Audio By Carbonatix
Every Atom: Natalia Benedetti’s new work might be considered an offspring of Warhol’s marathon Empire State Building film, but amped-up by technology and a hefty NoDoz factor. In Benedetti’s take, a lazy exterior shot of a glass-walled apartment building on Biscayne Bay, endlessly looping in a tight grid, shimmers with life from the reflections off the bay, giving the imagery a vibrant, manipulated feeling. Also at Placemaker: There Was Heat by the Light of the Fire, John Bianchi’s challenging theatrical work, which has a “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” feel about it that succeeds in stretching the imagination. Bianchi’s Wolf and Raven, a “Rorschach chandelier” fashioned from foamcore and rope, is such a clever show-stealer it alone makes a visit worthwhile. — CSJ Through April 17. Placemaker, 3852 N. Miami Ave. 305-576-6695.
New Paintings: Utilizing photography, magazines, and other source materials, painters have long employed overhead projectors to trace imagery onto canvas or paper for hyper-real impact. And although the images selected for this exhibition of Pedro Ruiz’s work lack a unifying theme, their saving grace may be his attention to the application of paint and the brushwork, both of which he executes with skill. In the project room, Sarah Beddington’s Goldspin, three looped videos transferred to DVD, isolate traces of common daily life in what appear to be restaurant and hotel settings. She treats the viewer to a meditative experience one might describe as yoga for the eyes. Curator Carolina Wonder’s decision to drown out the sound in one of these videos works to heighten this effect. — CSJ Through May 8. Casas Riegner Gallery, 25 NE 39th St. 305-573-8242.
Ravage: Jon Davis’s photo-montage light boxes reflect traditional elements of Dada, but where the disparate meshed with wit and humor in the hands of a Man Ray, here they veer toward the meat-fisted. Working from photos found in a discarded box, Davis enlarges snapshots from an anonymous family’s history, appearing to date from early last century, then overlaps them with transparencies of Fifties Irwin Klaw nudes, attaining a result more prurient than decadent. In Portrait of Those Beautiful Ladies, Davis cuts out the crotch of Grandma’s dress and replaces it with a beaver shot, going on to give her relatives and friends a makeover as well. Looking at this body of work, which is flawlessly crafted, one almost comes away with a sense of good old Granny warning that although sex may sell in some cases, it might also come across in others as conceptually flaccid. — CSJ Through April 24. Damien B. Contemporary Art Center, 282 NW 36th St. 305-573-4949.
Reconstructing a Family Portrait: Elizabeth Cerejido’s exhibit is a poignant narrative of political exile, love, and loss. The setting is Cuba in 1970, a year of political turmoil. People leave by the thousands. One family splits apart, the mother and her young daughter traveling to Florida while the father stays behind. The understanding is that they will meet in a few weeks. But fate has it another way. The exhibit begins with 26 de junio, 1971, a color photo of an envelope written that year, its postage-stamp image clearly indicating the radical political context of the moment. Then viewers see two photographs of the father’s letters — one right after the separation and one just before the family reunion. A neat touch is that Cerejido gives his letters a voice, which we hear from the recording of a male voice-over projected into the gallery space. — AT Through April 16. Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, 3550 N. Miami Ave. 305-573-2700.
The Simple Forms: Travel through time with artist Alyson Shotz. Her work brings forth ideas of order, symmetry, and elegance, a blend of manmade and nature. 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.
White Curtain: Inside Movement: Located in Wynwood and opened last October, Art Vitam impresses as one of those spaces that have mushroomed up from the compost of Art Basel, replete with a gallery attendant as enthusiastic and helpful as a perfume-counter sales clerk. Its current offering combines the work of two French artists, Bénédicte Blanc-Fontenille and Frédéric Lemoine, for a mixed-media clinic on movement. The effect is dizzying. Blanc-Fontenille’s installation, spilling over with copious paintings and plaster sculptures celebrating human movement, is anchored by two undulating white-fabric sheets painted over with dancing figures and brought to motion by floor fans. In stark contrast, Lemoine’s silk paper and slate mobiles, hanging like bug cocoons from twigs jutting from gallery walls, appear lifeless in static air. — CSJ Through April 24. Art Vitam, 3452 N. Miami Ave. 305-571-8342.
