While some galleries are on vacation and others are busy gearing up for a slew of September openings, this weekend's abridged version of the Second Saturday Art Walk beginning at 6 p.m. still has exhibits worth exploring.
Offerings include a conceptual artist's train station sign evoking travel and time, and another artist's sprawling light box installation the length of a locomotive that symbolically bridges the distance between Miami and Havana. There's also a young painter's musings on youthful emotion, inspired by everyday scenes of the mundane, a multimedia ode to the color blue, a bogus hip-hop store and a shopaholic's tear through consumerism and the feminine mystique.
Here are this month's picks.
The Family of Man: George Sanchez-Calderon's site-specific installation takes its name from Edward Steichen's seminal 1955 photography exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Sanchez-Calderon, best known for creating large-scale projects that engage architecture and comment on the modern condition, is employing a tweaked Solari train station sign in his new work. He has created an environment inviting viewers to experience a matrix of destinations and timetables that transports them to the era when rail travel ruled the land. De La Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space, 23 NE 41st Street, Miami. Call 305-576-6112 or visit delacruzcollection.org.
90 Miles: Living in the Vortex: Sandra Ramos lifts viewers into rarefied air with her monumental light box installation of photos depicting the span of ocean separating Cuba and the United States. Her solo show takes its name from the core work comprising 12 photos the Cuban artist snapped from an airplane while flying between the two cities. Curated by local art critic Janet Batet, Ramos's exhibit tinkers with the possibility of overcoming a half-century of separation and the anguish it has caused families on both sides of the Florida Straits. The exhibition also features three animation videos addressing the obsession of escape at any cost. Dot Fiftyone Gallery, 51 NW 36th Street, Miami. Call 305-573-9994 or visit dotfiftyone.com.
Twenty Eight: This solo exhibit by the youngest member of Black Square's stable, Jorge Chirinos Sanchez, boasts quixotic part-figurative/part-abstract canvases reminiscent of family album snapshots captured the moment before the photographer fumbles them. The Miami painter's images depict pugilists sparring, couples embracing, and what appear to be drunken revelers. Darkly atmospheric, they exude a miasma of youthful longing and lost innocence. Black Square Gallery, 2248 NW First Place, Miami. Call 305-424-5002 or visit blacksquaregallery.com.
The Summer Time Blues: This group offering by Snitzer gallery talent, celebrates one of our favorite colors in contrasting ways. Swoop into the gallery for a frosty tribute to the tone that inspired Picasso's Blue Period and Yves Klein's signature invention of the hue. The show deals with a variety of themes ranging from melancholy to the beautiful and calming qualities of the color blue. Fredric Snitzer Gallery, 2247 NW 1st Place, Miami. Call 305-448-8976 or visit snitzer.com.
Chinese, Bootleg, Mexican, Hyphy Store: This new installation by Greg Shimada in More Funner Project small window gallery, marks the artist's first ever solo show. Curated by Alberto Cuadros, it explores a bygone hip-hop trend that reached its peak in the middle 2000s organizers explain. "Hyphy" has become the point of departure for Shimada's study into the degradation of cultural trends. More Funner Projects, 180 NE 39th Street, First Floor Lobby, Miami. Call 786-512-4130 or visit morefunnerprojects.blogspot.com.
All About Me: Rosario Bond's solo exhibit mines notions of glamour, camp, and kitsch in a stinging commentary on the feminine mystique. Bond's series Diary of a Shopaholic, combines imagery of Twiggy, Barbie, or Charlie's Angels as feminine stereotypes that serve as utopian references to her profiled women in dizzying collage works. Curator's Voice Art Projects, 2509 NW Second Avenue, Miami. Call 786-378-6381 or visit curatorsvoiceartprojects.com.
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