Capturing the hidden in plain sight was among photographer Clarence John Laughlin’s most consistent themes. “He was one of the most awesome artists of the 20th Century,” says Barry Fellman, director of the Center for Visual Communication. “He pushed viewers to find depth and magic in the everyday. He showed…
Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum Through November 2. Lowe Art Museum, 1301 Stanford Dr., Coral Gables; 305-284-3535, www.lowemuseum.org Not your garden-variety tomb raider or occultist crackpot, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie became known as the father of Egyptian archaeology. Today his discoveries can be found in more…
Her humor, her style, her luminous beauty — film buffs idolize Carole Lombard and her screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s heyday. They also remember Lombard’s storybook marriage to Clark Gable, and lament her premature demise in a tragic plane crash during a war-bond campaign in 1942. On Saturday, the University of…
We live in strange and frightening times. The economy is in flames. America is mired in two foreign wars. Racism, sexism, and geezerism have stunk up the presidential race. One can’t help but wonder if the founding fathers are turning cartwheels in their graves. On the eve of national elections,…
Process/Processed Through October 4. Fredric Snitzer Gallery, 2247 NW First Pl., Miami; 305-573-5810, www.snitzer.com Loriel Beltran’s “Process/Processed” is a dendrochronologist’s wet dream. These folks are scientists devoted to “the study of tree time.” Beltran’s solo debut at Snitzer includes several acrylic and enamel paint, tree bark, and plywood pieces that…
Once you get beyond the sugar rush of Kaws’s playful paintings at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, what stays with you is the painstaking manner in which they were made. “Saturated” marks the first solo show since 2002 for the graffiti rat turned artist and designer. It features nearly a dozen boldly…
Margarita Benitez has a talent for stitching together political imagery as deftly as J Mac’s spidery handlers weave fibs. Fortunately the artist’s attention-grabbing creations are free of the Jurassic snark peddled by the GOP. “State of the Union,” Benitez’s chilling exhibit at ArtCenter/South Florida, knits a combination of crafts and…
In the Fifties sci-fi classic The Blob, a meteor, pregnant with a deadly strain of star jelly, crashes near a small town, where the goop begins swallowing members of the community. Teenagers race to where the meteor landed and discover an elderly man whose hand has been infected by the…
Growing up, Vivien Lesnik Weisman found her father a bit of an enigma. To understand Max Lesnik, the filmmaker traveled to Cuba to helm The Man of Two Havanas, a memoir of her father’s turbulent relationship with his homeland and the hate he experienced from Miami’s exile community. In Cuba,…
Growing up, Vivien Lesnik Weisman found her father a bit of an enigma. To understand Max Lesnik, the filmmaker traveled to Cuba to helm The Man of Two Havanas, a memoir of her father’s turbulent relationship with his homeland and the hate he experienced from Miami’s exile community. In Cuba,…
Disappearances, Shadows & Illusions Through September 21. Miami Art Museum, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-3000, www.miamiartmuseum.org This exhibit, which aspires to challenge traditional notions of how the public views art, features upward of 50 works by more than 20 artists. It boasts pieces from the Miami Art Museum’s permanent…
One has to tip the chapeau to Anthony Spinello. The spunky young dealer transforms his modest gallery about as often as his competitors change their underwear. During last Saturday’s Wynwood season-opening art walk, he stopped traffic along NW Second Avenue, out-hustling most of the bigger venues fishing for eyeballs on…
An ill wind called Gustav recently upstaged John McCain. A conga line of hurricanes and tropical storms has ripped across the national consciousness, emitting howls of Doppler feedback and stirring unwarranted panic for days. And local artists are rising to the challenge for the much-anticipated return of Wynwood’s Second Saturday…
Disappearances, Shadows & Illusions Through September 21. Miami Art Museum, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-3000, www.miamiartmuseum.org This exhibit, which aspires to challenge traditional notions of how the public views art, features upward of 50 works by more than 20 artists. It boasts pieces from the Miami Art Museum’s permanent…
A potpourri of films — ranging from the poignant and political to the truly preposterous — seeks to reconcile Chile’s tumultuous past with the nuance of the present. Film Chile Miami offers a vivid panorama of Chilean culture through the lens of the nation’s burgeoning cineastes. The five-day event opens…
Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 Through September 7. Museum of Contemporary Art, 770 NE 125th St., North Miami; 305-893-6211, www.mocanomi.org A nearly pitch-perfect twanging of complementary chords, this exhibition explores the deep-rooted and primal alliances between rebellious spirits haunting both the sonic and visual…
From expressive figurative illustrations to abstract geometries to surrealist musings, a new show at the Bass Museum of Art offers a rare look at sketches and drawings by some of the most influential artists of the past century. “20th-Century Works on Paper from the Fundación Mapfre Collection: Picasso, Tàpies, Miró,…
The beguiling beauty, grace, and vitality of Haitian art is on display at Open Doors, where a portion of the proceeds from exhibit sales will benefit the At Risk Children Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the life of Haiti’s orphaned children. Curated by Trisha Brookbank, “Imaginary Land, Real World:…
Tales from the Far Side Through August 28. Farside Gallery, 1305 SW 87th Ave., Miami; 305-264-3355 Twenty artists, including some of South Florida’s top-drawer talent, are participating in this surprisingly clever show. It features videos, drawings, paintings, photography, sculptures, and installations, and is loosely based on the popular comic strip…
A fortune cookie version of Carolina Vasquez’s life greets visitors to Diaspora Vibe. On a monitor at the gallery’s entrance, her 25 years in 6 mins 15 secs assaults the peepers with a video collage of the artist’s life that flashes so quickly it makes the viewer dizzy. Thousands of…
Tired of hanging out in Miami’s dark corners, fueled by cheap rotgut and deliberate sleep deprivation? Searching for an inspiring end to a soul-withering workweek? The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne might have the ticket for those “hate my boss, tired of the same boozy haunt” blues. On Thursday nights, the hotel’s…
Since learning he won the Hilger Artist Project Award last December, Clifton Childree has been hoarding discarded wood, ornate headboards, piles of fabric, and sundry cast-off junk from the curbs that line the homes on the outskirts of Miami’s Design District. “I live a few blocks from Churchill’s,” he says,…
