New Artists' Exhibit

Show Dates: April 12-29, 2012 (Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun)
Opening Reception: April 15 from 2-5PM

"Please join us in welcoming these talented artists to our community. We are so pleased to feature these artists new both to our community and to the Cultural Arts Center," said Christine Hayes, board member of the Whitewater Arts Alliance and coordinator of the April New Artists' Exhibit.


Following is more about the artists:

Michael Banning


Michael Banning works at UW-W, earned his BFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder and his MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Over the past decade, Banning's career has taken him from Minneapolis, to Milwaukee and Chicago. With each move, the artist carefully explored each urban landscape through his photorealist paintings. Recently, in a desire to examine the familiarity of his domestic space and personal objects, Banning's subject has shifted to interior spaces. While these paintings are formal studies of light, shape and composition, they simultaneously provide an intimate view of the artist's apartment: a sunny windowsill in his living room, the blue and white dishes neatly stacked in his kitchen, the electrical cord running along the hardwood floor of his bedroom. Banning has been the recipient of grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the City of Chicago, and the Jerome Foundation. In addition to solo exhibitions at the Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis and the Chuck Levitan Gallery in New York, Banning has also exhibited in many regional exhibitions including the Walkers Point Center for the Arts in Milwaukee, the Charles Allis Museum, the Wright Museum at Beloit College, the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, The South Bend Regional Museum of Art and the Rockford Art Museum, among others.


Brent Bresser


Brent Bresser attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where he studied with Ron Weaver, receiving both his BFA and BAE. He did his graduate studies at Parsons School of Design in New York City, studying with Leland Bell, Paul Resika, John Heliker, and Larry Rivers. He returned to Wisconsin and has made his home in Madison, Stoughton, and Sun Prairie. He moved to Whitewater with his family in the summer of 2011. He works in oil and watercolor, using nature and the landscape as the primary inspiration. When not painting, Brent enjoys fly-fishing, gardening, cooking, teaching, theatre set design and spending time with his family. The paintings exhibited are all oil on canvas.


Kimberly Carter

Kimberly Carter, Art Teacher at Washington Elementary School, loves to teach her students about how to see details in an image. Teaching art to young people is important to her because we live in such a visual society where we are bombarded with visual images. Even young students should learn how to look at a picture and critically think about images that they see. Kimberly says, "This is my seventh year of teaching but my third year teaching Elementary School. My dream came true when I was hired as an Elementary Art teacher here in Whitewater. My main focus is make sure students in elementary school get as much experience as possible with lots of different media. I also focus on the elements of art and design and help students develop their skills to make them successful with art."


Leah Jurgens


Leah Jurgens is a local Wisconsin artist. Her artwork ranges in its style and medium from 2-dimensional drawings made from ink or marker to 3-dimensional shadow box designs which incorporate a multitude of materials. She has had her art displayed in galleries of Northwestern Illinois as well as local art fairs. She has been commissioned by private parties to create themed 3-dimensional artwork (e.g. underwater scene/scenes from a beach). She also created an art project, completely from recyclables, for a local recycling company.


Stacy Johnson

Stacy Johnson, Art Teacher at the Middle School, began her teaching career just two short years ago. After five years of study at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, she landed her dream job teaching middle school art in Whitewater. Teaching art to young people is important to her because the type of learning kids experience in the art classroom is so unique. Through art, kids are allowed and encouraged to make mistakes, construct their own ideas, and find their own "right" answers. No two works of art will ever be the same, and she finds that exhilarating!


Richard Knight

Richard Knight graduated with a MFA from Indiana University, which was proceeded by undergraduate studies at Queens College, NY and Missouri State University. He is a painter and sculptor who has exhibited his work throughout the midwest for the last thirty years. The Philip Slein Gallery in St. Louis, MO and the Michael Lord Gallery in Palm Springs, CA both currently represent his work. Richard Knight's paintings, drawings, and sculptural objects share components of an expressive language that moves from one medium to others. While his gestural paintings and works on paper often evoke lyrical abstraction of the late 1950s and early 1960s, they develop in dialogue with his sculptural pieces. Knight's sculptural objects are usually made by poetic juxtaposition of commonly found things: wax, tar, wires and paper - the stuff that accumulates in the artist's studio as refuse and waste. In turn, these assemblages of discarded materials often become sources for the new two-dimensional works on paper. Together these works create a visual language that documents the intuitive and tactile process of making sense out of the world.


Mark McPhail


Mark McPhail is Dean of the College of Arts and Communication at UW-W. As an undergraduate, he took photography courses at Emerson College in Boston, and had photographs published in the schools' literary magazine. During graduate school he worked part time as a photojournalist for the Amherst Record, and later as a photographic and editorial consultant at Digital Equipment Corporation. His photographs have been featured in the academic journal Critical Studies in Mass Communication, and on the covers of the Bulletin of the Western College Alumni Association and the Modern Water Gardener. His work has been exhibited in Dallas, Texas at the Cerulean Gallery, the Mckinney Avenue Contemporary, and the African American Museum; in Columbus, Ohio at the Mac Worthington Gallery; and in Whitewater at the Crossman Gallery at UW-W.


Neta Ron


Neta Ron is an international student from Israel who came to Whitewater with her husband. Neta's husband was injured in the Israeli army seven years ago. That experience triggered her great interest in medical research, especially in the research that is being done in the stem cells field. In her work, she is addressing social issues that can be painful and delicate. She is hoping to open a new social space for discussion and debate by making beautiful objects that are aesthetically appealing.


Koller Stettler


Koller Stettler is a born and raised Wisconsinite who enjoys the arts as much as he enjoys the outdoors. His art has developed over the years, with formal training at UW-W and John Cabot University in Rome, Italy. Koller's inspirations are woven into his artwork from personal experiences and travels. His application of mix media overlaps and interacts in a way that he feels is vital to creating a meaningful piece of work. When he is not creating art, he is keen on spending time with his wife Carly and their dog Madison. He also enjoys biking, hiking, studying Judo and enjoying what Whitewater and the surround areas have to offer.