Overture’s Spring Galleries are on display now!
Rooted in storytelling, our Spring Exhibitions highlight artists who translate personal narrative into visual form. Through immersive landscapes, book-based and ceramic sculptures and symbolic mixed media works, these artists collectively articulate the ways relationships, identity and environment shape the stories we tell.
Stop by to check them out!
A new Artist Spotlight video featuring sculptor Gerit Grimm is on our YouTube page! Head to the link in our bio to check it out now. Don’t miss Grimm’s work on display in Gallery III now through Sunday, May 31!
Stop by Overture Galleries for Gallery Night on Friday, May 8! And make sure to check out James Watrous Gallery on the third level - they are also open for Gallery Night. Hope to see you there!
This week we are featuring the exhibition, Book As Sculpture, in our Playhouse Gallery. This show came to Overture Galleries through the Bone Folders' Guild - a local group artists who gather to support each others work in the medium of book arts.
To learn more read this statement by the artists:
If the Book is Sculpture, then you have to examine what The Book is. When taken beyond the best selling novel to a creative piece of art, the members of the Bone Folders’ Guild have been defining the meaning of The Book as Art for 25 years. Now they present The Book as Sculpture. It’s art in a three-dimensional form, created with book intentions by a group of like-minded artists who have transformed a profusion of materials into visual Books.
Like the varied backgrounds of the members, the work in this exhibit shares a range of interpretations of the Book as Sculpture. One is tightly sewn into a kinetic strand of DNA; one is a musical, reiki-like movement of bound parchment paper. Others examine social issues of the day in its many forms. The assemblage pieces have a story to tell from memory. There are altered books with precision-folded text that turn pages into words. There is an exotic paper covered box made to hold hand-sewn books. There is a book that honors a long, lovely marriage that incorporates fabric from the wedding dress. The photographer weaves her photos into new images. We are sent into the cosmos with a familiar children’s poem neatly calligraphed across a wooden shoe. Images of the fl ag, and words sewed like seed pods onto pages of a book, torn and stained, line up into a cloak of concern hung across a stick. And a clothesline-like book of hanging sheets of paper and a butterfly tree.
The Bone Folders’ Guild originated in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001, and continues, through in-person and Zoom meetings, to be an example of the Wisconsin Idea.
Contact their FaceBook page, Bone Folders’ Guild, for information.
Members in this exhibit:
Jyl Brentna, Katherine Engen, Rita Capes Foltz, Marcia Getto, Debby Uecke Henning, Dawn Kalies, Karen Haker Lindau, Dana Slowiak, Melanie Terasaki, Karen Timm, Nancee Wipperfurth, Kristin Yates.
There is still some time to purchase a ticket to Slow Art: Making Responsive Artist Books. There are just a few spots left! We hope you will join us on May 9 for this special Overture Galleries event - start your weekend with a guided meditation with Wildflower Therapies, a Slow Art viewing of the exhibition Invisible Truths, and a reflective artist book workshop with artists Katherine Steichen Rosing and Sandra Schoen. Refreshments and all materials provided. We hope to see you there!
May 9, 10am-12:30pm
Wisconsin Studio and Gallery I
$23 tickets (link to purchase in bio)
This week, we are featuring the exhibition United by Narrative in our Rotunda Gallery. Today we feature the work of one of its artists, DarRen Morris:
“I was told I would die in a cold, dark prison cell… that I would go nowhere and do nothing.”
Sentenced at 17, DarRen has spent over 30 years in prison, transforming a 6x8 cell into his studio.
“Through my art I could go anywhere in the world… I could do all sorts of things. In the years to come I want to create art that will help save troubled youth from making thoughtless choices. I also want to create art that will help you on the outside understand what we face on the inside—the very real need for prison reform in Wisconsin and elsewhere and the very real need to involve more people in working toward prisoner rehabilitation rather than punishment."
Morris states this as he reflects on his story, "Hurt people hurt people. Help me lessen the hurt.”
