For the 8th year, Var Gallery will present its annual Emerging Artists Exhibition. This exhibition features six artists and recent graduates of Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts. The invitation criteria included: unique vision, socially engaging concepts, innovative techniques, active studio practice, and participation within a broader artistic network.

 

Featured Artists:

Andrea Cabrera Manuel, Isabel Cooling, Geornica Daniels, Raegan Glaser, Brandom Terrez-Sanchez, and Max Volk.
 

“Var Gallery was founded with a commitment to providing resources and opportunities to Milwaukee artists, and this exhibition continues to do just that,” shared Var Gallery Director Josh Hintz. “It is increasingly important that we continue to support emerging artists as they navigate and nurture artistic careers beyond academic institutions. We champion artists who are ambitiously doing their part to perpetuate this collective effort through community involvement and engaging work.”

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About the Artists

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Andrea Cabrera Manuel is a Mexican interdisciplinary artist currently living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Drawn to the power of process and labor production, she started to experiment with mixed media, such as textiles, sculpture and sound, which have allowed her to explore the body in relation to emotional/physical labor as well as relationships, community and space making. Andrea received her BFA in the Spring of 2023 from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, majoring in Fine Arts/New Studio Practice. Since then, Andrea has exhibited her work around local galleries and received grants and awards, such as 1st place at the 2023 Grilled Cheese Grant, and most recently, she was part of the 2023 Fall Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix cohort. Currently, she keeps expanding her own practice, but also nurtures and explores the social power of art by teaching. She hopes that in the future she can bring art approaches to social projects and work with local communities here in Milwaukee as well as in Mexico.

Isabel Cooling is an interdisciplinary artist from Rockford, Illinois focusing on challenging the parameters of painting and sculpture through concrete. Their work presents concepts surrounding the materiality of everyday life influenced by personal narratives and the push and pull of fragility and weight. Cooling received their Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a focus in Painting and Drawing. They are also the co-founder of Evil Twins Gallery, a local DIY venue In Milwaukee, Wisconsin for emerging artists. Her research surrounds bridging the gap between painting and sculpture using concrete to create sculptural paintings that form from solid cement. Cooling explores how concrete is everywhere in our daily lives and acts as a foundation and structure for the world around us yet asks the question of how the matter functions to create paintings. Isabel experiments with the possible dichotomies of concrete in painting through gestural and process-based abstraction through the physicality of making.

Geornica Daniels is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and site-specific installation. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, she currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her recent work explores the embedded histories of found objects and the portrayal of memory in three dimensions, namely, what memory looks like and what it is not remembered. She received her BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design in 2023 and is currently a graduate student pursuing her MFA in sculpture at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has exhibited regionally at galleries such as Between Two Galleries and Grey Area. Geornica is currently a Teaching Assistant at UW-Milwaukee.

Raegan Glaser is a Milwaukee based painter who completed their Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Glaser works with biomorphic figures, often organ-like in nature, to create an emotional escape that bridges the gap between the physical and mental. This work has a foundation of interest in psychology, nature, and the human experience, however this work primarily stems from Glaser’s own experience with chronic illness. Glaser studied in Florence, Italy and found inspiration in the ethereal qualities of the historic works including the elongation of figures, color palettes, paint handling, and the amount of symbolism found in renaissance works. Glaser’s work has been included in exhibitions at Var Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Kenilworth Square East Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; SRISA,

Brandom Terres-Sanchez (He/They) is a Queer Mexican American artist originally from Las Vegas Nevada and now an emerging artist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Recent graduate from Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design with a BFA in New Studio Practice. Their paintings are paired with audio, found objects, and writing to create an immersive experience that encapsulates “Home.” His work allows the viewer to feel this personal connection to home but also feel the distance between us, home and the artist. His work has become a cozy reality, one that we crave. Their work has been shown in spaces like Var Gallery, Trout Contemporary, Union Gallery, and MARN. His body of work becomes physical manifestations of memory of his former home, immersive, visceral, rendered, and replicated, all descriptores that live deeply familiar yet profoundly estrange throughout their work.

Max Volk is a Milwaukee-based painter with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing, as well as Art Education from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His figurative paintings call in to play an assortment of imaginative and collaged moments. Pulling influences from childhood experiences with creative character creation and vibrant comics, the content is matured to reflect the mechanical assemblage that goes into the constructing of self. His active participation in the Milwaukee art scene has led him to the creation of his own artist-run space titled Evil Twins Gallery, recognized in the Shepard Express, as well as exhibitions at prominent galleries, such as Real Tinsel’s 80 East in Brooklyn, NY. In a commitment to maintain connection to the whimsy of childhood and to positively influence a community he has received much from, Volk has volunteered with youth-afterschool programs in Milwaukee, such as the Children’s Outing Association. After graduation, Volk will continue his studio practice and ramp up the intensity of his project gallery.