This year Cupid's holiday coincides with the Second Saturday Art Walk. All of Wynwood will be fluttering with plenty of romance to go with an abundance of new exhibitions where you and your honey can share your love of art and culture.
Beginning at 6 p.m. tomorrow you can rendezvous at Blueshift Project, Wynwood's newest gallery which is featuring a knockout group show by New York artists.
Or you can sidle up with your squeeze at Emerson Dorsch to catch a provocative film by Tameka Norris exploring feminine empowerment.
If you are unattached get your fling on at Dina Mitrani which is offering an unusual take on the birds and the bees by photographer Thomas Jackson.
Whatever your passion we're sure you'll find ample enchantment at our top picks for what not to miss this Valentine.
See also: Purvis Young Exhibition Opens at Museum of Contemporary Art
Made in New York
This exhibit, featuring a group of "under 40" artists who live and work in the Big Apple, focuses on recent trends in contemporary sculpture and inaugurates the freshly minted Blueshift Project founded by Mexican entrepreneur Eduardo Burillo. Curated by Robert Dimin, the survey of rising talent includes works by Genesis Belanger, David Brooks, Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw, Caitlin Cherry, Nick Doyle, Irini Miga, and Dana Sherwood.
The sprawling 6,000-square-foot space will also feature Justine Hill's abstract paintings in its project room. Don't miss Caitlin Cherry's Mute City Big Blue Port Town, a quirky wading pool with a submerged painted canvas incased by Plexiglas at the bottom.
Blueshift Project, 175 NW 25th St., Miami. 786-899-0405, blueshiftproject.com.
Meka Jean: Recovery
This solo by Tameka Norris includes the artist's feature-length film Meka Jean: How She Got Good, soft sculptures, photographs, small paintings and a new video, Recovery.
Set in post-Katrina New Orleans, where Norris lives and works, She Got Good traces the evolution of Meka Jean, a semi-autobiographical character, as she seeks artistic success and self empowerment. In it Norris portrays a wide range of overtly sexualized female characters in rap videos to lay bare stereotypes of African American women.
Emerson Dorsch Gallery, 151 NW 24th St., Miami. 305-576-1278, emersondorsch.com.
Emergent Behavior
Thomas Jackson marks his first solo at Dina Mitrani with a series of striking photo installations in which mundane objects mimic the swarming behaviors of birds, insects, fish and other organisms. In his uncanny images cheese balls appear to throng like bees while pink cups flock like passenger pigeons. "The images attempt to tap the mixture of fear and fascination that swarms tend to evoke, while creating an uneasy interplay between the natural and the manufactured and the real and the imaginary," Jackson says.
Dina Mitrani Gallery, 2620 NW Second Ave., Miami. 786-486-7248, dinamitranigallery.com.
Gold Rush
Macaya Gallery, another new arrival to the Wynwood scene, opens with a trio of artists including Miami's Alejandro Mendoza, Belgian Dirk Janssens, and Canadian Daniel Stanford. Works on view oscillate from Mendoza's fragmented vision of nature and urban detritus, to Janssens' text based paintings riffing on pop culture, to Stanford's splintered photographs exploring his fascination with Asia.
Macaya Gallery, 145 NW 36th St., Miami. 786-577-0322, macayagallery.com.
The Meaning Machine
This group offering at Dot Fiftyone combines three distinctly dissimilar views on the complex nature of human experience and our tendencies to create meaning in order to navigate existence. On view you'll discover recent works by Argentina's Daniela Luna, Martin Legon, and Ariel Cusnir who explore our dependency on technology and our capacity to understand its rapid development.
In Dot's Project Room Reniel Diaz presents "Objects of Desire," offers a commentary on sexual orientation and gender identity through a catalogue of objects reflecting the fluidity of desire.
Dot Fiftyone Gallery, 187 NW 27th St., Miami. 305-573-9994, dotfiftyone.com.
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