As a native of Milwaukee, I have been to the Milwaukee art Museum several times in my life, not only for the art but to see the architectural masterpiece that is the building itself.  For those of you around the country unfamiliar with the Milwaukee Art Museum, you may remember it from Transformers 3, where it housed  a grouping of luxury vehicles including some beautiful Mercedes-Benz vehicles.

Dirk Skreber Car Crash Exhibition at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery

For the first time, however, the Milwaukee Art Museum has an exhibition that I am making a special trip back home for – it is a crashed cars exhibit by renowned Germany contemporary artist Dirk Skreber.  Best known for his paintings and sculptures featuring crashes and close calls of cars and trains.  Dirk Skreber’s Milwaukee exhibit shows the catastrophic aftermath of cars having been crashed and wrapped around poles but without any of the landscape or pretense that put landed the car in such a terrible position.

Car Crash Exhibition by Dirk Skreber

The crashed cars exhibition will be on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum from November 7 through March 2.  If you are in the area I can’t recommend visiting enough.  And, for a real Wisconsin experience while you’re there, make sure to catch a Packers game and grab a few beers.

In the meantime, check out the photo gallery below for a look at Dirk Skreber’s 2009 exhibition at the Friedrich Petzel Gallery.

April in Paris may be known to many for their cherry blossoms, I know my wife has convinced me to go on more than one occasion just to see to flowering tree. But this year, in addition to the cherry blossoms the food and the architecture that only Paris can offer, Mercedes is adding an additional reason to visit.  Celebrating the market launch of their new four-door coupé, the 2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA, Mercedes has opened a pop-up store with a unique photographic art exhibition and test drives through the city.

The digital photo installation #Untamed opened April 3 in a Mercedes-Benz pop-up store in the heart of Paris. Hundreds of personal photos taken by Instagram users from around the world are on display, all of which reflect Mercedes-Benz’ philosophy behind the CLA: unconventional, unusual and untamed. The Instagram photos show the uniqueness of human beings, how one photographers’s individual style and perspective on the world can differ so greatly from those of others. Participation is possible until April 10 with the free exhibition running until April 13, 2013. Visitors to the exhibition will be offered an opportunity to test drive the new CLA through Paris at no cost as well.

“We are absolutely thrilled by the creativity shown by internet users in interpreting the idea behind the online campaign”, commented Anders Sundt Jensen, Head of Brand Communications for Mercedes-Benz Cars. The international online campaign #Untamed was launched on the website www.untamed-installation.com by Mercedes-Benz in February. All users have been invited to upload their three most creative and unusual pictures from their personal Instagram photo stream and have them evaluated using the #Untamed Score. This indicates how unique the style of the pictures is compared with the pictures of other users. The choice of motif is again completely free. The one important thing is that the photos should not be: average. An artistic display of all the pictures submitted by April 10, 2013 is being mounted in the Mercedes-Benz pop-up store in Paris and presented to an international, art-loving public.

In addition to the Untamed exhibition all those interested can find out about the new CLA in unique surroundings. The temporary Mercedes store in the heart of Paris invites visitors to a special Mercedes-Benz brand experience on four floors.

The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. (closed Sunday) at the Mercedes-Benz pop-up store located at 25 Boulevard des Capucines, Paris 75002.

The Allure of the Automobile Exhibit at the Portland Art Museum is showcasing 16 of the world’s most luxurious, rare, and brilliantly conceived automobiles designed between 1930 and the mid-1960s. From the avant garde 1937 Hispano-Suiza owned by French apéritif baron André Dubonnet to the ultra-cool convertible 1957 Jaguar XK-SS Roadster once owned by Hollywood legend Steve McQueen, to one of our personal favorites, the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. The exhibition traces the evolution of the motorcar, showcasing developments in automotive design and engineering. The exhibit will run from June 11 through September 11 of 2011.

The Portland Art Museum Allure of the Automobile exhibit is has on display one of the three 300 SLR sports racing cars ever built. Chosen to represent and examine the golden age of automotive design and the world’s finest cars, the 300 SLR is one of 15 other significantly recognized automobiles including a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster. The 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful and well-known sports racing cars. Stirling Moss demonstrated the astonishing abilities of the 300 SLR, after winning the 1955 Mille Miglia in Italy. The eight-cylinder Grand Prix engine, combined with a body construction of sheet magnesium, formed the lightweight, high-speed race car.

The arrival of the 300 SLR is courtesy of the Mercedes-Benz Classic Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. The classic car collection consists of around 856 vehicles and archived material that collectively preserve 125 years of Mercedes-Benz history and automotive design. The Mercedes-Benz Classic Museum displays 160 of the vehicles in the collection, storing the remaining vehicles in various buildings across Stuttgart. Since 2006, the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California closely partners with

Germany’s Classic Center and Museum to provide US owners, enthusiasts, and collectors access to retail sales, restoration, appraisal and vehicle-search assistance on models at least twenty years old.

In addition to The Allure of the Automobile, local Mercedes-Benz car clubs and enthusiasts will show off their own vehicles on Park Avenue for a free display Saturday July 23, 2011 from 10:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M.

While being responsible for the production of historical vehicles like the 300 SLR, Mercedes-Benz continues its legacy for over a century. This year marks the brand’s 125 year anniversary for its 1886 patent of the three-wheel, Benz Patent-Motorwagen and Mercedes-Benz ongoing commitment to future innovation and fascinating design.

Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster

The Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster is recognized for its presence, panache, and power on the road. The twenty-six 540 K Special Roadsters, among the total of 419 540 K’s produced from 1936-1939, were designed to be the most dominant on the road and built to the highest standards at Mercedes-Benz in-house coachworks Mercedes-Benz Karosserie in Sindelfingen.

Advanced for its era, the 540 K’s front suspension consists of independent, unequal-length wishbones and coil springs; the rear end features an independent, coil-sprung swing axle. The transmission includes a semi-automatic four-speed (functioning automatically on the top two gears). The 5.4 liter engine producing 180 hp includes a crankshaft driven Roots-type supercharger adding 65 hp when the throttle is fully depressed. The lighter Special Roadster was built to reach a top speed 105 mph despite a considerable 5,500 lb. curb weight and seventeen-foot length. The 540 K was engineered by Gustav Rohr, who also worked on Mercedes-Benz’s Grand Prix racecars.

Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR

The Mercedes-Benz 300SLR resembles the iconic 300SL in terms of its looks, but underneath its racing sports car bodywork, it boasts state of the art FormulaOne engineering known from the legendary W 196 R Grand Prix race car from the 1950s.

Developed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut, Chief Engineer and Technical Director of the Daimler-
Benz Motorsport Department, the 300 SLR racing sports car features a three liter, eight cylinder engine canted at a 53 degree angle to make a particularly low engine hood possible. The 300SLR lightweight space frame, similar in concept to that of the 300SL, carried an aerodynamically optimized bodywork made of a light magnesium alloy.

While the configuration of the 300 SLR’s racing sports car engine – two engine blocks, each with four cylinders, a shared crankcase and centrally arranged output shaft – was reminiscent of the Grand Prix race car’s engine, the new engine had been cast out of aluminum alloy for the first time. The engine also featured desmodromic valve actuation and fuel injection, which was still very much a novelty at the time.

The front suspension of the racing sports car consisted of double wishbones connected to horizontally mounted torsion bar springs and telescopic shock absorbers. The negative-camber rear wheels were mounted to a single-joint swing axle. Inboard drum brakes were used to decelerate. The racing sports car had a top speed of well over 300km/h, engine output up to 310 hp and a weight of roughly 830kilograms.