Let’s Art About Sex

Leave it to Miami Beach to have its own sex museum. OK, fine, erotic art museum. The World Erotic Art Museum sits in nondescript brilliance, ensconced in the surrounding South Beach splendor. Beginning Monday, the museum will devote space to artist Norman J. Olson for the exhibit “Nudes: Erotic, Poetic, and Patterned,” featuring a rare showing of 17 original works. The reclusive Olson creates pieces “driven by the compulsion and obsession of a man who prefers his own company.” Despite his self-imposed Salinger-like lifestyle, the man’s work has made people take notice, and he is rapidly developing a reputation in underground art circles. Olson describes his work as “prison art” and bases it on the premise that our country’s puritanical heritage has created a modern-day society that can’t help but be obsessed with sex. The exhibit, which opens with a 7 p.m. reception, runs through August 26.
Aug. 1-26, 7 p.m., 2011