Firecracker Studios makes a triumphant return to the Madison art scene with a new show at the Overture Center in Gallery One, just off the rotunda. Entitled The Firecracker Studios Traveling Sideshow,"" the exhibit features recent work from the local art collective's coterie of painters, printmakers and mixed media artists.
Formed in May 2005 by UW-Madison BFA graduate David Mueller and designer/printmaker Samuel D. Johnson, Firecracker Studios has survived through several transformations as a physical gallery space and artist group. With plans to establish a new gallery space and this vibrant new show, Firecracker is still very much alive and well.
Co-founder Samuel D. Johnson's series of striking, pop art-influenced screen prints is the first on the two walls of gallery space. These colorful, vintage-like prints have playful titles such as ""Firecracker is Better For Your Health"" and ""Tweet?"" Next up is an artist calling him or herself ""Highflyer #13."" Whoever is behind this pseudonym has created a heavy-handed and pricey ($1000) mixed-media piece, ""Mall Shooting,"" a painted car door with assorted portrait photographs in place of a window and an image of a praying child with a target on her forehead and the words ""Who shall be next.""
Other political pieces in the exhibit are more effective, including ""Avengers"" and other dense, pixilated mixed-media pieces by the artist known as ""ROBOMAN."" Also striking are Crumb-esque watercolor with ink portraits as well as prints on wood by Stan Poffenberger and the fine mixed-media prints by Grace Lorentz, especially ""View from the Train - o Taiwan."" Lorentz makes great use of color schemes to create attractive sketch-like prints.
There is a salient pop art influence in much of the show, not only in Johnson's work but also in the spray paint on found board pieces by Devon Hugdahl (my favorite is ""K.O. Kid"") and in Donald Topp's silk screens of famous figures such as Frankenstein, Marilyn Monroe and Bruce Lee.
It is an eye-catching, well-assembled exhibit and well worth your time. Admission is free to the public, so stop by and form your own opinions on the work, or visit www.FCS5000.com for more information on Firecracker Studios.
