Union art exhibits far from pedestrian

There’s nothing more pedestrian than, well, being a pedestrian. You know: Wait for the walk light, stay in the crosswalk, keep up with the flow.

Milwaukee artist Jim Zwadlo captures people afoot in the city from a fresh and appealing perspective in an exhibit called “Vertigo in Flatland: Paintings by Jim Zwadlo,” now on display in the Memorial Union Theater Gallery.

“I paint the urban pedestrian from an aerial point of view,” says Zwadlo. “This choice of subject and point of view make it possible for me to present complex abstract ideas using only simple, realistic imagery in a familiar recognizable context.”

His work somehow coaxes a certain order from disorder and a harmony between color and shadow.

Zwadlo says his work contains a variety of subtexts, including “challenging privilege — looking down at people versus looking at them.”

Zwadlo also says his work finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, with “random movement becoming found choreography.”

The paintings provide a platform to view society’s parade below — a man pulling a wheeled suitcase, cell-phone talkers, briefcase carriers, dog walkers and ball-cap-wearing boys toting backpacks and baseball gloves.

“I am inspired by the Wisconsin realist-surrealist tradition in painting, and challenged to find new ways of seeing based on a close study of the ordinary,“ he says.

The paintings also use color, line and shadow in sometimes surprising ways, as in “Crosswalkers 306,” a study in yellows and blues.

The exhibit also includes acrylic-on-paper cutouts that give Zwadlo’s work a distinctive dimensionality that underscores his work with crosswalks and the march of society.

His work also imposes on the artist the challenging technical issues of flat canvas versus flattened space and “the difficulty of really changing our habits, illusions, and ways of seeing.”

And while you’re at the Union, walk over to the Class of 1925 Gallery and catch “On the Flip Side: Artwork by Wisconsin Union Staff.”

It’s a varied exhibit that puts on display an array of works showing off the diversity of talent and creative instincts of those working at the Union. The gallery is packed with refreshing works that range from works in glass to photography to paintings to etchings.

The artists are dining services workers, theater staff, mini-course instructors, IT specialists, student staff, program advisers, gallery assistants, administrators and event planners. Their creative juices are working overtime and the gallery reveals a skillful artistic side to the Union’s staff.

One of the works is a flowing 12-foot-long painted fabric piece called “The Magic Watermelon” by Judi Benade, who works in information systems at the Union. Another work, “At the Stockyard,” is a rich and grittily detailed photo by Kim Tschudy, who works in mini-courses.

Another mini-courses staffer, Carol Giffon, has produced a work of white and brown fused glass with a contemporary and eye-catching diagonal design.

All told, the exhibits provide a look at ourselves from high above and the skills and creativity of our colleagues in engaging — sometimes surprising ways. Both exhibits are on display through Tuesday, Sept. 14, and make a fine way to kick off the semester.