Second Saturday Art Walk Guide: da Vinci, Swarovski, Spinello, and Beyond

Black Square Gallery

Occupy Versailles, Shonagh Adelman

See Anthony Spinello Launches New Gallery.

It's only September, but already Art Basel is looming over Miami's art scene like a purple thunderhead ready to pour mustached hipsters and oil-rich Abu Dhabi collectors all over town. So when Wynwood's Second Saturday Art Walk returns this weekend at 6 p.m., expect to see a number of spaces pushing the reset button and emerging from their summer slumber with new shows just in time for the wildly popular art and food-truck bonanza.

While Anthony Spinello inaugurates a new space just west of the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, the traditional hubs of Wynwood and the Design District will also spill over with edgy displays. Top picks for the weekend include a stable of artists taking a crack at the da Vinci code, a sprawling 3-D photo extravaganza, a sensory-jarring architectural romper room, a probing visual autopsy of our national psyche, and French royals frolicking in the Big Easy's post-Katrina landscape. The neighborhood is toppling over with just too many shows to list.

"Champion"
This group offering is inspired by a Leonardo da Vinci sculpture commissioned in 1482 by the Duke of Milan. Leonardo's Horse, intended to be the largest equestrian sculpture of its day, was never completed by the genius. Instead, it took five centuries before a full-scale bronze version of da Vinci's stallion was finally realized -- a tale demonstrating, the curators say, that true art can transcend time.

While you won't find a single horse on display here, the gallery's stable of emerging thoroughbreds attempt to channel the spirit of Leonardo. Take, for instance, one piece by Evan Robarts, who created a set of inflatable lungs from clear recycling bags and packaging tape. The faux organs are inflated and deflated by three fan motors to simulate slow breathing. Then there's Asif Farooq, who painstakingly fashions toy firearms out of cardboard and paper materials that poke fun at gun violence in contemporary society, while also harking back to the weapons-addled designers of earlier eras.
Primary Projects 4141 NE Second Ave., Ste. 104, Miami. Call 954-296-1675 or visit primaryprojectsspace.com