From shadows, to reflected color, to LEDs powered by electrical circuits, Door County’s upper elementary school students have been learning all about light and the artists who use it. Come see the results in Kids Create: Art and Light.

Peninsula School of Art welcomes applications for the second annual BIG little Art Show, a curated exhibition featuring works up to 12 inches in any dimension. On display November 4–December 23, 2023, the exhibition is perfectly timed for holiday shoppers.

We all know that more goes into a work of art than just the materials it’s made of, but rarely do we get to see the ideation, iteration, and preparation that happens before it is finished. Backstory: The Artist’s Process offers a glimpse into the mind of the artist by presenting documentation, reference materials, sketches, etc. alongside the finished work.

Photo by xoMe Studio

Water-based media have been around for centuries, and new ones are still being developed. Whether it is for the fast drying time, the ease of clean-up, the level of transparency, or health and environmental concerns, more and more painters are turning to water-based media. Just Add Water explores the properties and uses of watercolor, ink, acrylic, flashe, gouache, and casein.

Printmaking, with its intrinsic ability to make multiples, has been used by artists around the world to spread messages for hundreds of years. During field trips to PenArt, Door County students will use a variety of printmaking techniques to highlight their own lives and concerns. The resulting prints will be on display in Kids Create: A Message to the Masses.

It is said that good things come in small packages, and that is surely true of the work in The Big Little Art Show. This season the gallery is full of small works that pack a big punch, curated from an open call for art that is less than 12 inches cubed. Come see the great variety of work by local artists and friends farther afield.

Since its inception, digital technology has been seeping into nearly every aspect of our lives. It is no surprise that contemporary artists have come to use this tool in the process of creation. While digital and analog are seen as opposites, the artists in this exhibition use them seamlessly, incorporating digital technology into their process of working with traditional media.

Curated by Hiroko Yamada, Director of HYART Gallery (Madison, WI), Tradition of Excellence explores a wide range of Japanese metalworking techniques and materials. The exhibit brings together fifty works by Japanese masters, two of whom are Japanese Living National Treasures. The work showcases traditional alloys, patinas, lacquer; techniques such as raising, inlay, lamination, fire gilding, engraving, and enameling; and art forms such as articulated figures.

When it comes to collaboration, some artists—Jean Claude & Christo, Gilbert & George, Bernd & Hilla Becher—work almost exclusively as pairs while others—Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat, Judy Chicago & Miriam Schapiro, Marcel Duchamp & Man Ray—maintain solo practices and team up only on occasion to produce distinct works of art. Dynamic Duos: Art of Collaboration follows the second model. This fall we invited artists to pair up and produce a work of art. By viewing an example of each artist’s individual work alongside the collaborative piece, one can imagine how the latter took shape.

Area students explore the physics behind the six simple machines (inclined plane, wedge, lever, wheel and axel, screw, pulley) and how they can be applied to art.

From cubists like Georges Braque collaging newspapers into their still lifes to draw attention to the flatness of the picture plane, to conceptual artists like Lawrence Weiner using language to emphasize ideas over visual forms, to Jenny Holzer’s Truisms confronting societal issues, visual artists have been widely using text since the beginning of the 20th Century. To the Letter examines the different ways artists incorporate text today.

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty. — Bertrand Russell, 1919

A 2014 study showed that for mathematicians, looking at an elegant equation activates the same area of the brain activated when others see a beautiful painting. While this study offered scientific proof, the connection between art, beauty, and mathematics has long been evident. Art by Number explores this connection through work resulting from or inspired by mathematics.

What is it about a place that captures our imagination, clings to our memories, and infuses our daily lives? Can its presence be conveyed by careful documentation of dimensions, stories told, the light of a window on a wall, or the ephemera inhabiting it? Though the artists included in On Location take many different approaches, place is central to their art.

Artists who typically work in two dimensions—those who are trained in drawing, painting, and print-making—are masters of compressing the three-dimensional world into a flat surface. But, what happens when artists used to working on planes apply their unique perspective to sculpture? 2.5 D: Breaking the Surface attempts to answer this question, presenting work that falls somewhere between image and sculpture.