The Labor Day weekend offers a host of opportunities to appreciate Wisconsin's vibrant art scene. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center presents "Civil Liberties" in Sheboygan. Most intriguing is the "Vested Interest" component (through Sept. 6), where national artists display garments that demonstrate cultural and political issues. The exhibit features They Are All One, a staggering installation by Cuban-born team Guerra de la Paz. Michele Pred's "(Dis)possessions" (through Oct. 12) features confiscated objects from 9/11 . . .

Vintage-ology: the study of all things from the past characterized by an enduring appeal or excellence. It's the byword that Fossil, a billion-dollar corporation that designs leather goods, watches and apparel, calls their "canvas for creativity and the soul of their brand." A new exhibition at the Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design titled "Celebrating 25 Years of Fossil Vintage-ology" expands on Fossil's modern appeal and branding. Corporate Fossil began in 1984 as an importer and wholesaler of watches, but in 1989 they developed a branding based on '40s and '50s vintage products. The company then branched out into marketing eyeglasses, sandals, fashion . . .

Shadows. Abstract shapes. Spatial Relationships. These concepts, portrayed in intimate photographs, describe the work of John Heymann exhibited at the Charles Allis Museum with “At a Moment’s Notice: The Photographs of John Heymann” through Sept. 21. Heymann, a photojournalist featured in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, displays approximately . . .

It's hard to forget John Lennon singing the words "There are places I'll remember, all my life" on the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. Lennon was more than a charismatic musical figure, however: He was a visual artist as well. Lennon picked up a pencil long before his mother Julia bought him his first guitar as a teenager. His talent consistently evolved, leading him to art school and a working practice as a visual artist afterwards. The exhibition "Coming Together Through the Art of John Lennon" opens Aug. 16 at the Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum. It explores both the musical and visual dimensions of his intensely creative genius . . .

Many people haven't heard the name of Charles Thwaites, a Wisconsin artist who was born in Milwaukee in 1904 and graduated from the city's Layton School of Art during the 1920s. However, they may be familiar with his work: Thwaites was one of America's foremost portrait painters before moving to New Mexico in the '50s. The Museum of Wisconsin Art's exhibition "Charles Thwaites: A Retrospective" displays works from a successful career that spanned half a century, connecting Thwaites, who died in 2002, to his former home . . .

The belief that "everybody can create something" embodies the artwork in "DIY: Do It Yourself Series," currently on display in the Community Gallery at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. The "DIY" exhibit presents the work of eight national artists who define the do-it-yourself spirit. The artists use their crafts as a means of personal expression, demonstrating sustainability, individuality, simplicity and appreciation for a community that creates unique material goods. These characteristics . . .

At the start of the period in which the work in "Biographical Landscape: The Photography of Stephen Shore, 1969-1979" was shot, America remained entrenched in the Vietnam War; the tumult of 1968, its assassinations and aftershocks preoccupied the country's consciousness. None of this political upheaval, however, is apparent on the main streets of small towns across the United States that populate the core of the exhibition at the Haggerty Museum of Art, on display through Sept. 28. Shore'sUncommon Places is a series of vernacular images geographically distinguishable only by the titles describing their coordinates in an intersection of time and place.

It would be an error to say photographers Johnie Shimon and Julie Lindemann are the “J & J” of Manitowoc, Wis., even though, like G & G (British art duo Gilbert & George), they’re close as twins. The pair got together during their student years in Madison, and they stuck together after graduation, setting off to bite the Big Apple. After a year, they returned to Wisconsin. Following their careers for 25 years tempts me to say that their show in the Koss Gallery at the Milwaukee Art Museum (Aug. 14 through Nov. 30) will be the peak of their combined efforts. The opportunity to exhibit 43 portraits of those who have passed through their lives is indeed a mark of accomplishment and the show

If the human body is a canvas, then tattooing and piercing deserves the status of art. Fittingly, then, human canvases and body art are the focus of a new exhibition called “Flesh. Metal. Ink.” that opens Aug. 1 at Walkers Point Center for the Arts. Curated by Gene Evans of Milwaukee’s Luckystar Studio, the exhibit features 12 artists revealing their visions of this art form. . .

Every now and then an artist sparks controversy through no design of his own. It’s a scenario especially endemic to public art, and one with which Milwaukee is uncomfortably familiar. The city is rife with examples of public art that have provoked impassioned outcries from one party or another, whether they’re proposed projects that never got off the ground or ones single-mindedly propelled forward by a will unmatched by that of their most ardent foes. Each occasion yields the potential for an enriching discussion on the significance of public art. Whether or not it has been sufficiently taken up is another matter . . .