Audio By Carbonatix
Appalachia: Overloaded with just way too much, Gean Moreno’s “Appalachia” is more like horror vacui, a reflection of our times. Technically they are (executed as) drawings, but these are more hypercollages with glued bits of everything you can imagine: tiny trinkets, diverse stamps, laced curios, motley paper surfaces that offer color, texture, and visual feel. A detailed and carefully executed labor, these works stand out as puzzling and hip visual metaphors. If you come closer, you can see all the nuance and patience. Yet I found trouble in the bric-a-brac execution of some of the materials and ideas. Moreno has three sculptures and — in my opinion — they stand out as just the right essence of his collages, consistently expressed in three dimensions. — AT Through April 15. Fredric Snitzer Gallery, 3078 SW 38th Ct. 305-448-8976.
Paintscapes: Black-and-white paintings are not easy to handle, conceptually speaking. The quandary is that after Ad Reinhardt’s manifesto, 12 Technical Rules, monochromaticism must entertain a concept, that is to say: “No trace of a brush stroke … no form … no design, no space, no spatiality, no proportion and no size, no movement, no object, no subject … no representation or sign.” Norman Liebman’s “Paintscapes,” a show of black-and-white paintings, violates the Reinhardtean credo in at least five points. He goes really heavy with matter buildup, the works resembling black-and-white topographic maps of glossy oil primer on canvas. Liebman also evokes a hodgepodge of themes: Valhalla … Tabula Rosa, Magna Alba … even Eine Kleine Schwarzmusik. At least we know this is definitely not a conceptual exhibit. — AT Through May 16. Leonard Tachmes Gallery, 817 NE 125th St., North Miami. 305-895-1030.
The Simple Forms: Travel through time with artist Alyson Shotz. Her work brings forth ideas of order, symmetry, and elegance, a blend of man-made and natural. This is computer-generated imagery and yes, it’s art. Shotz takes us to imagined worlds where, depending on your persuasion, patterns may resemble blown-up cells, cross sections of plant stems, or magnified igneous rocks. Her installation with sound invites you to go through a makeshift forest path filled with long, flexible, metal filaments (like caressing pistils) adhered to the wall. A hanging Shotz sculpture made me think of Verner Panton’s famous Mother of Pearl Lamp from the Sixties. — AT Through April 17. Ingalls & Associates Gallery, 771 NE 125th St., North Miami. 305-981-7900.
