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. . .

On a typical Gallery Night & Day, it’s the artwork inside the frame that captures attention. But this summer’s Gallery Night & Day will relate the stories behind the artwork, presenting an unseen but important facet of visual art. Reginald Baylor Studio recently moved to the lower level of the Marshall Building in the Third Ward, which is where Baylor now creates his canvases that portray bright interiors. For Gallery Night, Reginald Baylor Studio collaborates with ArtMail Milwaukee for the benefit of the Milwaukee High School of the Arts (MHSA) and the Catch . . .

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 . . .

This week two of the city’s favorite art galleries host openings with innovative touches, including Peltz Gallery on Knapp Street and Tory Folliard in the Historic Third Ward. Starting July 25, at 6 p.m., the walls of Peltz’s vintage Victorian building will be covered in what gallery owner Cissie Peltz describes as “feminine splendor.” Peltz hosts its “18th Annual Remarkable Women Show” that includes . . .

Our long summer days present an opportunity to experience art en plein air, where light and shadow add a sensuous dimension to artwork and create a subtle context through which it can be interpreted. This concept can be seen in the “Focus on Figures” exhibit at the Grohmann Museum, located on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). The museum’s “Rooftop Grand Opening” features a dozen 9-foot-high sculptures that replicate smaller bronze statues from the permanent “Man at Work” collection.

The 21st-century landscape and how artists choose to represent it is continually being transformed. Two intimate exhibitions this week use landscapes to document changing urban and rural environments. Both shows cultivate serious questions through their thought-provoking images...

Are you seeking some peace and quiet after listening to fireworks blast across our horizon? If so, the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum (2220 N. Terrace Ave.) is the place to be, particularly in July, when the Renaissance Garden reaches its full beauty and the west-facing Mercury Court explodes with color in this 1923 Italian-Renaissance-style villa...

Arthur Thrall prepares for his upcoming exhibition from his second floor studio on Milwaukee’s East Side. With sure footsteps he walks from his printmaking room where his motorized press and English engraving tools rest, to his painting room where an unfinished watercolor patiently waits on a wooden easel. Thrall, a printmaker and painter for 60 years, faithfully produces new artwork that will be on view beginning July 2 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MWA) in the exhibit “Arthur Thrall: The Sensuous Line.”

The Milwaukee art community showcases the 46th annual Lakefront Festival of Arts this weekend. The event, organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Friends of Art, exhibits an array of exceptionally talented individuals from June 20 to June 22. This nationally acclaimed juried festival features more than 170 artists, including Wisconsin’s Arthur Bartkowiak, Mike Dretzka, Shelby Keefe, Kim Koch, Deone Jahnke, Katie Musolff, Mark Porter and Micheal Santini . . .

"Are you angry or are you boring?" asks one of the pieces included in the new “Gilbert & George” exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM). The idea that nothing worthwhile exists outside these two states might explain why the work of the artistic duo has become progressively larger and louder over time, often resorting to such malodorous mediums as feces, sperm and spit. Is this preponderance of bodily fluids meant as an avowal of the artists' own mortality or simply a desperate attempt to counter the stultifying effects of old age and withered rebellion? The answer, like the meaning of their work, remains elusive . . .

Man and woman have long chosen to adorn their bodies, be it with paint, metal rings or exotic fabrics. This theme of body ornamentation, from the imaginatively extravagant to the utterly sublime, pervades the exhibit “Frippery: Peculiar Bijoutery or Curiously Adorned?” at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (MWA). Nine female artists with Wisconsin connections, several of whom studied under Marna Goldstein Brauner at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee . .

British artists Gilbert and George met at St. Martins College of Art in London, 1967, and have remained creative partners ever since. Their names are never separated, they coordinate their clothes and they speak in a dialogue that appears to be scripted. And now Gilbert and George are bringing their provocative brand of art to the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), with their first retrospective in more than 25 years.

Beginning May 28 at the Charles Allis Art Museum, George Ray McCormick Sr. juxtaposes his two visions of life in the retrospective “Journey from the Secular to the Spiritual: Works by George McCormick Sr.” The approximately 35 pieces include imaginative, finely crafted carvings, assemblages and sculptures that illustrate McCormick’s artistic transformation.

George Ray McCormick, Sr. has been on earth for 65 years. Apparently it gave him a goodly dose of hell and purgatory until he renounced living on the edge and reaffirmed his faith in 1991. A year later he began a new life that included making art, specifically dolls and various wood carvings. I first saw his work years ago at Walker’s Point Center for Arts. This year he returned to the center to participate in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” On May 28, a mini-retrospective of his efforts (“From the Secular to the Spiritual”) opens at The Charles Allis Art Museum . . .