Under The Big Top

Alexander Nolan

Sept. 17 - Nov. 14, 2026
Opening Reception: Thurs., Sept. 17, 5 - 7pm

ARTIST STATEMENT

Featured

FEATURED ARTIST

I grew up in Delavan, Wisconsin which is a town with a lot of circus history. It was known as the circus capital of the world in the later half of the 18th century. 26 circuses used to winter there. Harry Houdini was there and spent time at the Delavan Hotel. An elephant was even buried in Delavan Lake because it got sick and died and couldn't be buried in the frozen ground so they cut a hole in the lake and buried her in there. The clown hall of fame was in Delavan before later moving to Baraboo, WI. I used to go to a restaurant in downtown Delavan called "Travelers" and it had pictures on the walls of clowns that have traveled through there. There used to be a circus in Delavan every summer where as a kid I could see all the amazing animals, clowns, and acrobats.

Now, as an adult I remember the circus and what a crazy spectacle it was before other forms of entertainment took its place. At this time of reflection I had a job at a farm to make fish for an alewife festival. I was using a jigsaw and simply made a drawing of an alewife with pencil on plywood, cut it out with a jigsaw, sanded it, then finally I painted it. I was enjoying this method of artmaking and decided to do more with it and explore my own subject matter in my studio. I chose to focus on the circus because I was feeling nostalgic about it. I made these cut-outs from memory and imagination but I also looked up old circus images online for reference material and even took a trip back to WI and visited a circus museum and Clown Hall of Fame in Baraboo to look at old circus posters and see circus artifacts. It took me all summer to cut the circus figures from plywood and it took me most of the winter to paint them.

— Alexander Nolan