Bridge Red “Set”-ting some standards – Knight Foundation
Arts

Bridge Red “Set”-ting some standards

It’s becoming a real treat to visit the Bridge Red Studios alternative gallery off of 125th Street in North Miami, which opened less than a year ago. Not only are quality artists, who are not represented at galleries around town, highlighted, but the competent eyes of the presenters are always present. That would be the father-daughter team of Robert and Kristen Thiele and her husband, Francesco Casale.

Set” is no exception, which will have a closing reception this Sunday on Oct. 23. The most arresting works here are from Tom Schmitt, who has been making art since the 1960s (Bridge Red has a mission to show artists who have long been “emerged.”). First off, his colors are stunning. It seems funny to write about bright, vibrant colors of an artist here in subtropical South Florida, but really, the light turquoise, olive green and unbelievable yellow on the distorted canvases here are delicious. These abstract paintings are almost devoid of markings — there are some geometric lines and circles — so each one is really about the color and the protrusions. The canvas has been pushed out at certain points in these paintings, giving them 3-D proportions, once in a while looking like a sophisticated sock puppet. One red sculpture is slit down the middle with a red light escaping from that crevice. “Kind of racy,” suggests Kristen Thiele. They all look so contemporary, unfaded and, yet, they were made in the late ’60s.

Schmitt also included videos. These colorful, kaleidoscopic works in this case do harken back a bit — one is reminiscent of a very lovely tubular Pac-Man-like thing eating the screen.

Odalis Valdivieso also works with lines, planes and, in a sense, uniform color. She has several subtle, two-toned geometric grid works on the entry wall, which, in fact, literally peel away the surface and the process, revealing the cut edges and material involved in the creation.

Kerry Ware is an abstract painter; his lines, however, are smudged and vague, and actual images do emerge. He uses plaster and lets the natural progression of the material bubble and burst and remain as part of the paintings. In the lovely “Fish Tank Sketch Series,” some jellyfish creatures with tendrils become quite apparent. On another wall are circular paintings made from the solidified plaster at the bottom of a bucket, uneven and pockmarked. The surfaces are rugged, and there is something essentially organic to Ware’s creative output.

Expect smart and interesting paintings from all three, which help give context to art and to Miami’s own history.

“Set” at Bridge Red Studios, with slowing reception Sunday from noon until 4 p.m., 12425 N.E. 13th Ave. No. 5 (the red door); otherwise by appointment, 305-978-4856.