Artists Respond
Image by Tay Butler, McGov (Series 3 of 3), Collage
Exhibition Runtime: June 5th, 2021 - July 10th, 2021
Exhibits can be viewed online (below) or in-person:
Saturday afternoons, 12-5 PM — paced, small groups
By appointment at info@jazzgallerycenterforarts.org
Masks and other COVID-19 precautions in effect for all visitors.
Artists Respond:
MKE’s Creative Efforts to Stop COVID-19
During the height of the pandemic, Milwaukee artists strategically translated COVID-19 public health messaging in collaboration with health professionals, community organizers and activists. This group, The Creative Health Collective, designed culturally relevant murals, banners, video, music, graphic designs, stencils and tailored masks to mobilize their communities. Many of the artists in this collaborative used their art as a platform to challenge social norms while promoting cultural pride in their communities. Artwork was repurposed for broader inuence and city-wide dissemination through billboards, bus shelter advertisements, window decals, and posters for businesses and clinics.
ARTISTS
Chong Lee, Huezong Yang, Wade Fernandez, Kristelle M. Ulrich, LaNia Sproles, Valaria Tatera, Jeanette Arellano, Tay Butler, Tou Fong Lee, TRUE Skool, Ariana Vaeth, Enrique Murguia, Justin Goodrum, Walker’s Point Center for the Arts
Kristelle M. Ulrich — Artist Statement
Sekoli! (Hello in Oneida) I am a spiritual and contemporary artist with German, Hungarian, and Oneida Turtle Clan, roots. I incorporate art in every aspect of my life, believing in the philosophy that I was given the gift of living in creative abundance. I have a Masters in Art Education and work for Milwaukee Public Schools teaching art to students K3-8th grade. I enjoy the process of artmaking with my students: envisioning, observing, exploring and stretching ideas as ways to convey meaning. I approached this project in a similar way with the Creative Health Collective. I envisioned an essential design for stenciling messages of safety during a pandemic. My rough drawings stretched the limits of expression, and with the community advisory board, who provided valuable feedback I incorporated culturally responsive details in the final design.
I collaborated with two other local artists who helped make this project a functional public art piece where others can now participate in stenciling messages of safety throughout Milwaukee. Thanks to collaborating 'doer' artists Jim Moeller, Brandon Minga of House of RAD, John Kowalczyk of Artists working in Education, and Anchor Printing.
Nii'kinaaganaa (All My Relations) in memorium, Valaria Tatera, Mixed media installation, 2020
The intention of the work is to honor those who have died of COVID in Wisconsin. To hold visual and personal space for COVID statistics that often erase the individual. An analysis of mortality statistics shows the coronavirus pandemic is deadlier for Native Americans than other groups in the United States. One in every 475 Native Americans has died from COVID-19. The colors of the flags represent the colors from the Native American Medicine Wheel and the installation is site specific.
Valaria Tatera — Artist Statement
Valaria Tatera is a Wisconsin based installation artist, activist and lecturer whose work investigates the intersection of ethnicity, gender, commerce, and the environment. An enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Valaria explores self-identity and contemporary Indigenous issues such as the impact of colonization on indigenous Erasure, Visibility and Resilience. Her intention is "for the work to hold visual and personal space for statistics that often erase the individual". Valaria earned an MFA in 3-D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, M.A. and B.F.A. in Ceramics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
TK Adventure, TRUE Skool (Lead designers: Ernest Gomez, Xavier Gilbert, Ricardo Roderick, Christian Crespo), Video, 2020
TRUE Skool — Artist Statement
TRUE Skool's mission is to ENGAGE, EDUCATE & EMPOWER Youth and Communities through Transformative Creative Arts and Hip Hop Culture!
TRUE Skool, Inc. has provided services and programs since 2004 and was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2005. Since our inception, TRUE Skool has continued to work with local and national artists, middle and high school aged youth, local and national community based/youth organizations, public officials, law enforcement agencies, small businesses, large corporations and schools/universities to empower youth and young adults through our unique pipeline services.
Enrique, Justin Goodrum, Video, 2020
Ariana, Justin Goodrum, Video, 2020
Justin Goodrum — Artist Statement
Justin Goodrum is a filmmaker and owner of Good Entertainment, a multimedia production firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he produces content for numerous local organizations. He teaches fundamentals of film production and how to construct short films, among other STEAM subjects for youth at the Young Enterprising Society.
