Arts + Literature Laboratory presents It Can Happen Here, a national exhibition, juried by Milwaukee-based artist Reginald Baylor, that envisions our post-election future. The show title is a nod to Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 prophetic novel, It Can’t Happen Here, which imagines the rise of fascism in the United States. In an election season characterized by bigotry and extremism—filtered through the sensationalism of a ratings driven media—artists explore the simultaneous promise and fragility of democracy through the lens of collective memory, present realities, and possible futures.
Exhibition on view: October 7 - October 29, 2016
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11am-3pm or by appointment
Participating Artists
Thomas Ferrella (Madison, WI)
Matthew Scott Gualco (Brooklyn, NY)
Jeff Lassahn (Chicago, IL)
Fatima Laster (Milwaukee, WI)
Stephanie Lifshutz (Brooklyn, NY)
Guzzo Pinc (Fort Atkinson, WI)
Camille Silverman (Chicago, IL)
Mark Addison Smith (New York, NY)
Bubblegum & Whiskey (Corpus Christi, TX)
Nafis White (Providence, RI)
The Juror
Reginald Baylor was born in November 1966 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where he was a sculpture major and became infatuated with the philosophical theories and function of lines. Since college, he has lived and worked in Southern California at local art museums and as an owner operator for Mason Dixon Trucking in Chicago, Illinois. Reginald returned to the Milwaukee area with his young family in 1998 and later dedicated himself to pursuing a full-time career in fine art. Throughout this travel and transition, he has developed the aesthetics, craftsmanship, and straight-edge techniques of the acrylic on canvas paintings he is most known for today.