THANK YOU FOR COMING TO THE ELEVENTH ANNUAL GCG

Meet the
2026 Winners

FIRST PLACE:

AMANDA SMITHIVAS
$3,601

Amanda Smithivas (b. 2003, Chicago) is a sculptor and undergraduate student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She is best known for her stained glass and metal sculptures, which combine decorative aesthetics and contemporary issues. Amanda has exhibited work in museums and galleries across the Midwest, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Woman Made Gallery, Bridgeport Art Center Chicago, Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, Var Small Works Gallery, and Satélite Gallery.

https://amandasmithivas.com/home.html

SECOND PLACE:
JAARON LANGFORD
$2,250

Jaaron Langford is a Milwaukee-based artist, born and raised on the city’s Northside. He is pursuing a BFA in Photography and Printmaking at the University of Milwaukee Wisconsin, where he has studied various photographic techniques and alternative processes in both mediums. His work explores themes of the domestic environment through a research-driven process, utilizing the city’s archives, local literature, and community conversations. He aims to show a side of the city many don’t appreciate, highlighting both the beauty and current challenges Northside residents face.

https://www.instagram.com/_jaaronsart/

THIRD PLACE:
GRACE BARDEN

$1,440

Grace Barden is an artist and metalsmith based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Born and raised in the heart of the Midwest, she creates work that explores themes of feminism, grief, and matrilineage, often drawing from deeply personal experiences. As a second-generation metal artist, Barden’s practice is profoundly influenced by her mother, whose creativity informs her passion for craft. Her work has been exhibited across the Midwest, showing at the 407 Gallery of Green Bay, the Rahr West Art Museum of Manitowoc, the Ella Sharp Museum of Jackson, Michigan, and the INOVA Gallery at Kenilworth Square East in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Currently, she holds an internship with Jost Jewelry Manufacturing, where she is pursuing a bench jewelry certification through the Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America. She is in the final semester of her Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio arts, studying jewelry and metalsmithing, from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. After graduation, Barden plans to intern for the Heidi Lowe Gallery in preparation for graduate school, while keeping a consistent studio practice going.

https://www.96metalwrx.com/

FOURTH PLACE:

EMMANUEL GUERRA
$990

Emmanuel Guerra (b. 1998) is a Mexican-American interdisciplinary artist based in Milwaukee whose practice spans drawing, painting, object-making, and video. Rooted in the complexities of a Midwest and Mexican-American upbringing, Guerra's work excavates the terrain between cultural memory, ancestral sacrifice, and the act of dreaming — both passive and active — as a means of reclaiming what displacement has rendered ephemeral. Through found imagery, reimagined histories, and cultural iconography, they negotiate shared experiences of grief and kinship, reshaping lost narratives into new, tender contexts. Guerra's recent exhibitions, including let sleeping dogs lie (2026) and Nuestros Sueños (2024), reflect an ongoing reformation of creative practice concerned with the porousness of identity and remembrance. They hold an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a BFA in Printmaking from Ball State University.

https://eeguerra.com/

FIFTH PLACE:
JAMES KRAMER

$720

James Kramer (b. 2005) is an artist living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His arts practice reflects on the notion of unseen labor and the invisible processes, efforts, and bodies that sustain cultural production. Through this lens, Kramer highlights the systems of visibility and invisibility, lengthening the structures beneath images and objects that shape contemporary life. He is the co-founder of Triple 3 Magazine (est. 2024), a biannual print publication that celebrates art, fashion, and culture.

https://www.lurrring.com/

Thank You to our 2026 Jurors

Rachel Reichert
Rachel Reichert is an artist and cultural worker whose practice bridges making, looking, and learning from others. Her work includes co-founding experimental art schools and residency programs, stewarding artist legacies, building small museums and exhibition spaces, and working across art philanthropy, publicly funded arts programs, non-profits, and artist-run initiatives
Symphony Swan Zawadi

Symphony Swan Zawadi (she/her) is a practicing artist, educator, and arts leader from the Northside of Milwaukee. She is the Founder and Executive Director of THE CR8TV HOUSE ( pronounced Creative), an artist-led organization supporting Black and Brown artists through space-making, archival care, and community-centered programming. Her work bridges art, education, and cultural stewardship. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Milwaukee Art Museum, was a 2023 Gener8tor Art Grant recipient and Shepherd Express Milwaukeean of the Year.

Lonesome Bill Walker

Lonesome Bill Walker is a self-taught painter, sculptor, and performance artist blending exhibitions and exhibitionism to confront censorship and fascism in the art world. Using kitch, kink, and satire to establish mood, Walker curates events centering Trans artists and audiences to gouge a deep, queer mark into Midwest history. Walker has a degree in Sociocultural Linguistics from UCSB, shown works in Milwaukee, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco, and has been interviewed for Radio Milwaukee, WUWM, and Death, Sex, & Money.

Thank You to Our 2026
Community Sponsors

Artdose Magazine, aryn kresol, Cactus +, Cactus Club, Current Projects, docMyArt, Falcon Bowl, Heinn Chapman, Hill Valley Dairy, K-Pop Events Wisconsin, Lynden Sculpture Garden, MIAD, Moody the Zine, Mullins Cheese, No Instructions Gallery, Pitch Ritual, Portrait Society Gallery, Real Tinsel, Saint Kate, Tanager Sculpture Works, Troubadour Bakery, Vanguard Sculpure Services, Var Gallery, and YngSpc

The Grilled Cheese Grant

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The Grilled
Cheese Grant

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Cheese (b)Log