Topography & Photography: An Interview with Kyle Seis

Interview featured in the Geode Newsletter

Many would agree that life has taken a sharp detour throughout the past year. The pandemic forced us into a much smaller and lonelier lifestyle, affecting our social lives in nearly every way. Driven to find some semblance of solace in this new landscape, many found a new connection with nature. Myself included. In a frenzied need to get out of the house and sooth my restlessness, I spent a lot of time outdoors in the warmer months. Going for walks, exploring landscapes, listening to the birds, reading, writing, or sketching outside was refreshing; simply taking time to soak in the beauty of the natural world was one positive thing that came out of the pandemic. Winter in Wisconsin can be brutal. Temperatures have now reached sub-zero, making it more challenging to spend time outside. Unless, of course, one isn’t afraid to brave the cold, even if it means resembling Ralphie’s kid brother in “A Christmas Story.” There are wonderful winter textures, beautiful moments of sunlight, and icy reflections created by the 12+ inches of snow in a wintry, frigid, Wisconsin landscape. I’m realizing that these moments are deserving of our attention. Covid’s negative impact on my social life has had a profound influence on my relationship to nature. For me, the current state of our situation has re-ignited the wonder of the natural world. Now, I find myself paying closer attention to the landscapes and environments that surround us daily. 

For some artists, exploring the endless textures, colors, and compositions that nature provides is not a new revelation. Nature’s charming abundance is at the center of many artists’ studio practice. Artists like Kyle Seis have been exploring nature’s wonder all along, pandemic or not. 

I’ve known Kyle Seis for the past 6 years and his images have stuck with me since I first saw his work in the Mary Nohl Fellowship exhibition at INOVA (Institute of Visual Arts) in Milwaukee, WI in 2015. Image making and photography is at the center of Kyle’s practice. Landscape, natural environments, and topographical textures often appear in his works through a variety of processes; including scanning, manipulating, combining, photographing, and finding images. Kyle’s images are very connected to the current moment and have felt invigorating to me, especially when I think about the pandemic’s impact on my own personal relationship to nature. Kyle reflects on his studio practice and process of making in a conversation we had at the start of the year.

Image: Kyle Seis, I Don't Know Where the Dust Goes, UV print on vinyl mesh, 120" x 96"

RHS: How has the pandemic impacted your studio practice?

KS: I think the most notable impact has been the pause on the social side of things. There’s a lot of great energy to be found in conversations at shows/openings and in studio visits, and I certainly miss being able to feed off of those kinds of situations. I also really miss the magic of consistently experiencing works in person and finding inspiration in those moments.

RHS: How do you define your relationship to photography?

KS: My practice is 100% wrapped up in photography and images in general. I’d love to break the mold a bit and work through other mediums and processes but I think that image-making will always maintain a strong presence. I find it difficult to separate myself from the magnetism of images and the potential magic that can be held within a rectangular frame.

RHS: You use found imagery in some of your work. Can you talk about the process of finding, collecting, or selecting which images you ultimately use in your images? What goes into making those decisions?

KS: I typically source images from used books about natural science and geography that I keep in my studio. If I’m feeling stuck, I’ll often flip through the books and rip out pages that contain images that I’m interested in to keep busy and keep ideas flowing. Sometimes I’m drawn to images that might look like something that I would try to take, and other times I’m drawn in by the potential power of a small sliver within a larger image. It really depends on the situation, but ultimately the found image (or the portion that I want to use) needs to feel energetic in some way. 

Image: Kyle Seis, Untitled (from Desert Pictures), Archival pigment print, 5" x 4"

RHS: I know you use scanning as part of your image making process. Can you talk about how you utilize scanning as part of your process and whether or not you feel it impacts the authorship of your work?

KS: I’ve always had an interest in the perception of space within two-dimensional images, and with the scanner as an image-making apparatus I’m really intrigued by the intended flatness of the images that they generate. I keep thinking about the process as a re-flattening of the flat, and I’m trying to toy with that and pull the images apart a bit. I haven’t felt a lessened sense of authorship when working with a scanner and found images, as the process of selecting/cropping/editing a found image feels a bit similar to that of making a photograph. In addition, there’s often some level of either physical or digital manipulation happening in the images that I make.

RHS: Many of your images include natural/organic subject matter: landscapes, flora, etc. What can you say about your work’s connection to nature?

KS: I really like drawing connections between the medium of photography and the natural world through my work. There’s a lot of room to find poetic similarities between the two and I’m consistently inspired by the ways in which they overlap. For example, my body of work The Surface of a Stone is Always in Motion looked at rocks as time based surfaces that can behave like images in some ways. In other bodies of work, I’ve been influenced by the similarities between the dot patterns of printed images and grains of sand, and looked at the sky as a perplexing two-dimensional image.

Image: Kyle Seis, Untitled (from The Surface of a Stone is Always in Motion), Archival pigment print, 20" x 16"

RHS: Do you feel that social media has an impact on your artistic practice or process? If yes, how so?

KS: I don’t know that social media has had a direct impact on my work or process, but I enjoy being able to share little experiments that might not be seen otherwise and I love being able to keep up with other artists in the same way.

