Art galleries expanding on Milwaukee’s south side
Var Gallery & Studios in Walker’s Point is opening a second location in the Milwaukee neighborhood.
The new gallery and artist studios, Var West, will open at 423 W. Pierce St. in February. It’s just a few blocks west of the main location on 2nd St.
The owner, Josh Hintz, said the new gallery will focus on solo exhibitions and will include 22 more studio spaces.
The 2nd St. location has 21 studios, and the gallery typically shows group exhibitions. The laid-back gallery has a
bar and hosts musicians and comedians.
Var has 45 artists in residence,
Hintz said.
Hintz said Var is expanding to accommodate Milwaukee’s growing art community and fill the space left by now closed artist spaces. For example, the Fortress and The Pitch Project, which both housed artist studios, both closed in 2017.
“Over the past year, there has been an uncomfortable amount of artist spaces being sold and redeveloped,” Hintz said. “It is my goal to keep artist spaces intact and part of the growing community in Walker’s Point.”
Var rents studio spaces for $160 to $900 a month. The rent includes access to Var’s workshops for woodworking, ceramics and metal.
Hintz started Var as an artist collective in 2012 and opened the gallery at 643 S. 2nd St. about three years ago. In 2017, artwork sales were just more than $40,000. Hintz said that was less than half of the company’s revenue.
Hintz said he has plans in the works for another space at 706 S. 5th St.
And that’s not the only new space coming to the south side.
One of the city’s best-known artists, Reginald Baylor, is opening a shop at 211 W. Florida St. to sell home goods printed with the images he creates.
Cedarburg-based artist Shane McAdams and Milwaukee artist Keith Nelson are opening a gallery at 1013 W. Mitchell St. REAL Tinsel, which will also have a few artist studios, will open in May.
Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Twitter @SarahHauer and Instagram @HauerSarah.