NOW ON DISPLAY
"Raíces Encontradas," a group show at Gallery Six in the Broward County Main Library that includes just over three dozen pieces by ten artists, pays little more than lip service to Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15-October 15). Some of the work is quite good: the highly accomplished realism of Diana Alcaraz de Negrón and María Teresa Mesa, the bronze-and-wood sculptures of Luis Eduardo García Contreras, and the mixed-media pieces of Carlos José Tirado-Yepes. Unfortunately, few of the artists address, in any significant way, what it means to be Hispanic in America or in South Florida today. The show wants to celebrate the artists' Hispanic heritage without establishing a context for (or even a definition of) that heritage. A second show, "Celebration of Hispanic Heritage," which just ended at ArtServe in Fort Lauderdale, suffered from a similar schizophrenia. (Through October 16 at Gallery Six, Broward County Main Library, Sixth Floor, 100 S. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, 954-357-7444.)
Adhesive 44: Fulfilling art writer John Berger's prediction that museums of the future would ultimately disappear and be replaced by personal arrangements of reproductions and printed ephemera, Brazilian artist Jac Leirner unpacks her decalcomania at the Miami Art Museum. Composed of hundreds of stickers adhered to two rows of windowpanes and extending some 40 feet in length, Adhesive 44 exposes a universe of archetypal images that flicker in the mind's eye like constellations. This work speaks to the obsession with brands and logos by which humans organize themselves into groups and tribes. (Through October 10 at the Miami Art Museum, 100 W. Flagler St., Miami, 305-375-3000.)