This weekend at Ayzha Fine Arts Gallery & Boutique:
Young, emerging artists will take over a section of the gallery in an exhibit titled “Fresh Faces.”
Exquisite drawings and paintings by a refugee family from Somalia will be on display.
Trees wrought in metal by a retired Milwaukee welder will be showcased.
Artists will do portraits live.
A DJ-MC duo will jam.
Gallery Night & Day, a Friday and Saturday affair, is bursting with so much activity this time around that the event will spill over into Sunday as part of what Ayzha Fine Arts dubs “Gallery Weekend.” (“Ayzha,” a person’s name, is pronounced like the continent “Asia.”)
A multicultural art gallery with an emphasis on black art, Ayzha Fine Arts sits on the second floor of The Shops of Grand Avenue mall, 275 W. Wisconsin Ave. Gallery Night will run from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 20; Gallery Day, from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 21, and Gallery Sunday, from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 22.
The fresh faces in the “Fresh Faces” exhibit include: Natalia Virafuentes, who paints and sketches; Christina Roeder, who paints; Treesa Sellhausen, who paints and works with ceramics; architect Jeff Brown, who paints and does graphic design; Kelly Pritchard, who paints, and Verinia Glass, who illustrates and does portraits. Virafuentes is based in Chicago; the others are Milwaukee-based. Glass is guest-curating the exhibit.
The Osman family, who fled violence in Somalia, has washed ashore in Sheboygan, so to speak. Gunmen had stormed their Mogadishu home and killed their father for his refusal to close an art school he had started. Ayzha Fine Arts is working with four Osman brothers: Abdulahi, 21; Abdurahim, 20; Abdulfatah, 18, and Abdikudus, 17. Their works, produced since their arrival in Wisconsin in 2016, will be on exhibit all weekend and the brothers themselves will be present on Gallery Sunday.
James Binnamin, a retired Milwaukee welder, sculpts trees out of various metals. His works will be on exhibit.
Also on display will be paintings by two multimedia artists: Darron Reed of Milwaukee and Megan Bloesch of Madison.
Verinia Glass, noted muralist Reynaldo Hernandez, his daughter Rozalia Singh and the Osmans will do speed portraits for purchase.
MC Grendyll Ward & DJ Aztek, both noted Milwaukee musicians, will entertain on Friday. Their music is fresh, hot and honest.
Artists will discuss their works. Refreshments will be on hand. The event is free and open to the public.