Curated by Juelle Daley

Oct 18–Jan 12, 2025, Saint Kate Gallery, 139 East Kilbourn, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

This exhibition focuses on how two Midwestern figurative painters, Ellen Holtzblatt and Shane-Jahi Jackson, memorialize and document those they hold dear without idealizing portraits. Like the renowned portraitist Alice Neel, they are unafraid to reveal the ambivalence, conflicts, tenderness, and joy of the institution of family. Transfixed by a desire to represent the inner contours of their subjects, the painters use the act of painting in different ways as a jumping-off point to explore the rawness of their relationship with the sitters. Each painting is an unveiling of truths, disappointments, depictions of the unsaid, and the thorny topic of unconditional love within families.

Holtzblatt’s paintings of family members offer up glimpses of deep love, fault lines, and storied relationships while Shane-Jahi seeks to honor the intimacy that exists within African American families despite all the sociological studies that continue to document the demise of the Black family.