Wynwood Gallery Roundup

Wynwood Gallery Roundup

by Onajide Shabaka

In attendance at the recent NADA preview at the Deauville Resort Hotel were a few local gallerists and curators who all expressed enthusiasm for the art season. Dorsch Gallery, for instance, has changed his interior space by adding more walls, and therefore, more art. Dorsch’s September and October exhibitions have been arguably their best ever. They plan to continue their lecture series, which have become a more important part of their programming. David Castillo, also in attendance,  is bringing in the exhibiting artists to lecture on their work. David Castillo Gallery recognizes the importance of doing that as they continue to be one of the more interesting venues in Wynwood.

World Class Boxing continues with its sparse gallery installation this time with videos from Paul Pfeiffer. The small sized video screens invite up close viewing of manipulated sports. One centers, literally, on a basketball that stays in the center of the screen while the world spins around. The most fascinating video is, “Long Count III (Thrilla in Manilla), 2001,” that shows in an invisible way, the Ali vs. Frazier title bout. In each case there are visual impossibilities happening but they are hypnotic and mesmerizing.

Fredric Snitzer Gallery showed the work of Natalya Laskis, a relatively unknown Miami artist. Laskis’ works are very painterly, with visible brushstrokes taking on an important textural quality. However, they are not just for texture, the brushstrokes are integral to the layering and depth of the images. Her rich colors are also refreshing in her non-typical Florida scenes that often end up being just another cliché in the hands of other artists.

Snitzer Gallery also represents Gavin Perry who has some of his larger works, layered auto body tape, and paint covered with high gloss acrylic, as part of the New Works exhibition at the Schmidt Center Gallery, Florida Atlantic University. Perry, along with Castillo Gallery artist, Frances Trombly, were two of this year’s awardees for the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship.

On the same street, Kevin Bruk Gallery, brings back Jesse Bransford, who tracks the cultural influences of the moon. In many cultures the moon is associated with the feminine, with madness, and with magic. Bransford again directly covers the gallery walls with an installation, as well as his many framed drawings and paintings. His work commingles graphic imagery including, occult symbols, outer space diagrams, and figuration in a way that focuses on the relationship of magic of images and magic of being.

Kevin Bruk Gallery also had the work of Juliet Jacobson in their back gallery. Her installation, with framed works and sculptures, also set up a kind of inbetween time and reality that leaves the viewer with a sense of walking into and out of reality.

Gallery Diet, just around the corner from Snitzer and Bruk, has kept up an ambitious schedule of programming since they opened. “Fieldwork,” is the first public exhibition of Richard Högland’s current project. Högland uses drawing throughout the exhibition as a method of recording labor in a series of translation that begin with Baruch de Spinoza’s Ethics. One viewer was overheard saying the drawings were obsessive. They are large and contain a lot of very interesting information, not all of which is representational. However, anyone who finds the artist who applies a pencil to paper of interest will want to see these works without a doubt.

Around the corner from Gallery Diet is David Castillo Gallery. David Castillo Gallery has become more adventurous by showing more conceptual work than many of the other galleries in Wynwood. That is also a credit to his understanding of what defines quality art and just because it is conceptual doesn’t mean it’s necessarily crap, as some have suggested.

David Castillo Gallery’s current exhibition is the work of Adler Guerrier, his first in over four years. Guerrier has included drawings, prints, sculpture and video with his previously recognized photographic work. He continues to explore the streets of Miami and his own life as the contemporary flaneur in a city that seems to change more rapidly than others. His handling of the everyday and commonplace has taken them to a level where they can be more critically examined.

Hardcore Contemporary Arts, located on N. Miami Avenue, closer to the arbitrary division of I-195 that separates Wynwood and the Design District art districts, featured videos. Some of the videos were a bit cryptic and most likely required multiple viewings. That is one of the issues on encounters when watching artist videos, the level is easy accessibility. Although the space seemed well attended one has to wonder whether something has changed over the past few months that would have them not updating their web site since the spring of 2009.

A few doors away is Kunsthaus Miami, owned by a German born gallerist living mostly in Mexico. Luis Kerch, born in Mexico and currently living in the Canary Islands, is featuring large scale paintings that are a landscape for native Mexican, colonial Mexican and the spirituality and mythology of those cultures wrapped is a cloud like environment of painterly abstraction. Kerch’s work is a rejection of the “death of painting” and his work is the work of a craftsman. Kunsthaus Miami, although a smallish exhibition space, has consistently shown excellent work.

Also in Wynwood is also the home of Dorsch Gallery. After been one of the first galleries to open in Wynwood, their programming has turned up a notch after having built out a few new walls to give artists even more space to work. Even though their September exhibition was very good, their October exhibition was up to a higher level. Richard Haden’s hyper-realist scultpures even had the kids marveling. Jenny Brillhart and John Sanchez’s paintings were absolutely breathtaking.

Richard Haden and Mette Tommerup will both be included in an exhibition at Art and Culture Center of Hollywood‘s group exhibition Time + Temp, opening November 16th.  The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood is showcasing many local artists in their programming. Time + Temp will present a survey of dynamic work by a selection of South Florida based artists who embrace and incorporate aspects of painting into their practice. A resurgence of painterly tendencies is currently taking hold among artists on a national and international level.

The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood has an ambitious schedule over the next few months and they’ve managed to keep themselves going in the right direction in spite of the current economy. Hollywood, Florida seems to have made more of an effort to turn their downtown into a gathering place both in the daytime at the Arts Park and the evening restaurants and clubs. We need to support their efforts.

Everyone seems ready for another successful art season, even though everyone’s expectation have been lowered by the economy. Spirits are still high so let’s see how the next few months pan out.