By Colleen Dougher A Plexiglas house designed to hold secrets, a self-portrait based on a 30-year-old photograph, a powerful 20-chair installation, big drawings comprised of handwritten fears, insecurities and affirmations and a found mannequin with a hidden but beautiful world inside. These are among the treasures that can be found when Which Way Out: Personal Thoughts … [Read more...]
The fever for modernity: Italian Futurists, at Boca Museum
We wish our world would slow down, unplug, take a breather, but to a group of Italian artists, this world would have been paradise with no sound more soothing than incoming text messages, microwaves and alarms. Known as Futurists, these artists emerging before and during World War I wished to delete the obsolete past and fast-forward their country into modernity. To do so, … [Read more...]
At the Morikami: Street fashion a la Elvis, Brando and Nabokov
Japan’s street fashion knows no minimalism. Like a rainbow rhapsody, its tune says anything goes and more is always better. An ongoing exhibit wrapping up next month tells us it is all about gaining acceptance, not attention. There is no room for judgment and the main goal is having fun. These are some of the notions the Morikami Museum galleries put forward with Breaking … [Read more...]
In 17th year, ArtPalmBeach builds broader buzz
With 85 galleries and a full five days of exhibitions and events, this year’s 17th annual ArtPalmBeach is intended to make an even bigger mark on the South Florida cultural landscape than it has done in the past. Opening tonight at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, the festival also includes six satellite art fairs: ART al’FRESCO at the Boynton Beach … [Read more...]
Boca Museum’s ‘Pop Culture’ gives us images of what we really are
Like a giant slap in the face, the new Pop Art exhibition at the Boca Museum of Art wakes us up from a long hibernation filled with compulsive consumerism habits, celebrity infatuation and overindulgence. The effect, however, is momentary. It may not be enough to change our ways, but faced with a giant hot dog made of mosaics, a thought does come to mind: How did we get to … [Read more...]
Looking back: Booming Art Basel full of energy, surprise
When the Art Basel Miami Beach week ended Dec. 8, more than 75,000 people had visited the show in the Miami Beach Convention Center, and many of those 75,000 had visited the five main fairs that have sprung up around it: Art Miami, Design Miami, NADA, Pulse and Untitled. There was plenty of star power, too. At Art Miami’s opening Dec. 3, a horde of no less than 13,500 VIP … [Read more...]
Flagler: The right amount of wealth and heart
The best part of writing about a man responsible for historic hotels, impossible railroads and that this state is now livable, is knowing he is remembered for the right reasons. In other words, I can skip the horseradish. There is nothing phony or in need of polish when it comes to Henry Flagler. His legacy speaks for itself and is now the focus of an exhibit at the … [Read more...]
Four Arts shows us a Deco Japan we never knew
A new art exhibit at The Society of the Four Arts skips the foreplay and leads with the most daring Art Deco while leaving the dirtiest (politics) out. I walked in and there it was: a Japanese nude barely covered in black lace leaning back on a couch, and attended to by a younger female helper. Clearly, I had made a mistake, but some steps later another daring female stood … [Read more...]
Armory exhibit an impressive look at local black artists
Collaboration: African Diaspora, which concluded at the Armory Art Center on Nov. 9, was an intoxicating blend of art from a diverse group of talented black artists. Self-described as a Harlem Renaissance-style exhibit, the show featured paintings and drawings, sculpture, crafts and jewelry from more than 20 artists and was co-curated by the husband-and-wife team of Anthony … [Read more...]
‘Irreversible’ art mag showcases contest winners
By Colleen Dougher Rafael Enrique Rodriguez Bencid’s 6666 is a “floating cube” that takes visitors on a four-year journey of the artist's travels, as documented through 6,666 pictures edited to a musical score built on 6,666 notes, all projected in a few minutes. To experience this, one simply sticks one’s head inside the cube and, as the Miami artist notes, it's “as if time … [Read more...]