Indepth Arts News:
"Brad Kahlhamer: Almost American"
2000-12-03 until 2001-02-11
Madison Art Center
Madison, WI,
USA United States of America
Brad Kahlhamer: Almost American premieres at the Madison Art Center
December 3, 2000 through February 11, 2001. The artist's first solo museum
exhibition features eight large-scale color-saturated paintings, several drawings
and a sculpture installation. Kahlhamer's Midwest debut includes a new suite of
drawings created in response to historical sites in Wisconsin visited during a
fall residency. The artist describes his art as a third place, an imaginary zone
that fuses the past and present, the dreamt and real of his first place of Native
American ethnicity and his second place of a conventional middle-class
upbringing. From his unique perspective, he seeks to understand the social
position of Native Americans in the mainstream culture of the United States.
Kahlhamer paints monumental images of grand American landscapes.
Challenging this tradition of realism with powerfully loose brushstrokes and
high-keyed colors, he conjures up the visionary tradition of Native American
art. At the same time, his work recalls the street-inspired work of Jean-Michel
Basquiat and the vibrant color of German expressionists like Emil Nolde.
Central to Kahlhamer's work is his compelling biography. Born in Tucson,
Arizona in 1956, he was put up for adoption, an experience shared by many
American Indian children of his generation. Adopted by a German-American
family, he grew up without knowledge of his tribal affiliation. His art centers
on his displaced Native American identity filtered through his
experience as a member of a middle-class white family. After earning a BFA
from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1980, Kahlhamer toured with a
rock band and designed product packaging for Topps Chewing Gum-life
experiences which continue to inform his work. Popular culture references and a
recurring cast of characters, surrogates for the artist and those close to him,
populate the expressionistic landscapes, relating narratives that join personal
experiences and Native American history.
Brad Kahlhamer: Almost American is co-organized by the Aspen Art Museum
and the Madison Art Center. Major funding for the project and its Madison
presentation was provided by a grant from the Ameritech Foundation; a grant
from the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission with additional funds from
the Madison Community Foundation and the Overture Foundation; The Art
League of the Madison Art Center; the Exhibition Initiative Fund; the Madison
Art Center's 2000-2001 Sustaining Benefactors; and a grant from the Wisconsin
Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin. The Aspen Art Museum
presentation is sponsored by the AAM National Council, with additional
support provided by Nancy and Robert Magoon.
IMAGE:
Brad Kahlhamer Happy Girls w/ Eggs USA, 2000
oil on canvas 94 x 120 inches
Private Collection, London Photo courtesy
Deitch Projects, New York
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