(MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN) – Museum of Wisconsin Art is proud to present Mapping Home, a contemplative introspective exhibition by Milwaukee-based artist Michael Hawkins-Burgos. The artist’s work weaves together the observed, the imagined, and the remembered into a contemplative collection of portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Mapping Home is Hawkins-Burgos’s debut solo museum show and will be on view at MOWA | DTN inside Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel in downtown Milwaukee December 6–March 2.
Through poised compositions and geometric forms, Mapping Home acts as a personal visual journal, exploring themes of family, loneliness, and the universal yearning for a place to feel most loved and understood: home. Rendered with expressive brush strokes rich with private meaning, Hawkins-Burgos creates a world that tells an autobiographical narrative that encapsulates the artist’s reflections on domestic life, marriage, and evolving family dynamics. While each painting is titled with a date and meal—details rooted in Hawkins-Burgos’s own memories—leaving the specifics shrouded in mystery, inviting viewers to draw their own interpretations.
“This is Michael’s first exhibition in nearly 20 years, and I am honored to work with him,” said Anwar Floyd-Pruitt, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at MOWA. “He’s put together a collection of works that is both deeply personal to his experience and still very relatable to the audience. What’s more, he’s included a video in the exhibition that documents his process–it is always a thrill to witness an artist in action.”
Hawkins-Burgos is a self-taught painter and filmmaker based in Milwaukee. His creative achievements include the award-winning short film Don’t Go (2011), which received the Milwaukee Film Festival’s Cream City Cinema Award, and the feature-length film Heebie Jeebies (2005), which was distributed internationally.
In addition to the exhibition, MOWA will host an Opening Party on Friday, December 6 from 5:00–7:00 and a Gallery Talk with the artist on Thursday, January 16 at 6:00. Both events will be held at MOWA | DTN inside Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.
Image Credit: Michael Hawkins-Burgos, Politics and Plants, 2021
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