"Shift" by Tamara Brantmeier

Tamara Brantmeier, UW-Stout’s program director and associate professor of art and design, snagged top honors at the Wisconsin Artists Biennial for her impressive 4-foot by 5-foot oil painting entitled “Shift.” 

The Wisconsin Artists Biennial — a fine arts competition open to the state’s visual artists — boasted over 400 submitted works. 83 artists had their selections chosen to appear at the biennial exhibition at Anderson Arts Center in Kenosha. This is where Brantmeier’s winning piece will be displayed, until August 7. 

Ellen Lanyon, a well-known artist (based primarily out of NYC and Chicago) and one of the jurors for the competition, stated that Brantmeier’s piece was “the most accomplished and imaginative.”

"Shift", which is part of a series, reflects Brantmeier's “transition into parenthood and all the layers of complexity that come with that new identity.” Emotions not easily captured in a painting, but the jurors felt she did just that.

As a professor at UW-Stout for nine years, a resident of Menomonie, Brantmeier was honored to have been able to surround herself with "such a wide range of talented regional artists."