Threats to Florida’s Native Habitat

Arless Day, The Ancient Hole, 2008, Collage and Gouache on Board, 19” x 17” courtesy of ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami), Florida.

“Vistas: Landscapes Interpreted,” is on view at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries through July 30, 2010.

As oil from the massive Deepwater Horizon Well leakage threatens the Florida coastline, an exhibition highlighting the state’s loss of native habitat to urban development is a poignant reminder of the fragility of the earth’s ecosystems.

Commenting on the show “Vistas: Landscapes Interpreted” at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, art critic Janet Batet notes that “nowadays this subject matter stands as a metaphor for social and political inquiry, fertile ground for debating our positions on the preservation and future of our planet.”

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“Vistas” features two six-foot assemblages, a four-foot sculpture, and a seven-foot installation by Kyle, a Florida artist whose works reflect his opposition to what he views as relentless assaults on the state’s few remaining pristine habitats.

One of the three-dimensional constructions-presently on loan to the Naples Museum of Art (Florida)-shows an aerial photo of native hardwood hammock around the Wekiva River below a diorama depicting the present recreational uses of the region, a nationally designated Wild and Scenic River and the habitat of black bears, river otters, alligators, wood storks, and sandhill cranes. An accompanying note from the artist states that the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority has begun to build an expressway spur through the area.

Inspired by the inexplicable chain-link fence presently bordering U.S. 1 for miles from Florida City to Key Largo, Kyle’s fence installation includes a silhouette of a person. One of its sides is composed of hundreds of two-inch plastic soldiers in battle positions; the other blossoms with colorful flowers, contrasting the ongoing assault upon the environment with the paradise originally here.

“Vistas” also includes fantasy landscapes by Josephine Haden, winner of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship for 2008-2009; the “cosmic imagery” of Wulf Barsch combining Egyptian and Islamic references with geometrical and astrological elements; American impressionist landscapes by plein air painter John Torina; collages by Arless Day, who, through his work, creates a place in time in the same way as a movie director building a set; and Richard Lytle, whose paintings were included in the late fifties in the legendary “Sixteen Americans” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“Vistas: Landscapes Interpreted” (March 5-July 30, 2010)

ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, 169 Madeira Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33134

www.virginiamiller.com