by Onajídé Shabaka - 16 Jul, 2007

   In the Heat of the Gallery Night

    by Onajídé Shabaka

Actually, starting off Friday night at Uncommon Gallery the paintings of Buket Izmirli, originally of Turkey. She paints with one hand, gloved. The textures and blending of paint is nice and somewhat impastoed but, the more one looks at the work the more one sees the unfortunate lack of depth in favor of color blending and surface treatment. That only means that there is a ways to go to reach a more fully developed work. Other work consisted of small and medium sized photographic prints by various artists. It was mostly digital and, good quality prints. Since digital prints are becoming more common is the marketplace it needs to be investigated as to how the prints are made.

On Saturday in Wynwood, the heat was again stifling until the sun went down and the concrete's heat dissipated. That really doesn't happen until long after most of us are in bed and the sun is about to come up again to heat up another day.

Edge Zones featured works curated by Matt Cave of Palm Beach County. Many of the artists have never shown in Miami and were there meeting and greeting visitors. The work was well received and, we hope to see more soon. They had paintings, photos, and videos. Unfortunately, the heat got to Mr. Cave and he rushed off before the crowds arrived for some medical care.

Up the street and around the corner at Locust Projects was "Polymorph" by Icelandic artist, Magnus Arnason and, in the project room, Tampa-based collective, Flight 19 who had a series of sculptures sprawled over the floor that resembled failed industrial experiments. Even though they may be the remnants of failure, they were more than intriguing leaving the possibility that another creative person could approach the projects and continue them forward. If only...

A couple doors up Ingalls & Associates featured Raul Perdomo's series of works on paper. Rendered in a variety of coloured inks and, built up in layers, the drawings are richly and lavishly treated. The nuanced layering's are the gaseous universe visualized on paper and, if you are a frequent visitor to NASA's web site, like myself, you'll see that notion is not far fetched.

"Confluence", a groups show at Snitzer Gallery, was the most varied event of the evening. Expanding upon the successes and failures of the 2005 summer show held at the Bas Fisher Invitational, the artists collaborated amongst themselves. "Nevertheless, artists are by no means sticking to their own styles or formulas. Instead, by engaging in a reactive decision process with the other, roles are traded, dialogue ensues and magic happens," reads the gallery statement. Some of the work looked a bit unfinished while others were as one would expect. However, during the evening David Rohn, with his usual steely and intense concentration, performed live in the gallery. I find it amazing that he goes so deeply into his character that he remains totally oblivious to the outside world for such lengths of time.

Also at "Confluence", Bert Rodriguez and Alex Sweet collaborated on a piece, "Two Heads Are Better Than One", that had some of us waiting for the full culmination to take place in front of our eyes. *wink*

Around the corner at Dorsch Gallery, I was finally able to see "Swimming with Sharks," new sculptures and drawings by Ralph Provisero. Smaller in scale than some of his previous work, these mostly wood and steel pieces are just as elegant as we've come to expect from Mr. Provisero. His drawings that accompanied the show were beautifully rendered and gave us a different relationship to scale and space for the three-dimensional works.

Harold Golen Gallery new to Wynwood. I wasn't able to get to a number of galleries I would have like including Diana Lowenstein Gallery. I was out with my web dev partner and, another computer friend that both like art and want to see more.

I also wasn't able to check out the Buena Vista Bldg. with Skip Van Cel. I obviously get more personal invites than I'm able to attend. I'll try to catch up with shows later but, I have my own two shows to prepare for.

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