No Instructions, a new art gallery in Bay View, is the product of a lifelong dream of first-time gallery owner James Stepanek.
The gallery serves as a platform for emerging and well-known artists in the Milwaukee area and beyond. With over 30 years of design and marketing experience and a studio arts degree from Kent State University, Stepanek brings a one-of-a-kind artistic and curatorial style to the gallery.
Stepanek had been casually browsing for a space to create his own art over the years, but felt this mustard colored brick building – now housing No Instructions – had a different purpose.
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“It was a storefront near home in a vibrant and creative neighborhood, and a blank slate to make into anything I wanted it to be,” Stepanek said. “I am a lover of painting and the timing was right.”
Each freshly painted wall of the gallery is adorned with canvases of colorful brushstrokes and deliberate chaos. Stepanek compliments the art with equally eccentric music by Altın Gün, a Dutch-Turkish psychedelic rock band.
The gallery has two old silver radiators on either side of the room that Stepanek hoped to incorporate into the name and call it Radiator Gallery, but another gallery beat him to it: “It turns out there are a lot of galleries out there,” Stepanek joked.
It took a couple dead ends and redirections to finally settle on the current name of the gallery, No Instructions, and it couldn’t be more appropriate.
“No Instructions fit my situation in that I was going into this field blind to be honest,” Stepanek said. “At the same time, the name reflects a philosophy when it comes to art-making. I plan on bringing in artists who are not playing anything safe or necessarily following any instructions.”
Prior to Stepanek’s gallery, the space belonged to a tenant who ran a bookstore out of it. Oddly enough it was called Gallery Bookstore – a sweet foreshadow of what was to come of the storefront.
The hardest part about opening the gallery? Dealing with the floors, Stepanek said. “There was quite a history under each layer of linoleum,” Stepanek said. “It was a lot of learning about different tools, how to sand a floor and how to just do a lot of new things I haven’t done before.”
Together, Stepanek, his friends and artists in the community lent a hand to transform the gallery into what it is today. “The arts community is very tight-knit,” Stepanek said. “I got a lot of help from a lot of people.”
Stepanek has always been a frequenter of local galleries in the city, but starting his own meant making connections with other gallery owners as well as artists to exhibit their work at No Instructions.
“Once I got the space – and this sounds really, really basic – I literally searched ‘abstract painting Milwaukee’ on Instagram and started following artists,” Stepanek said. “Shane Walsh was one of the first artists I reached out to. We met for coffee and from that conversation the current show was formed.”
Stepanek made it a point to also thank Shane McAdams, the artist and curator who runs Real Tinsel gallery along with artist Keith Nelson for making his emergence into the art community so pleasant.
“Shane welcomed me to the Milwaukee gallery scene with open arms and helped me immensely on the business side and introduced me to people who are making things happen around town,” Stepanek said. “So really, it was ‘Shane and Shane.’”
Being in an arts program during his college years was the basis for everything, according to Stepanek. “Whether you’re in a major city or a smaller town, dedicating your education to the act of creating – that is a bold decision – and I was surrounded by real pioneers,” Stepanek said.
It was also during his college years that Stepanek was introduced to, and heavily influenced by, the new wave of expressionism happening overseas in Europe. “So, this is when I fell in love with painting,” Stepanek said.
As far as the future of selecting which artists to showcase in his own gallery, Stepanek is taking it day-by-day and continually talking about new, exciting ideas.
“My first love is abstract painting, so that is my area of knowledge and what I am passionate about,” Stepanek said. “But I am starting to meet so many immensely-talented artists each with such unique perspectives. I look forward to really mixing it up and bringing in some very unique shows.”
Stepanek loves that his gallery is able to bring another cultural activity to his neighborhood in the lower part of Bay View and hopes that his neighbors, and those part of the greater Milwaukee area, look forward to what art will be displayed in the gallery next.
“Art to me is transformative and I hope that folks take away the same feeling I have always gotten when seeing new exciting work,” Stepanek said. “I want it to be an intimate experience really, but one that can also be a shared experience.”
No Instructions is located at 2124 E. Rusk Avenue, Milwaukee, WI and is open Friday from noon-5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. during exhibits.
Milwaukee-based artist and UWM professor Shane Walsh’s exhibition, “No Pickles,” is on display through July 4. For more information about the gallery, visit www.noinstructs.com.
