Select Page

Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition: Noah Teague

Noah Teague next to a painting of a green house with a collage of images of Black women in the foreground

Noah Teague, “A Home is Not Held Together by Plywood,” 2023

Although the show is only up for a few more days, the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design remains a gem in the institution. Noah Teague ’25 (Communication Design), one of the 14 students showing work, explains his multimedia collages and creative philosophy.

Teague created “A Home is Not Held Together by Plywood” in several stages following a trip to New York during his senior year of high school where he was hired to photograph a band from Chicago. The mixed media work features an intentionally partially-finished painting of a house behind a collaged foreground of Black women. “Every time we walked outside, we would stop at this house,” he explains. “It really stood out to me because it had a really nice green hue to it that was very calming … you could feel there was a family and people who had lived a full life inside this house.”

Although he created the house painting well before the exhibition, Teague added the collaged images of women a few weeks before submitting the work to reflect his own changed perspectives and narratives on community and home. “I wanted to talk about Black women and give them the spotlight,” he says. The community of women intentionally represent a widely varied spectrum of African-American and African experiences. “I wanted to show how broad the African diaspora can be,” explains Teague.

A multidisciplinary artist, Teague works in graphic design, painting, collage, photography, ceramics, furniture-making: “Anything that I can get my hands on, I’ll take on,” he laughs. Even though he originally planned to study fine art, Teague ultimately decided to pursue Communication Design. “At the end of the day, it’s all just a way of spreading knowledge or explaining an idea,” he says. Teague applies Communication Design philosophy to the rest of his artistic practice, finding that it “makes design a little more accessible to everybody.”

In his artistic practice, Teague explores African diaspora and African-American culture. Reflecting on how each of his making methods informs the other, Teague notes that “each piece can be put together to form a larger picture and communicate the reasoning behind why we do what we do.” In his current favorite class on erratic art, Teague appreciates the flexibility of assignments and the encouragement to “access parts of our artistic abilities that we wouldn’t otherwise access in other classes … It’s been fun to find ways to break out of what they want us to do [in Communication Design] and be able to insert my own ideas.”

While the Black Art & Design Juried Student Exhibition is only up through March 1 in MIAD’s Community Hub (room 160), keep up with Noah on Instagram and learn more about MIAD’s Communication Design major!

News

MIAD Sculpture Lab pushes senior’s ‘boundaries of creation’

The transformation of molten metal to solid metal and the opportunity to “experiment and push the boundaries of creation” in the Sculpture Lab at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) have always filled senior Caroline Calvano with “amazement and inspiration.”

MIAD Illustration senior weaves Chinese and Western fashion

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design senior YongXue Hayden (Illustration) believes that “creatives are always the trendsetters of the world. So, in 50 years, I’m sure art and design students will be up on the coolest new tech, fashion trends and latest entertainment.”

MIAD senior’s passion for residential design becomes a career

Sebastian Wohlt’s passion for rearranging the furniture in his childhood bedroom, and occasionally painting a wall, became a major in Interior Architecture and Design – and a professional goal of residential design – at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).

Bucks partnership with MIAD a slam dunk for Black History Month

When the Milwaukee Bucks chose Black Excellence in the Arts as the theme for their Black History Month game in February, it was natural to continue their ongoing partnerships with MIAD by reaching out to the college for a live art piece to be created at Fiserv Forum.

Two MIAD students finalists for Grilled Cheese Grant

The ninth annual Grilled Cheese Grant finalists include two Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) students: Stella Kowalski ’24 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice, Illustration) and Makenna Schibler ’25 (Fine Art + NSP). They are two of five finalists who are in the running for the crowd-funded grant.

IMPORTANT DATES

Ongoing
Accepting applications for Fall 2024
Apply now!

December 31, 2023
FAFSA available for 2024-25 school year
Use MIAD's school code: 014203

April 27, 2024
Admitted Students Day

June 1, 2024
Tuition Deposit Deadline
*extended
Pay your tuition deposit