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| Designed by: Tesfaye |
Art Is For Lovers Gallery's (located in Bronzeville) first show, Anonymous to Anonymous, featured the work of Milwaukee graffiti artists in various forms; canvasses, stickers, phone booths, wood carvings, zines… the list goes on. Each artist was also asked to create a tribute piece for Corey Stingley, a 16 year old African American who's life was taken by the hands of West Allis's injustice… The three men who killed him have still not been convicted or even arrested of anything.
Corey's dad came to hang up banners in the room we dedicated for Corey, and Fox 6 came with him. We did not know Fox 6 would come, and we told them they were not allowed to film any of the other rooms except for Corey's, since the work in the gallery was the actual work of the graff on the streets. Despite this, there were a few a pieces in Corey's room that did include the graff writers names and were exposed on TV on Fox 6 (
watch video here). Although this may be looked at as a bad thing, we realized this may be one of the first times in Milwaukee's history where graffiti was shown on the news in a POSITIVE light, and also in a non exploiting way, and the artists were pleasantly surprised. Every time you see graffiti on the news, it portrays the artists as good for nothing vandals, rebels without a cause. Although graffiti is an underground culture and will stay that way, we think the show did give people a different perspective on this esoteric life style. Most of the time people walk write past all the stickers and the tags, but once you notice it just once in a different light, you will notice it forever. Now you may look twice at a tag or a slap, maybe even try to decipher it.
The rest of the show went so beautifully. If you've ever been to an art gallery's opening exhibition before, you already know it's usually a situation where you come in, look at the art, enjoy some cheese and crackers, then leave. What we loved about this show was how people came, found Karl or I to pay the entrance fee even when we weren't at the door, socialized and met new people, bought buttons, postcards and shirts in the AI4L gift shop support the gallery, and stayed until the very last performances.. This is community, this is love. I don't think anyone felt one bad vibe that night. Amazing energy and love flooded the entire space, everyone congratulating and complimenting the gallery, expressing to us how excited they are for future shows. Another awesome thing was that the gallery was so diverse, lots of different scenes in Milwaukee were there- from south side graff crews, to north side rappers, to east side bikers, to high school students, to MIAD graduates, to.. everything. Sometimes we don't quite understand what we are living in because we are so engrossed in it.. yet I see categories the least in a diverse room. I see them the most when diversity is absent. Everyone socialized, everyone was respectful.
Friday night proved that Milwaukee is ready, the people are ready. There will also be a video coming out soon of a recap of the show and setting up of the show filmed by Channing Sabir. Thank you for all the support, Art Is For Lovers Gallery is here to stay and will be giving you more amazing shows soon.
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