Art Capsules

 For complete up-to-date South Florida art listings, click on Culture on the navigation bar to the left, scroll down to the Listings Search and "Category" pulldown, then select "Art Galleries" or "Museums."

Anomalies: This exhibition showcases Chris Jahncke's mixed-media works on paper. Jahncke ranges from covering entire pieces in symbolic glyphs to manipulating the traditional relationship between figure-ground objects. Much of the art on display possesses a collaged, inflected surface, although some is overtly organized or too tame and consequently less effective. It might benefit from the freeform doodling present in some of Jahncke's previously exhibited works. -- Michelle Weinberg Through May 29. Ambrosino Gallery, 769 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-891-5577.

The Artist's Studio: Paintings, Photographs, and Sculptures by Joe Fig

: Fig's miniature constructions of artists' studios encourage voyeurism. Viewers are invited to peek inside the cloistered areas where artists struggle with creativity in isolation, a kind of sacred atelier immune to the outside art world. Fig manages to respect his real-life subjects by crafting delicate and tremendously detailed compositions that don't necessarily infringe on the artists' privacy. Rather they celebrate their talent and the setting in which they create most of their work. Glance into painter Chuck Close's studio, which, like Close's work, is realistic down to the smallest detail (there are even specific art magazines scattered across his desk). In Jackson Pollock's Long Island sanctum we see the artist pondering one of his action paintings laid out on the floor. -- Omar Sommereyns Through July 11. Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Ave., Miami Beach; 305-673-7530.

The Art of Aggression: This timely and thoughtful exhibition refracts contemporary political art through a prism of global terrorism and conflict. Several artists journey to the heart of their work via detached, analytical paths reminiscent of the increasingly complex machinations that characterize global warfare today. Dominic McGill's The Zapruder Covert Waltz is an elaborate drawing that graphs the myriad theories surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Mark Lombardi's lyrical drawings play connect-the-dots, forming lacy constellations that link business transactions in the military-industrial complex. Josh On and Futurefarmers, a San Francisco-based new-media cooperative, presents Antiwargame and They Rule. These interactive Web-based works spoof war video games, inviting users to visualize the overlapping affiliations of corporate honchos who control the world's most powerful companies. The curators demonstrate that artists are the flies in the ointment of empire, the collective conscience and whistleblowers for the military and industrial powers that be, persistently knocking on the closed-door proceedings at the highest echelons of government and business. -- Michelle Weinberg Through July 1. The Moore Space, 4040 NE Second Ave., second floor, Miami; 305-438-1163.

The Edge of Certainty

: Michael Salter tweaks the language of commercial logos to produce a series of refined art products that offer visual commentary on mainstream name-branding. The freshness and must-have quality of stickers and decals provides the inspiration for much of Salter's work. His inkjet prints titled Moments Lacking Definition and Situations Unknown are produced in editions of three. Each portrays a generic setting with which the artist slyly tampers. Pleasantly proportioned suburban interiors and immaculate, vacant postindustrial landscapes are injected with humor, transforming then into visual gags. His life-size motorcycle constructed from polystyrene packing materials is hard to resist. -- Michelle Weinberg Through May 29. Ambrosino Gallery, 769 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-891-5577.

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