Arts

Inside and out for art on the weekend

While the rest of the country is in a deep freeze, we are enjoying almost perfect South Florida weather. So it’s also perfect timing for the Bass Museum to join up with the Miami Symphony Orchestra for a free outdoor concert in the newly revamped Collins Park on Sunday. If you haven’t been to the park, you don’t know what you’ve been missing. From the entrance of the 1930s Bass building, the park extends out, with a view of the ocean, populated with all those great trees and sculptures.

Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook”Two Planets: Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass and the Thai Villagers.”

At 4 p.m., the Orchestra will premiere a well, almost, “site-specific” piece called “Ocean Drive in Vienna,” which combines traditional Viennese sounds such as the waltz and polka with Latin melodies (it results from a Composer-in-Residence program funded by the Knight Foundation). Blanket and picnic basket a good optional addition.

But then it’s a perfect time as well to check out the Bass “The Endless Renaissance: Six Solo Artist Projects” which runs through mid-March. In keeping with its mission to expose audiences to historical as well as contemporary trends, six artists have interpreted, or reinterpreted, classic works in painting, sculpture, photography and video. Historically important works are either incorporated into an actual work, such as in the print from Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, where a group of Thai workers are seated in front of a Monet painting, outdoors surrounded by a bamboo forest.

The artists don’t just have an historical take on some of the origins (and importance) of classic Renaissance art on through to the Modern era, but an international one as well; they hail from Finland, Germany, England, Thailand and the United States. The Finnish artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila, for instance, has made a video titled “The Annunciation,” which of course is the Christian theme of numerous paintings throughout the ages (it is the “announcement” to Mary that her son would be the son of god). Here, non-actors take on historical (or religious) roles, filmed in the artist’s studio. England’s Walead Beshty’s “FedEx” boxes, on the other hand, are a sort of conceptual history of the literal voyage of art, shipped from place to place, sold from collector to collector.

“Ocean Drive in Vienna” starts at 4 p.m. in Collins Park, free, on Sun., Jan. 27. “The Endless Renaissance: Six Solo Artist Projects” runs through March 17 at the Bass Museum, 2100 Collins Ave. (connected to the park), Miami Beach; $8, from noon to 5 p.m. on Jan. 27.