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Critics Pick

Published: December 2, 2004

Alumnae of Forcefield, the Providence, Rhode Island, artist collective, and of the 2002 Whitney Biennial, artists Jim Drain and Ara Peterson are reunited here by Lawrence Rinder, an adjunct curator at the Whitney. The result is "Wiggin Village," a sprawling, antic installation at the Moore Space consisting of architectural follies, computer-generated projections, and hand-knitted and beaded sculptures. If mind-bending psychedelia, handcrafts from your grandmother's closet, and video-game sounds are your things, Drain and Peterson will not disappoint. -- Michelle Weinberg

"Wiggin Village"

Through March 31, the Moore Space, 4040 NE 2nd Ave., second floor, Miami; 305-438-1163.

Art Basel Miami Beach already guarantees a healthy dose of strange and wonderful sights, but what about equally daring sounds? One answer, new this year, may well be the Art Sound Lounge launched by Art Basel's own Art Radio (WPS1 art radio at www.live365.com), turning the Delano Hotel's tropical poolside cabanas into a rare place where art lovers can meditate on the relative values of new art and new music while pondering the merits of Speedos versus big pants. In store, among other sounds, are streaming mixes of everyone from John Cale to Malcolm Maclaren and Lou Reed, plus special programs ranging from a megamix of "Classic Cuban Cuts" to an intriguing "Larry Rivers Memorial Music Hour." WPS1, an Internet radio station associated with MoMA, also promises interviews with artists, curators, and assorted visitors from all over the world. -- Octavio Roca

Art Sound Lounge

December 2-5, noon to midnight, Delano Hotel poolside, 1685 Collins Ave., Miami Beach.

In this solo show at Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, Miami artist Wendy Wischer explores light and its intangible nature. "Looking for Home" features several large-scale light installations that probe notions of searching and finding, hope and recognition, or as the artist herself puts it: "When you feel you find something -- whether in science, technology, people, or places -- when it's right for you, you get that sense of being home." Some of the works in the exhibit include Feeling Blue, a giant, watery swirl of thousands of clear glass marbles bathed in blue light. Within the White represents the full color spectrum and is an interactive piece that appears as a light curtain or hologram when engaged by spectators.

Wischer may be one of the busiest artists in town. Her work can also be seen during Art Basel at the Miami Art Museum, the Miami Museum of Science, and the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale. -- Carlos Suarez De Jesus

"Looking for Home"

Through December 31, Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, 3080 SW 38th Ct., Coral Gables; 305-774-5969. Opening reception December 3, 7:30 p.m.

Working with ordinary objects, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova seduces the viewer into places that are at once eerily familiar yet ineluctably foreign. He has a disconcerting way of revealing the hidden splendor of the mundane, playing deftly with nostalgia and identity, elaborating conceptual memories that bespeak a culture of reinvention, of banal planes of reflection. Home (2004), an architectural rendering of his parents' zero-lot-line house in suburban Kendall, is a clever example of Rodriguez-Casanova's approach to explorations of self, a kind of backyard archaeology.

"Keepsake," his solo show at Leonard Tachmes Gallery, provides the Cuban-born, Miami-based artist a breakout opportunity on the tail of his recent group shows at the Annina Nosei and White Box galleries in New York, and at the Miami Art Museum. -- Carlos Suarez De Jesus

"Keepsake"

Through January 3, Leonard Tachmes Gallery, 817 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-895-1030.

Working with ordinary objects, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova seduces the viewer into places that are at once eerily familiar yet ineluctably foreign. He has a disconcerting way of revealing the hidden splendor of the mundane, playing deftly with nostalgia and identity, elaborating conceptual memories that bespeak a culture of reinvention, of banal planes of reflection. Home (2004), an architectural rendering of his parents' zero-lot-line house in suburban Kendall, is a clever example of Rodriguez-Casanova's approach to explorations of self, a kind of backyard archaeology.

"Keepsake," his solo show at Leonard Tachmes Gallery, provides the Cuban-born, Miami-based artist a breakout opportunity on the tail of his recent group shows at the Annina Nosei and White Box galleries in New York, and at the Miami Art Museum. -- Carlos Suarez De Jesus

"Keepsake"

Through January 3, Leonard Tachmes Gallery, 817 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-895-1030.

"Pig to man, man to pig, then pig to man again." The last sentence of George Orwell's Animal Farm is the title of Brandon Opalka's exhibit of paintings and watercolors at Rocket Projects. For his first solo show, Opalka, a native Miamian, has culled figurative elements from Orwell's book -- pigs, donkeys, and horses are prevalent -- to comment on the current political state of America. The self-taught, 26-year-old former graffiti artist has created eye-popping abstract landscapes awash in a utopian color scheme of acid, fluorescent, and muted tones, while weaving a sylvan narrative in which all animals, domestic or wild, might be considered equal. Over the past year, Opalka has been painting aggressively for this show, and his remarkable growth is evident in these works. -- Carlos Suarez De Jesus

"Pig to Man, Man to Pig, Then Pig to Man Again"

Through December 30, Rocket Projects, 3440 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-576-6082. Opening reception December 4, 7:00 p.m.

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