A trip to the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Mizner Park this spring and summer can yield an education in contemporary art and, surprisingly, cast a spell of maniacal and slapstick weirdness thanks to the museum’s current exhibitions. Most intriguing is the video showcase “Shannon Plumb: What a Character,”…
Dressed in a long-sleeved flannel shirt, Ian Caven takes the mic. Behind him is keyboardist Doug Carter, with Fred Pereira on drums. There is no stage, and the lights are a soft glow. Artwork lines the walls. It’s Wednesday night. Caven reads out lyrics: “Can you picture this? Dream if…
On the east end of the upscale drag that is Fort Lauderdale’s Las Olas Boulevard, a peculiar new space called Two& — yes, that’s the correct name; it’s pronounced “Two and” — opened its doors just last month. The name is a play on words in an attempt to get…
Drummer Beatriz Monteavaro of sledge-metal duo Holly Hunt has been tearing up South Florida’s music scene for some time now. Those who know the edgy brunet’s musical identity might not know she’s a formally trained artist who has prolifically shown her work since 2000, locally and in galleries around New…
The best portraits will capture the essence of a person, revealing a sense of who she is in a single image. Traditionally, in portraiture, the subject is prominently displayed; her face and body make up the composition. But in 2007, California-based photographer Robert Weingarten got an idea for a portrait…
The Boca Raton Museum of Art is home to Florida’s oldest-running annual juried competition. This year, the 63rd-annual “All Florida Juried Exhibition” attracted nearly 630 artists from across the state who submitted 1,600 works that juror Trong Gia Nguyen had to sift through. Winnowing down the entries to a manageable…
When Bonnie Clearwater took the reins as director and chief curator at the NSU Museum of Art|Fort Lauderdale last fall, the Broward art world knew it was in for a treat and a big change. Clearwater came to her new position after 18 years at the Museum of Contemporary Art…
In 1983, nine Cuban exile artists came together and exhibited their works in a show called “The Miami Generation.” They didn’t know it then, but despite the contrasts in their artistic styles and influences, that show at the now-defunct Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Miami would bind them…
If the Broward art world is a chaotic circus brimming with volatile and eccentric personalities, Byron Swart is the even-keeled ringmaster. He’s the kind of guy who adeptly brings artists together without all the drama that often occurs behind the scenes. In 2002 the South African native arrived in Fort…
Little honeybees swarming about our ecosystem do more than make honey. But unfortunately, we often misunderstand or overlook what a big job these little guys do. Bees play a crucial role in our food source, a job so important that researchers claim that without their existence, humans would not survive…
If there is one thing we can benefit from in this short and topsy-turvy life, it’s living in the moment. That’s the philosophy Casandra Tanenbaum and friends of FlowSource follow. The Lake Worth troupe is made up of flow artists — jugglers, fire dancers, acrobats, break dancers, yogis — who…
When Lisa Rockford curates her shows, she doesn’t show her own work. That would be too self-promoting for the tenured Broward College art professor. Rockford is one of Broward County’s finest on the contemporary art scene, but the striking blond with avant-garde fashion sense would never say so. Her latest…
Ray Duffy worked in the film industry for nearly 15 years. Then the salt-and-pepper-haired Irish native and producer felt it was time for a career change. “Back in ’97 when I moved to Hollywood [California] from Orlando, most of the biz was out there, but nowadays you have to travel…
“‘Home’ — what I’ve come to see working with artists and the special-needs community is that you can’t say that word without getting a visceral reaction from people.” That’s what Jill Slaughter, curator of special projects for the City of Pembroke Pines, quickly discovered when organizing the third-annual “The Sincerity…
“Put down the Snapchat, throw out the videogame console, and actually build something.” That’s the motto of Albert Jeffers, a tattoo artist and metal fabricator. “We are raising a generation of pencil pushers,” he laments. This Saturday, Jeffers will join his cohorts from Makers Square — a membership-based tool shop…
“I gather people; I open their hearts and grow their soul,” says Nerissa Street, a New York native who teaches theater, storytelling, and public speaking to both kids and adults. “I see adults as just grown-up children,” she says of her teaching experience. “I see the potential in children, and…
Dressed in short blue jogging shorts, a tank top, and sneakers, Zachary Fabri clamored up the famous steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When he got to the African wing, surrounded by ancient, glass-encased objects, he pulled an orange skullcap over his dreadlocks and began silently doing a ritualistic…
Back in 2010, Agustina Woodgate began seriously thinking about teddy bears. The Miami conceptual artist came across Pepe, her childhood bear, which she had received at age 1 while living in Buenos Aires. That scruffy brown cub somehow made it to Miami when she moved here nearly ten years ago…
“I like to do epic shit,” declares Renda Writer, a longtime denizen of the South Florida art scene. Writer is known for leading poetry readings and art shows (one infamously devoted to Ellen Degeneres) and launching an arts magazine called WeMerge. In other words, he’s gotten off his ass and…
While “coming out of the closet” is associated with the LGBT community, everyone — gay or straight — has secrets. And the energy needed to keep a secret can take its toll. Bottling up the truth can be like a personal prison — a madness that’s hard to escape. A…
Andy Warhol frequently selected glamorous women — Liz Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — as his muses. He was known to give his attention to people who were socially prominent, especially in and around the art world. Yet there was one muse who had a style like no other:…
The first time I met artist Virginia Fifield — during an art show opening at ArtServe, where she was on the board and I was working as a marketing consultant — I asked what she did. The elegant brunet merely responded, “Oh, I do drawings of animals.” Several months later,…
