Hotcakes Galley in Riverwest will close for the month of December to protest "the spread of bad public art," said owner Mike Brenner in a statement on Tuesday.
"Greg Euclide (who grew up in Milwaukee) and I, decided it would be best to reschedule his upcoming show and close Hotcakes for all of December," Brenner wrote in an e-mail. "As a form of silent protest Hotcakes Gallery will go dark from now until January 18. Closing for the busiest part of the retail year, Hotcakes owner, Mike Brenner, is putting his money where his mouth is, to do whatever he can to stop the spread of bad public art.
"Euclide's show will instead open in June, following his show at Mass MOCA."
Last week, Brenner turned heads with a statement saying he'd quit his post with Milwaukee Artist Resource Network -- which he co-founded -- close his Riverwest Gallery and leave Milwaukee if Visit Milwaukee went ahead with its plan to erect a bronze monument to the "Fonzie" character from television's "Happy Days."
Shortly after, a number of other protests -- including one from outgoing Milwaukee Art Museum director David Gordon -- followed.
Visit Milwaukee's Dave Fantle responded to Brenner's initial statement with an offer to discuss the matter. According to the gallery owner, who is in Miami for an art event, the two will meet when Brenner returns to Milwaukee .
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
