What makes a house a home is a multilayered thing. There are private and public spaces, touches from everyone who inhabits or even visits it; it becomes a complex space, worthy of investigation. Which is why art that is shown in houses – not in private collections but as public exhibition spaces – takes on complex meaning, compared to the white cube setting.

For instance, when art is shown in a bathroom or kitchen, it becomes particularly personal. Those are some of the most private spaces in our lives. Escape the Room, now showing at the Farside Gallery, addresses some of these issues, and then adds another layer. The name of the exhibit is also the name of a popular online game, where, by pressing buttons on objects, you escape that room.

The buttons here are both masculine and feminine, from the hands of Bailey Bob Bailey and Karen Combs (from the Northeast) and locals Michelle Weinberg and Michael Genovese. It’s an interesting combination of work and ideas, in a house way out near working-class Westchester, run by the orthodontist and dedicated arts patron Arturo Mosquera (the alternative setting is enhanced when the small parking lot is full and you have to park across the street in the church of  the Assembly of God lot).

Not unintentionally, the bathroom and kitchen are “decorated” by the women, in both cases in rich, vibrant colors. Combs has covered the kitchen in hand-painted wallpaper, really lovely stuff, in an installation called “Lotus Eaters” (her painted works are also covering the table and the counter tops).

Weinberg, who curated the show, has filled the bathroom with blue, purple, and pink objects, like generic lotions and potions, and a sculptural version of a large potted plant, in the tub, waiting to be watered, made of paper mache.

There is a plant in the side room as well, which may be the most interesting piece in the whole show: this one is alive, and is a blue agave plant on which Genovese has carved text. Anyone familiar with his work will recognize this stylistic incorporation, as he painstakingly writes and carves his version of hieroglyphics on his works, often made of a metal. But in this case, Genovese found the writings of a self-help guru online and repeated his words on the plant, which he will continue to add to as the agave grows. It’s pretty cool all around. On the wall is a nickel-plated aluminum mirror (like everything here, a creative take on an average household object), also with a script inscribed.

The main room holds three works from Bob Bailey, one of which is a disco-style lamp with balls made of foam; and something that looks akin to a massive headboard for a bed, all in silver. In fact, its layers reveal what could be picture frames, mirrors, the essence of wall furnishings.

And like a house that is lived in, the windows are open and the light comes in, adding another element to the viewing of these installations.

Weinberg would like us all to pull back the curtains on this house exhibit even more, so she is organizing an “Escape” game that will serve, in a sense, as a catalogue and document. For that, you can make a pledge big or small at kickstarter.com to help publish the online game.

“Escape the Room” runs through Feb. 28 at the Farside Gallery, 1305 Galloway Rd, Miami .; farsidegalleryartatwork.blogspot.com