A visual art exhibition featuring a diverse group of Milwaukee artists who also teach art in Milwaukee Public Schools.
Steven Madison is a Milwaukee-based artist and has been a longtime member of the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (previously Riverwest Artist Association). In the 1970's Steve studied art at UW-Milwaukee where he majored in ceramics with a secondary focus in metals. Since then he has continued to practice his art in many different ways including large scale paintings on canvas. His primary focus in recent years has been paintings, large and small, of many different subjects from nature to his imaginings. Steve was chosen for a Solo Feature Wall exhibition in the 2025 JGCA Membership Exhibition.
Each September Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts hosts the annual Members' Exhibition. Join 40 plus artists in a fun, diverse exhibition that also builds creative community and celebrates the many voices and talents in our midst. Exhibition related events and gallery talks offer relationship building opportunities. Five exhibiting artists will be selected for artist feature Small Wall Exhibition Awards from the Members' Exhibition.
Solo Exhibition Opportunity
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts invites mid-career and established visual artists living in the City of Milwaukee and working primarily in 2D or low relief media to apply for the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts annual solo exhibition opportunity.
Please note:
Solo Exhibition Applicants must NOT be emerging artists or recent graduates of an undergraduate program.
Eligible applicants should have an established track record of creating and exhibiting their work, beyond any student-oriented exhibitions.
Art work can be for sale (we encourage that) and Jazz Gallery handles all sales and payment to the artist. JGCA retains 25% commission on any sales.
Installation of the exhibition will be completed by JGCA Gallery Committee representatives in the week prior to the exhibition opening.
JGCA Gallery committee members will work with the selected artist to develop materials, press release and promotion of the exhibition through social media, website, email and printed posters.
JGCA Gallery committee members will work with the selected artist to plan and promote the opening reception date, time and set-up.
Because the Jazz Gallery is a multi-use visual and performance space, the space does not lend itself well to displaying 3D/Sculptural works. Keep that in mind when applying.
Deadline for submission is September 15th, 2026 at midnight. The selected artist's exhibition will take place at Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts' main gallery from April 24 - May 29, 2027.
This year's solo exhibition recipient will be selected by Frank Juarez, publisher of Artdose Magazine, gallerist/curator, artist and award winning art educator.
Introducing our newest Small Wall Gallery feature, Bruce Pattison! Bruce Pattison (b. 1959, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) defies the labels that gallerists and critics have tried to place on his work. He has painted and drawn for decades. He studied studio art at UW Milwaukee in the 1980’s and 90’s and then exhibited in shows at St. Michael’s Waiting Room, Metropolitan Gallery, KM Art, Bay View Gallery and others.
Dialogue is an annual Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts exhibition that honors and lifts up two emerging artists immediately after their BFA exhibitions have closed. Graduating BFA students are chosen from UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School for the Arts and MIAD in an opportunity designed to support and encourage emerging artists and build a stronger community between the two largest university level arts programs in Milwaukee.
Louis Thayer Hills Memorial Exhibition and Art Sale
Interested in obtaining art from a Wisconsin-based artist? The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts will be hosting a memorial exhibition and art sale for Louis Thayer Hills. His work from various periods, and in a variety of styles and media will be displayed and for sale at the Jazz Gallery. A reception will be hosted on Friday, June 5th, from 5-8pm, and the sale will continue on Saturday, June 6th, 12-5pm.
Louis Thayer Hills (1935-2019) was an American artist who made Southeastern Wisconsin his home for the larger part of his career. His passion was painting, printmaking and later experimenting with all kinds of mediums and materials in his work. Louis was a gentleman farmer with a studio on his property near Burlington. He was a prodigious artist who was less concerned with selling during his lifetime, but more interested in creating and expression.
His early works in the 1950’s were in oil and their palette was dark and brooding. As the decades progressed, his palette lightened and his media expanded to include printmaking, drawings, acrylic and some forays into textiles and sculpture. He even collaged various materials such as maps, burlap and other commercial packaging into his later canvases.
Please join us for this art exhibition and sale pop-up event. Art work is priced to sell (larger paintings, works on paper, prints and sketchbooks). 50% of sales goes to support the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts.
Date: June 5
Time: 5-8pm
Featured Small Wall Artist Mike Brylski is a longtime Milwaukee resident, active Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts member and accomplished artist with a powerful creative voice. Brylski’s colorful assemblage/collage found object constructions possess an order and symmetry that draws the viewer in. His use of bold color, unexpected materials and marks, balanced by precise and intense organization and repetition seems to reference music or sometimes sounds in nature. His works both comfort and energize.
