Second look at some Second Saturday output – Knight Foundation
Arts

Second look at some Second Saturday output

At this juncture in time, Wynwood’s Second Saturdays are about the barbecues, the pop-up sort-of art and the party. Which is all okay, as long as you aren’t really looking to spend some quality time

with much of the better stuff that is out there. It’s too much of a circus for that anymore. But then, that’s what gallery hours during the rest of the week are for.

So through the crowds and the b-b-q smoke, some stand-out work emerged, worthy of a real second look.

At Snitzer’s gallery, Loriel Beltran’s large, sometimes towering wood sculptures, are really good-looking pieces — although their conceptual base is far more complicated. The exhibit is called “FALSEwork,” and focuses on the material and process in the making of the ultimate product. Or as the gallery explains, “There is an immense employment of labor and resources required to produce, display, transport and maintain even the simplest or most conceptual art objects. … These structures are the byproducts, the invisible work performed for the purpose of the final product.” A little too literal example of this is a gallon container of the artist’s sweat, produced (and then collected) during the making of the works. But never mind, these sculptures are worth all the effort.

At David Castillo’s gallery, a portrait of a blond child, with a facial expression that’s a strange combination of grimace, frustration, perplexity, would be reason alone to visit Francie Bishop Good’s photography show “Lost/Found.” But there is much more. Good has a special eye for capturing emotion, and this series can’t help but cry out with emotion, taken as they were at women’s recovery centers throughout the country. That doesn’t mean they are fraught and wrought — the expressions can be resigned, worn, just tired. Good “captures the intimate moments that reflect the intersection of a public and private persona,” notes the gallery.

Then there are those special Second Saturday moments, glimpses of  work that may or may not be around the following week. So while wandering around the car chop-shops, a glow appeared from a store-front studio, beckoning the lone travelers on this street. Inside was a series of jazzy bronze lamps — yes, their posts were made of clarinets and saxes, their bases of lace-up shoes, their shades of pork-pie hats, with the little yellow lights underneath them adding just that extra touch — crafted from sculptor Octavio Cuellar. Wouldn’t have seen this side show without a street fair night walk, which would have been too bad.

“FALSEwork” through March 5 at Fredric Snitzer Gallery,  2247 N.W. 1st Pl., Wynwood. Miami. “Lost/Found” through March 5 at David Castillo Gallery, 2234 N.W. 2nd Ave., Wynwood. Miami.