Wake Me Up When the Present Arrives: Over a 10-day period, Argentine artist Diego Bianchi trashed Locust Projects, filling the space with a battered boat hull, heaps of garbage, and a slick sheen of mud. Bianchi puts rock stars — and their lifetime hotel bans for taking wrecking balls to their rooms — to shame. Slapdash fountains arranged strategically across the filthy floor spew foamy streams of soap bubbles. Hundreds of LifeSavers candies dangle from fishing line, twirling like noxious snowflakes overhead. — Carlos Suarez de Jesus Through October 27. Locust Projects, 105 NW 23rd St, Miami; 305-576-8570, www.locustprojects.org.
Goya: The Engravings of the Caixanova Collection: The Spanish master's skull-staving series of etchings created during the later stages of his career is on view for the first time in the United States in this must-see exhibit. The four series include Los Caprichos (The Caprices), 1799; Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), 1810-1814; Tauromaquia (The Bullfighting), 1814-1816; and Los Disparates o Los Proverbios (The Follies), 1819-1823. The 218 works are separated into four rooms, each with an individual setting. They reflect Goya's penetrating powers of observation and explain why art historians now recognize him as the first modernist. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through November 9. Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Blvd, Miami; 305-237-7186.
Karen Kilimnik: The influential artist has a knack for picking at the scab of the national psyche. Beneath the deceptively saccharine blush of her artistic production oozes celebrity-addled America's obsession with Page Six gossip, fashion glossies, purple tabloid prose, and Court TV. Her work reminds us why a has-been wreck like O.J. Simpson can still dominate the 6:00 p.m. news. The first American survey of Kilimnik's career features more than 90 works spanning the past 20 years, including paintings, drawings, photographs, assemblage, and installations. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through November 12. Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-893-6211, www.mocanomi.org.
Place of Mind: A freestyle fellowship has developed between painter John Bailly and poet Richard Blanco. Their exhibit at the downtown branch of the Miami-Dade County Library System marks the culmination of a two-year project and features prints, paintings, and book art Bailly created in dialogue with Blanco's poems. The gang of two has spun what might be read as dynamic visual diaries by engaging in a conversational collaborative process. Bailly, a fellow of the honors college at Florida International University, and author Blanco have responded to each other's work on a gut level. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through December 15. Miami-Dade County Library, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-2665, www.mdpls.org.
