Wisconsin Life

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Life is full of layers.

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Fatima Laster

My art is usually absence of form, so that falls in the category of abstraction. I do more gestural work, and so it's about movement and color.

Angela

Stripping away one layer to get to the next. People really have to get comfortable, with being uncomfortable, without being told what the piece really is. Until finally revealing what's hidden within. There's many layers that are hidden in the work. You know, you have to really study it and look at it to appreciate it.

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Angela

Fatima Laster did just that when she purchased this abandoned building in 2018.

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Angela

Prior to now, the space was built in the 1920s, and it's always been a funeral home. Most people current day know it as a black-owned funeral service facility. And transformed it into an art gallery. I wanted to make it a very communal space and share a space with other artists with a mission and focus of highlighting artists of color and other marginalized artists who still have under-representation issues in our industry at large. Located on the north side of Milwaukee in the Five-Points neighborhood, buying the building was an opportunity to give back to the community Fatima grew up in. This is my childhood neighborhood, and it's a conscious reinvestment in that. When you look at fine art-- which this is a fine art space-- you're going elsewhere. You're going downtown. You're going to the suburbs. You're going to another city. You're going to another country. And so, I sought to make this place as like a globally-appreciated space that you have immediate access to. The gallery allows her to display underrepresented forms of art.

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Angela

So I might gravitate what to some people might call "weird," but I show the range. I've done attractions; I've done realism; I've done sculptures. Support from the community has helped fuel the project. And I got a lot of support through everyone who came through this space and they liked and appreciated the new use.

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Angela

Fatima's been stripping away misperceptions of art her whole life. And so, we just try to create a new experience and a new concept of what art and art-making is and what is considered art for the space. So, then, there should be something for everyone. And revealing the value hidden within. So, this was the goal. I feel accomplished with this. And it's just allowed me, you know, evolve from here and grow from here like I want to.

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