@darrenmorrisart #overturegalleries #wisconsinartists #overturecenter #localwisconsinartists
Mack Bo Ross currently has his work on view in our Rotunda Gallery. Learn more about his work and stop by before May 23 to see his paired show "United by Narrative" with DarRen Morris:
“My art is inspired by family, memory, and the emotional lessons passed down through generations. Moments from my childhood, my relationship with my grandfather, and the desire to teach my sons about strength and self-expression all fuel my creativity. I’m driven by the belief that art can be a refuge—a place to process struggle and celebrate resilience... I create both digitally and traditionally, and I often begin without a defined meaning. The emotion behind the work reveals itself only after the piece is complete.”
#OvertureGalleries #MadisonArt #ContemporaryArt #MackBoRoss
@mackboross
This week we are featuring the artists Mack Bo Ross and DarRen Morris who are part of the exhibition, United in Narrative, in our Rotunda Gallery.
"Two artists from the same upbringing follow separate paths. Two unique stories shaped by betrayal, death, love and guidance. Distinctive in style, they express their visions in different ways—from spoken word to raw storytelling. One with formal artistic training, the other entirely self-taught. Experience two intertwined journeys, thoughtfully united by narrative."
TUE, MAR 3, 2026– SUN, MAY 24, 2026 | ROTUNDA GALLERY
Today we are highlighting the work of Gerit Grimm whose exhibition Farther Afield is on view in Gallery III,
“As an eight-year-old, I dreamed of becoming a cosmonaut; later, I imagined myself as an explorer… Yet my newly found hunger for experiences that test and expand my own capabilities continues to transform the ordinary into a heightened reality.” Through her practice, she embraces “physicality, risk, and discovery,” pairing ceramics with photography to “capture and convey adventure and discovery.”
Much of this work is shaped by movement and exploration: “I have always felt compelled to be in motion… gathering fragments of experience that I later assemble into cohesive works in my studio.” Her recent research at sea which included Yachtmaster Offshore training, has deepened this direction, culminating in new work from a venture to Greenland where “ceramic yachts… glide, drift, and float alongside large-scale canvas prints that depict life at sea.”
Her sculptural practice reflects this same sense of tension and transformation: “The clay is pushed to its limits… a process that becomes part of the art,” resulting in figures that “appear to move and interact… inhabiting an uncomfortable place between endearment and distress.”
In June 2026, Grimm will take this exploration further, joining the Clipper Round in the World Race: “Joining the Clipper Race has been a long-held dream she once thought impossible… ready for personal growth, new experiences, and the challenge of becoming an ocean racer.” For her, “this journey is inseparable from her art,” where sailing, vulnerability, and collaboration become part of an evolving creative practice.
“By openly pursuing my own goal, I invite viewers to reflect on their own aspirations… transforming a private pursuit into a shared landscape of inspiration.”
@Pricelesssailing
#overturegalleries #madisonartists #wisconsinartists #overturecenter #localwisconsinartists
This week we’re featuring the artists from the exhibition Farther Afield in Gallery III. Today we take a deepr look at the work of artist Matthew Warren Lee who has this to say about his artistic journey,
“My work is rooted in getting out into distant places and learning about the present and the past. Art museums are my constant companions, and I take endless inspiration from the work of others.” With “a voracious appetite for art history,” he studies “historical materials and methods from 17th century northern Europe and applies them to contemporary scientific subjects… Artists during that time worked in concert with the scientists of their day to advance human knowledge.”
After joining the United States Antarctic Program, his direction shifted: “I went to Antarctica a portrait painter and returned a landscape painter. This changed the trajectory of my artistic journey and led me to joining the dinosaur crew I work with now.”
“I hope viewers can get a sense of the essence of these distant places where they themselves may never go… I want viewers to impart their own interpretations of themselves as well as contemplate their own relationship to art, science, and nature.”
Explore more of Matthew's work in Gallery III until May 31.
#overturegalleries #madisonartists #wisconsinartists #overturecenter #localwisconsinartists
@Matthewwarrenlee
This week we are featuring the exhibition, Farther Afield, in Gallery III, which includes the work of Milwaukee-based artist Matthew Warren Lee and Madison artist Gerit Grimm. Join us on April 30th at 6pm at our Rotunda Stage to hear directly from the artists.
More about Farther Afield, which is on view until May 31:
"Immersive artworks by Grimm and Lee document, reinterpret and explore compelling landscapes in remote corners of the world, offering fresh perspectives on place, distance and discovery."
@Matthewwarrenlee@Pricelesssailing
