The art world that matters most is not a monolith but a vast, idiosyncratic network of makers and exhibition spaces, sustained largely by the particular energies of obsessed individuals with singular visions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Midwest, where independent spirits and regional prerogatives thrive precisely because they do not answer to prevailing conventions. This autonomy keeps the work unique, but it also renders much of it invisible to broader cultural interests.
Occasionally, it is worth looking up from the local terrain and toward the horizon—to fold a few of these regional eddies into a shared current, if only temporarily. Collaboration and exchange can function as a way of redistributing energy, feeding it back into local systems rather than siphoning it away.
A three-legged stool is the minimum structure required for balance. It is stable, but only just—an apt metaphor for the desire to approach destabilization without collapsing into comfort or stasis. Three Legged Stool brings together three exhibition programs—Holsum Gallery (Kansas City), Project, Project (Omaha), and Real Tinsel (Milwaukee)—each of which embraces and amplifies the eccentricities of its local scene. The exhibition temporarily transports these distinct sensibilities into one another’s ecosystems, allowing local flavors to intermingle, seep, and subtly alter the conditions of their host environments. The goal is not synthesis or consensus, but exposure: to generate examples of exchange that are beneficial and enduring, even as each program ultimately returns to the business of being local weirdos, sustained by the particular nutrients of their own communities.
The soul of the art world lies in odd individuals operating with singular commitment. Still, from time to time, it’s worth adding a leg or two—even if it’s just to offer someone else a place to sit.
REAL TINSEL is located at 1013 West Historic Mitchell St. Milwaukee, WI.
Real tinsel…as opposed to phony tinsel. It may have been the actor Harry Morgan who first popularized the idea when he referred to the honest superficiality of Hollywood in the 1950’s as “Real Tinsel.” The lightning rod art critic Dave Hickey attributes the phrasing of Real Tinsel to Fred Allen in his essay, Lost Boys, about the Vegas lion taming showmen, Siegfried and Roy, writing that “They are “showbiz” to their toes, but I couldn’t help liking them, nor avoid feeling about them (as Fred Allen did about Hollywood) that beneath all that phony tinsel, there is real tinsel [sic].”In the recent documentary “A Bigger Picture” about David Hockney, the artist’s first words are, “Scratch the tinsel in Hollywood and you’ll find the real tinsel underneath.”
The art deco façade and display windows of 1013 Mitchell already is a proscenium, beyond which lay a world of the truest lies. Beneath all the fake tinsel, there is REAL TINSEL. The gallery presents the fetishes, subcultures, concepts, contexts, geekouts, demi-mondes, tribes, cults, gangs, grand narratives, and unified theories that color the kaleidoscopically diverse contemporary art world. Art exhibitions are visual stories with conclusions written by those who experience them. They have beginnings, middles, and ends…but not necessarily in that order.
Location:
1013 West Historic Mitchell Street
Milwaukee, WI
Hours:
Real Tinsel is open Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5pm and by appointment
Email:
Phone:
347-683-0197
Instagram:
@therealtinsel
Staff Directory
Shane McAdams, Director
Keith Nelson, Director
