Jama: The Village of Merrick Park, a vision of conspicuous consumption, probably deserves an art review itself. Imagine a Bosch scene of heaven that's been run through an MBA program. Art+ Gallery lies within its confines, and it is showing an artist who wouldn't look out of place in the pages of Juxtapoz. Jama, a self-taught painter who arrived here from Cuba a year ago, employs a thickly painted line to depict himself and his family. Figures come out as if rendered by aboriginal Australians who were high on drugs and trying to draw aliens. It sometimes works, most of all when the artist can manage a controlled burn instead of a combustion. -- Franklin Einspruch Through February 7, Art+ Gallery, Village of Merrick Park, 358 San Lorenzo Ave., Coral Gables; 786-497-1111, www.artplusgallery.com.
Just on Time: Leonel Matheu's paintings have a stamp. They're simple (with recurring symbols), accessible, odd, inquisitive, and geometric. The execution is careful and clear, with earthy colors that elicit warmness. Paper boats, the face with a Pinocchio nose, the cricket, the bow tie, the letter, and the cartoon bubble hanging over people's heads with a question mark -- all this against weird city vistas make for the narrative. It's kind of humorous but very serious. Check Matheu's peculiar video and his installation of a huge white-feathered suit against a black wall, with long shackles and balls on the floor. In its simplicity, it is cryptic. -- Alfredo Triff Through February 20, Dot Fifty-One Gallery, 51 NW 36th St., Miami; 305-573-9994, www.dotfiftyone.com.
New Work: Kerry Ware is one serious painter. And you can see he's coming from different places outside art. There is his love of topography, which brings the abstraction. Then there is music (his Dionysian impulse for coloring). You might wish Ware would do more with color on those washed, peg-perforated surfaces. But he won't. His art is about that which may be overlooked, or seen and forgotten, or quitted right before a discovery (just as one cannot notice the beauty of a wall). Ware's art makes us think of something huge and banal: the miracle of coming across something meaningful only to take it for granted. -- Alfredo Triff Through February 12. Dorsch Gallery, 151 NW 24th St., Miami; 305-576-1278, www.dorschgallery.com.
She Sank on a Shallow Bank: Self-taught filmmaker Clifton Childree brings his life-long obsession with kitsch and classic horror movies to life in this collaborative film and accompanying installation at the alternative space run by local artists Hernan Bas and Naomi Fisher. Working with dancer Nikki Rollason and featuring a musical score by Dan Hosker, the film creates the fantastical, posthumous world of a girl whose body has washed ashore at low tide. Utilizing a unique mixture of stop-motion animation and dance, Childree constructs synchronized movements as the girl interacts with flotsam on the beach and other mementos from her life. Accompanied by photography and an installation re-creating the bedroom from the film, She Sank on a Shallow Bank is a compelling experience beyond the film itself. -- Upahar Through February 10 by appointment only. Bas Fisher Invitational, Buena Vista Building (second floor), 180 NE 39th St., Miami; 305-773-2139.
Six Contemporary Photographers: Giselle Devera, Niko, Baldomero Fernandez, Claire Nitze, David Heinlein, and Darlene Pruess are exhibiting at Filtro, a recently opened and cool venue in Wynwood. Niko's homoerotic pictures need more than just pretty boys (in bed) being aware of the camera. Fernandez has craft, but his eye is doing too many things in this travelogue from Mexico to Cuba to Japan (leave the zoomed-in glossy surface to Uta Barth). But his luminous night landscapes in Baracoa, Cuba, are engaging, as are Devera's forbidden, wire-framed Polaroids. Nitze's colorful surfaces look a bit like Hans-Christian Schink, but her photos have elegance. Heinlein's odd scenes are his strength, though he may be too aware of viewers looking at them. -- Alfredo Triff Through January 31. Filtro, 2320-B N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-571-9565, www.filtrofoto.com.
Neil Whitacre: Neil Whitacre's extremely careful drawings, on exhibit in Locust Projects' project room, take us through the artist's voyage and explorations as a resident of the Everglades for a year, during 2003. Part Robert Louis Stevenson, part William Gibson, part Cesar Romero, Whitacre's images are complex, bizarre, and filled with exquisite detail. The influence of comics is palpable: a bit of Lee Elias, Weird Chills's Bernard Baily, and Creepy master José Ortiz. Whitacre's line, shading, dot, and cross work are simply superb. But the work is poorly hung, which is a pity. -- Alfredo Triff Through February 25. Locust Projects, 105 NW 23rd St., Miami; 305-576-8570, www.locustprojects.com.