Schlenker has translated the relief wood carving tradition into his own style exploring a rich variety of subjects that interest him. Some of these include portraits of artists he admires, explorations of children’s stories and fairy tales, art historical masterworks, and even simple still life glimpses from his day-to-day experience. Over time, Schlenker’s work has evolved from simpler, unpainted figures to more complex painted compositions drawing from children’s books, fairy tales, art history, current events and historical figures.
Art is Freedom: Benefit Show for Voces de la Frontera
Join us for a benefit show for Voces de la Frontera! This event will feature music by Moldy Tates, April Dejon, Ghostcrab, The Upside, and Lila Rose, as well as local art vendors and food.
Artists Instagrams:
Date: March 21
Time: 6:00pm
Cover: $5-30 Sliding Scale
OWL (Older, Wiser, Local) is an open-door programming series welcoming all older adults. Produced by the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, OWL offers arts and craft workshops as well as informative lectures and demonstrations on a wide variety of topics. This exhibition will honor the creative endeavors of the attendees with an eclectic mix of artwork.
Art, like love, refuses to be constrained. It can uplift, soothe, challenge, educate and entertain. It can also help spark a dialogue on essential issues of the day: Who are we? What do we believe? What do we cherish? Participating visual artists include Niki Johnson, Nicolas Lampert, David Najib Kasir, John Fleissner, and Chrystal Denise Gillon.
Ian Izard is a Milwaukee-based mixed media artist who focuses on the hypertextual-relationship between illustration and the written word.
Figure Xpression is a group exhibition representing artists working in a wide range of media, exploring the figure and portraiture. This exhibition was curated by Trey Savage. Artists include: Andrew Perry, Allison Smith, Katrina Hunt, Reinold Mesa, Amy Schmutte, Laura Zimmerman, Rory Donovan and Trey Savage.
Jazz Gallery’s annual membership show. All active members are welcome to submit their artwork.
Deadline to Apply: September 15th, 2025
Milwaukee artists showcase their visual and musical creations in a unique exhibition/performance collaboration at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, in Riverwest.
For this annual exhibition JGCA invites two recent BFA grads, one from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and one from UWM Peck School of the Arts to participate in a two-person exhibition and related programming. This opportunity is designed as important encouragement and professional opportunities to two emerging Milwaukee artists as they transition from student to professional life.
3:33am, a solo exhibition of works by Kierston Ghaznavi, invites the audience to step into the space between dreams and waking life, a liminal hour rich with symbolism and personal exploration. Inspired by the numerological meaning of 3:33—trusting intuition, embracing creativity, and fostering personal growth—this exhibition reflects Kierston Ghaznavi’s journey through grief, dreams, and self-discovery.
Sea Heart / Beach Garbage is a collection of doodle collages made during winter when colors are rare and visible life even rarer. Milwaukee Artist Victoria Robison is inspired by plants visited under microscopes, beachcombing, and hoarding tendencies as well as a desire to color in lines of her own creation. Together these pieces constitute an adult coloring book written by lonely amoebas reaching for signs of spring.
Lavender & Green Carnation delves into the rich history and enduring significance of symbols that have quietly connected and empowered the LGBTQ+ community, especially during periods of societal or political repression. By exploring these queer symbols and the symbolism used in an artist's story telling, Lavender & Green Carnation not only honors their historical significance but also prompts us to consider how we can draw on these lessons of resilience and solidarity in today's shifting political climate.
A group exhibition of receently censored artworks in Milwaukee. Artists include Sue Bietila, Amal Azzam, Nayfa Naji, Seth Ter Haar, Barbara Reinhart.
Deadline for applications is Sunday, Sept. 15th, 202411:59pm. Jurying and notifications of artists will take place by early November, 2024. Exhibition dates will be in Spring 2025.
Dates for the solo exhibition: March 22 - May 17th, 2025 The link for application is: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftHGROapUZl_pNciKLsekvBRZeo00WkEilmr7j3v-lOjyzkQ/viewform?usp=sf_link
Group show featuring artworks created by Jazz Gallery Members. Opening Reception: Saturday, August 24th, 3-5pm. Closing Reception/Event Saturday, October 12th, 3-5pm.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (JGCA) is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a wide range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists. At JGCA we provide opportunities to create, present, and experience the arts.
During RW 24 race the gallery will be a Check Point and our doors will be open for 24 hours! All riders and passers by are encouraged to stop in and see the exhibition with memorabilia and artworks inspired by RW24.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (JGCA) is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a wide range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists. At JGCA we provide opportunities to create, present, and experience the arts.
Geornica Daniels is a MIAD BFA alumna and current graduate student pursuing her MFA in sculpture at UW Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts.
Daniels is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in sculpture and site-specific installation. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, she now resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Her recent artistic endeavors delve into the layered histories of found objects and the representation of memory in three dimensions. She explores the visual manifestation of memory and examines how individuals reshape these recollections, either to suppress or assert control over them.
