Madison artist Matthew Braunginn is one of six artists taking part in Artdose Magazine’s emerging artists program this upcoming weekend in collaboration with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in downtown Sheboygan. The 3-day event this weekend brings together a new cohort of emerging artists for professional development, support, networking, and camaraderie during the 56th annual Midsummer Festival of the Arts.
“I’m really looking forward to the weekend and having more time together with my cohort,” Braunginn tells Madison365. “It’s gonna be one of those intense three-day weekends, kind of like a summer camp, where you just bond with folks really fast and intensely just being in a tight space and constantly working on this work.”
Earlier this year, Artdose Magazine announced the 2026 Emerging Artists Program Cohort that included Braunginn, Amanda Langer (Jefferson), Jade Pergl (Milwaukee), Brianna Stehling Santacruz (Milwaukee), and Cassandra Xiong (Wausau). R-Lo, a self-taught emerging artist from Madison, will return for the event as a mentor. The emerging artist cohort will have its own section at the Arts Center’s downtown Sheboygan facility, which includes eight galleries, two performance spaces, a café, a museum shop, and a drop-in art-making studio.
“We’re curating our own corner of the show within the Matrix [space at John Michael Kohler Arts Center], so it’s going to be interesting to see how it all comes together, because we definitely had some things in mind that we all kind of had to go back and then work on our own [artwork] and then see how it all fits together,” Braunginn says.
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) is known for promoting the understanding and appreciation of the work of self-taught and contemporary artists through exhibitions and commissioned works of art. Founded in 1967, JMKAC has preserved, studied, and exhibited artist-built environments, earning a worldwide reputation.
“So this is in partnership with Artdose Magazine, published by Frank Juarez, and he’s been doing this in partnership with the John Michael Kohler Art Center for the fourth or fifth year as a way to uplift underrepresented artists in Wisconsin, and kind of give them space to create,” Braunginn says. Juárez is an award-winning art educator, curator, and arts advocate based in Sheboygan and is currently the art department chair at Sheboygan North High School, along with being the publisher of Artdose Magazine. “They bring in folks that are interested in buying art, but it’s also a great space to fellowship and make connections with folks across Wisconsin and the Midwest to open up opportunities elsewhere.”
The artwork of Braunginn, who goes by “Higgs,” is rooted in the tradition of abstract expressionism and is informed by the cultural inheritance of Black America, according ot his bio, and incorporates this inheritance of music, history, and its insistence on creation as an act of resistance.
He says he is still figuring out exactly what pieces he will be exhibiting at the JMKAC this weekend.
“A lot of what I’m trying to do with what I will be showing is I’m trying to integrate my philosophical approach to making my art with the viewing experience,” he says. “A lot of what I do has evolved over the last couple of years into creating emotionally challenging art … challenging people to feel and absorb the piece really on their own level. I don’t like telling people what my art means to me, and so I want to challenge viewers to really slow down and engage not just with the art, but with how that art guides your emotions, how it makes you feel, and to sit with any discomfort, any elation, anything that feels good or bad.
“I think that can really only be done when you slow down and engage with the art, instead of like just swiping to the next piece as you do on social media or TikTok or in Tinder and dating… You just swipe to the next video,” he adds. “A lot of my work is in direct response to that hyper consumerism.”
This weekend will be a new experience, a new crowd, new artists, and a new space for Braunginn, who has developed his own artist groups here in Madison over the last decade or so.
“Here in Madison, I think we have a really unique growing community of artists that has been floating in different ways over the last couple of years and an interesting kind of centerpiece of that has been the Arts + Literature Laboratory,” he says, talking about the community-driven interdisciplinary arts center here in Madison.
“We also have this group that is primarily housed at Art Labs Round House Studios [artist studio spaces coordinated by Arts + Literature Laboratory], as well,” he adds. “It’s a really dynamic, diverse group of artists of different age groups. Half of us are Latino or BIPOC, and a lot of women and queer folk, and we take a really interesting approach. We are exposed to a broad, diverse group of artists in Madison, but nothing like the Midsummer Festival of the Arts coming up.”
The weekend program highlighting the emerging artists cohort will begin on Friday, July 17, 5-7 p.m., with artist talks at Paradigm Coffee & Music, 1202 N. 8th Street in downtown Sheboygan. On both Saturday and Sunday, July 18 and 19, the cohort’s artwork will be on display at the Midsummer Festival of the Arts at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. All of the events are free.
The 56th Midsummer Festival of the Arts will feature over 100 juried artists — including returning award winners from last year — offering original works of art in a wide variety of categories, including ceramics, painting, photography, metal, fiber, watercolor, wood, jewelry, and more.
Braunginn says that he’s going to set up chairs and benches in little sections for people and invite them to sit down and absorb the pieces and the emotions.
“Instead of traditional gallery lighting. I’m going to be bringing floor lamps, trying to create this lived space that creates a mood and an atmosphere for people,” he says. “There’s going to be headphones, and I’m going to have like a playlist for people where they can put on headphones, and they can just kind of look and absorb and feel in that. Part of my big creative process is bringing just a lot of physical elements into it, a lot of physical influence, so trying to really integrate all of my approach to making art.”
