Pop! Go the Easels

Diaspora Vibe puts a new Bahamian art collective to work

Comments (0) By Carlos Suarez De Jesus Thursday, Aug 23 2007

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As one peers into the tiny screen, pile drivers move dirt and massive tangles of steel while sparks fly from workers' power saws slicing through metal.

At times, shaky camera work, soft focus, and jumpy editing cloud the quality of the imagery. Wall text informs that the area where the film was taken has been transformed into a multipurpose venue for a car garage, cafés, a gym, office space, and television studios. One guesses that it might be a commentary on economic development initiatives in the Bahamas.

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Details

Through September 22. Diaspora Vibe Gallery, 3938 N Miami Ave, Miami; 305-573-4046, www.diasporavibe.com.

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Of the trio of painters here, Popop's founder, Cox, is the only artist with something original to say. His large mixed-media canvases depict the artist adopting a pugilistic stance and duking it out with his doppelganger.

Works such as Faith, Hero, Brawn, and Perseverance are freighted with rusted chains, heavy-gauge wire, and wooden sticks swaddled in brocade. Their surfaces swirl with rivers of unsettling pink and brown hues, delivering a bang-up contrast to the slicker works in the show.

Although the exhibit is bruised by a bit of group-hug veneer, the Popop stable hints it is willing to go the distance to make itself heard.