MADISON MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 215 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BLVD., 1ST FLOOR
EXHIBITION HOURS M-F 7:00-5:00, S 8:00-12:00, CLOSED SUNDAY

The lobby of the Madison Municipal Building will feature the artwork of Peter Carlson for the months of May and June. Carlson is a self-taught artist who has been painting for the last 9 years. Coming from outside the professional and academic art world, he has worked very hard to form his ideas about art, bringing personal history in tow. Carlson grew up on an island in South East Alaska with people who made their livings on fishing boats and in sawmills. He grew up listening to their stories, and his work comes from the same narrative tradition.

His exhibition, Public Works, contains 12 narrative paintings that reveal subtle clues about the interpersonal and intrapersonal dramas of unprepossessing representatives of the public. Instead of dismissing quotidian reality as banal subject matter, Carlson's composition's cast the everyday with a mysterious allure. His work will be on view in the Madison Municipal Building from May 1 through June 29, 2007.

The Madison Arts Commission's ARTspace program is open to all Madison visual artists who would like to showcase original two-dimensional works in highly utilized city spaces.