Usable Space presents Soft Ground, Stiff Shoulder, a three-person exhibition curated by Sean Heiser, with work by Brennen Steines, Colin Van Winkle, and Sheila Wagner.
The exhibition opens on Friday August 24th from 6-9 p.m., alongside a music performance by Tarek Sabbar and film projection by Milwaukee-based filmmakers Antonio Vargas and Natasha Woods in the Usable Space courtyard.
Brennen Steines is an artist based out of Milwaukee, WI. His work examines the material properties of painting and its correspondence with time, process, and the languages of abstraction. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and in 2017 attended the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art in Norfolk, CT through the support of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship. Recent exhibitions include Real Tinsel, Milwaukee, WI; Chamber, Milwaukee, WI; and Hoax Gallery, Milwaukee, WI.
Baltimore-based artist Colin Van Winkle uses 18th and 19th century tools and techniques to create contemporary sculpture that treads the line between the old and the new, the utilitarian and the aesthetic. His practice necessitates a continuous engagement with the inherent nature of his material. In his attention to the pattern of the wood’s growth, Van Winkle envisions what it might willingly become and what tasks it may be too stubborn to support. The finished sculpture is a culmination of moments with a work in progress, the process of its making legible on its surface and in its form. Van Winkle received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Recent exhibitions include Springsteen Gallery, Baltimore, MD, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD, and Evening Hours, New York, NY,
Sheila Wagner is an artist living and working in Minneapolis. Her abstract paintings are dense and delicate objects of experimentation through color and material. She has shown work throughout the Twin Cities, most recently in her solo show, "Rosette" at The White Page Gallery and the two person show "PRIORITY PHOBIA" at Detroit Gallery. Her recently published artist books include "Pictures of Health" (2018, WOPOZI) and "The Iris Has it" (2017, QXIZ Editions).