Nowadays, artists are more likely to work with found materials than build something from scratch. “Modify, As Needed,” a new group show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, corrals 11 international artists who mischievously transgress traditional construction and dissemination. Instead they sophisticatedly shift from creating to editing. The provocative exhibit…

Lisa Slominsky’s “Dreamy Nomads, Baby” is profound and ephemeral

Nina Surel’s enigmatic and ornately collaged suite of paintings at Praxis on view as part of her solo “Understory,” is certified eye candy. I was tempted to rub my fingers all over her lushly impregnated surfaces. Covered by layers of photography, lace and velvets, rows of buttons and costume jewelry,…

Lisa Slominski’s cerebral solo at Dimensions Variable explores the malleability of memory and how we store, retain, and recall information in the high-speed digital age.Her installation “Dreamy Nomads, Baby” incorporates light boxes, floor sculptures and a suite of flocked screen-prints on paper combining decorative elements that evoke all manner of…

The new art season is upon us. Wynwood art dealers, wringing their sweaty palms, are in a sniff over who did or didn’t make the cut for Art Basel. The galleries are cranking out dozens of fresh shows like the conveyer belt at Krispy Kreme. The food trucks will be…

It’s hard to think of many local art spaces other than the big private collections or even the museums capable of pulling off the three seamless, impeccably presented solo shows currently on tap at Wynwood’s Dorsch Gallery.In fact Audrey Hasen Russell’s “Gold Slaw,” Cheryl Pope’s “Matter of Fact,” or Raymond…

Last Thursday night, Gallery Diet ushered in the Wynwood arts season with a group exhibit titled “Behind the curtain, a lock of hair falling.” The mixed bag features 18 works by seven artists hailing from Los Angeles, New York, and Miami working independently of each other but whose practice Diet…

Hear the term Latin American art and you might expect bright paintings of tropical landscapes, bull fighters swirling their capes, and maybe even a sultry mulata casting a fetching glance. But then you’d be dead wrong and oblivious to the world-class art talent from the southern half of our hemisphere…

Some artists like to create works from scratch. Others prefer destroying what already exists to imbue the resulting detritus with new life. At Primary Projects, “His Wife & Her Lover” is a new exhibit based on the premise that damaging something redirects its existence. The group show features work by…

September 10 Wynwood art walk revs up for Art Basel

Miami Dade College’s new exhibit “Mona Lisa Unveiled,” at the Freedom Tower, ranges from the plain silly to the sublime. There are variations of the Gioconda’s enigmatic, smiling puss ranging from Romero Britto’s eyesore Mona Cat to Marcel Duchamp’s sight for sore eyes, Mona Lisa L.H.O.O.Q. readymade hanging nearby.Duchamp’s famous…

When I heard about a new community for the homeless in Homestead, the first thing that crossed my mind was, wow this is another case of local government relocating those they deem “undesirables” away from town.But my twitchy inner skeptic got bitch-slapped when Carlos Alves, AKA Miami’s “Mosaic Man,” took…

Not all cameras are created equal nor do they often merit equal billing with the photographs in a show. But when celebrated Brooklyn-based shutterbug, Thomas Roma gutted a Nikon back in the ’80s and milled an adapter out of aircraft aluminum to go between the Nikon body and a Mamiya…

It’s official. Art junkies are about to revel in a mainline dose of unrefined adrenaline. The season-opening Second Saturday Art Walk this Saturday promises a steady IV drip of new shows to mush the eyes into creamed corn and leave the noggin spinning. On tap at Praxis International Art, Nina…

Optic Nerve XIII: MOCA’s short film fest goes national

Having been spirited out of Havana while still in cloth diapers, way before Cuban mothers had discovered disposables, I was eager to catch Sandra Ramos’ “90 Miles: Living in the Vortex” at Dot Fiftyone Gallery.The Havana-based artist’s solo show features a 32-foot walkway of 12 light boxes in the shape…

This year, Optic Nerve was chosen the Miami New Times’ Best Film Festival in the publication’s mega issue highlighting the 305’s finest offerings.But it should have come as no surprise that MOCA’s vaunted showcase of short, homegrown experimental films running under five minutes would end up muscling its way onto…

Those wondering when the next homegrown art star will be minted usually cast their peepers at Miami’s New World School of the Arts which has chalked up an impressive record in recent years of producing bumper crops of fresh talent.Mind you NWSA is not one of those dippy art school…

Not all cameras are created equal, nor do they often merit equal billing with the photographs in a show. But when celebrated Brooklyn-based shutterbug Thomas Roma gutted a Nikon in the ’80s, he ushered in a new era in photography. He milled an adapter out of aircraft aluminum to go…

“Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other” at MAM through October 16

90 Miles: Living in the Vortex at Dot Fiftyone Gallery through September 6