Arts

Short shots of exhibits at the Bakehouse

One of the original art outlets in Miami, the Bakehouse Art Complex.

There seems to be a trend at galleries these days, to throw weekly events or happenings, to keep movement flowing. Gallery Diet, Emerson Dorsch and now the Bakehouse Art Complex are examples. The Bakehouse has been giving a platform to emerging artists since the 1980s, when its location seemed far off the grid – today it’s in the heart of the art scene, but still promoting new community talent.

The “Swenson Shots” series at the Bakehouse will be short exhibits lasting only a week, opening every Wednesday starting Jan. 28 and running through February. The idea behind these shots is to give an individual artist the opportunity to create a show, hold an opening, give a talk and document a new work, all within one week. For the most part, the exhibits scheduled fall into the experimental and conceptual categories – an enticing endeavor.

For instance, on Wednesday Feb. 4, artist Erin Thurlow will unveil a show based on a joke told to light-art pioneer Dan Flavin. The installation, according to the notes for the exhibit, “uses the architecture of the joke as the model.” Now that’s pretty fun and creative.

Another exhibit (they go up on Mondays, have openings on Wednesdays, and close the following Sundays) from Keaton Fox examines the “selfie” culture and our narcissistic tendencies, also basing it around the work of other famed artists. In this case, it’s Richard Serra and Nancy Holt’s performance video, “Boomerang,” which is an earlier take on “it’s all about me.”

The series concludes on Feb. 25 with the provocative “f**k me like you mean it” from Aleister Eaves, which delves into the female persona today, the empowerment and objectification that women experience, through the vehicles of video, photography and sculpture.

The ultimate aim of “Swenson Shots” is to take the creative inspiration and resulting artwork that sometimes only stays in the studio and give it a public airing, which then completes a sometimes unfinished process.

“Swenson Shots” runs from Jan. 28 through Feb. 25, with openings on Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. at the Bakehouse Art Complex, 561 NW 32nd St., Miami; www.bacfl.org.