Gener8tor Art partnered with Sherman Phoenix to select eight Milwaukee artists to be a part of their spring 2024 cohort, receiving grants and mentorship, as well as the opportunity to showcase their art at an exhibition on June 1 from 2-5 p.m. at the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace (3535 W. Fond du Lac Ave.).
A panel of judges selected the eight artists from a pool of 210 applicants based on their artistic talent, the compelling nature of their portfolios, their strong career aspirations, and their potential to significantly benefit from the program.
The spring 2024 recipients are Siara Berry, Margaret Griffin, Lee Judilla, Diya Gitanjali Mark, Chad Alexander Matha, Margaret Muza, Alayna N. Pernell and Matthew Vivirito.
Tell us who you’d pick to be a Betty this year!
Sherman Phoenix’s mission of revitalizing and uplifting Milwaukee’s community of color found a new medium through Gener8tor, a nationally-ranked venture capital firm and accelerator that targets artists, among other startups. This collaboration, with the support of the Wisconsin Department of Administration’s Diverse Business Assistance Grant, provides each artist with a $10,000 grant and enrolls them in the seven-week Gener8tor Art x Sherman Phoenix accelerator program.
“It’s been an honor to support this unique program on behalf of the State of Wisconsin, and to see creative professionals grow their careers and support Wisconsin’s creative economy in Milwaukee and beyond,” Diana Maas, assistant deputy secretary for the department of administration, said in the press release.
The end-of-program exhibition on June 1 will feature work from the eight selected artists.
Meet the Artists:
Margaret Muza
Based on her curiosity of the chemistry behind photography, Muza explores the beauty of portraits through the medium of wet plate. Her style arcs from layered portraiture that aims to convey stillness in her shots.
Through the cohort, Muza plans on experimenting with other mediums, including plaster and sculptural elements to accompany her images.
“This cohort is such a unique opportunity because I am not a trained artist, I never went to college, so with the guidance of the program I’m really inspired to try new things and do a body of work that’s inspired by a concept rather than having someone in front of me,” Muza said. “This is the best time to try something new and I have the support of these people while I am trying this new thing and branching out and expanding what I am capable of.”
Alayna N. Pernell
Pernell’s work, through the mediums of photography, sourced materials and performance, examines the harsh realities and complexities of being a Black American. Her art reveals the constant exposure to various injustices and inhumanity that Black Americans face, including in her most recent work, “Our Mother’s Garden.”
Pernell’s display at the exhibition will be titled “Daydreaming about Love,” and reflects the connection to romanticized fictional love. This collection, including over 30 framed images, came from Pernell’s background of being raised in a single parent home without a clear image of love, and presents all the possibilities of what love can look like based on fictional love.
“I haven’t really went in this direction before … it feels like I’m sitting in a home, and it feels like me daydreaming about romanticized love and what that can look like in the future for me,” Pernell said.
Siara Berry
Berry’s work targets the American housing system and ideals through personal experience and research. By exaggerating common house-related items, Berry symbolizes the “dichotomy of pressured idealism and the complex relationships we have between our homes, eachother, and our everyday domestic rituals.”
Through her work, Berry focuses on analyzing and attempting to push the boundaries of the stereotypical American household. Images of for sale signs, house mats and yard flags are all used to represent the barriers put up between households, a powerful message in an era of over-development.
Margaret Griffin
Inspired by her father’s work as a pipefitter and her work in foundries and factories, Griffin examines the tax physical labor takes on blue-collar workers, especially in Milwaukee (a city known for its industrial-intensive history).
Through heavy equipment and weight-bearing materials, Griffin’s work examines physical strength and resilience in industrial work environments, as well as the body’s reaction to the stress of physical labor.
Lee Judilla
Through digital and analog means of creation, Judilla bridges the gap between the past and the newly coming “(retro)future.” They play on the imagery and symbols of Internet memes, worship of anime figurines and fandom culture, and social and physical isolation in their work.
“I aim to capture my Internet-induced dissonant feelings of love and hatred for all which is our current digital age, and my personal, intimate relationship with it from my past in order to memorialize and call attention to what is often overlooked as “low art,” Judilla’s profile reads.
Diya Gitanjali Mark
Mark focuses their work in the mediums of cinematography, film and multimedia visual art. Through creating meaningful and visually stunning work, their focus explores the ways we process trauma through abstraction. They have used horror and science fiction genres in the past in order to express this message.
Mark received the Cream City Jury Award at the Milwaukee Film Festival 2022 and the Best Horror Film award at the Sittanavasal International Film Festival and Tamil Nadu International Film Festival.
Chad Alexander Matha
Matha works to recontextualize commonly found objects through methods of collage, assemblage, sewing and sculpture. Through shaking up the narrative, Matha hopes to deconstruct internal ideas of homophobia and toxic masculinity all the while finding where he fits into all of it.
Matthew Vivirito
Through his work, Vivirito responds to the human experience, including the fallibility of memory, the temporality of our body and the pain and pleasure of everyday life. His sculptures utilize simple materials in order to communicate complex messages.
