Art Capsules

The Art of Painting: Malcolm Morley's exhibit at MoCA features more than 30 large works dating from the Sixties. The twists and turns of the artist's formative years pepper his paintings. Born in England in 1931, Morley ran away from home at the age of fifteen and later served a two-year stretch in London's infamous Wormwood Scrubs prison. In 1984 Morley was the first recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize for British artists, twisting the adage that crime doesn't pay. Marking a return to his superrealist works of the Sixties, his most recent canvases dynamically portray athletes in action. Perhaps the most stunning painting in this exhibit is Death of Dale Earnhardt, which dramatically depicts the demise of the legendary NASCAR champion. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through April 16. MoCA, 770 NE 125 St., North Miami; 305-893-6211, www.mocanomi.org.

Distance: Equal parts roller coaster and Rube Goldberg contraption, Jeppe Hein's sensational installation sweeps the spectator along for a dizzying taste of a theme park ride. The piece consists of nearly 1000 feet of track that winds through the space in a knotted steel tangle. As visitors enter the area, they activate a sensor, which shoots a white plastic sphere the size of a soccer ball onto the rails. Viewers can then follow the ball on foot as it turns and plunges along the rails sprawled throughout the gallery. Spectators may find themselves running around like excited kids at an amusement park. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through March 10. The Moore Space, 4040 NE Second Ave., Miami; 305-438-1163, www.themoorespace.org.

Vik Muniz: Reflex: On a recent Friday afternoon, squadrons of turkey buzzards circled the Claude Pepper Federal Building while a skywriting plane created childlike pictures of clouds in the pristine blue sky. The ephemeral work, Cloud Cloud, was part of Muniz's latest exhibit, which features more than 100 large-scale photographs the Brazilian artist created from a stupefying grab bag of materials. Since 1988, the artist has reconstructed well-known images from history, the media, and popular culture using dirt, sugar, chocolate syrup, diamonds, junk, string, and ketchup. It's not every day that one stumbles across B-movie monsters made from caviar. Most effective are his poignant works rendered in sugar that depict the children of sugar-cane plantation workers. The pieces are exquisite and convey the artist's haunting sense of sorrow and unease at the specter of hopelessness with which these children exist. — Carlos Suarez De JesusThrough May 28. Miami Art Museum, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-3000, www.miamiartmuseum.org.