Generally things slow down in the summer months but Second Saturday Artwalk is still going strong. Here are 12 events that will be happening during this month’s Artwalk.
MAD FUN MOTHER’S DAY EVE
Mothers often go to great lengths to help their daughters further their careers. For Miami real estate broker Alice Kellogg, this has meant dumping chicken noodle soup over her own head, shoving her noggin into a plastic container of Cheerios and cramming herself into a cabinet beneath a kitchen sink.
Kellogg is the mother of Lee Materazzi, whose solo exhibition Feels Like Home will open Saturday at Spinello Gallery in Miami. Through photos Materazzi and her mother took of one another, the 27-year-old photographer explores domestic rituals such as doing laundry, baking a cake and making a sandwich in a way that’s anything but routine. In one photo, Materazzi pours laundry detergent on her head. For another, she shoved a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into her face. In a photo triptych, she transformed her mother’s face into a chocolate cake.
“She wanted to make a cake out of my head,” Kellogg recalls. “So I had chocolate frosting all over my face and my hair, and we were laughing so hard. And I’m like, ‘Lee, you’ve got to stop laughing because this has to be in focus. I’m not doing this one again.’ Then, I hear the sprinkles go on and she’s got candles. Now, I can’t see a thing. But then, I hear her lighting the butane lighter … ” To read more about Materazzi’s show and the madness she and her mother go through in their photos shoots, read my City Link magazine story.
MALICE IN WONDERLAND
Also opening on Saturday night is Malice in Wonderland, featuring works by Yamel Molerio, Lu Coxhead, Luis Diaz and Ray Azcuy. According to Molerio, who is also the show’s curator, Malice in Wonderland is as “a marvelous adventure [that] will surprise you with an array of artworks exploring familiar settings with a twist of malice.” He says the show will explore “the loss of childhood innocence, life as a meaningless puzzle and death as a constant and underlying menace.” The show will open 7-10 p.m. Saturday, May 8 at the Buena Vista Building, 180 N.E. 39th St., in Miami, and run through June 5. Call 305-987-7787. Check out our recent Fresh Art feature on Molerio (whose art is pictured here), as well as this week’s feature on Coxhead.
JJ PEET @ GALLERY DIET
Gallery Diet will host “The Sunday Painter,” the first solo painting exhibition of JJ PEET, a New York based artist who has previously dealt with contemporary political, social and economic events through audio, video and sculpture, but is now responding to these issues through painting. Throughout the exhibition, PEET will work in his modular and mobile painting studio, a self-contained unit he designed to be easily broken down and transported, allowing him to respond to political environments in different locations. His studio will be inside the project space, where viewers can watch him on a television that is set up as a live feed. The Yale School of Art grad, whose work has twice been written about by Art in America, will explore class and economics through the more high-brow leisure orientated act of painting versus The TV Show, his previous project which incorporated a more immediate media. Opening reception is 6-9 p.m. Friday. Those who stick around until 8, can hear a poetry reading by Zachary Schomburg, University of Wynwood visiting poet and author of The Man Suit and the more recent, Scary, No Scary. “The Sunday Painter” exhibition will also be open 7-10 p.m. Saturday for Artwalk. Gallery Diet is at 174 N.W. 23 St., Miami.
DOUBLE OPENING AT DORSCH
Two solo exhibitions will open at Dorsch Gallery on Friday. Corin Hewitt’s installation, Drying Flowers with Microwaves, incorporates a performance space and focuses on the “impossibility of capturing an image.” Viewers will be able to partially see into the makeshift studio he will assemble within Dorsch to create the photos that later become part of the exhibition. The work is meant to emphasize how knowledge, particularly in fields such as theater, performance art, craft and photography is a process rather than an end, and how that philosophy applies on a more universal level to life, death and work. Hewitt will be in his studio during gallery hours from May 7 through 19 (excluding May 13).
“Haptic,” Jacob Robichaux’s first solo exhibition in Miami, will also open at Dorsch. Curated by Christina Linden, the show will incorporate performance in a setting designed to accommodate the possibility of audience participation. A reception for both artists will be held 7-9 p.m. Friday, and the exhibition will also be open 7-10 p.m. Saturday at Dorsch Gallery, 151 N.W. 24 St., Miami. Call 305-576-1278 or visit Dorschgallery.com.
