For TWO, Some Fools Gallery’s second official juried exhibition, artists were asked to submit work that best represented the theme of duality. Two is a number that begs for comparison, and artwork was selected based on its depiction of the relationships between two things. These and other works by local artists were selected for display. TWO was composed of 17 artists total, all committed to the theme of duality.
For example, Jojo Brickey’s painting, i saw them before it happened / i’ll never laugh like that again, shows us two animal figures, similar in shape but differing in size, swimming together peacefully under stars. There is a glow within this piece that is reflective and somber, and makes us question the nature of these gentle creatures. If they are parent and child, or siblings, it is clear that there is a relationship between the two founded on trust and care.
Jay Kersine’s self portraits, titled me and me too, reveal their relationship to their self, past and current. These paintings, a year apart, tell very different stories. In me, they stand tall and awkwardly, glass in hand, dressed in a suit coat and pants in the middle of the frame, almost trapped within the limitations of the painting surface. In me too, their lower half extending past the frame and only their upper half visible, they peer over their shoulders at the viewer with a smile, hand outstretched, as if they recognize the surface itself and are pushing through it.
1.
Erin Krembs (she/they)
Calliope, 2023
Mixed media, felt, paper, cardboard, clay, thread
21” x 16” x 11”
Calliope started as a sketch on a page of taxidermy oddities I wish I could own. Taxidermy, at the time, was not obtainable and two-headed oddities even less so for their rarity and desirability to collectors. The materials that Calliope is made of were readily available and affordable for me and made it easy for me to create my own versions of oddities. The materials and methods of traditional crafts like embroidery and using yarn and felt bridges a thought-provoking path from craft to the world of fine art. Taxidermy has a deep history in my fascination with the natural world and my views on preservation of life. I try to capture a feeling of liveliness and emotion in the creatures I make. They become facsimiles of animals that do or could exist in the world.
2.
Emily Laning (she/they)
knit top, 2022
Recycled silk and polyester
13” x 13”
I really enjoyed working with this material, it was a lovely process to knit together these beautiful, bright colors. This piece reminds me of celebration and chaotic good. It is unconventional and invites you to spend time on a closer look. The option of wear adds to the spontaneity and playfulness of the style in a functional way. All of these are aspects I really appreciate and love to incorporate when it comes to design.
3.
Lee Judilla (they/she/he)
INTERSTATE GIRL, 2023
Lasercut Acrylic
13” x 19” x 1”
I am an androgynoid living at the intersection of art and technology in the Midwest. Through analog and digital processes, I work to understand the world and its strange obsessions. The Asian woman in the form of anime characters, religious fervor, cannibalistic consumption, the Internet, and the American frontier, all appear to me as absurdist liminal beings. I seek to make the viewer reflect upon themselves, and to assert my own being in the process.
4.
Nyanna Krajewski (they/she)
Miranda & Georgina, 2021
Textile Dolls
5” x 8” and 6” x 8”
My work has two main avenues: critique of the contrived ideas of womanhood asserted by capitalist America, and celebration of the depth of queer emotion and expression. I use cheap decorative materials, media, and colors which are aimed at young girls by those who produce them as an act of indulgence. My work includes collected materials from people of my past. The fabric I use belonged to a family friend before she passed and my mother. I make dolls as my great grandmother did, I paint and collage as my grandmother does. I use the creative skills that have been gifted to me by the creative women and queer people in my life to pay homage to them and to embody the people who came before me. My work celebrates things that are bold, rough around the edges, and that take up space just as I aim to celebrate those things within myself and others.
5.
Melanie Holterman (she/her)
Choice, 2023
Pen, paper
12” x 9”
I was inspired by one on one relationships when creating Choice. I overlapped two shapes of different shades and drew them intertwining to show their development as a new singular subject. The value they share of growing together encourages them to compromise (bend and spread) to remain in each other's lives. It is a powerful, heavy choice to make but when executed correctly, it can be extremely rewarding.
6.
Lucy Mattern (she/her)
Room Gestalt, 2022
Oil on canvas
30” x 40”
I take a layered, improvisational approach to oil painting. By leaving past marks as evidence of the past and optically confusing space, I encourage a slowed-down, visceral viewing experience. Play with gestalt perception then allows the viewer to piece together unknown parts for themselves. Beyond this, I try to coexist drama and meditation, creating a sense of spirituality within my mundane subject matter. This painting is a detached self-portrait that shows the sanctity of my room- clutter and all. The larger figure is a shadow, a past self, and literal past marks (my initial paint marks as I “felt out” the scale) as I reach a state of calmness after some bad days.
7.
Jaaron Langford (he/they)
Acceptance, 2023
Photo, print
18” x 14”
I wanted to capture the feeling of acceptance and try to show the duality that acceptance isn’t always pretty. Typically when we accept obstacles in our lives we are left feeling bitter, saddened, but also hopeful. Acceptance is said to lead to happiness and growth but why does it also bring along sadness, uncertainty, and anger? It’s as if acceptance is a double-edged sword, a bittersweet taste left in your mouth that never goes away, even if what you have accepted has already come and gone. Acceptance is acknowledging that what has happened, happened. However it doesn’t mean that it was right, doesn’t mean that we are not allowed to be angry or shed tears, to go through the emotions actually to feel what we have lost and to feel what we have accepted. Acceptance is never perfect. Accept that you aren’t perfect. Accept what you have lost, but accept what you are feeling.
