Sometimes a painting is just beautiful. It can have deeper meaning or a complex make up, but some works just hang there and say, look at me, I am so good-looking. That’s the case with the nature-inspired pieces of Greg Lindquist in the group show of New York artists, “you are here forever….” curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud at the Carol Jazzar Contemporary Art gallery.

One of Lindquist’s paintings opens the exhibit, a lovely, light-green okra and yellow image of a cactus, or maybe it is a tree stump. Its delicacy and gentle strokes make it so alluring, and the whole piece seems almost fluid. Its a good introduction to a strong show of other equally interesting works. Like the video that is next to it, called “Silver Man (Homem de Prata),” from Renata Padovan, which depicts a soon-to-be mime covering his entire body in silver paint. The actions, the color and the eventual product — the performer dons a hat, holds a weapon, climbs on a silver box and becomes a sentinel — are immediately eye-catching. Across the room in the 1950s garage that is the main gallery, another video shows another man being more than covered, he is being consumed by food and paint. At first it seems a bit of a lark, but the process becomes darker as the man is almost suffocating under cake and pie, silver tinsel, yellow paint. He has become a human mixing bowl. Along the back wall are some stunning, cinematic drawings from Hackworth Ashley. They, too, have an ominous feel, despite their clear beauty. He also has a sculpture that emits fire within a black hearth; or maybe it is the spark of a volcano.

Inside the house, where a second gallery sits in the back, Lindquist reemerges, with several tree paintings that look as though they are created on rice paper (again, that is the delicacy) but are not. He also splashed a bright yellow tree with its leafy branches directly on the wall as a mural. In this room is a series of video vignettes from David Brooks, taken during his recent stint in the Everglades. Brooks was last seen in Miami in Miami Art Museum‘s “Wilderness” exhibition, with his freestanding animal sculptures.

Nature is a loose theme to this show, but that wouldn’t necessarily be apparent in the four abstract works from Edgar Serrano or the wonderful “molding” high up on the wall in the center gallery from Franklin Evans. Really, there is no weak link in “you are here forever….” Several of the artists also pop up in another show curated by Lopez-Chahoud at LegalArt, where he was a visiting resident for a month. Called “Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds,” it is inspired by the 1960s Fluxus Movement and includes a number of Miami artists, as well.

“you are here forever….” runs through Jan. 15 at the Carol Jazzar Gallery, 158 N.W. 91st St., Miami; www.cjazzart.com.