By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Apr 09, 2019 at 1:15 PM

The third installment of the annual outdoor public art exhibition returns to Downtown this summer.

Sculpture Milwaukee will bring 22 works of art to Wisconsin Avenue from June 7 to Oct. 27, including works by Atlanta-based Radcliffe Bailey, California's John Baldessari, Berlin-based Elmgreen & Dragset, London-based Richard Woods, New York's Roxy Paine, and Beverly Pepper, an American artist living in Italy.

Each of the works will be available for purchase. Installation of the sculptures is expected to begin in May.

One of the works from last year's show was purchased and donated to Milwaukee Art Museum by an anonymous donor. That work is expected to be installed next to the museum, along the lakefront, this spring.

Sculpture Milwaukee, for the third time, is curated by Marilu Knode, the former director of St. Louis' Laumeier Sculpture Park, and former Milwaukee Art Museum Director Russell Bowman.

"We are thrilled to bring these spectacular works by remarkable artists to Downtown Milwaukee," said Knode in a statement Tuesday. "Every piece has a story to tell. There's John Baldessari, one of the most important American artists of the post-war period, and Beverly Pepper, the first artist to use Cor-Ten steel, who is still actively creating at 96 years young. Looking at the exhibition as a whole, the works use different combinations of abstraction and figuration to express the ideas of the artists."

Sculpture Milwaukee – founded by Steve Marcus – will also include a specially commissioned work by a Milwaukee artist. The full slate of artists and works will be announced in coming weeks, according to the statement.

"Now in its third year, Sculpture Milwaukee has truly transformed Downtown in the summertime with its lively, urban art exhibition, accessible to all," said Marcus, who is chairman of the Sculpture Milwaukee board.

"As a result of recent events, the eyes of the nation and the world are on Milwaukee, and thanks to the support of our donors and Milwaukee businesses, Sculpture Milwaukee helps propel our image as a world-class and visionary city onto a global stage."

Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.

He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.

With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.

He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.

In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.

He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.