, George Rodger, Marco Nereo Rotelli, Lawrence Schiller, Tom Stoddart, Blake Ward, Boky Hackel-Ward, Michael Ward, Julian Wasser, Zack Whitford, Ted Williams, David Yarrow Through Aug. 30 ���� David Yarrow - ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Wild West

McCORMICK GALLERY POETRY FOUNDATION 835 W. Washington Boulevard 61 W. Superior Street 312 226 6800 312 787 7070 [email protected] / thomasmccormick.com [email protected] / poetryfoundation.org Tues–Thurs 10-4 Check poetryfoundation.org/visit for updates on our current exhibition and hours. Through June 26����� Before During After: New Work by Janis Pozzi-Johnson July 15–Sept. 4�������� Whitney Bradshaw: OUTCRY RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY 1711 W. Chicago Avenue 312 455 1990 451 N. Paulina Street [email protected] / rhoffmangallery.com 312 243 2129 Tues–Fri 11-5 [email protected] / moniquemeloche.com Please schedule an appointment through Tock: Tues–Sat 11-6 exploretock.com/rhonahoffmangallery June 26–August 14 ��� Karen Reimer: Sea Changes June 25–July 30 ������ Wassef Boutros-Ghali, Paintings: 2000-2016 June 26–August 14 ��� Antonius Bui: The Detour Is To Be Where We Are SMART MUSEUM OF ART MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY At the University of Chicago 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue At Columbia College Chicago 773 702 0200 600 S. Michigan Avenue [email protected] / smartmuseum.uchicago.edu 312 663 5554 Please contact museum for current information and hours. [email protected] / mocp.org July 15–Dec. 19������� Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5 Reserve tickets at mocp.org and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40 June 3–August 29����� Much Unseen is Also Here: An-My Lê WESTERN EXHIBITIONS and Shahzia Sikander June 3–August 29����� Martine Gutierrez 1709 W. Chicago Avenue, 2nd Floor 312 480 8390 THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM [email protected] / westernexhibitions.com FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY Tues–Sat 11-6 July 31–August 28 ���� Paul Nudd’s Purple Mayonnaisery + The Uncollected At the University of Chicago 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue Pictures of Paul Nudd (In Galleries One & Two) 773 795 2329 Sept. 17–Oct. 31 ������ Dutes Miller (In Gallery One) [email protected] / neubauercollegiumgallery.com Sept. 17–Oct. 31 ������ Lauren Wy: AUTODESIRE: Volume 1 (In Gallery Two) Open by appointment May 27–Oct. 1 ������� Carmenza Banguera: The Visible, the Laughable, WRIGHTWOOD 659 and the Invisible 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue 773 437 6601 PATRON GALLERY [email protected] / wrightwood659.org Fridays and Saturdays through July 31. Reservations required. 1612 W. Chicago Avenue Tickets at wrightwood659.org 312 846 1500 Through July 31 ����� Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life [email protected] / patrongallery.com Tues–Sat 11-6 and by appointment June 5–July 10 �������� Samira Yamin: All the Skies Over Syria June 5–July 10 �������� Samuel Levi Jones: No color in the pages July 17–August������� Claire Sherman July 17–August������� Anna Plesset

Design Kerry James Marshall, Untitled: Rythm Mastr Daily Strip (detail), 2018. Installation view, 57th Carnegie International, 2018 Photo: Bryan Conley. Courtesy the artist, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, David Zwirner, London, and Koplin del Rio, Seattle A Real Feast comic artists. Comics, graphic novels, for the Eyes zines, original drawings, dioramas, films and installations intertwine. The exhibition is Chicago Comics History with a Dash of Design organized around four major sections: 1960-70s: The Underground; 1980-1990s: By Vasia Rigou Alternative Weeklies (including Newcity), Comic Books and Zines; 1990-2000s: Newcity JULY 2021 “Comics are woven into Chicago and 1960s to Now exhibition at the Museum of Graphic Novels and Community; and its art history,” says comic historian and Contemporary Art, is looking back at more 2010-Now: Chicago Rising. There, works by curator-at-large, Dan Nadel. “Newspapers than fifty years of comics history approaching Chris Ware, Lynda Barry and Kerry James nurtured the medium and some of its most the medium and the artists behind it: more Marshall appear alongside Ivan Brunetti and profound practitioners in its early years, was than a way to entertain readers, comics are John Porcellino, and contemporaries such as a center of the underground comics world in meant to engage them in the relevant social Emil Ferris and Lilli Carré. the 1960s, and has been a hub for teaching and political issues of their time. and learning comics since the 1990s. Over “The show wouldn’t be truly representative of the last few decades it’s really the city in the Bringing together an extensive lineup of Chicago comics if it didn’t account for United States that has the greatest concen- more than forty artists—from celebrated to cartoonists of color. For most of the making tration of forward-thinking, skilled, and overlooked to up-and-coming—Chicago of comics history they’ve been left out of the adventurous cartoonists,” he adds. Nadel, Comics: 1960s to Now has a focus on narrative. It’s self-evidently important to give a who brought to life the Chicago Comics: rediscovering the work of BIPOC and women true accounting of the history of comics, asking why it’s remained mostly white for so long, and working to correct that,” says Nadel. To him, it’s important that viewers come away with a sense of how many 48

