Contours of Becoming Opening Reception

Countours of Becoming brings together the work of Caroline Calvano and Keelie Murphy-Besaw, two Milwaukee-based artists whose practices center the body as a site of labor, adornment, and self-definition. Working primarily in metal sculpture, Calvano engages material processes that demand physical strength and endurance. Her work explores adornment and the feminine body not as passive objects of decoration, but as sites shaped by labor–where effort, weight, and time become inseparable from value. Rooted in a commitment to care, consent, and accessibility, Murphy-Besaw’s practice reimagines tattooing as a space of trust and affirmation, particularly for those who have felt marginalized or unheard in traditional tattoo enviroments. Together these artists consider adornment as an act of agency. Whether forged in metal or inked into skin, their works insist that decoration is never superficial–it carries out stories of labor, identity, and choice. This exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how bodies are shaped, marked, and valued, and how making can become a means of reclaiming space, power, and visibility.