Image: John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Thomas Haneman’s exhibition ‘Synapses’ will be on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, United States, from 12 September 2026 through 7 February 2027.
The presentation centres on Haneman’s fantastical botanical paintings, which he calls “Floating Flowers.” The works are described as richly toned and positioned outside space and time, with many flowers turned away from the viewer and growing toward an unseen light or energy source.
Haneman’s garden informed the subjects, which appear as synapses and as visual expressions of healing and joy following a long depression. His paintings reference seventeenth-century Dutch still life and eighteenth-century botanical illustration while retaining an atemporal and contemporary character.
Haneman first received encouragement through his inclusion in the Arts Center’s 1973 exhibition ‘Four Counties’, which featured nonprofessional artists and craftspeople from Sheboygan, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc and Ozaukee counties. He attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design from 1979 to 1985 and completed an art degree at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 2011. He lives and works in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and is represented by The Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee.