different forms, subjects, styles and genres serves less as an intervention to the MCA's comics can encompass, how accessible the fourth-floor galleries, and more of an form can be, and how deeply embedded it is alteration of its existing scale.” in Chicago itself. But the design process didn’t come without “I hope they enjoy the incredible amount of its own set of challenges. “There are visual expression on display,” he says—and approximately forty different artists in the rightfully so. More than a piece of Chicago exhibition. Some of the artists have had long comics history, the exhibition has a design careers, and some are just starting out. element that is impossible to disregard. Some artists draw by hand, some draw digitally, while others use alternative media Enter Chicago-based architecture and (maquettes, animation, costumes) to make design collaborative Norman Kelley, who their art. While place is the thing that ties re-imagined the space for visitors to feel everyone together, the work is truly varied. like they are walking through a comic strip. Difference was something we had to both The gallery space becomes a thought-pro- contend with and embrace. Among other voking journey of rooms, gates and portals design strategies, we worked closely with a ready to be explored. This interactivity is majority of the artists to construct specific integral to the narrative. Norman Kelley proportions of space around their bodies of should know—through their work, they work, as well as devise color palettes that have re-examined architecture and were specific to the art, as well as to the design’s relationship to vision, prompting curator's chronological and historical observers to look closer for years. timeline,” Kelley says. “Collaborating with designers Norman Kelley For Nadel, the biggest challenge was the ONE [Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley] to create obvious one: “I organized this entire RECOMMENDATION an environment and display mode that would exhibition almost entirely remotely,” he says. bring to life so many diverse kinds of “So, in most cases I was not able to see the A Designed Life: JULY 2021 Newcity drawings and printed objects was a real objects in person, visit the cartoonists, or Contemporary American treat,” says Nadel, who calls the exhibition a any of the usual modes. Lots of Zoom, lots Textiles, Wallpapers and real feast for the eyes. “Aside from them of emails and so on, but given the quantity Containers & Packaging, being great collaborators sensitive to the of cartoonists and objects in the show it 1951-1954 needs of viewer and artwork alike, the also meant far less contact with the Design Museum of Chicago. process allowed me to really think about the cartoonists than I would have liked. That Design educator, practitioner and different ways comics can exist in a museum, general remoteness has been a challenge,” researcher, Margaret Re recreates and to undertake unique site-specific projects he says. But the outcome made it all worth three historically significant exhibi- with certain cartoonists, such as Edie Fake’s it. “It’s a real feast for the eyes, and one in tions of contemporary, mass-pro- tremendous mural.” print, rather than on screen, and moreover, duced, American-designed a feast that can be continued at home via consumer goods—Contemporary Thomas Kelley weighs in: “From the the books themselves.\" American Textiles, designed by beginning, we were compelled by a mutual Florence Knoll; Contemporary attentiveness to the art of drawing,” he says. As for the takeaway of this exhibition, Kelley American Wallpapers, designed by “As architects, drawing is our primary has an anecdote of his own: “When we first Tom Lee; and Containers and communicative tool. So, naturally, we feel a spoke with the curator, Dan Nadel, about the Packaging, designed by Will kinship with cartoonists who, like us, draw to culture that surrounds comics we realized Burtin—in an effort to look early tell stories and build worlds. In addition, the that the medium was never meant to be read Cold War America with a contem- scale of drawings at which cartoonists in libraries or art galleries, but usually in porary perspective. typically draw (by hand sometimes) is transit, or in more intimate domestic settings, intimate—many of the original drawings in like smoky basements,” says Kelley. “We the exhibition are at a scale no larger than a hope that the viewer is provided with a letter-size piece of paper. This degree of comfortable background to actually read the intimacy is key to comics because they are comics and become absorbed by the also haptic objects: they require you to hold, extensive lineage of Chicago's contribution to leaf, and get as close to the work as possible comic history,\" he adds. “Like music in a to inspect every narrative detail. We were Hitchcock film, we hope that the space gifted with an opportunity to design an exhibi- we've designed is secondary to the storyline.” tion around content that spoke a similar language to our own and also required you to Chicago Comics: 1960s To Now: pay close, and proximate, attention. Through October 3 at the Museum of Therefore we believe our exhibition design Contemporary Art. 49

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