VISUAL ARTS

Art is dead: Decomposition is the focus of photographers' compositions

''People sometimes run out of our exhibitions,'' photographer Mirta Gómez says. ''They don't want to see what's being shown.''

ARCHITECTURE

Getting what we deserve: New, world-worthy buildings boost South Florida's profile

For any number of anonymous winters, the Swiss architect Jacques Herzog vacationed in Miami Beach -- walking around, looking around, taking in everything. To me this is one of the more interesting and salient points to be made in looking ahead to the two Herzog & de Meuron buildings we are getting.

VISUAL ARTS

Wolfsonian exhibit drives plan for weekend of serious car gazing

The inspiration for the upcoming A Very Wolfsonian Weekend Gala -- which includes visits to classic-car museums, a talk by renowned car designer Chris Bangle and Mitchell ``Micky'' Wolfson's 70th birthday party -- began, of course, with the art of design at the Wolfsonian-FIU on Miami Beach, founded by Wolfson.

Art loves New York: From the Norton's collection, a world emerging amid pilings and steel

New York poet Frank O'Hara once wrote that he could not delight in a simple patch of grass if there were not some evidence of his beloved city nearby: a record shop, a train, or ``some other sign that people do not totally regret life.''

MIAMI ART MUSEUM

Miami Art Museum chief steps down, leaves unfinished business

With designs for a new Miami Art Museum in place, its director has decided to step down and return to architecture.

MOCA acquisitions highlight pivotal works in artists' careers

Sex. Payback. Success. Tracey Emin's video Why I Never Became a Dancer packs in all those elements and more, a disarming work that begins with shocking revelations of how the British artist used sex as a distraction when she was 13 and 14 and living in the seaside resort town of Margate.

VISUAL ARTS

Artist puts 'Everything' into Miami exhibition

Prodded by a photographer seeking to frame a portrait of him, Guillermo Kuitca finds himself boxed in the middle of one of his installations at the Miami Art Museum. He's closed in by 20 gray mattresses perilously propped on tiny white-wood legs.

ENTERTAINMENT

Philly museum presents a smorgasbord of monsters

No that the new, live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak's durable children's classic Where the Wild Things Are has opened in movie theaters nationwide, it seemed a fine moment to drop in at the Rosenbach Museum.

Provocative exhibit speaks to those who commit, permit domestic violence

Amid the stacks of books and the students on the computers, amid the hushed buzz of learning at the Miami-Dade Main Library, four mannequins varnished in red form a provocative exhibit about domestic violence.

'Hope Blossoms': About 30 artists will assemble to sing, dance, paint, drum -- and help women and children in need

Art doesn't just happen, but in the right environment, creativity can blossom in many forms -- painting, sculpture, photography, video, light, words, food, sound, dance and other performance.

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH

Dealers, artists preparing for the big show

It's early yet, but Miami art dealer Fred Snitzer has a lot of work to do in preparation for December's onslaught of art fairs, museum exhibitions, gallery shows, special events and all-night cocktail parties.

Shifting paths: New Latin American conceptual art at CIFO's grants show

Ricardo Rendón's wall-sized sculpture visually blocks access to Shifting Constructs, the new exhibition at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO).

ART

Review | George Segal's still lifes echo real life

The first thing that hits your eye at the Norton Museum of Art's George Segal exhibit is a very familiar piece, at least if you've been to the FDR Memorial in Washington: Depression Bread Line, Segal's sculpture of five figures in various stages of emotional numbness -- waiting for a handout.

Artist Judy Chicago tackles cultural, political taboos

: Insisting that women have a place at the table and on the walls of museums

VISUAL ARTS

She documented the rising of Manhattan

In 1921, photographer Berenice Abbott headed to Paris from New York City, leaving a city that was linked by sinewy streets with quaint brownstones, cluttered retail strips and the occasional mid-sized Victorian office building on Wall Street.

Modernist master: Cundo Bermudez captured Cuban national identity

Cundo Bermúdez, whose modernist brush strokes evolved from Matisse, Picasso and Dalí-influenced forms into a recognizable style -- puro Cundo -- was easily the best-loved Cuban painter in Miami, and the recent opening of an overdue retrospective at the Freedom Tower seals his place in the city's art history.

ART PICK

Wynwood Arts District kicks off season

David Castillo Gallery presents You might sleep, but you will never dream, a second solo exhibition by Miami artist Leyden Rodríguez-Casanova, whose visual language is comprised of domestic objects and suburban architectural elements. Reception 7-10 p.m. at 2234 NW Second Ave. 305-573-8110; www.davidcastillogallery.com.

VISUAL ARTS

Give sister act a whirl

The TM Sisters have always occupied a precarious perch somewhere among video-game culture, fashion, nightlife, pop, performance art and nightlife, and the recent launch of WHIRL CRASH GO! at the alternative gallery Locust Projects in the Design District accordingly had all the earmarks of a profoundly groovy club opening, an only-in-Miami cross between storming the Bastille and, well, Day of the Locust.

ART PICK

'The Flying Carpet' at ArtCenter/South Florida

Married artists Pip and Duane Brant are taking their domestic squabbles to the creative arena with the exhibition The Flying Carpet at ArtCenter/South Florida. No flying plates here. The Brants' world is a whimsical territory of sewing-sound-machines (his invention) and a flying carpet (hers) that shakes and lights up when foot pedals are engaged.