Focus/Madison: Works From the Permanent Collection October 8, 2010

Context, setting, and place define much of our thinking. This is especially true for artists who garner inspiration from the world around them. 'Focus/Madison' examines works in the collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art that feature the city itself. Photographs, prints, and paintings by twelve artists are included in the exhibition and demonstrate a striking range of perspectives. Twenty-six Polaroids taken during the 1970s by Madison photographer Gary Knowles, for example, show the city at night and during the day: people drinking beer on the Union terrace or protesting in the street against racism and sexism. Demonstrating the city's political focus during an earlier era, John Steuart Curry's Progressive Party Rally imagines the events organized by the leftist political party of the early twentieth century. Artists in the exhibition also include Gibson Byrd, Dennis Church, Warrington Colescott, Gregory Conniff, Douglas Edmunds, Marshall Glasier, Terry Husebye, Allan Janus, Dana Van Horn, and Paul Vanderbilt.