I am, unfortunately, busy tomorrow evening, but if you have some time, perhaps stop by the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art for a gallery talk. I passed the one on the very cool "Girls and Company" feminist art exhibit last Friday (on my way to the new exhibition(s) in the James Watrous Gallery, which I will blog about soon). Attendees to the talks can ask questions, move around the gallery and share thoughts on the art. All good things.

The following information comes direct from the MMoCA. Cheers!

Gallery Talk
Murphy and Mladenoff on Solien
Friday, June 27 · 6:30 pm

Since the early 1980s, TL Solien has created works that interweave literal and metaphorical layers to convey complex thoughts and emotions. Featuring 43 paintings, prints, and unique works on paper, TL Solien: Myths & Monsters examines works from throughout the artists' career, focusing on his repeated iconography and sustained personal exploration.

J.J. Murphy and Nancy Mladenoff will discuss the exhibition tomorrow (Friday) evening at 6:30 in MMoCA's main galleries. Nancy Mladenoff is a painter and associate professor in the UW-Madison Art Department; J.J. Murphy is a filmmaker and professor in the Department of Communication Arts. Free.

Rooftop Cinema
Comic Timing
Friday, June 27 · 9:30 pm

This summer's Rooftop Cinema series will conclude tomorrow evening with a program of three classic avant-garde comedies-films that tickle the funny bone as well as the brain. Don't forget to bring a camp chair or blanket for these outdoor screenings.

The Black Tower by John Smith ( 24 min.) "Smith's assurance and skill as a filmmaker undercuts the notion of the avant-garde as dry, unprofessional and dull and in The Black Tower we have an example of a film which plays with the emotions as well as the language of film." (Nik Houghton, Independent Media)

On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? by Owen Land (18 min.) "On the Marriage Broker Joke ... turns upon an opposition of Freudian analysis and Christian hermeneutics .... Two pandas, who exist only because of a textual error, run a shell game for the viewer in an environment with false perspectives" (P. Adams Sitney)

Oh Dem Watermelons by Robert Nelson (11 min.) "A major American underground classic. This film originally served as a theatrical intermission in the San Francisco Mime Troupe's social-political satire "A Minstrel Show, or Civil Rights in a Cracker Barrel", but it quickly took on a life of its own. Oh Dem Watermelons takes hilarious and absurd jabs at the watermelon as a tired Black stereotype, using a wild mix of collage, animation, and irreverence, set to a propulsive soundtrack by Steve Reich." (Mark Toscano)

Rooftop Cinema is free for MMoCA members and $5 per screening for the general public. Tickets are available from the lobby reception desk beginning at 8:30 pm. Rooftop Cinema will relocate to MMoCA's lecture hall if rain is predicted.