Seeing one particular painting of Hernan Bas at Snitzer’s gallery last Saturday suddenly seemed more unsettling than it might have two days earlier. It’s a large painting in three sections — the largest that the young and successful painter has done so far — called “The Road Ahead is Golden.” A white car is sliding down an embankment, smashing into trees, and soon, it appears, into a river as well.

On closer inspection, the terrain reveals an auto graveyard, where the pieces of metal are receding into the dense foliage. A boy (or young man, the tell-tale figurative imagery of Bas) is rubbing his leg, recently injured. The whole scene seemed so much more violent after seeing scene after scene of extreme tsunami devastation in Japan for the previous 24 hours, including those of floating, empty cars. In the past, Bas’s images evoked a melancholy more than a physical pain.

That could mostly have been due to cable news inundation. Bas’ well-known flora and forests and coloring (often more reminiscent of somewhere near the Black Forest than the Everglades) and his dandyish lonely figures are still here, but in “The Forest for the Trees,” his new solo show, something has indeed changed; and it’s not just the size of the big painting. The press release for the exhibit puts some of this change as due to a shift toward the abstract and away from the narrative: “This new interest in abstract issues is both a departure and an evolution.”

Bas, who now does live closer to those northern woods, in Detroit, also has some interesting drawings, all behind glass (paper pieces from one of Miami’s best selling artists don’t just hang unprotected).

And although there is a discernible departure here, one thing remains steadfast, and the reason he is lauded as an incredible painter: the actual paintings, the brush strokes, the colors, the compositions, are just gorgeous. It would be a real shame to miss this one.

Out on the street on Second Saturday, something visually intriguing was happening in a different vein during the monthly circus fair. After passing a couple of motionless, lone figures staring at super close range at a wall or post, the fairly obvious struck: this had to be performance art. Indeed it was, as a participant artist and originator of “I can’t see you, but i can feel you,” Misael Soto, later explained. White footprints had been painted on the ground, behind the wall-gazers, inviting passersby to stand behind them, back-to-back, in silence as well. “Giving our backs to strangers and staying still is an action of trust and vulnerability, opening ourselves to the possibility to connect with anyone however they see fit.”

Soto said more people participated then he expected; some enlighten folks yelled or otherwise were juvenile,   “and others were a little spooked,” but in the end “we all got several hugs and thank yous.” We hope to see or feel similar work again.

“The Forest for the Trees” by Hernan Bas runs through April 14 at Fredric Snitzer Gallery, 2247 N.W. 1st Pl., Miami; snitzer.com. “I can’t see you, but i can feel you”: go to misaelsoto.blogspot.com.