Local artist Aholsniffsglue’s signature eyeballs decorate the side of a warehouse facing I-95 in Wynwood. Inside, the Margulies Collection’s “New Exhibition” leaves your optics in the same wide state of wonder with a show expertly programmed by longtime Margulies curator Katherine Hinds. It seeks to “activate the space” via videos and massive sculptures. In the first room, two giant, highly polished stones smash notions of indoor objects to smithereens. Meanwhile, several videos play freely throughout the space without the isolating constraints of a theater. More than 250 photos, paintings, and videos from the past 60 years address African issues. There are scenes of war, strife, turmoil, and apartheid, and portraits of everyday Nigerians and former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. Also on display is the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto, a glass-smashing wild thinker and one of Europe’s most important current artists. See his large-scale painting of a broken mirror, and a video of him breaking it. To top it all off, there’s a theater showing the animated works of Brian Alfred. His musical, collaborative video work depicts a familiar urban landscape full of graffiti and power lines.
Thu., Jan. 13, 11 a.m., 2011