One of my many meetings today was at the Miami Art Museum and fortunately those of us there for the meeting were subject to a tour of the new temporary exhibition, The Wilderness, delivered by Curator Rene.

The exhibition revolves around the notion of wilderness, what it is, where it is and how we interpret it. There are 8 pieces (if I remember correctly) in the exhibition. I found a one of them, Still Life with Stampede and Wild Sea Birds, comical (in a good and intellectual way…not in a slapstick way)…the artist, David Brookes took lawn sculptures of animals, took them to a bird sanctuary and let the birds do what they do best ALL over the animal sculptures. The artist then varnished the pieces and arranged them to mimic the elephant stampede at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (my favorite dead zoo). The end result…hysterical!

Another one of the pieces that caught my eye was Fernando Ortega’s Hummingbird Induced into a Deep Sleep. A video he made in Cuidad de Mexico in 2006—where he videoed a little hummingbird he induced into sleep…really enchanting. You can stare at this little bird for hours as you hear the cacophony of the “DF’s” traffic outside the studio walls. (still of video pictured above)

Anyhow—it was an all together interesting show. I would also recommend you go see it and then hop over to HistoryMiami next door to see their current temporary exhibits, Souvenir Maps and Plates in the lobby and then from the collection of Cici and Hyatt Brown

Reflections: Paintings of Florida 1865-1965. Both of HistoryMiami’s exhibitions are beautifully curated and have public tours available for your enjoyment and lead by excellent museum educators…not that I am biased.
To the right is the lead image for “Reflections“,
Dance of the Whooping Crane by Wyeth.

So go out and enjoy the art Miami has to offer!