Text in Art, press release

John Tyson: Silencio

Andrew Whitver: Only Queens

Anne Kingsbury: Lists

M Winston: Future Collection

Reception: May 1, 5 to 8 p.m.

Performance of lists, 7 p.m.

Through June 8, 2026

PSG is excited to present a new exhibition of text-related art work by John Tyson, Andrew Whitver, and Anne Kingsbury. Thematically linked by the integration of words, art, and daily life, these three projects function as related but independent solo projects.

In addition, the Adjacent Gallery will showcase miniature houses and abstract landscape paintings by M Winston.

Reception on Friday, May 1, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Snacks, drinks, and a list performance at 7 p.m.

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John Tyson (b. 1958) was included in PSG’s project Art Against The Odds, a survey of art created in Wisconsin prisons that opened at MIAD in 2023 and continues to tour. While incarcerated, Tyson began making graphite drawings. One series comprised 365 pen-and-ink circles on 8.5 x 10-inch paper, each signifying a day of the year during which he was treated for cancer while in prison. He later expanded his practice into text-based graphite works presenting quotations from well-known figures and friends.

A collector of art, furniture, and artifacts, Tyson also gathers and collects word fragments, transforming them into visual form through a process of layering and scumbling marks and patterns. He uses stencils to render text, allowing these phrases to float within graphite fields. Each poster-like work becomes an act of devotion, care, and shared reflection. The exhibition presents a range of Tyson’s work made both during his incarceration and since his release eight years ago.

Tyson notes that although he began writing poetry at a young age, discovering artists such as John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, Mel Bochner, Jesse Howard, Ted Berrigan, and Alice Notley deepened his connection to the interplay of line, word, image, and text.He reflects, “John Lewis wrote, ‘Never give up, never give in’—six words. Think of your words, the least favorite. Why? What do they tell you about the world—your world?”

Andrew Whitver, (b. 1964) whose hand-felted sweaters are presented in the south gallery, moved to Milwaukee from Spokane three years ago with his partner, Kevin Brannaman. An artist, activist, former gallerist, curator, and arts commissioner, Whitver first began wearing political and statement clothing in the late 1980s while working with AIDS advocacy and awareness groups. After receiving strongly mixed reactions to his “Safe Sex is Hot Sex” shirt, he recognized the power of the T-shirt as a medium.

Andrew Whitver, No Kings sweater, 2026

During his two decades of involvement with PrideFest, Whitver wore queer-themed shirts as a form of participation in community, advocacy, and visibility. When American politics grew increasingly polarized, he turned again to wearable protest, creating hand-felted sweaters.

Each of the five sweaters on view presents bold, colorful words—strong statements expressed in soft, tactile materials—at once potent and tender.

M. Winston (b. 1964) will be released from prison in September 2026 after serving 28 years. He creates miniature paintings that exist somewhere between abstraction and landscape. He also constructs small houses out of paper, his own paintings, and scraps found within the prison environment.

This exhibition, Future Collection, features recent work and introduces a new material that was unavailable in his prior, higher-security facility: cardboard. Winston’s new houses are complex, multi-story dwellings painted in deep blues and oranges reminiscent of sky and sunset. When he incorporates his own paintings into the walls or surrounding grounds, the merging of home and world seems to mirror the gated confinement and compression of prison life.

A practicing Buddhist, Winston brings quiet, attentive care to each work—as if every material, no matter how humble, carries a sense of reverence, preciousness, and grace.

Anne Kingsbury (b. 1943), with her partner Karl Gartung, co-founded Woodland Pattern Book Center, which she directed for forty years. She is also an artist who has quietly sustained a mixed-media art practice throughout her life. After moving from Nebraska to teach at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and then opening Woodland Pattern in 1979, Kingsbury found her time for art increasingly limited.

“During times when it was difficult to make art, journal pages became a lifeline for documenting what I could and did do,” she recalls. “These were small activities to start a day, defined by a timer set for five minutes—get dressed, brush fangs, comb hairs, do dishes, take out trash. Tasks that could stop when the timer went off. This was not a series of to-dos or exciting events, but a testament to the ordinary.”

Kingsbury retired from Woodland Pattern in early 2018 but continues to keep lists in journals. On view at Portrait Society is one sketchbook representing several years of her graphic lists of timed daily activities, alongside five offset prints of sketchbook pages, each presented in an edition of five.

John Tyson, Whitman, 2026.
Graphite on paper

Andrew Whitver, No Kings sweater, 2026

John Tyson, work from Silencio series, 2025-2026. Graphite on paper.