Art in Wisconsin - Art and Science and Art: The Semi-Hidden Wonders of the James Watrous Gallery

August 11, 2025

This story is part of the Art in Wisconsin guide featured in our July/August 2025 issue.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art may be the Wisconsin state capital’s most prominent contemporary arts institution. With its multi-story glass façade that rises above the corner of Henry and State Street like a ship’s prow, MMoCA cuts a striking profile at street level as well as within the state’s larger arts landscape.

Unknown to many of MMoCA’s out-of-state visitors is the presence of a nonprofit art gallery—in the same building that houses the museum—with an ambitious commitment to elevating Wisconsin’s contemporary artists and curators. Named for an esteemed artist and art historian who taught for many years at the state’s flagship university, the James Watrous Gallery occupies 1,500 square feet on the third floor of the Cesar Pelli-designed Overture Center for the Arts in a beautiful space with a sweeping curve of windows that look over the building’s skylit interior.

Unlike MMoCA or the nearby Chazen Museum of Art, both of which are collecting museums that present exhibitions featuring national and international artists, the Watrous Gallery almost exclusively shows artists who reside in Wisconsin or have a history of connection to the state. If Watrous were to publish a catalogue survey of shows since 2004, the year the gallery moved to the Overture Center from an office building on University Avenue, it would provide an excellent overview of the practitioners who comprise Wisconsin’s contemporary arts vanguard—to name a few: Shane McAdams, Lois Bielefeld, Tom Berenz, Dakota Mace, Nathaniel Stern, Kevin Miyazaki, Jon Horvath and the collaborative duo Shana McCaw and and Brent Budsberg.

Jody Clowes, director of the Watrous Gallery, has for the past ten years overseen the curation, development, design and installation of the gallery’s exhibits, which are chosen through an open call every three to four years. Clowes says the selection committee (which changes with each review cycle) is made up of artists, arts workers and curators who come from across the state and a spectrum of backgrounds, practices and perspectives. For the first time, the 2023 review—the gallery’s most recent—was open to proposals from guest curators as well as artists.

Artists and curators who are awarded shows at Watrous represent a range of media, perspectives and themes that cross disciplines and encourage dialogue. The committee hopes to strike a balance between emerging, mid-career and established artists and curators and to ensure that they come from all regions of the state.

Although other art venues exhibit Wisconsin artists (such as the Museum of Wisconsin Art and university and commercial galleries), Clowes says that the Watrous Gallery’s open call for solo and curatorial exhibits sets it apart from other spaces. Moreover, because it is a part of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, the Watrous Gallery always seeks to highlight connections between art and other disciplines.

Every exhibition is featured in the Academy’s publication, “Wisconsin People & Ideas,” and shows are often connected to themes explored in the Academy’s talks and initiatives (such as the Climate and Energy Initiative). Artists exhibiting at Watrous benefit from seeing their body of work from a fresh frame of reference, while the number of ways an audience can engage with contemporary art increases.

As Clowes embarks on her second decade as director, she is excited to collaborate with more guest curators and to introduce emerging curatorial voices. She would also like to see more partnerships and networks between arts organizations in the state. “Mutual support is more important than ever right now, and I believe the Academy is well-placed to help nurture that,” Clowes says.

Clowes is rightfully proud of the Watrous Gallery’s evolution from its modest space on University Avenue and its exemplary exhibition record: “My predecessors here set a high bar and it’s important to me that we continue to live up to their standard. I want every artist who shows here to come away feeling honored, respected, and that their work was beautifully and professionally represented.” Based on the stellar reputation the Watrous Gallery has in Wisconsin’s arts community, Clowes and her team are clearly succeeding at fulfilling that mandate.

James Watrous Gallery, Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State Street, 3rd Floor, Madison, Wisconsin. On view through July 13: “Jerry Butler: Echoes from the Arcand Jon Horvath: Wide Eyed”; August 1-October 12: “Liz Bachhuber and Jill Sebastian: Eat My Words.”

(Published in Newcity, August 11, 2025)