駐紐約藝術家Jeremy Couillard原本是一名高中西班牙文教師，但在課堂之外，他投入大量時間創作複雜精細的漫畫和墨水畫。後來，他進入哥倫比亞大學攻讀藝術碩士，專心學習繪畫。但他很快感到厭倦：「我發現自己花在螢幕前的時間比在現實中的時間還多，因此科技話題越來越吸引我。甚至在畫畫時，我也大多是盯著電腦螢幕。」

因此，Couillard自學了程式設計，並開始嘗試動畫和3D遊戲創作工具虛幻引擎（Unreal Engine）。如今，他以創作敘事荒誕且帶有超現實主義風格的遊戲而聞名，比如《Escape from Lavender Island》（2023）。這款遊戲也在他目前於麻省理工學院李斯特視覺藝術中心（MIT List Visual Arts Center）舉辦的個展中佔據核心位置。觀眾可以坐在豆袋沙發上，化身遊戲主角Zede Aksis。這個綠色的雙足生物在監獄牢房中醒來，發現自己的反烏托邦城市夢境變成了現實。玩家的任務是逃離這個霓虹閃爍的恐怖都市。在逃亡中，他們追隨愛慕的物件，為舞蹈駐足，甚至可以戴上向路人噴射藥物的面具。Couillard談到這款帶有達達主義色彩的遊戲時說：「它關乎在城市中作為人類的生存體驗。遊戲很荒謬，但也的確非常悲涼。我想通過這款遊戲捕捉生存在當今社會的狀態。」

此次展覽還展示了一部隱隱透著詭秘氣息的視頻裝置，鏡頭掃過「Lavender Island」（薰衣草島）上奇異社區，伴隨著城市居民的旁白。不遠處，數碼繪製的木質花朵沿著地面綻放，牆上是幾幅色彩斑斕的畫作，猶如從遊戲中直接擷取的畫面。牆上還掛著一件滑稽的超大號螢光黃衛衣，上面印著「Depression」（抑鬱）。

展覽詼諧地批判了科技在社會中造成的疏離與隔閡。Couillard表示：「這種現象令人沮喪，但也讓人啼笑皆非，因為我們正在構建一個幾乎無人嚮往的科技世界，卻仍然義無反顧地向前推進。這個遊戲叫做《Escape from Lavender Island》（逃離薰衣草島），但在某種意義上，我們無法逃離現代生活。無論是福是禍，我們註定相伴。但我相信這終究是件好事，只要我們學會和彼此相處。」

LITTLE RIVER

An exploration of cause and reaction through a metaphor of skipping stones on water is at the heart of Alexandre Arrechea’s installation Bare Tool (Herramienta desnuda). On view at Locust Projects, three thematic acts include immersive video, ceiling and floor activations.

ALLAPATTAH

One hundred twenty artists explore the inter-connections between the body’s emotional
and physical components at El Espacio 23 in ‘Mirror of the Mind: Figuration in the Jorge M. Pérez Collection’. This six-section multimedia exhibition is curated by El Espacio 23’s Patricia García-Vélez Hanna and Anelys Alvarez. In its second year, Marquez Art Projects debuts newly commissioned paintings in a USA debut for U.K.-based, Slovenia-born artist Katarina Caserman. Also exhibited, the latest acquisitions by the Marquez Family Collection.

The 100,000-square-foot Rubell Museum exhibition highlights the tactile work of Brazilian artist Solange Pessoa, recent acquisitions by American artist Omari Douglin, and new psychological landscape paintings by British artist and former professional triathlete Vanessa Raw, the 2024 Rubell Museum artist-in-residence, among others.

DOWNTOWN MIAMI

Curated by Gilbert Vicario, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Marissa Del Toro, six decades of Xicanx-identifying artists explore the body as a site of expression in the expansive multimedia survey ‘Xican-a.o.x. Body’ at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Also on view, PAMM’s collection exhibition ‘Every Sound Is a Shape of Time’, painter Calida Rawles’ ‘Away with the Tides’ and José Parlá’s Miami return exhibition, ‘Homecoming’.

SOUTH MIAMI

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum-FIU features ‘Field of Dreams’ by South Africa-based, Malawi-born artist Billie Zangewa. Accompanying her celebrated hand-stitched fabrics, Zangewa introduces beveled, antiqued mirror artworks in a post-pandemic contemplation of emotions, the human condition and sociopolitical challenges.

NORTH MIAMI

NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale presents a conversation between the ancestral Pueblo pottery inspired multimedia work of artist Rose B. Simpson and the sculpture, ritual and immersive installation of LGBTQIA+ activist vanessa german.

Also on view, ‘Vicious Circles’ by Dutch painter Jacqueline de Jong (1939-2024), ‘Creatures for the Divine’ by Miami artist Cici McMonigle, a new installation by Peter Halley and 1,800 Joel Meyerowitz photographs newly acquired.

From the collection of Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz, Girls’ Club Collection’s ‘No Looking Back’ interlaces narratives between the photo-based works of women artists including Ana Mendieta, Samantha Salzinger, Kanako Sasaki, Cindy Sherman and others.

Curated by Arden Sherman, ‘Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing’ at the Norton Museum of Art includes 100-plus multimedia artworks created between the late 19th century to today, and explores the aesthetics, sociopolitical impact, cultural influence and metaphorical resonance of the sport of boxing. Sherman shares, ‘Pairing artmaking with boxing locates the Norton as a site for constructive discussions around our human instinct to fight and prevail, and there is no better metaphor to engage in during the current moment of American history.’