Gallery Night MKE: Art as Memory, Healing and Power

ALL IMAGES BY Brooklyn “BK” Anderson /CW INTERN

Four local artists transformed the CopyWrite [/CW] Creative Studios on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive into a vibrant showcase of personal narratives and community connection during Gallery Night MKE, held Friday and Saturday, July 18-19, 2025. 

The two-day event brought together diverse voices through the work of Vedale  Hill Jr., Vedale Hill, Kennedi Adamas, and Ariana Petrie, each presenting deeply personal pieces that resonated with themes of identity, healing, and resilience. The work is a part of their placement in THE  CREATIVE COLLAB | Bronzeville Artist-in-Residency Mentor Program.

Vedale Hill Jr., 13, presented “A Kid’s Place,” including a carpet art installation that transformed a Paw Patrol map into a memory collection using toy cars from different periods of his life. The interactive piece included personal elements like his silhouette and a "Cotton Candy Dripping Sunset" design referencing Milwaukee's notorious nightfall. The teenage artist even collaborated with his father, who added a heart and logo to a building in the piece. 

“I choose to use art as a memory,” Hill Jr. said. “Art is something that can remind you of some of the best things in your life,” he added, expressing pride in his artistic evolution from childhood and what it will be in the future. 

Vedale Hill, one of THE CREATIVE COLLAB mentors, exhibited “Lost and Found”, embodying his philosophy of repurposing materials. The father-son duo's shared artistic presence highlighted how creative expression transcends generations, with both Vedales contributing distinct yet connected perspectives to the exhibition. Using a terry cloth cape and a pallet with gold basketball rims as an infinity symbol, Hill addresses the representation gap in superhero imagery, which encourages him to reimagine characters with locs, curly hair, and tattoos. His work draws connections between sports culture and community empowerment, citing basketball players and rappers as real-life heroes in urban communities.

For this piece, Hill's motivation stems from Big Sean's lyrics: “No heroes where I'm from, bullets  only things flying,” which inspired his two-dimensional painting work featuring a bullet flying in a cape. 

Kennedi Adams, 25, showcased “The Zone”, square journals that serve as both artistic expression and mental health coping mechanisms, large scale multicavas, and other symbolic visual artifacts. The mixed media art pieces evolved from word-only entries to visual explorations of trauma, racial identity, and personal growth. The journals originated from fears of losing artistic motivation in art school and function as what Kennedi describes as a  “filtration system” for overwhelming thoughts related to complex CPTSD. 

"Someone told me that you lose all motivation from personal art," Kennedi said, flipping through the creatively cluttered pages of her journals. "My thought became this void that would get sucked in and regurgitated. It was forcing me to  confront it, and I could confront them in my head as much as I wanted to, but being  able to watch that growth in myself and that this art is something that I did for  myself and by myself, that was great." 

Ariana Pierre, 21, presented "The Curious Mind," centered around her major piece  "Curiosity," which shows self-portraits of herself at age 2. For the first time, Pierre integrated her twin children's handprints into her artwork, driven by her desire to provide them a better childhood than she experienced. Her work explores healing the inner child through art as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma. 

“I want to make little me proud and honor childhood dreams,” Pierre said,  explaining how her artwork shows darkness fighting against colorful elements representing resilience and the loss of childlike innocence. 

All in all, gallery visitors engaged with pieces that tackled complex themes of mental health, racial identity, childhood trauma, and community representation.  The artists' willingness to share personal narratives through their work created connections between creators and those who came to indulge. 

/CW Creative Studios highlighted Milwaukee's budding artist community, showcasing how personal storytelling through art can foster broader conversations about healing, identity, and social connection. Each piece served as both individual expression and community dialogue, demonstrating that art's power to bridge personal experience with collective understanding can bring people together.

Sky Abner for /CW