Upcoming:
élan vital
April 11 - May 23, 2025
by John Shimon and Lauren Semivan
élan vital is a celebration of the creative accomplishments and dynamic careers of four Wisconsin artists.
John Shimon and Lauren Semivan
Appleton artists John Shimon and Lauren Semivan have been working collaboratively to create over 100 cyanotype photograms since 2018. Selections from this ongoing body of work, Tangency, have been exhibited at The Meadows Museum of Art in Shreveport, LA, the Denver Photographic Arts Center, and the Portrait Society Gallery for Contemporary Art in Milwaukee, WI. In 2023 Tangency was selected for Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 50.
“This primitive art making process, in dialogue with the landscape of a small northeast Wisconsin farm, allows for a graceful embrace of the organic and unknown. ”
This body of work represents an ongoing investigation of art history and process by photo-based artists John Shimon and Lauren Semivan.
These photograms were created as their bodies lay on hand-sensitized archival paper, which is exposed by the sun in an outdoor setting. The resulting cyanotype prints are washed with a garden hose in an oversized wooden tray beneath a tree, and hung up to dry. Often the prints are toned and bleached using a combination of strong black tea and washing soda. This primitive art making process, in dialogue with the landscape of a small northeast Wisconsin farm, allows for a graceful embrace of the organic and unknown.
Inspired by Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Weil’s Blueprints created between 1949 and 1951, Tangency stretches across time, space, and worldly dimensions. Visual associations are made to early cave paintings, the 19th century botanical photograms of Anna Atkins, Yves Klein's “Anthropometries”, Bruce Conner's “Angels”, photograms of German artist Floris Neusüss, the Shroud of Turin, and architectural blueprints. The imprint of the human form on paper is ghostly and translucent.
This body of work represents a physical immersion in the process of making art while entering into a dialog with time, space, and human experience situated within a continuum of ideas and people. Tangency, in geometry, is the point at which the line intersects the circle, and here refers to the flatness of the paper as it intersects organic form. Within each photogram, the body is rendered simply and objectively, yet it manifests inherent contradictions. It is fragile yet concrete, vulnerable, embarrassing, sensuous, perfect, ugly, repellent, outrageous, universal, mysterious, known.
By John Shimon and Lauren Semivan
Katherine Steichen Rosing
Katherine Steichen Rosing (b. Appleton, Wisconsin) creates immersive installations and intricate abstract paintings that explore environmental processes and phenomena in forests and watersheds.
Her work has been exhibited in over 100 solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums internationally, including The Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, Illinois; Amos Eno Gallery (New York), The Arts Club, (Washington, DC), James May Gallery (Milwaukee), The Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend, Wisconsin), ARC Gallery (Chicago), Tomioka Museum (Tokyo), Saitama Modern Art Museum (Saitama, Japan). She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the 2022 Forward Art Prize and the Madison Arts Commission/Wisconsin Arts Board Individual Artist Fellowship.
Rosing has been awarded science-based artist residencies at the UW-Madison Department of Limnology’s Trout Lake Research Station and the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, sponsored by the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Rosing earned her MFA in painting and drawing from Northern Illinois University, a BFA from the University of Colorado-Denver, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work is represented by Kim Storage Gallery (Milwaukee) and Groveland Gallery (Minneapolis).
by Katherine Steichen
My work explores intricate ecological relationships between forests, climate, and watersheds through immersive sculptural installations, mixed media, and painting. My paintings express the heightened awareness and euphoria often felt in natural environments and symbolize the interconnectedness of all things, while the generally somber tone of my installations expresses the anxiety I feel about the climate crisis and forests’ inherent fragility.
Deforestation continues to rapidly destroy the lungs of our planet, demolishing entire ecosystems to accommodate consumerism, rampant population growth, and wasteful habits. Humanity looks to forests for our survival yet accelerating climate-related changes to their environment threaten forests' ability to exist in their native habitats. And they can’t just pick up and move. These ecosystems will evolve and survive, but will humans adapt, and will we make the necessary changes to preserve our precious home? Yet, the natural world remains beautiful and full of promise, which can renew our spirits if we are present.
Peter Koury
Peter Koury is a distinguished, award-winning contemporary painter whose unique style resists categorization. His work harnesses vibrant colors and realism to captivate the viewer, blending realism with abstraction and symbolism to offer social commentary through the human experience. When possible, he prefers to work with acrylic and up-cycled materials, minimizing his environmental footprint and paying homage to his appreciation for nature; throughout his 30-year career, he has consistently integrated environmental and conservation themes into his art. His most recent work is derived from his photographic excursions, with elements from those photos incorporated into his paintings. Birds are the most prevalent images depicted from his travels.
My paintings begin with contemplative walks in nature, where I captured the flora and fauna using my camera. These images serve as inspiration for my paintings, often employing metaphorical and realistic representations. I primarily work with acrylics, rarely developing a fully formed concept prior to commencing a piece. Instead, I initiate with a fundamental idea that evolves through intuitive mark-making, allowing the painting to guide my actions. This process facilitates frequent modifications and visual expression. My artworks function as visual invitations, encouraging viewers to engage with the allegorical renderings and contemplate their significance.
By Peter Koury