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By the Woods: This show takes us to a humorously dark side of nature. Pepe Mar’s Totem brings taboo to the realm of innocence via stuffed toys, butterflies, trinkets, and Blue Puffy Head. More akin to Strindberg’s gloom, Norwegian painter Frank Brunner’s misty works portray nature, light, and artifice. Chris Janke documents the lives of aliens in our midst — they’re menacing but somewhat amusing. Jen DeNike brings rural mythology back to the city with prepubescent boys engaging in sexual rites of passage and sacrifice. — AT Through March 14. Miami Light Project’s Light Box, 3000 Biscayne Blvd., #100. 305-576-4350.
Fuss Free: The sicko pack of artists assembled for this unpretentious exhibit meld like Hieronymus Bosch in a headshop, overwhelming the sensory organs with fat porn chicks, Brady Bunch zombies, and syringe-pin-cushioned brains. These guys boast they’re not interested in the difference between Lyotard and leotard, and back it up with a mixed-media incursion into grunge. Dude, it’s all good. Work by Esao Andrews, Hawk Krall, Thom Lessner, Travis Millard, Roy Miranda, and the Superstars. — CSJ Through March 4. Objex Art Space, 203 NW 36th St. 305-573-4400.
Kuhl and La Huis: The late Cuban painter Carlos Alfonso used to say, “Just show me a nail in a wall and let my work speak for itself.” Which is a healthy attitude when your artwork hangs in a cluttered furniture gallery doubling as an alternative space. But don’t be dismissive. First pay a pilgrimage to the Via Solferino and appreciate the work of photographer Brad Kuhl and painter John La Huis, whose stuff would hold its own in any venue. — CSJ Through March 15. Via Solferino, 3930 NE Second Ave., #105. 305-572-1182.
Lumpen Decadents (the lack of money is the root of all evil): This group show curated by Gean Moreno pitches its tent at the strange crossroads where Victorian interiors serve as trailer-park décor, where aristocratic walking sticks accessorize thrift-store finds, where Karl Huysmans meets Harmony Korine. The work is small and eccentric and a little dark, like a collection of rare specimens one imagines lining the walls of a nineteenth-century parlor. –AT Through March 13. Ingalls & Associates Gallery, 771 NE 125th St. 305-981-7900.
(Making Up) Carolyn: Ever daydreamed of what Jacques Derrida would do with a Home Depot gift certificate? Then survey this site-specific installation by Shane Aslan Selzer. The sculptor poetically invigorates sundry building materials while deconstructing the history of the Carolyn Apartments, now teetering on the brink of extinction before the wrecking ball of progress. Also at the Hole: a supernatural affair with Aja Albertson, who blithely frappés Albert Camus, Carlos Castañeda, and Freudian psychological theory in a neoconceptual New Age blender. — CSJ Through March 6. Worm-Hole Laboratory, 401 NE 22nd St., #1. 305-798-6529.
Francesco Scavullo: A retrospective of the work of fashion icon Francesco Scavullo, who died in January. The dean of the A-list lensmen, Scavullo’s subjects ran the gamut of the jet-set glitterati. Shots of Mick Jagger in silver booty shorts, a heavily made-up Louise Nevelson as Zorro in drag, and a clueless Andy Warhol posing with model Gail Cook. — CSJ Through March 18. ART+, Village of Merrick Park, 358 San Lorenzo Ave. #3135, Coral Gables. 786-497-1111.
10 Floridians: This is more than just another exhibit. And Miami Art Central (MAC) is more than just another exhibition space. Venezuelan philanthropist Ella Fontanals Cisneros came up with the idea for the space (designed by architect Alessandro Fiorentino), and wunderkind Manuel Gonzalez (MAC’s artistic director) came up with the idea for MAC’s debut: Have nine well-known curators select and write about ten promising South Florida artists. The show is a success because it brings together some of Miami’s best — Mark Handforth, Dara Friedman, Adler Guerrier, Luis Gispert, José Bedia, Jacin Giordano, Glexis Novoa, Gean Moreno, Robert Chambers, and Sergio Vega. — AT Through March 28. Miami Art Central, 5960 Red Rd., South Miami. 305-455-3333.
Zumblick and Ramirez: Thais Zumblick’s arresting self-portraits seem to straddle Georges Bataille’s hinterland between masochistic acceptance and sadistic provocation with deadpan panache. “Series 9490.t” refers to the color code for purple and maybe for a mixture of black and blue. Also at Kessler: Was it Marx who said, “Man is born barefoot but everywhere he is in a pair of Nikes?” Painter Ramiro Ramirez combines a Flemish economy of space with hyperrealism in his The High Performance Machine Is About Athletic Shoes. Sneakers as commodity fetish and Joe and Jane Lunchbox agog in rapture. — CSJ Through April 12. Marina Kessler Gallery, 2628 NW Second Ave. 305-573-6006.
