Brandon Minga
Milwaukee Rising
Milwaukee Rising was created to welcome people into Milwaukee and specifically Baird Center. With modern Milwaukee rising out of the past through its heavy metal and industrial trades the piece looks towards the city’s future being built on the strong backs of the people who made it the machine shop of the world.
Milwaukee Rising features a depiction of the Mackie Building, which served as the city’s first chamber of commerce and the name Milwaukee as depicted in the Sanborn Map that has become a recognizable symbol of the city.
The piece was printed on textured canvas like material to create light diffusion and then installed like wallpaper.
Invisible Score
Invisible Score is a time travelling piece that uses early maps of Milwaukee to illustrate the boom in industry and the city’s early music scene that helped create Milwaukee’s culture and vibe. It pays homage to the special things that make Milwaukee a one-of-a-kind community and such a welcoming place for transplants and visitors.
Invisible Score features illustrations of the old Blatz Brewery and the Allen Bradley clock tower among other Milwaukee landmarks.
Installed like wallpaper, Invisible Score was printed on textured, canvas like material to create light diffusion.,
Radiant Horizon
Radiant Horizon was inspired by the immense potential within Milwaukee. With the backdrop of the city’s original event center, the piece looks back at Milwaukee’s past and the hope its early residents had for the community interwoven with the positive momentum that finds Milwaukee growing, improving and gaining a reputation as one of the best cities in the country.
Radiant Horizon combines the industrial trades that helped build the city and is still present today with elements of the natural beauty found in Milwaukee and the surrounding area.
Northern Lights
Brandon Minga designed Northern Lights to help evoke a sense of calm and tranquility. It contains a dreamy landscape of the stars and sky combined with the grandeur of Wisconsin’s pines. Viewers can imagine themselves outside at night in Northern Wisconsin looking at the sky and engulfed in the nature surrounding them.
Northern Lights was printed on textured canvas like material to create light diffusion and then installed like wallpaper.
Ethos
Ethos was designed to integrate the pride that the Wisconsin Center District (WCD) staff have in themselves, their work and the community where they live. It contains representations of the three WCD venues mixed with the music, entertainment and connections that take place within the venues. It is a testament to the WCD’s Be Bold. Be Proud. Be Experience Obsessed., commitment to themselves and their guests.
Ethos was printed on textured canvas like material to create light diffusion and then installed like wallpaper.
Metro Symphony
Metro Symphony was designed to integrate the movement of people up and down the escalators. It is an impactful representation of the past, the present and the future. It evokes the feeling of floating and vibration of Milwaukee’s diverse music and people that radiates throughout the city.
Viewers should experience the feeling of weightlessness and the wonder of having grounded and heavy items like buildings being lighter than air.
Metro Symphony was printed on textured canvas like material to create light diffusion and then installed like wallpaper.
The Town Sextet
The last of the seven pieces designed for Baird Center, The Town Sextet is an ethereal reflection of the moments and touchstones that had mad Milwaukee. The six pieces were created to be combined for one integrated experience. The colors were chosen to create a dreamy effect where the viewer can hover between the past, present and future of Milwaukee.
The steel frames were designed to look riveted, representing the many bridges of Milwaukee. Incorporating Milwaukee’s hotrod culture is a tip of the hat to the old American Motors assembly and distribution plant that employed many Milwaukeeans for several decades.
All the pieces that make up The Town Sextet show Milwaukee’s industrial history and music scene with Brandon Minga’s interpretation of how they blended together.
About Brandon Minga
Brandon Minga is a multidisciplinary artist from Kenosha, Wisconsin. He is currently the creator and a resident artist of the House of RAD (Resident Artist Doers) in Milwaukee. In addition to his own practice, Minga owns and operates a small agency, the Mingadigm specializing in branding, identities, interiors, murals, sculpture and commissioned art.
Minga gravitated to art as a child, always drawing, inking and coloring. But it was as a student at Mary E. Bradford High School that he realized art was his career calling. After graduating from MIAD, he worked as a commercial illustrator for Kohler and as the Art Director for Kohls before leaving to become a full-time independent artist. His current focus is mixed media collage and assemblage. He also works in sculptures welding and milled steel.
His work has been exhibited throughout Wisconsin and showcased nationally and internationally. He was chosen to create works for the Black Cat Alley public art space, Fiserv Forum, the Black Holocaust Museum and the Uptown Crossings Pocket Park where his piece “Together Feathers” received the 2020 Mayor’s Design Award and has been a two-time finalist in the Pfister Hotel Artist in Residency program.
Minga received his BA in Fine Art Illustration from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) and has served there as a guest instructor.
