Anthony Lister first earned notoriety with his gritty canvases depicting decrepit comic book characters. Considered one of Australia's top contemporary artists, Lister has had solo shows in London, Milan and Los Angeles. In 2010, Lister was included in Beyond The Street: The 100 Leading Figures in Urban Art, an encyclopedic tome featuring profiles on key players in the genre.
And not unlike many of his contemporaries these days hankering to visit the Magic City, Lister is in town to paint some street murals and rock a solo show in Wynwood. Lister's latest suite of ballerina paintings will be on view during this weekend's Second Saturday kicking-off at 6 p.m. at the Robert Fontaine Gallery.
Our other top draws for this edition of Art Walk features a rising Spanish talent's experiments with painting and sculpture, a Miami video virtuoso's largest showcase, a master Cuban painter's take on war and school violence, and an art instructor's student portraits. Here are five exhibits making noise this weekend.
Never Odd Or Even
Anthony Lister's dizzying canvases, depicting edgy ballerinas rendered with aggressive, muscular brush strokes, take center stage at the Robert Fontaine Gallery where the painter also marks his Wynwood solo debut. Lister, who claims to suffer from "multiple creative personality disorder," mentions that his primary interest is in breaking down the ideals of highbrow and lowbrow. The Aussie calls graffiti art "the final frontier in true artistic integrity," before adding "I'm disguising myself as a fine artist until the revolution is fully here".
Robert Fontaine Gallery, 2349 NW Second Ave., Miami. Call 305-397-8530 or visit robertfontainegallery.com.
Reflections
David Rodriguez Caballero's aluminum wall sculptures bring to mind large pieces of metal origami. Their surfaces appear to have been raked with razor-sharp talons. One of his works glows with a crimson hue and refracts the overhead lights.
"I'm interested in painting without painting," he says.
The cherry piece, simply titled 13.January.2013, is on display as part of the Spaniard's solo debut in Miami. It is part of a pop-up exhibit staged at O. Ascanio Gallery that features more than 30 aluminum, brass, and vinyl abstractions, wall installations, and free-standing sculptures.
Rodriguez Caballero, who exhibits internationally, is represented by Marlborough Gallery, one of the world's leading art dealers, which has outposts in London, New York, Madrid, and Monaco. During the exhibit's launch last week, eight of his works sold for a whopping $175,000, opening Marlborough honchos' eyes to Wynwood's growing commercial potential. The show is being staged by C-Art Gallery and was curated by author and art historian Kosme de Barañano. C-Art director Cesar Rodriguez is in the process of opening a permanent space in the area.
O. Ascanio Gallery, 2600 NW Second Ave., Miami. Call 305-571-9036 or visit oascaniogallery.com.
PRECIPICE / POSTMODEM
For her largest exhibition to date, homegrown video maverick Jillian Mayer delivers a mega-dose of techno legerdemain to Locust Projects where her latest sculptural and installation works mine notions of the imaginary confrontation when humans and machines stare down each other. Part parody, part existential reverie, Mayer's works include A Place for Online Dreaming, an installation souped-up by a performance that's linked to an interactive website. Don't miss her bogus infomercials and rickety androids produced from digital tablets and Roomba vacuum cleaners.
In Locust's Project Room, catch "Out of Place," a two-person exhibit by New York-based Tracey Goodman and Valerie Snobeck who explore South Florida and its environs with conceptual rigor to create disparate views of how we navigate our surroundings.
Locust Projects, 3852 N. Miami Ave., Miami; 305-576-8570; locustprojects.org.
UP * SIDE * DOWN (turmoil, disasters & shootings)
At Pan American Art Projects Luis Cruz Azaceta delivers the gravitas with his idiosyncratic brand of conceptual rabble rousing. Inspired by socio-politico hot-button issues ranging from America floundering in foreign wars to school massacres in the homeland, the Cuban painter departs from his iconic figuration to the abstract and detached. In Pan Am's Project Room, Azaceta takes the tragedy of Sandy Hook as his departure point and employs child-like imagery as a brutal cue to the destruction of innocence.
The gallery is doubling down with "Miami Cool" by Luis Enrique Camejo. The keen-eyed talent, who lives and works in Havana, has engrossed himself as a deep-cover observer of the Big Mango to illustrate the urban birthmarks of the fading metropolis we all call home and often take for granted.
Pan American Art Projects, 2450 NW Second Ave, Miami. 305-573-2400 panamericanart.com.
Presque Vu
You might best recognize Maitejosune Urrechaga for her post-punk warbling with Tony Kapel in Pocket of Lollipops, but the South Florida-based talent is also a visual artist well worth keeping the peepers peeled on. This weekend at Swampspace, the focus shifts from her pipes to her paintings in a solo Urrechaga has been laboring on since 2011. She's a Miami Dade County School art teacher and has been working on her new series of watercolor and ink creations with her students. The upwards of 20 works on display focus mainly on vibrant pictures of kids in her classroom.
"It's a portrait series of students and how lines of communication from teacher to student are a tough thing these days," explains the artist. "So the images in a sense hold a quiet power to them and the connection to my students".
Swampspace, 150 NE 42nd St., Miami. Call 305-710-8631 or visit swampspace.blogspot.com.
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