Something Old, Something New

MemoryLab features contemporary installations and film that explore the concept of memory through the lens of the archive. On view at HistoryMiami and curated by Kevin Arrow and Barron Sherer, the exhibition’s artists draw on the museum’s collection, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives and Obsolete Media Miami, utilizing the past to think about issues of immigration, tourism, and more. A highlight is “Jeff’s 50 Club,” an installation of a 1950’s Miami gambling den by Westen Charles. Taking inspiration from the 1948 movie that followed Stephan Sweig’s 1922 novel Letter from the Unknown, Angela Valella’s exhibition of the same name at the Spanish Cultural Center Miami (CCE) explores modes of communication. The artist’s sculptures, installations, collages, and videos are paired with found and unpublished works that together explore the intersection of text and technology, past and present. Diana Lowenstein Gallery offers a survey of work by Argentinian artist Alejandra Padilla spanning 20 years. Rooted in the history of Abstract Expressionism—and inspired by the likes of Ellsworth Kelly and Barnett Newman—Padilla’s sensuous collages relook proportion and color. However, the next generation of contemporary artists is Unbound! This is the title of the annual New World School of the Arts BFA exhibition featuring multidisciplinary works by it’s senior class in the pristine setting of the Cisneros Fontanals Foundation (CIFO). Similarly immersing their students in the art scene, a shout to the University of Miami Gallery in Wynwood whose annual juried exhibition will feature work selected by guest juror, Miami gallerist David Castillo. His impeccable eye should make for a provocative exhibition.