SPUTNIK PLUNK
Sputnik Plunk, a show of paintings by Mark “Atomos” Pilon, will open at Harold Golen Gallery. The artist’s story as told by Golen: “Mark Atomos Pilon was born under the Northern Lights, in Canada’s mysterious north. … After graduating from art school, Mark was researching an art project when he stumbled across a Walt Disney book called ‘Our Friend the ATOM.’ The Greek name Atomos leapt out at him. ‘It means indivisible, or the smallest possible object,’ Mark explains. ‘Mystery and science are a good working combination.’ Now based on the West Coast, he sent his imagination into a future that may never arrive. Every aspect of his art is carefully computer drawn and then meticulously painted in acrylic layers, to give them a sharp, print-like synthetic quality.” Read more about Pilon, who’s inspired by “underground comics, space-age record jackets, scooter culture and Moog music” and see his art at Haroldgolengallery.com. His show will open 7-11 p.m. Saturday at 2291 N.W. Second Ave., Miami. Call 305-989-3359.
JUST OPENED: FABRIKA ART SPACE
Illustrator and plush artist Dennise Rodriguez, illustrator Danny Brito (whose work is pictured here) and mixed media artists Joshua Surprenaut and Claudia Calle are in a group show at Fabrika Art Space, which just opened at 2722 N.W. Second Ave., Miami. For more details on Saturday’s opening, visit Fabrika Miami.
BELIEVE THE HYPE
The closing reception for Believe the Hype, billed as “a revolutionary art show featuring paintings, sculptures and installations created by an unprecedented collective of urban contemporary, pop surrealist, mixed media and kill-or-be-killed street artists from around the world,” is also on Saturday. The show, curated by Dustin Orlando, features works by Jesse Reno, Doug Boehm, Robert Bellm, Levon Jihanian, David Chung, Johnny Robles, Nick Gazin, Andrew Spear, Johannah O’Donnell, Dolla, Brandon Dunlap, Eric Althin (whose work is pictured here), Dustin Orlando, Mat Curran, Parail, Dubelyoo, Adriaan Mol, Dres13, David Hoskins, Scott Donald, Brandon McLean, Jose Mertz and Lucy Furs. It runs 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday at Eazy Street Gallery, 3501 N.W. Second Ave., Miami. 
DAVID CASTILLO GALLERY
Another closing reception will be held at David Castillo Gallery from 7-10 p.m. Saturday. For details on Gallery Projects, the show featuring work by Adler Guerrier, Aramis Gutierrez, Quisqueya Henriquez (whose work is pictured here), Susan Lee-Chun, Pepe Mar, Glexis Novoa, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, Frances Trombly and Wendy Wischer, visit David Castillo Gallery.com.
SMALL WONDERS” $499 and LESS
If you arrive early to Second Saturday Artwalk, check out Small Wonders, a summer group show and barbecue at Artformz Gallery. Harumi Abe, Pip Brandt, Leah Brown, David Rohn, Gretchen Scharnagl,Kristin Thiele, Jackie Tufford, Natasha Duwin, Henning Haupt (whose work is pictured here) and Donna Haynes are among the more than 50 artists who will exhibit their works, and Miami-based electronic postpunk act Pocket of Lollipops will perform at 5 and 7 p.m. Artformz is at 171 N.W. 23rd Street, Miami. All of the artworks will be priced under $499.
JUSTINE SMITH @ BERNICE STEINBAUM GALLERY
In her latest show, Rise and Fall: Illusions and Delusions, London artist Justine Smith uses foreign currency in collages and sculptures that examine the political, social and morally impact of money or the lack of it. For more details on her exhibition, which relates to the global economic crisis, visit Bernicesteinbaumgallery. com. The show opens from 7-10 p.m. Saturday and runs through June 2 at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, 3550 N. Miami Ave, Miami.
THE FUNNY GUY
ThE FunnY GUY That Sticks His HAND IN the PAiNt BuckeT, a solo project by Miami artist Carlos Rigau,will open at Dimensions Variable, a venue designed to feature projects by individual artists and collaboratives. The contemporary art exhibition space strives to introduce “unfamiliar, complex, collaborative and multidisciplinary practices” to a Miami audience. Visit Dimensionsvariable.net for details on Rigau’s show, which opens 7-10 p.m. Saturday and runs through June 19 at Dimensions Variable, 171 NE 38th Street, Miami.
AN INCOMPLETE ARCHIVE
Miami blogger and gallery owner Swampstyle will present Adolfo Sanchez 1957-1990: An Incomplete Archive, a show that offers a glimpse into the passionate life and art of his brother who died of AIDS 20 years ago. The show opens 6 to midnight Saturday at Swampspace Gallery, 3821 N.E. First Court, Miami. Read all about it on the Swampstyle blog.
