Art Capsules

Continuum: Peter Barrett's artwork reminds me of that girl at Poplife wearing the gray-and-brown plaid pants, sea-foam green polka-dot shirt, and bright pink hair. You look at her and think, Well, that doesn't match at all, but then you're like, What? But it looks so damn perfect. In his oil paintings on wood, Barrett mixes and matches simple geometric patterns and color gradations to form bizarre cybernetic landscapes. He also sculpts with MDF — the compressed wood from which cheap furniture is made — constructing silver or taffy-pink interlocking mazes and small smooth shapes, which, when arranged together, look like plaques he won at a Blastbot Slumping contest on Pluto. — K. Lee Sohn Through February 18. Ingalls and Associates, 125 NW 23rd St., Miami; 305-573-6263, www.ingallsassociates.com.

1980-2005: A Spirit in Motion: It's true: The thought of a career retrospective for a relatively unknown painter elicits a gentle scoff, and the show's title might make your eyes roll as you release a guttural two-note hymn. Damn that old don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover crap — you've perfected the art of snobbery. Your reward: missing out on some truly beautiful and original paintings. Debra Holt's oeuvre is no model of consistency, though it's interesting to see how the show — beginning with the deathly neoexpressionist paintings she completed after earning an MFA from New York's Pratt Institute — progresses to her current minimalist, ethereal works on wood, which are hauntingly lovely paintings that make the journey worthwhile. — K. Lee Sohn Through March 1. Abba Fine Art, 233 NW 36th St., Miami; 305-576-4278, www.abbafineart.com.

Teeming: To generate the black-and-white photographs — or, more accurately, photograms — featured in Michael Flomen’s latest exhibit, the artist ventured into the night to take pictures of snow and rain, albeit without a camera. In its place, Flomen manually flashed light on photographic paper, a process that produces a shadow imprint of any object between the paper and the light. Yet to call the images Flomen creates simply shadows would be an understatement. Their rich texture and silky light gradation make them seem more like mercury paintings. Silver shapes of rain and snow form space-age 3-D effects to the envy of cyber-painters everywhere. — K. Lee Sohn Through March 4. Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts, 2043 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-576-1804, www.dlfinearts.com.

William Kentridge: This heavyweight exhibit is best of the season and is a can't-miss ticket for art aficionados craving a knockout. The display showcases a broad range of the South African's work, including drawings, animated films, sculptures, and a spectacular series of recent live-action films that hauntingly reflects the tumultuous events of apartheid. MAC is screening nine large-scale projections of Kentridge's captivating, Mélis-inspired films. The sheer amount of work displayed in the upstairs space is simply too much to absorb in one visit, and I bet this show will leave you flat on your back and loving it. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through March 5. Miami Art Central, 5960 SW 57th Ave., Miami; 305-455-3333, www.miamiartcentral.org.