Andrew Ligon’s painted and plastered ponies.

There are many and varied creatures crawling around the ArtCenter South Florida. Well, okay, they are not crawling, but standing and hanging and buzzing on screen. “Attitudes in Latitudes: The Northern Wild Explores the Tropics” was born out of an intriguing combination, that of art being created in the Canadian city of Winnipeg and in Miami.

You read that right. While Canada itself may seem remote to those of us in the sub-tropics, Winnipeg is among the more remote of all the major cities of our northern neighbor. But when curator Ombretta Agro Andruff (who hails from Italy and now makes Miami home) visited the Manitoban metropolis, she was impressed by its quirkiness and its vibrant art scene.

She mulled over the idea of mixing artists from the two cities, who have delved into nature or landscape in their art. After all, both urban areas are surrounded by grasslands of a sort – the great western prairies of the north, and the Everglades river of grass in the south. In the end she pulled in six artists from each city, whose work is now displayed at both of ArtCenter’s Lincoln Road spaces.

Dominique Rey’s self-transformed creature.

The geographical diversity in the art is sometimes apparent, such as the strange and wild videos and photographs from Dominique Rey. The artist has donned costumes that transform her into a non-human, indecipherable creature, who dances across a snowy, barren landscape. Yes, this is a Winnipeg artist.

But two artists who have disfigured model horses are from Miami and Canada; the similarity is what’s defining. Diana Thorneycroft (Winnipeg) has corralled toy horses on a table, ones that she has torn up and put back together, becoming mutants. Miami’s Andrew Nigon’s horses are much larger and hang from a ceiling, but these hobby horses too have been manipulated with foam and plaster, becoming grotesque in their ultimate forms. The resulting imagery is universal here; what we do to ourselves and our environment with our interventions is often ugly.

Antonia Wright’s video has been seen before, but that makes it no less powerful. She has let herself, in a striking performative piece, be swarmed by bees. As the bees cover her torso and face, it can be hard to keep looking. In another cordoned off, blackened room, South Africa native and Miami-based artist Anja Marais has built a vaguely human-like sculpture, on which she projects images of sky and clouds. It is both eerie and transfixing, hard to describe without experiencing it.

These and more artworks make up the last exhibit that will be shown in the flagship space, which has been sold and which ArtCenter will be vacating in the spring. It’s leaving with distinct attitude.

“Attitudes in Latitudes: The Northern Wild Explores the Tropics” runs through April 26 at the ArtCenter South Florida, 800 and 924 Lincoln Road galleries, Miami Beach; www.artcentersf.org.