Visions of a collapsed utopia and self-doubting ceramic figurines flatter each other at the Frost Art Museum, where two Florida International University profs, Jacek J. Kolasinski and Kathy Dambach, present complementary solo shows: After History and DEMONS nurture/nature. Kolasinski, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Krakow, Poland, and moved to Miami in the early 90s, was inspired by Francis Fukuyamas The End of History and the Last Man, a weighty tome speculating about whether humanity has reached its evolutionary endpoint.
Meanwhile, Dambach created 26 tiny sculptures that riff on Dostoyevskys Demons and reference 18th-century English Staffordshire ceramic collectibles. This particular series of work is looking at self-doubt and how we negotiate our place within society, Dambach explains. Im interested in how we collect these mementos and how they mark certain periods of our lives.
Tuesdays-Sundays, 6 p.m. Starts: Sept. 8. Continues through Oct. 3, 2010