ArtsEtc.

Campus galleries display picture perfect exhibitions

Some visual artists journey 3,000 miles to Egypt to photograph the illustrious Sphinx. Others gnaw at Paris Hilton's ankles like bloodthirsty piranhas. Still, there are a few photographers who work tirelessly to capture the essential dignity of a soybean field or an antique piano. Those photographers, who represent a growing number of established and emerging artists, prove that the Midwest is, in fact, the new black.

Three fascinating photography exhibits will open as part of University of Wisconsin's "Arts Night Out" Sept. 30 at the Memorial Union.

It is often said that the Midwest is artistically and culturally plain in comparison to our coastal cousins. However, all of the exhibits and work shown in the Memorial Union Galleries exemplify the depth, intensity and variety of artwork from America's heartland. The Center for Photography at Madison and the Wisconsin Union Directorate Art Committee are co-sponsoring "PhotoMidwest 2006," with a special juried exhibition located in the Porter Butts Gallery, featuring 43 artists from Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin — all seven of our creative havens. This year's exhibits juror, Catherine Edelman from the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, has selected an excellent collection of work from over 600 photographs of wide-ranging subject matter. The special exhibition contains startling imagery with everything from giant corporate dolls to face painting, beaches and teapots. Not only is the diverse subject matter photographed by these prominent Midwestern artists surprising, the materials and processes that compose the photographs are just as remarkably varied.

No, a photograph is not just a photograph in the Midwestern art scene; there is something for everyone's aesthetic delight. From silver gelatin to mixed media, there is as much variance in the materials and processes used to produce these pictures as in the assortment of images aligning the second floor walls themselves.

Opening elsewhere this Saturday in the Memorial Union is another show featuring Midwestern artists. The Lakefront Gallery is hosting an exhibit titled "Cheap & Serious," composed of works produced by serious artists using inexpensive, amateur photographic equipment, as the moniker implies. A local collective of avant-garde artists in the Center for Photography's Plastic Camera Group shoot various subjects and scenes with cameras costing less than 25 dollars. With the economy of this technological limitation they have set for themselves, the exhibit portrays how filmic flaws can reflect integrity and produce arresting imagery, in a variety of adventurous and creative ways. Once again, these photographs become much more than just photos — they become compositions illuminating the aesthetics of crude but honest technological processes.

To bring Midwestern art culture even closer to home, the Theater Gallery, which wraps around the University Theater, is displaying "A Time Revisited," a powerful photographic retrospective of the Madison campus area during the Vietnam War era. Tom McInvaille's photographs are black and white and are often uncropped or slightly out of focus, reflecting the anxiety of the most stirring moments. The photos depict overturned cars and refrigerator barricades, the National Guard and pepper spray, and other high-tension situations. The ghostly photographs taken in and around familiar places such as State Street, Humanities and even Memorial Union itself deliver a sense of unparalleled immediacy. The confusion, estrangement and idealism captured in the faces of the students shown fleeing buildings or throwing rocks at once localizes viewers, yet distances them from a time and climate so foreign.

All together, the scope of work explicitly illustrates the Midwest's diversity in a vibrant and visually rich culture. A combined opening and awards reception for each of the three Union exhibits is slated from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday in the Porter Butts Gallery of the Memorial Union.

It must be mentioned that however excellent the Memorial Union exhibition may be, it is not the only event organized and sponsored by "PhotoMidwest 2006." With the Center for Photography at Madison serving as a base, throughout the entire month of October there will be nearly 100 photography-related events, such as workshops, lectures and classes in and around Madison for aspiring and professional individuals who share a passion for the art of photography and the cultural epicenter that is the Midwest.