For the Love of Nature and Pest Control

It’s difficult to imagine an artist with brushwork uncanny enough to fool Mother Nature. Gina Ruggeri’s oil-on-Mylar cutouts of tree stumps, piles of rocks, and canopies of leaves are so deftly executed they skewer the viewer’s sense of the real. The New York painter ups the ante on perception during Wynwood’s Second Saturday Gallery Crawl, beginning tonight at 7 at the Kevin Bruk Gallery (2249 NW First Pl., Miami), with a handful of new works meditating on the natural world while tinkering with the boundaries of painting. Her images float dreamily on gallery walls, unsuspectingly drawing one into an illusionary landscape. You’ll catch yourself reaching out at her billowing clouds to feel grounded. The exhibition runs through March 31. Call 305-576-2000, or visit www.kevinbrukgallery.com

Upwind at the Spinello Gallery Fort Lauderdale-based wing nuts Blackbooks make their solo debut with “Ask Us About Our Free Stabbings,” featuring laser-cut sculptures, mix-media paintings, and installations. For Meadow, the creative pair has hatched an abstract wood-cut wall sculpture sprawling 12 feet across the gallery, which the duo calls a “sadistic poetic” piece deeply rooted in literature. We’re not sure what that means, and it’s doubtful the cagey twosome will explain. “If a big rodent dies, we are definitely going to smell it,” they crack. Through March 1. Call 786-271-4223, or visit www.spinellogallery.com.
Feb. 9-March 1, 2008