Inova 2010-11 Season To Open With Two Concurrent Exhibitions

The galleries of the Institute of Visual Arts (Inova) in the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will be filled with dynamic art and video by Bruce Conner alongside a roster of contemporary artists, for the next five weeks, from August 20th to September 26th (details below). Opening receptions for both shows will take place from 5-8 p.m. this Friday, August 20th, at Inova's Kenilworth galleries.

Bruce Conner
(November 18, 1933-July 7, 2008)
As a well-known American multi-media artist, Conner's art and influence covers the many mediums he chose to work in: film, performance, drawing, printmaking, collage, music, dance, photography and assemblage. Located in the West Gallery, this exhibition focuses on Conner's earlier prints and ephemera from the collection of Madisonians Natasha Nicholson and Thomas Garver, and 16mm films from the Milwaukee Art Museum collection. Prints from Conner's THE Dennis Hopper ONE MAN SHOW series of 1971-73 will be featured.

The exhibition will also include a special video reconstruction of Conner's three-screen EVE-RAY-FOREVER (2006) from the collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Located in Inova's screening room, the piece will be silent, but viewers are encouraged to provide their own soundtrack via headphones (i.e. with iPod). The original soundtrack for the piece was a live version of "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles, but in the spirit of Conner and Psychotrope, new-era experimentation is encouraged. The exhibition is co-curated by John McKinnon, Milwaukee Art Museum Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, and Nicholas Frank.

In addition, two screenings of Conner's profoundly influential found-footage films will be presented at the UWM Union Theatre on September 14th and September 21st in conjunction with the exhibition. Curator Bruce Jenkins will speak at the September 21st screening.

Bruce Conner is presented in cooperation with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the UWM Union Theatre.

Inspired by the Bruce Conner memorial exhibition running concurrently in the West Gallery, Inova's East Gallery will host a selection of new video art for a new-era psychedelia. The exhibition features recent work by Jacob Ciocci, Sabine Gruffat, Shana Moulton, Sterling Ruby, Spencer Sweeney, Scott Wolniak and recent UW-Milwaukee Film Department graduate David Witzling.

As Inova curator Nicholas Frank explains, "These artists explore the psychologically numbing, sense-deadening array of images and information now available in all formats at all times. Some react by absorbing, countering and subverting new-media strategies, producing works that glorify the image-and-sound breakdown common to digital television. Others react by mining the interface between personal and social neuroses, and the hyper-real medication- and therapy-induced states meant to ease the exchange between the two."

Frank continues, "By presenting these two extraordinary exhibitions of work side-by-side, Inova ties two generations of artists together. Conner is said to have invented the music video, and the artists in Psychotrope turn their formative experiences with the video medium into a subversion of sight and sound."

About Inova
Since 1996, the Institute of Visual Arts (Inova) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has established an international reputation as a contemporary art research center. The mission of the Institute of Visual Arts is to engage the general and university publics with contemporary art from around the world through exhibitions and programs. The Institute is recognized for the high quality of its programs and for the opportunity it offers artists to experiment in the creation of new work, and it is committed to educating audiences by presenting artists who are shaping our visual culture in the present and for the future. According to Artforum magazine, "the Institute of Visual Arts has established itself as one of the most adventuresome venues in the States."

Inova presents work by local, national and international contemporary artists and by Peck School faculty, staff, students and alumni. The Institute is comprised of three exhibition spaces in the Peck School of the Arts: Inova/Kenilworth, Inova/Arts Center and Inova/Zelazo (the Mary L. Nohl Galleries). Inova/Kenilworth is located at 2155 North Prospect Avenue on Milwaukee's East Side. Gallery hours are Wednesday 12-5 p.m., Thursday 12-8 p.m. and Friday through Sunday 12-5 p.m.

For more information about Inova, please visit arts.uwm.edu/inova.