Justin focuses on telling stories that are silenced or missing in mainstream media. His mini docu-series for the STOP COVID-19 project centered on the inspiration and purpose that drove these artists' projects.
Ponte La Máscara (Protect Yourself), Jeanette Arellano, Graphic design, 2020
Protegemos a Nuestras Familias, Jeanette Arellano, Graphic design, 2020
Protect Nuesta Comunidad, Jeanette Arellano, Graphic design, 2020
Jeanette Arellano — Artist Statement
Jeanette Arellano is a Milwaukee based community activist artist. She dedicates her efforts with Milwaukee's Latinx community, creating work on issues in cultural, social change, and immigration. Through her artwork, Jeanette collaborates with artist activist groups such as Voces De Los Artistas, Art Build Workers, and Raices Revolucionarias.
Anika Knowalik (they/them), LaNia Sproles, Painting, Mural, 2020
Anika Kowalik is a Milwaukee based visual artist and activist. Their work and activism functions at the core of centering and standardizing Black joy as a mutual health concern. In August 2020, in collaboration with MKE SEEN, Kowalik was invited to help create opulent installation works for predominantly Black neighborhoods. These were placed to honor our Black neighbors and dismantle preconceived notions of what makes a neighborhood eligible to be beautiful. Anika is depicted finding joy in their own solitude but being sure to share their moment of bliss over a facetime call with their best friend, Zed Kenzo. In these murals we underscore the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life and our collective response.
LaNia Sproles — Artist Statement
I live and work in the segregated city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I also graduated with a BFA from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2017, I was a 2019 Mary L. Nohl fellow and teaching artist in residence at the Lynden Sculpture Garden.
While normalizing the toting of masks and vigilance in bodily awareness, these black figures relish in one another's company while physically separated. Each figure solely occupies their composition but partake in a grander conversation on their electronic devices to satiate their emotional longing for community. This series of panels acknowledge the obligation black people have vested in one another's lives. We nurture our own in spite of restrictions. In these murals we shifted our focus to eradicating black strife by highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life and our collective response. Each painting represents someone who is a leader and inspires change. Whether they are holding their portal to the outside world or working on their laptop, they are socially distant while emotionally connected. This collection of murals is intertwined and a collaboration with Ariana Vaeth.
Zed Kenzo (they/them), Ariana Vaeth, Painting, Mural, 2020
Framed is Zed Kenzo in a cell phone video call with their best friend and artistic contemporary, Anika Kowalik. Kenzo is a Milwaukee rapper, singer, producer, and activist. Their work incites us to cackle at authority and your expectations. Kenzo led the 2020 Black is Beautiful Bike March series emphasizing mobility justice when biking while POC. In these murals we underscore the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life and our collective response.
Lail London (she/her), Ariana Vaeth, Painting, Mural. 2020
LaDi London is pictured tending to her many passions. LaDi London's gifts revolve around her writing expressed through her podcast Social Therapy, a developing documentary about transgender culture titled Many Shades of Brown and her production company Crafted Graphics. A contemporary Renaissance woman, her vvork advocates for black trans lives. Her talents lead us into a "world of beautiful possibilities." In these murals we uncerscore the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life and our collective response.
Ariana Vaeth — Artist Statement
I focus on realism through the self-portrait. While normalizing the toting of masks and vigilance in bodily awareness, these black figures relish in one another's company while physically separated. Each figure solely occupies their composition but partake in a grander conversation on their electronic devices to satiate their emotional longing for community. This series of panels acknowledge the obligation black people have vested in one another's lives. We nurture our own in spite of restrictions. In these murals we shifted our focus to eradicating black strife by highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on everyday life and our collective response. Each painting represents someone who is a leader and inspires change. Whether they are holding their portal to the outside world or working on their laptop, they are socially distant while emotionally connected. This collection of murals is intertwined and a collaboration with Latvia Sproles. I am a recent Mary Nohl and fellowship.art recipient, my work appeared in the 2019 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
McGov Series, Tay Butler, Collage, 2020
Tay Butler — Artist Statement
Born and raised in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood, I know how important basketball is to our community. I grew up playing Project Respect and Blacktop, attending In the Paint games at the Boys & Girls Club, and catching the city bus to Vincent High School to watch Jose Winston and his teammates complete the three-peat in the late 1990's. I know what it means to play in high school, and I really know how important that concrete is.
