Once every three years, something special comes to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The Wisconsin Triennial is a showcase of new work by artists in the state, on display at 227 State St. all summer long.
Here’s what to know about the Triennial and some of the Madison-based artists who are part of it for 2025.
What is the Wisconsin Triennial?
The Triennial began as a biennial event in 1978, and soon switched to every three years in 1984. Any Wisconsin visual artist, including painters, sculptors, and photographers, can submit their work to be part of the exhibition. This year, over 300 artists applied for the 24 available slots in the Triennial.
The open call is a return to the traditional format after the 2022 Triennial, in which Black women artists were invited to participate. That Triennial became the subject of heated controversy after one artist’s work was vandalized by a patron, and artists ended up pulling out of the exhibition, feeling the museum didn’t adequately support them. Artists applying for the 2025 Triennial were not asked about their demographics.
What Madison Artists Are Part of the Exhibition?
The ribbon installations by Madison artist John Hitchcock are inspired by Native American pow-wow chairs. (Madison Museum of Contemporary Art)
John Hitchcock is an enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Comanche and Northern European descent. He is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at UW-Madison where he teaches screenprinting, relief cut, and installation art.
Hitchcock’s giant ribbon installations in the entryway to the museum are inspired by the pow-wow chairs used at Native American dances and celebrations.
Angelica Contreras was awarded the Forward Art Prize in 2020, which celebrates the work of female artists in Dane County. She was born in Whittier, California and grew up in Mexico, attending the University of Guadalajara.
Her mixed-media work incorporates oil, acrylic, and collage, creating a variety of colors and textures. It celebrates the resilience and pride of Latino communities, including a dose of magical realism.
Gerit Grimm was born in Germany and is UW-Madison’s sole ceramics professor. Her current series of playful stoneware sculptures includes renderings of the Madonna that draw elements of the past and the present.
Leslie Smith III is a professor of painting and drawing at UW-Madison. He’s a painter who seeks to explore the human experience through abstract works inspired by modernist architecture. Finding the human form cumbersome, he works with bold colors and subtle gradations to express complex emotions.
Other Madison artists who are exhibiting their work in the Triennial include Theresa Abel, Yeonhee Cheong, Sarah FitzSimons, Jolene Frechette, Kelli Hoppmann, Katie Hudnall, Helen Lee, Taj Matumbi, John Riepenhoff, Christina Ruhaak, Michael Velliquette, and Christina A. West.
