If Walker Evans' document of tenant farmers in 1930s Alabama were stripped of its human element, the residue might resemble jw lawson's "Southeastern View," a series of photographs made by the Milwaukee-based artist and gallery owner over the past seven years on sojourns home to his native Tennessee. In lawson's second solo exhibition at his eponymous gallery, he excavates the ruins below the Rust Belt to uncover contemporary artifacts otherwise imperceptible to interstate tourists traveling along prescribed four-lane routes through the South.

Judging by their handmade covers, the 95 pieces of book art presented at Mount Mary College read with artistic variety. Displayed in the Marian Art Gallery located in Caroline Hall, the exhibition “Books, Books, Books: Awl in a Bind” features an ensemble of 14 women, all members of The Book Art Salon.

Abrush stroke of translucent color over pure white paper often defines a watercolor painting. Sometimes the resulting image is wet and spontaneous; other times contained and structured. You can see a variety of results from this demanding medium as two exhibits highlight watercolor artists in Milwaukee this month. In “A Survey: Drawings and Paintings by John Wickenberg,” which opens March 19, the Charles Allis Art Museum presents an award-winner from the 2005 Forward Survey of Wisconsin Art NOW. In addition to exhibiting his art both regionally and nationally since 1967, Wickenberg achieved professor emeritus status at UW-Whitewater . . .

"Impressions, Prototypes & Impastos” (March 3 through April 27) at Katie Gingrass Gallery, 241 N. Broadway, should attract attention on Gallery Night & Day, April 18 & 19, when five artists exhibit paintings, pastels, furniture and glass. The Third Ward venue offers something for everyone, and fortunately their ever-changing inventory remains in place during specific showcase events.

Experimental art opposes traditional art, youth meets longevity and simplicity confronts complexity in a new exhibition opening March 14 at the Tory Folliard Gallery. It includes “Ink Paintings” by Boris Ostrerov, winner of the thirdannual Tory Folliard Gallery Project. Initiated by the gallery, this project provides an opportunity for an advanced-painting student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) or the UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts to exhibit undergraduate artwork. The project also allows emerging artists to experience the business side of art from the gallery’s perspective, part of Folliard’s desire to demonstrate how professional artists are able to survive in a competitive economic environment.

Hotcakes Gallery may be preparing to shut down in a couple of months, but the work currently on the walls doesn’t suggest it. This show, at minimum, is great fun for the viewer, who is treated to superb illustration and sculpture at the hands of Portland artists Meredith Dittmar and Betsy Walton. It’s a well-conceived show, with a sense of unity between the two artists, culminating in a collaborative piece that combines Dittmar’s polymer clay figures with Walton’s stoic faces.

The unknown artist who labors in obscurity unto death, only to be discovered afterward, has long been a cliche. In the case of Richard Mouw (1910-2001), the cliché inched toward reality last winter when the director of Milwaukee’s Landmarks Gallery, Mary Manion, stood in the shivering cold of an unheated shed where the artist’s family had stored his life’s work. It was as if the contents of Mouw’s basement had been gathered up and deposited in stacks against the shed’s cement walls.

It’s an age-old question: What is love? The love we feel for friends, partners or spouses often determines what we consider necessary truths to create fulfilling lives. This truth exists differently for each of the artists in the exhibit “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Relationships and Love.” Sponsored by African-American Artists Beginning to Educate Americans about African-American Art, this national juried exhibition at the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts explores the intricacies of love with acute and perceptive insight.

Commemorating the 100-year birth date of Milwaukee’s Santos Zingale, the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MWA) showcases the work of this prolific artist honored posthumously with the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. The exhibition “Santos Zingale: A Retrospective” opens March 5 and presents 40 pieces of artwork, primarily oil paintings, from the years 1929-1993. An emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, Zingale inspired future artists even beyond his retirement from teaching in 1978, continually painting until his death at age 91. Zingale’s artwork defies stylistic definition, with the 70-year span of his career capturing a variety of subjects. Beginning in the ’20s and lasting through the Depression, his artistic themes represented social and political issues that included paintings of people overlooked in society, including several murals for the WPA Federal Art Project.

When Marcel Duchamp signed a urinal and submitted it to an exhibit in 1917, it was more than just a brazen gesture. It sounded the knell of art as it was previously known. After bringing it down to the lowest common denominator, what else remained?