Flagship Madison museum features exhibition by FYE faculty

The First-Year Experience (FYE) at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) blends contemporary and traditional techniques, an approach embraced by FYE faculty David R. Harper in Good Morning Sweetheart, a solo exhibition on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) through August 30, 2026.

“This exhibition is a mix of older work and new works that mainly deal with themes of stillness, sleep, dreaming and ideation, and longing,” says Harper. “Paul Baker, the director at MMoCA and curator of this exhibition, wanted a sort of survey exhibition, so we focused on those themes, which are pretty prominent in my work, and also on works that tie together through certain material strategies. The oldest work in the show is from 2018, and the most recent works are from this year.”

As described by MMoCA, “Good Morning Sweetheart brings together sculpture, textiles, ceramics, stained glass and found imagery to explore how memory takes shape in objects. Couches, perfume bottles, motel soaps, detergents, birds, flowers, fragments of figurative sculpture and everyday household items appear throughout the exhibition. Familiar at first glance, these things are carefully handmade, altered and recombined – becoming intimate, uncanny and quietly charged.”

David R. Harper, “Holders, Crutches,” 2016.

“I always try to encourage material and conceptual exploration with my students,” Harper says. “It’s important to think expansively – even if they have favorite materials and ways of working. I work with a lot of students that have material and multidisciplinary interests similar to my own, but I also encourage engagement with students of all disciplines.”

Yet Harper continues, “I like to focus on students’ work when we are working together. I try to use my experiences from my work outside of the school to help them gain understanding on what it’s like to have a rigorous studio practice and build exhibitions.”

This summer, says Harper, “I am a 2025/ 2026 Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. May through June I will be working on my research at SAAM and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.”

As part of Good Morning Sweetheart, Harper presented the 2026 Stephen Fleischman Lecture in April. The exhibit is also part of MMoCA’s 125th Anniversary Party and Spring Exhibition Celebration on June 4, 2026, 5 – 9 p.m.

Learn more about David R. Harper on his website; read about Good Morning Sweetheart in The Cap Times; and explore MIAD’s First-Year Experience.