Critic's Choice Summer 2018

MDC’s Museum of Art and Design (MOAD): The newly revamped museum in the Freedom Tower scores again, with a stunning video installation from famed South African artists William Kentridge, More Sweetly Play the Dance. This is so much more than a film; it’s a 130-foot long immersive experience, which includes a New Orleans-style funeral procession, streams of refugees, brass band music and Kentridge’s own animated drawings. Through Jan. 20. The Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami: There is some powerful new work from Miami’s Sebastian Spreng in a solo show entitled “Dresden,” which references the terrible damage that German city suffered during World War II, but also a rebirth. Spreng’s long-time love of classical music also emerges from the 61 works on display. Through Sept. 23. The Bass: Another well-known local artist gets a well-deserved solo show at The Bass, in Karen Rifas’s “Deceptive Constructions.” Here Rifas has moved away from her leaf and line sculptures to create brightly colored sculptures and paintings, which cover the walls and floors, but still playing with space and perception like she always has. Through Oct. 21. Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA): The group exhibit “Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly” showcases 37 artists who work in a variety of media and who, like the butterfly, have navigated their way through the Americas in their own fascinating journeys. Through Aug. 5. LnS Gallery: Through drawings, paintings, and photography, Tony Vazquez-Figueroa explores the role oil has played in shaping his native Venezuela’s history and social norms, in the appropriately titled “Black Surface.” Despite the sticky theme, the exhibit is elegant and beautiful. Through July 7.