Traditionally the November Wynwood Art Walk means all the local galleries are cracking out with their big guns in anticipation of Art Basel, but that's not the case this year.
Although some spaces are holding to form, most local dealers are holding back their biggest shows of the year until later this month, ostensibly to save some ducats in clean up costs resulting from Second Saturday hordes.
But that doesn't mean you won't find some big names this weekend beginning at 6 p.m. when the last art crawl prior to December's lunacy ramps up before the Baselites arrive on our shores.
See also: As Miami's Busiest Art Season Looms, Top Galleries Leave Wynwood For Downtown and Miami Beach
At the Dina Mitrani Gallery photography lovers will discover a famous globe-trotting lensman while the Juan Ruiz Gallery is showing a suite of canvases painted in Cuba this summer by a local artist who returned home to Havana to create them after several decades in exile.
Here are our picks for what's worth a gander before Baselphrenia sets in a few short weeks.
Genesis
A solitary man praying in the vast expanse of the Saharan desert outside Algeria. Africa's Dinka people herding longhorn cattle in a dusty region of the Sudan. A soaring iceberg in Antarctica sculpted into a fairytale castle by the inexorable tides of time. These are just a few of the riveting images on display at Wynwood's Dina Mitrani Gallery in a new show by world renowned photographer, Sebastio Salgado, to remind us that Art Basel Miami Beach is a few short weeks away. Salgado's arresting images, shot during an eight-year period, mark the Brazilian shutterbug's call to action for greater stewardship of our planet's natural resources and serve as a reminder that we can each influence the Earth's healing in small, individual ways.
For "Genesis" the globetrotting lensman traveled to Alaska, Siberia, Africa, and South America exploring tribes, animals, forests, deserts and waters, with a loving eye and deep appreciation for our environment with stunning results. The exhibit marks Mitrani's second collaboration with Santa Monica's Peter Fetterman Gallery in what promises to be one of November Second Saturdays top draws.
Dina Mitrani Gallery 2620 NW Second Ave., Miami; 786-486-7248; dinamitranigallery.com.
Glexis Novoa: Painting on Canvas
Glexis Novoa's painting Se Vende dominates the Juan Ruiz Gallery in Wynwood. The seven-by-ten-foot canvas is freighted with abstract symbols ranging from women's shoes to beer cans, a laptop, a car, a pig's head, a bust of José Martí, an assault rifle, a skull next to a giant penis, and acronyms for Cuba's Committee for the Defense of the Revolution and Fidel Castro's July 26th Movement. The 49-year-old Cuban-American artist, who was once a favored person on the island but emigrated in 1993, created it during a three-month stay in Havana this summer.
Novoa's work in the exhibition represents something even more profound than the art itself. It wasn't that long ago that paintings produced on the island and shown in Miami drew violent reactions that included protests and even bombings. But now local painters travel to the island, stay there for months, and produce work that doesn't reflect favorably on the regime.
Juan Ruiz Gallery, 301 NW 28th St., Miami; 786-310-7490; juanruizgallery.com.
Synthetic Daydreams
Nick Gentry is a London-based artist who is known for creating large-scale portraits using floppy discs attached to Masonite board he then paints. He typically employs discarded technology including film negatives and x-rays to compose his imagined identities. For his current show at the Robert Fontaine Gallery, Gentry has created a series of collage paintings from 35mm negatives and x-rays on glass. Fontaine's press release explains that these works are "sourced directly for a social art project from members of the public," in a process that allows "shared histories to form collective identities." The resulting imagery draws references to everything from consumerism to pop culture and found art.
Robert Fontaine Gallery 2349 NW Second Ave., Miami; 305-397-8530; robertfontainegallery.com.
Departure
New Times Mastermind finalist, Yuri Tuma, employs pocket technology to create his geometric opuses that teeter between the kinetic and kaleidoscopic in a sensory-jarring way. The Brazilian-born, Miami-based talent snaps his photos with his cell phone to explore color, composition and movement while manipulating captured imagery into striking new forms. Tuma says his work is aligned with ideas of "post-photography" and is largely shaped by his subconscious mind.
Butter Gallery, 2930 NW Seventh Ave., Miami; 305-303-6254; buttergallery.com.
Maquettes + Studies by David Hayes
This modest solo focuses on the creative process of the late modern master whose geometric sculptures dot the American landscape and whose work forms part of over 100 institutional collections across the USA. On view you can discover the unusual models he crafted that would eventually become his signature abstract opuses constructed from welded steel. Hayes' monumental outdoor sculptures contemplate the relationship between a work of art and the environment it occupies, and demonstrate the influence of teacher David Smith and friend Alexander Calder.
m+vART, 2750 NW Third Ave. Suite 11, Miami; 786-431-1186; mvart.co.
Return of the Bang
You can search all over Wynwood this weekend and not find another exhibit as wallet-friendly as this show. This modest group offering featuring multimedia works by local street talent including Atomik, Registered Artist, Ivan Roque, Diana Contreras, Yuhmi, and Jorge Rodriguez boasts a ton of art all under the $200 range. For us wage slaves with an addiction to collecting and severe allergies to the hefty price tags associated with Art Basel, Wyn317 delivers a rare and welcome November fire sale.
Wyn 317, 167 NW 25th St., Miami; 305-761-1116; wyn317.com.
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