A Rainy But Art-Filled Saturday Night

David Zalben: A Love You Can't Live Without

I went to Miami Beach this weekend to check out Day 18 of David Zalben's 41-night work-in-progress window exhibition, A Love I Can't Live Without, and catch the opening of The Afterlife, a show featuring work by Franklin Sinanan, Byron Keith Byrd and Alex Heria.

We arrived early enough for a beer at Zeke's. The place was pretty quiet inside until the wind kicked up and the rain started. As a seemingly endless stream of people came in seeking shelter and beer, you could hear signs blowing down and glasses rolling off tables outside the restaurants on Lincoln Road.

Suddenly, Zeke's was crammed. We'd nearly finished our first beer and having completely forgotten about the cash-only policy, couldn't afford a second. After sipping for awhile and contemplating our next move, we decided to escape the increasingly claustrophobic conditions and head into the pouring rain for dinner at Icebox. One umbrella didn't cut it, however, so we arrived soaked, but had fun anyway.

After dinner, we walked to ArtCenter/South Florida where even on this wet night, we found a little crowd outside the window where David Zalben (my recent Q&A with Zalben) was bending wire into words. After watching for awhile, we headed in and while winding our way to The Afterlife show spotted a sign near a stairway that indicated the direction to Adriana Carvalho's studio. It's behind a stairwell and somehow I had always missed it when visiting there, so we went back downstairs to see if she might be in.

She was and chatted with us in the cozy space where she was sketching among her many works, which ranged from a sculpture that resembled a giant pair of ruffled underwear and was made from an old rain gutter to another of a fancy little dress on a hanger. The latter was made from a Fancy Feast cat food can. She also showed us a very cool calendar that contained some of her other works.

Afterwards, we checked out The Afterlife, but while taking pics I got a little tap on the shoulder from someone who told us no photography was permitted. I guess, in a world where everyone's always snapping pics like crazy on their phones or cameras, I sometimes forget to even inquire. So I don't have pics to share from the three-artist show but it runs through July 22 and you can view two images from the show and some details at Artcentersf.org/the-afterlife.

My slide show above contains pics from Zalben's A Love You Can't Live Without and images from the studio of Carvalho, whose solo exhibition, 101 Dresses, will open Sept. 29 and run through Nov. 11 at ArtCenter/South Florida. (my interview with Carvalho last fall).

Despite the rain, it was a really fun night out.