The lowdown on this weekend’s art shows around South Florida … from plush pink carpets to resurrections. We may add a few later so don’t be afraid to check back.
ROLL OUT THE PINK CARPET
If you drop into Locust Projects on Saturday night, don’t go thinking they redecorated. That pink rug that encompasses the entire 2,700-square-foot gallery is Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova’s site-specific installation. If you stumble, don’t think you drank too much either (unless you did). The floor underneath the rug is simply uneven.
Rodriguez-Casanova explores social, cultural and personal matters through domestic objects. In this case, the plush pink carpet suggests the safety of home, while the unexpectedly uneven floor is designed to create a sense of instability. According to a press release about the show. “This contradiction sets the stage for an unsettling dialogue between the viewer’s perception of a familiar object and its new context.”
The thought of wine-swilling unstable people stumbling through a plush pink-carpeted gallery is indeed unsettling.
An Uneven Floor opens 7-10 p.m. Saturday and runs through Feb. 20 at Locust Projects, 155 NE 38th St., Miami. A conversation with the artist will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 11.
JAPANDA BRIGHT AND DARK
Janda “Japanda” Farley began learning about anatomy, color theory and proportion at age 10. Ten years later, she’s still at it and a show of her acrylic and oil paintings, watercolors and drawings will open on Saturday at Undergrounds Coffeehaus.
“… But Home is Nowhere,” the show Farley describes as “an autobiography unfolding” will feature works in her two very different styles on large stretched canvases. “My acrylics which are bright, ostentatious, and intoxicating, unveil a sort of in-your-face, rebellious fervor; and a juxtaposing deep 
and moody palette of earthy tones deliver a soft, thought-provoking crescendo in oils,” she says.
As always at Undergrounds art show, refreshments, fruits and veggies will be served amid the music, movies and art.
Farley’s exhibition opens at 8 p.m. Saturday at Undergrounds Coffeehaus, 2743 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-630-1900.
THINK PINK GHOST
Francesco LoCastro, Miami artist, curator and CEO and founder of Pop Art Studios, will show new works at a show featuring “brownies, good tunes and glitter awesomeness,” at 7 p.m. Saturday at PinkGhost, 1888 Polk St., Hollywood. Call 954-374-8761. If you love LoCastro’s new art, check out these T-shirts.
Also coming up at PinkGhost are Systems Group Art Show on Feb. 20, an exhibition by Colectivo Vertigo Graffiti on March 20 and At the Sock Hop, Danny Brito’s retro works inspired by the 1950s on April 17.
“RESURRECTION” AT SPINELLO GALLERY
The whole piece of fruit rescuers discover in the charred remains of a fire. The perfectly intact glass eye shining like a diamond from the decaying fibers of a doll. Bluets and morning glories that protrude through the rubble weeks after an atomic bomb. These are some of the things Miami artist Christina Pettersson considered while creating the video, sculpture and large-scale graphite drawings for her upcoming solo exhibition, “Resurrection.”
“The thing you bring back is never what you lost,” the Swedish-born notes in an invitation to Resurrection.” “When beauty is the aftermath of terrible violence, it is an aching reminder of what a fearful thing it is to love what death can touch. A resurrection is like a foreboding, a song that never rises from anywhere but the grave.”
The image shown here is a still from her recent video, “The Lost Year.”
Pettersson’s work will be the subject of our Fresh Art page in the Jan. 21 issue of City Link. “Resurrection” will open 7-10 p.m. Saturday and run through Feb. 27 at Spinello Gallery, 155 N.E. 38th St., Miami. Call 786-271-4223. The after-party is at Vagabond.
ART PALM BEACH
Art Palm Beach, a five-day event featuring contemporary art, photography, video, sculpture and design from international galleries, runs noon to 7 p.m. Friday, Jan 15 through Monday, Jan. 18 and noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19 at Palm Beach County Convention Center , 650 Okeechobee Boulevard, West Palm Beach. Cost: $15 for a one-day pass, $20 for a multi-day pass. Call 239-495-9834.
UMAMI
Bear and Bird’s blog has the lowdown on Natali Martinez, Tatiana Suarez and Danielle [knee] Estefan (whose painting “Boston Terror” is pictured here), the three artists who will exhibit in Umami (So Savory), the gallery’s new show opening at the Lauderhill gallery on Saturday.
To read more about Estefan, who was featured recently on our Fresh Art page, click here.
