Openings and closings among Miami’s galleries – Knight Foundation
Arts

Openings and closings among Miami’s galleries

This week will be a time to say hello, goodbye, and stick around with some innovative evenings that underscore the diversity of offerings in Miami these days.

First, for the sayonara: one of the original and flagship galleries in what we now call the Art District will shutter its doors for good in July, the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Yes, after more than a decade, Steinbaum has decided its time to move on to other ventures and travels. During that 10-year plus span, the gallery produced some of the best art shows we’ve seen – in the last two years alone the gallery showed off works from local talents such as Karen Rifas, Carol Prusa and Edouard Duval Carrie. In fact, the Haitian American artist’s “The Three Dimensional Gods and Goddesses Meet Their Cousins the Trees” solo appears to be the final Steinbaum installment.

Throughout the years, the gallerist – known for her eye, enthusiasm and her slippers – emphasized works from women, so a performance this Friday, June 15 from Simone Sobers Dance is an appropriate send-off from one of our favorite galleries. The New York-based Sobers, who also was trained in Miami, will put on a show, “Rogue,” that shares “the stories of women through various art forms globally, increasing the visibility of women of color in modern and post-modern dance.” It’s a good way to celebrate the end of an era.

On Saturday, it will be time to welcome Oliver Sanchez’s Swampspace to its new digs in the Design District. Artist Sanchez has always promoted alternative art in his spaces, and to inaugurate the new one, he has let Hugo Montoya, Milton Stevenson and Justin Long run wild, in “DUH HYPE….get over us…” What is this? Hmmm, “stuck in the middle of zombie attacks and the end of the world comes a show designed to make you feel good downstairs.” It’s the first in a three part series which is supposed to not just “open the doors for what is to come, but blows them off their hinges.” Okay, game.

Then also on Friday, the latest in the one-night only events in The Nightclub series, from the artist-run 801 Projects, this one named “Call Time.” It will feature four video and performance artists, Jillian Mayer, David Rohn, Antonia Wright and A.G. Viva. We are invited to an “open dressing room” as the four prepare for their individual portraits to be photographed. They “all utilize either image, identity, persona or presence as hyper-important tools in their practice.”

Simone Sobers Dance, June 15, 7-9 p.m. at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, 3550 N. Miami Ave., Miami; www.simonesobersdance.com. There is a $10 donation. “DUH HYPE…get over us…” opening June 16 at Swampspace Gallery, 150 N.E. 42nd St., Miami; swampspace.blogspot.com.   “Call Time” runs from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. on June 15 at the Buena Vista Bldg., 1890 39th St., Ste. 212, Miami; 305-299-6155.