Her piece "Under Observation," crafted from floral foam and beeswax, embodies a fervent effort to preserve and scrutinize her personal narratives and history. It serves as a poignant reflection on the paradoxical nature of memory: the more intensely we observe a memory, the more it undergoes recontextualization.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (JGCA) is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a wide range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists. At JGCA we provide opportunities to create, present, and experience the arts.
This new annual exhibition invites two recent BFA grads, one from MIAD and one from UWM Peck School of the Arts to participate in a two-person exhibition and related programming. This opportunity is designed as important encouragement and professional opportunities to two emerging artists as they transition from student to professional life.
Programming during the exhibition will include artist talks, gallery talk with Older Wiser Local (OWL) also open to the public and possible hands-on workshops for community or exhibition related programming (depending upon the artists included). Other possible opportunities for the two artists will be encouraged/connections made with additional exhibition venues, residencies, visiting artist talks, etc.
This year’s selected artists are:
Dora Peregrine - Dora Peregrine (any pronouns) is an artist and recent BFA graduate of UW-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts with a dual emphasis in Painting & Drawing and Printmaking & Book Arts. The Village, the title for their current body of work, centers a canon of folklore that Peregrine constructed as an investigation of human nature and existentialism. As they explore the breadth of life in all its tragedy and ecstasy, the villagers depicted fall in love, tell secrets, grieve, have regrets, make art, bury the dead, betray people they love, try to live forever, move away from home, and cook meals.
Peregrine is currently a resident artist at House of Rad where they are excited to continue their pursuits post-graduation. Aside from their artistic practices, Dora works as an orchestra strings technician and enjoys cycling and beach combing along Lake Michigan.
Allison Billingsley - Allison Billingsley is an artist and recent BFA graduate from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She is a versatile portrait photographer notable for her use of the cyanotype process. Through extensive research and experimentation with variations on cyanotype,involving bleaching and toning, she discovered the potential of tricolor cyanotypes. The resulting body of work imbues her portraits with a variety of color and tones not found in direct cyanotype images.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (JGCA) is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a wide range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists. At JGCA we provide opportunities to create, present, and experience the arts.
This new annual exhibition invites two recent BFA grads, one from MIAD and one from UWM Peck School of the Arts to participate in a two-person exhibition and related programming. This opportunity is designed as important encouragement and professional opportunities to two emerging artists as they transition from student to professional life.
Programming during the exhibition will include artist talks, gallery talk with Older Wiser Local (OWL) also open to the public and possible hands-on workshops for community or exhibition related programming (depending upon the artists included). Other possible opportunities for the two artists will be encouraged/connections made with additional exhibition venues, residencies, visiting artist talks, etc.
This year’s selected artists are:
Dora Peregrine - Dora Peregrine (any pronouns) is an artist and recent BFA graduate of UW-Milwaukee, Peck School of the Arts with a dual emphasis in Painting & Drawing and Printmaking & Book Arts. The Village, the title for their current body of work, centers a canon of folklore that Peregrine constructed as an investigation of human nature and existentialism. As they explore the breadth of life in all its tragedy and ecstasy, the villagers depicted fall in love, tell secrets, grieve, have regrets, make art, bury the dead, betray people they love, try to live forever, move away from home, and cook meals.
Peregrine is currently a resident artist at House of Rad where they are excited to continue their pursuits post-graduation. Aside from their artistic practices, Dora works as an orchestra strings technician and enjoys cycling and beach combing along Lake Michigan.
Allison Billingsley - Allison Billingsley is an artist and recent BFA graduate from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She is a versatile portrait photographer notable for her use of the cyanotype process. Through extensive research and experimentation with variations on cyanotype, involving bleaching and toning, she discovered the potential of tricolor cyanotypes. The resulting body of work imbues her portraits with a variety of color and tones not found in direct cyanotype images.
This exhibition is free and open to the public.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts (JGCA) is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a wide range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists. At JGCA we provide opportunities to create, present, and experience the arts.
“Homage” is an art exhibition that invites the viewer to remember, reflect and renew our hopes for the future.
Whether in recent months or decades long past, we have lost many loved ones, both individually and as members of our broader communities. But it is also springtime, a time to look to the future — in this case, by celebrating, honoring and remembering those who have come before and who have made the world a better place.
The exhibition “Homage: Honoring Those Who Have Come Before,” presents the work of established and emerging Milwaukee-area artists. The works range from the highly personal to reflections encompassing historical and ancestral themes.
The exhibition will also include a 4-ft by 8-ft post-up board inviting visitors and community members to post personal remembrances, whether photos, poems or reflections.
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts is a non-profit organization serving Southeastern Wisconsin with a diverse range of visual and performing arts programming, created by a diverse community of visual and performing artists.
