You may not recognize the name Robert McKnight, but you may know some of his work. The artist has designed landscapes at the Metrozoo (oops!, it’s been renamed Zoo Miami) and Disney World, contributed murals and mosaics to parks, libraries and apartments, even built an environmental interactive sculpture

that includes a bird sanctuary and swimming pool for a pre-school at a church. McKnight, you could say, has been around the block more than once.

The Africa-American artist, born in South Carolina but making Miami home when he was two years old, in 1953, contributes not just artwork to the community around him, but his voice as well as a commentator and promoter of African-American art (he has a funny blog, www.robertmcknight-visualartist.blogspot.com, with entries such as “Waterfalls pay the bills” about a public installation).

Now, a gallery unique and interesting in its own right, The Farside Gallery, is opening a solo show of his work, “The Edge Hive.” Curated by poet and critic Ricardo Pau-Llosa, it is comprised of 14 sculptures hewn out of tile and concrete. As the poet-curator describes the work: “He entertains at once, in the hives of these edges and hand-petrified shadows, a harem of feelings, a mounding vibrant shrine that mates pleasure with the earth, tomb with eros, and presents us with the grimy concrete of our daily lives bejeweled by the hungriest lights.”

Some words about Farside: originally, the gallery — way out west near FIU — was in the office of dentist and collector Dr. Arturo Mosquera, where art works literally hung around the dental chair and sink. Now the gallery is located in a small house next door, although some art remains in the office. Because Mosquera doesn’t represent artists, his gallery has shown an amazingly wide variety of art through the years, and has been a haven for people who wanted to leap out of the box for a bit and try something different.

This exhibit promises more of the same. Says McKnight about his art: “My mission as an artist is to create works that are individual in style and content reflecting my heart and soul, stretching the poetic and artistic license in both material and content.”

The powerful combo of artist, poet, and gallery will be well worth the trip west.

“The Edge Hive” opens this Friday, Sept. 10, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Farside Gallery, 1305 Galloway Rd., Miami (after that, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. by appointment); 305-264-3120; [email protected].