False Start: Onlookers can discover rubberneck heaven while gawking at Timothy Buwalda's large oil-on-canvas paintings of car wrecks. His sumptuous works depict crumpled Beemers and Toyotas, their mangled husks rendered in excruciatingly clear detail. Buwalda's powerful paintings swing between photorealism and abstraction, delivering a haymaker. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through October 6. Fredric Snitzer Gallery, 2247 NW First Pl., Miami; 305-448-8976, www.snitzer.com.
Real Time and Under These Circumstances One Usually Loses a Shoe: Time's passage, the preciousness of human labor, the serendipity of finding something new in the old, and the banality of daily life converge in "Real Time," a group show featuring David Castillo's stable of artists. In the project room, Monika Zarzeczna's "Under These Circumstances One Usually Loses a Shoe" combines figurative and abstract elements in 31 eye-catching drawings in which whimsical figures are injected with narrative possibility in psychologically charged scenes. It appears Castillo wants to aim at the heart of our transitory experience, and in one fell swoop he connects. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through October 6. David Castillo Gallery, 2234 NW Second Ave., Miami; 305-573-8110, www.castilloart.com.
Variations on a Theme and What Makes a Boy Start Fires?: John Sanchez's evocative oil-and-acrylic-on-canvas paintings somberly depict desolate urban scenes as if snapped by a disposable camera through a drunken haze in the wee hours of the morning. Kyle Trowbridge injects high-octane fuel into the car crash theme, even including a burned-out pearlescent Volkswagen Beetle that was crisped on July's Friday the 13th. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through October 6. The Dorsch Gallery, 151 NW 24th St., Miami; 305-576-1278, www.dorschgallery.com.
Versus: Rising art star Susan Lee-Chun's solo show features a suite of knockout Lambda prints in which the artist battles with her kooky alter ego. A video monitor in the gallery's window facing the street features the blond-wigged Korean artist dressed in plaid schoolgirl garb while trying to peel the skin off an apple in one swipe. Occasionally a disembodied hand reached in from offscreen, whacking Lee-Chun in the noggin. — Carlos Suarez De Jesus Through October 6. Spinello Gallery, 2294 NW Second Ave., Miami; 786-271-4223, www.spinellogallery.com.