"McGov" is the creative culmination of these memories and emotions. Three separate scenes come together to form one singular vision of an active, but safe, space to play the game we love. I synthesize my own personal sentimental substance through hidden "easter eggs" in this handmade collage work. Our beloved Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette Golden Eagles are represented through apparel. Sherman Park's historic purple and gold "WARNING" t-shirt jersey makes an appearance alongside the Notre Dame jersey that made Milwaukee-native Arike Ogunbowale a national superstar. At "McGov", men and women play together. Lady bailers who used to pretend they were "Ms. BJ Armstrong" when I was a young boy call next, while a kid wishing he was big enough to play overlooks the entire scene. Everyone is wearing a facemask.
I want new hoopers to see this collage mural, see Arike `s jersey and remember that girls can ball, too. I want hoopers my age to see hometown hero jerseys like Draelon Burns and remember we produced some great players here. I want older hoopers to see Oscar Robertson and Marquette jerseys from the 1970s and remember we had some amazing teams here. But most importantly, I want EVERYONE to see the face masks, and remember to do their part so we can make it through this pandemic together.
Answering the Stigma of Covid-19 with Love & Life, Huezong Yang, Digital art, 2020
Answering the stigma of Covid-19 with Love & Life is a digital illustration piece of Kathy Mouacheupao with her dog Louie surrounded by life in her home garden. Kathy was the first Hmong woman that came forward publicly during the first peak of Covid-19 pandemic in the United States. With the rise of Anti-Asian sentiment around the virus, she was able to open the door to breaking the stigma of being Asian American and having the virus. Today she has survived Covid-19 and is thriving with life and love.
A painful goodbye I've felt, I'm free now, Huezong Yang, Digital art, 2020
This digital illustration is centered on grief and letting go of lost loved ones to Covid-19 to begin the process of healing. In the Hmong community, it is believed that when loved ones transition out of their life, they are transported back to the ancestors on a white horse with wings. Many of us cannot hold traditional funeral spaces to mourn our loved ones due to safety health precautions.
It is my hope that through this illustration, individuals and families who have lost a loved one to Covid-19 can find a moment of grief and peace.
Huezong Yang - Artist Statement
I am a queer Hmong advocate, organizer, and artist that focuses on creating expressions of gender justice through multiple traditional and digital mediums: oil painting, watercolor, charcoal, pencil sketch, procreate, and adobe photoshop. My pronouns are He, Him, His or anything genuine said with love. i believe that everyone and everything has the right to live their cycle of life to their fullest form under love without violence.
The Covid-19 pandemic has struck many communities hard. In the Hmong community, there have been many losses of family members to the illness. Because of the stigma of having Covid-19 along with the strict health safety social distancing directives, many members of the community have been forced to carry on their lives without having space or time to properly grieve for their lost loved ones through traditional funerals. My two art pieces are centered around removing the stigma of Covid-19 to motivate and encourage the community to get tested and stay safe as well as to provide some moments of grief for those who have lost loved ones to Covid-19.
We Wear Because We Care, Wade Fernandez, Music video, 2020
Wade Fernandez - Artist Statement
I am an international touring artist of music & educator from the Menominee Nation. This music video focuses on the importance of wearing protective masks and features members of Milwaukee & Wisconsin's Native American communities. I believe it is very important to promote a positive image of wearing masks to protect our communities because there are far too many people promoting the opposite. The masks that were made for the video represent each tribal nation that resides in Wisconsin and features a word that represents care in those tribes' traditional language.
We also incorporated individual tribal color representation. I hope to impact our native communities by employing Native Music and the imagery of Kohkomaehsahkamekonaw (Our Grandmother Earth). The imagery of elders to young children wearing protective masks reflects our path of care that leads to the resilience shared by our ancestors, who date as far back as the Ice Age to this land that is now called Wisconsin.
Sacrifice Now, So They Don't Have To, Chong Lee, Digital art, 2020
Chong Lee — Artist Statement
My name is Chong Lee and I am Hmong. I moved to the United States when I was around two years old. I just graduated high school and will be going to college very soon.
I wanted to create artwork that speaks more to the younger generation today. I also wanted to include my Hmong culture and community. For this project, I came to focus on sacrifice and incorporate Hmong language and traditions. For example, I could not have the full experience of graduation or prom due to COVID-19. These events are important to students as they are memories that will be embedded in their minds forever. In order to let the younger generations, experience these events, we need to wear masks and follow social distancing now.