RHS: Are your images inspired by memories or stories or something else?

KS: More than anything, my work is influenced by small moments of awe. I spend a lot of time observing nature and I often leave with loose ideas/prompts for images or titles for images that are already in progress.

Image: Kyle Seis, Transition (from Sky Studies), Archival pigment print, 22" x 30"

RHS: What artists are you looking at currently?

KS: Some current favorites are Letha Wilson, Miriam H. Nielsen, Inka & Niklas, Adam Jeppesen, and Roxana Azar.

RHS: At present, are you working on any upcoming projects or exhibitions?

KS: I am not working on anything too specific at the moment. I’m primarily looking for ways to continue experimenting with the scanner to make images, and I’m also revisiting old bits of writing for ideas to play with. Hopefully soon I’ll have some shows and/or collaborative projects fall into place!

Artist Bio:
Kyle Seis earned his BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2014, and has been the recipient of a Mary L. Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists and a Mary L. Nohl Suitcase Export Fund grant. His work has been shown in galleries and institutions such as the Milwaukee Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI), INOVA (Milwaukee, WI), the Museum of Wisconsin Art (West Bend, WI), The Alice Wilds (Milwaukee, WI), Osnova Gallery (Moscow, RU) Filter Photo Space (Chicago, IL), Skylab Gallery (Columbus, OH), Neon Heater Gallery (Findlay, OH), Dateline (Denver, CO), and NOISE (Bloomington, IN). He ran Wavepool (2014-2017), a blog dedicated to interviewing artists that use photography in their practice, and co-organized Carpool (2015-2017), a series of weekend-long experimental residencies/exhibitions in Milwaukee and Chicago. In addition, he ran Chamber (2015-2017, 2019-2020), a basement gallery space in Milwaukee. 

Find more of Kyle’s work on his website and Instagram.

Artdose Magazine: Vol. 30

Articles featured in Artdose Magazine in print and online.

Arts + Literature Laboratory

Madison, WI
The Arts + Literature Laboratory (ALL) is situated between co-working spaces, business incubators, and tech start-up companies in a newly renovated area of Madison that was once industrial wasteland but is now becoming an arts and culture hub. Art Lit Lab, as it’s known by community members, is housed in an industrial space shared by a brand new parking garage. ALL is focused on building connections between visual, literary, and performing arts through community-driven practices and programming. 

Collaboration is at the heart of ALL’s mission. In fact, the space actually began in New Haven, CT through partnerships with various collectives, poets, and artists who shared a similar interest in connecting writing with visual arts. In 2015, co-founder Jolynne Roorda relaunched the project in Madison, WI. What began as an artist and volunteer-run project quickly blossomed into a space that hosted about 200 events per year, including exhibitions, performances, screenings, readings, workshops, and classes. Shortly after the move to Madison, ALL incorporated as a non-profit entity in efforts to create a professional, sustainable operations model.

In order to continue growing and meet community needs, Art Lit Lab moved to a new location on Livingston Street in summer 2020 due to a simple need for more space. While both the physical space itself and the structure of the business have been reformed since its inception, Art Lit Lab remains an accessible and inviting environment that hasn’t lost its grassroots charm. With a background in chemistry and sculpture, Jolynne wanted the name to carry a scientific feeling; “Laboratory” invites the idea of experimentation and play. The acronym, ALL, reinforces the organization’s dedication to inclusivity – fostering a space that provides opportunities for artists and community members of all different disciplines, ages, and backgrounds and prioritizing access for groups of people that have been historically marginalized.  

Galleries during exhibitions by Lelia Byron (Tierra de Mujer) and Sylvie Rosenthal (Slip, Spill, Fold: Changing Shapes of Meaning). Image courtesy of Art Lit Lab.

Now, the three-story space has dedicated artist studios, education classrooms, multiple gallery spaces, a library, and the ability to transform large open areas into performance or screening spaces with sky-high rotating walls that open or close depending on the needs of any given program. The library is situated in a cozy mezzanine space that overlooks the main gallery on the first floor, where pedestrians can peer through the floor-to-ceiling windows to get a sneak peek. 

ALL also focuses heavily on partnerships with local artists, businesses, schools, and institutions to bring access and equity to arts education in Madison by working with teaching artists and youth on various outreach efforts. Volunteers and community members work as part of programmatic teams to decide what types of events are scheduled in the space, and proposals for future events from artists, musicians, and writers are welcome.

Art Lit Lab has cultivated culturally beneficial programming by supporting local artists, creating access to youth education, and strengthening professional resources for artists, writers, performers, and musicians. With this clear set of goals, ALL will continue to grow in their new space and bring meaningful programming to the Madison community and beyond for many years to come. 

Night Births in the Laboratory by Emma Pryde, 2020 ALL Prize Recipient. Image courtesy of Art Lit Lab.

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Supreme Tones: The Fabric Portraits by Rosy Petri. Image courtesy of Rachel Hausmann Schall.

