Eve of Destruction

This weekend’s art events include revelry in cars and crashes with the work of Dirk Skreber and Colin Matthes’ demolition derby, in addition to the realism of Courbet, tailgating at MAM, and the closing weekend of an exhibition focused on hair.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14

Gustave Courbet, Self-Portrait (The Desperate Man), 1844-1845.

Gustave Courbet: Artist’s Artist
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N. Art Museum Drive
Lecture by Kathryn Calley Galitz
6:15 p.m.

Gustave Courbet was a radical painter, a realist who challenged the traditional conventions of French art in the mid-nineteenth century with his brash devotion to portraying life in all its gritty, indelicate spirit. His rebellious attitude and art have captivated subsequent generations of artists and viewers. Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Kathryn Calley Galitz will speak about his influential legacy as it continues to resonate in contemporary art today.

Green Mini Demo Derby Championship  
Inova
2155 N. Prospect Avenue
6-7 p.m.

The 2012 Nohl Fellowship exhibition continues with the finals of the ongoing Green Mini Demo Derby and installation by artist Colin Matthes, in which competitors are pitted against each other in a smash-em-up demolition derby of remote control cars powered by a solar generator. The teams in the final round are The Riverwest Public House, Brenner Brewing Company, Sky High Skateshop, and Midwest Photovolatics. Rounding out the environmentally-friendly crash fest will be an eight-car grudge match.

Colin Matthes’ Green Mini Demo Derby

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15 

Dirk Skreber, Untitled, 2009
Convertible car and steel
Installation at Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee
Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles

MAM After Dark: Tailgate
Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N. Art Museum Drive
6 p.m. – midnight

The theme of this month’s version of MAM After Dark is styled to celebrate sport fans’ predilections for partying in parking lots before games, but the connection to cars is the most important tie-in to their current exhibition. The automotive reference is inspired by German artist Dirk Skreber and his installation of a car which seems to be suspended in mid-crash. It is a sculpture that stretches the moment of destruction into an infinite echo. Curator Margaret Andera will speak about Skreber’s work on Friday, and guests will also enjoy other activities including printmaking with artist Tyanna Buie.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16 

A Modern Hair Study: Tara Bogart
Hair: Demitra Copoulos
Adornment: Nicholas Grider
Portrait Society Gallery
207 E. Buffalo Street, 5th Floor

This is the closing weekend of the exhibitions at Portrait Society which represent a trio of artists exploring hair as adornment and expression. Tara Bogart’s series of photographs, begun in 2011, suggest the styling of hair as a signifier of age, experience, and mood. Demitra Copoulos takes a daring sculptural approach with three-dimensional pieces suggested of hairstyles but transformed through the molding of clay and finished with various types of surface patinas. Photographs by Nicholas Grider use his head as a locus for embellishment and concealment, as styling elements evolve into mask-like layers.