Current

 

 

It is always a wonder how exhibitions come together and what the catalyst for a new show may be. VansenVansen was born out of an inventory project in 2023 and a show-and-tell of sorts with a couple of calendars that Leslie and Charles Vansen printed of their work for family and friends in 2015 and 2018. They titled those calendars VansenVansen and it seems fitting as the title of this exhibition of their work side-by-side.

Black and white line drawings are the underlying armature for all of Leslie Vansen’s paintings. Over time, the function of these drawings has evolved from defining and positioning color shapes separately against the open canvas to merging entirely into cumulative color layers which become surface, texture, and evocative form in the final paintings.

Close, intense observations of surface shifts, gradations and textures as seen in natural forms directly informed Charles Vansen’s paintings between 1987 and 2008. His painting process relied on self-imposed visual and procedural limitations and was immediate. He began in one place and continued outward from there until the entire surface was covered. The process was slow, unhurried. The chosen brushes were small and left an obvious but unobtrusive tactile record of their work behind. 

Leslie Vansen’s paintings in VansenVansen are a chronological snapshot representing a sequential progression among works produced by side-by-side artists. The earliest painting in this grouping was made at the time Charles Vansen and Leslie Vansen were assisting each other to produce screenprints, a new methodology and medium for both. Two of the featured paintings were made during the early period of Charles’s Vansen’s focused studio work with oil paintings. And the final two paintings are recent and current. All of Leslie Vansen’s paintings reveal her continuing exploration of abstraction.

Although Charles Vansen’s MFA was earned in painting, his studio practice evolved over time from his late 1960’s Pop and Dada thinking through his professional design work, his development of a screenprint studio and portfolio, and his college level teaching in Graphic Design and Typography, Basic Design and Color Design, and his coaching and teaching of sailing. Those close observations over that same period included regular museum and gallery exhibition visits along with years of hiking, camping and photography in the western states.

Leslie Vansen has exhibited widely over the course of her career. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections both regionally and nationally. Since her exhibition, Beginning and Continuing at The Alice Wilds in 2020, her regional exhibitions have included Continuum 2022: Sitelines 42 at UWM’s Kenilworth Galleries, Topography of Line, MOWA DTN at St. Kate’s Arts Hotel 2023, Milwaukee, and Moreover 50 Paintings, Part I, 2024, a three-part invitational group exhibition curated by Michelle Grabner for Milwaukee’s Green Gallery.

 

EVENTS

Opening Reception: Friday, NOV 8 from 5-8pm

Artist Talk: Saturday, NOV 23 at 1PM

Dance Performance: Thursday, DEC 5 with showtimes at 6PM & 7:30PM