Mahogany Gallery

Racine, WI

Artist, gallery director, and Racine native Scott Terry opened Mahogany Gallery at its new location during one of the most memorable and difficult times in recent history. Despite this, the COVID pandemic has not hindered the success of this community gallery space and bookstore. With a street presence on Washington Avenue in Racine’s Uptown neighborhood, Mahogany Gallery’s home is a newly renovated building amongst many other vacancies in the area. An open-concept space greets visitors upon entrance, with a wall of bookshelves, a small shop, and a welcoming sitting area. The gallery extends towards the back of the space, leaving ample room to display works from contemporary artists. Ready for a change after Mahogany’s first location in Kenosha, Scott Terry was eager to take the opportunity to bring his gallery to Racine and make an impact in his hometown. With the goal of supporting Black American artists, Mahogany Gallery hopes to connect artists to new potential collectors, provide artists with exposure, and educate the community. 

As an artist himself, Scott experienced frustrations in the early years of his career when attempting to find gallery representation and found he wasn’t alone in that regard, so he started thinking about how he could make that experience different for artists. Three years ago, after a very successful art fundraiser which supported young, Black men and national artists alike, Scott truly understood that art had the power to invoke change. This fueled his inspiration to open Mahogany Gallery; he knew he could use the space to make an impact on the careers of Black American artists. As the only Black-owned and operated gallery space sitting south of Milwaukee and north of Chicago, Scott is interested in giving back to his community through highlighting the voices of Black creators by bringing visibility and an audience to their work. The name “Mahogany” connects subtly to Black culture while referencing the raw materials associated with the process of creation. 

Supreme Tones: The Fabric Portraits by Rosy Petri. Image courtesy of Rachel Hausmann Schall.

Supreme Tones, an exhibition of work by artist Rosy Petri, was the first official solo show at Mahogany Gallery’s new location in Racine. In addition to hosting exhibitions, Mahogany also hosts private events, community painting nights, musical performances, and offers artist-made goods for sale. The gallery implements additional programming for each exhibition, like the unveiling of new work, an artist talk, or other events that may complement each show. The bookstore features titles about social justice, race, children’s books, and publications written by Black authors which are also available for purchase on their website. Educating the community about issues surrounding race in America pairs nicely with Mahogany’s Gallery’s mission of uplifting the voices of Black American artists through exhibitions. 

Mahogany Gallery is clearly making an impact and will continue to do so through their future programming by celebrating Black creators and educating the community about the history and culture of these individuals.

Supreme Tones: The Fabric Portraits by Rosy Petri. Image courtesy of Rachel Hausmann Schall.

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Ephemeral Embrace by Bill Mitchell December 2019-January 2020. Image courtesy of Rountree Gallery

Rountree Gallery

Platteville, WI

With a rich 41-year history, Rountree Gallery has been an active part of the Platteville art community for years. The gallery was originally founded in 1979 by UW-Platteville art student Robert Terrell as part of his senior project to connect art and community. Now, not far from the University, Rountree is located in a huge, three-story historic building on Main Street that boasts over 2700 square feet on each of its levels and holds ample potential. At the beginning of its life, the gallery was housed in a city-owned building when it was taken over and funded by the city of Platteville. From there, the space moved to Platteville Public Library after the city cut funding for the gallery and they were forced to find a new location. With storefront windows and a back exit that opens directly to a city park gazebo, Rountree’s new location is highly visible, welcoming, and approachable in the community. 

Bill Mitchell, an artist and designer, became involved with the gallery about 4 years ago, after moving to Platteville from Chicago. Bill holds an MFA from Northern Illinois University as well as years of gallery experience. Operating as the gallery director, Bill, along with a small board of community members and volunteers, have taken over managing and operating Rountree. Through memberships, donations, and a non-profit structure, Rountree lives on after the recent transition of ownership from the city. Bill and his wife Angie purchased the historic building downtown that was once a hardware store and now rents the space to the gallery for a nominal fee. Bill and the team at Rountree hope to build up programming by nurturing the space as a creative center and developing a sustainable funding model so the gallery can continue to remain open into perpetuity. Bill knew that Platteville was in need of a professional gallery space for artists to show work, and Rountree’s new location has become just that. Encouraging involvement from younger local artists is also something the gallery hopes to amp up by creating resources for recent college graduates. The space itself continues to undergo renovations and updates, with future hopes to provide 24-hour studio access for artists, one more way Rountree can connect to the local community and continue to “create, appreciate, and educate” as part of their mission.

Connecting Distances curated by Mary Bergs September-October 2020. Image courtesy of Rountree Gallery.

Rountree currently holds about 8 exhibitions a year in addition to classes, events, and other additional programming that include not only visual artists, but performers, authors, educators, and other creators as well. The gallery has also partnered with Platteville High School annually to exhibit the work of K-12 artists. With community in mind, Bill is anxious to extend the programming and opportunities at Rountree to a wider audience, seeing the potential to continue collaborations with various types of creators and entertaining proposals from artists around the state and country. Rountree hopes to bring new eyes to Platteville and promote the vibrant arts community there through the gallery’s work. 

Connecting Distances curated by Mary Bergs September-October 2020. Image courtesy of Rountree Gallery.