8.
Seth Ter Haar (he/him)
Missionary Window, 2022
CNC Cut MDF & Black Flocking
36” x 24”
I have listened to the Heathers musical soundtrack too many times, specifically the song "Our Love is God". Through creating wooden props I explore the act of gay cruising juxtaposed against American Christian traditions. In doing this I ask the viewer to question what is a holy relationship.
9.
Brooke Thompson (she/her)
My Mama, 2023
Dip Pen and ink on Bristol Board
17” x 22”
The comic starts off with my character Antony, roaming through a club playing awful music. The overwhelming bass of the music brings him to a panic, tears even. He’s looking for his best friend, they’re not currently on good terms. Upon finding him his friend Ricky, is fighting with his dealer. There was no reasoning with this fight, upon intervention Antony gets knocked out.
He sees stars, slowly transitioning to waking up on his mother’s steps. He hasn’t seen her in weeks, and it’s been a blur ever since. She comes out to find him, fucked up and bruised. She comforts him, he remembers what she’s always said when he was a sick child “go to the ocean, salt water heals”.
To watch the sunset he smokes a joint and soaks in the water of that early crisp Miami morning. There’s something sickeningly romantic about nostalgia, and how it’s used to heal.
10.
Jay Kersine (they/them)
me, 2022
me too, 2023
Ceramic mosaic
18” x 24” each
Jay is a painter based in Milwaukee, WI that works with themes of queer hookup and club culture, addiction, and mental illness. Through oil painting and mosaic they are able to accomplish a fusion between material and the recollection of events that culminate within the queer club spaces of Milwaukee. Whether the source material is based in negativity or joy they feel a connection to relive past circumstances to recall and understand the meaning of why things happen for the benefit of their own personal growth.
11.
Grace Umek (she/her)
Awkward, 2023
Acrylic, curtain
24” x 32”
Awkward depicts the aftermath of my first sexual experience. While he and I sat in heavy silence, I vividly remember the thin sheets canceling my lower half from the winter air. Those sheets were always a noteworthy part of that memory. I chose to weave old curtains through the bottom of the piece to exhibit this."
12.
Morrissey Tuszynski (she/they)
self reflective tendencies, 2023
Clay, wood, glass
18” x 36”
I am a multidisciplinary artist that focuses mainly on photography and sculpture work, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and originally from Fort Walton Beach, Florida. My current body of work is exploring, dissecting, and reversing gender roles within the nuclear family era; and how this relates to my own upbringing as a queer individual. By implementing various food creations popular during the 1950’s - 1970’s era; I am attempting to create an unconventional self portrait for myself, while also bridging the gap between the roles I had felt within my family and community growing up.
13.
Alex Niemann (he/they)
MINDSPACE, 2022
Acrylic, charcoal, polymer clay, spray paint
16” x 16” and 2” x 2” x 2”
“MINDSPACE" interprets the mind and the self as:
1. A navigable space
2. Body/Being
3. Signals/Waveforms
Existing across the 2nd and 3rd dimensions with no defined orientation, it touches on the subjectivity of existence and the quantum fluidity of the self.
14.
Olivia Christensen (she/her)
Flourish in Duality, 2023
Multimedia
8.5” x 8.5”
“Two” spoke to me as “Duality,” the idea that two things can both be true at the same time. My piece is about removing one’s self from the “black and white” narrative and accepting nuances in life; empowerment through loving one’s entire self. My art piece, “Flourish in Duality” honors the Goddess, Persephone. Persephone is both the Queen of the Underworld and the Goddess of Spring. Her story, like my own, is about coming to terms with the cards we’ve been dealt. My upbringing, like so many others, was a painful experience. I grew up feeling split, like a living contradiction. As an adult, I only found my strength in harmonizing my internal opposition. Her story is a fantastic example of two contradicting concepts creating one united power.
15.
Ellie Garry (she/they)
Critter,
Fabric and poly-fill
12” x 35”
Through my artwork, I convey my personal struggles, using abstract forms as visual metaphors for pain, trauma, and joy. My approach is primarily instinctual, allowing the work to morph and evolve during the act of making. The natural world serves as a source of inspiration plus catharsis, inspiring both myself and my art. I transform organic shapes into otherworldly creatures, to give them an uncanny, animated quality. My audience is encouraged to look beyond first impressions and see the world in its true form, full of complexities, pain, and delight.
16.
Jojo Brickey
i saw them before it happened / i’ll never laugh like that again, 2023
Acrylic and fabric
30” x 40”
i like to use painting as a way to process and put creative energy into something more visual. i usually let intuition and current emotions inform how i approach the piece. i was using the theme of two but also thinking about my current experiences in my life. these creatures specifically came from a dream i had. i didn’t know what the dream meant but since it was so vivid i wanted to spend more time with them in my painting.
17.
Chloe Wilkerson (any pronouns)
Cow Slut Suit, 2023
Repurposed Fabric
Inspired by the duality between my own masculinity and femininity. Gender identity is something I will always be exploring and this piece is a representation of how I coast somewhere in the middle. Masculine because it is reminiscent of old-time men’s workwear and feminine in the reclamation of the word “slut.” The cows act as additional patchwork to enhance the unique but old-time workwear feel; purposefully facing them in opposite ways to feed into the idea that no one has to follow the rules.
also people are allowed to interact with this piece so they can touch it to get a closer look!