Art Smarts

Life is too short to waste time feeling befuddled with the blurring pace of evolution consuming the contemporary art world. If you have found yourself scratching your head while staring at a minimalist artwork at a local gallery or have confused sfumato for a flavor of Italian ice cream, help is on the way courtesy of Bonnie Clearwater, director and chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (770 NE 125th St., North Miami). Wednesday at 7 p.m., Clearwater, who is swapping her curator’s chapeau for a drill instructor’s whistle, will help visitors navigate confounding highbrow obstacles as part of her vaunted Contemporary Art Boot Camp lecture series. Her talks are designed to help viewers hurdle the complexities of bleeding-edge culture. Clearwater is hankering to sharpen your art appreciation survival skills with her talk, titled “The Times, They Are a Changing,” promising to peel back the veil on the work of groundbreaking artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Gabriel Orozco, Matthew Barney, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Albert Oehlen, Jorge Pardo, Christopher Wool, Wade Guyton, Anri Sala, and Cory Arcangel. After her lecture, museum galleries will remain open until 9 p.m., when you can also catch MoCA’s current 15th anniversary show, “Pivot Points: 15 Years and Counting,” a sprawling survey of the institution’s collection that includes works by many of the artists Clearwater will be discussing.
Wed., April 10, 7 p.m., 2013