The Photo Salon is a group of professional, semi-professional and entirely amateur photographers who meet biweekly at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach. Together they’ve mounted an exhibit of their work that showcases their different photographic styles, as well as their unique perspectives of Florida.

The exhibit, titled Florida In and Out of View can be seen at the Armory Center until Saturday, when it will then be moved to the Dixie Art Loft in time for an opening reception Oct. 21. There are 35 works by 25 local photographers and they present a myriad of interesting viewpoints on the familiar, and not-so-familiar, Florida surrounds.

The Photo Salon group is the brainchild of Marie Marzi, a semi-retired professional photographer who has worked for The Washington Post and USA Today, among others. She had been teaching photography classes at the Armory.

“I’d been teaching at the Armory for several years. Students wanted to show and discuss their work. Then I attended a photo salon in SoHo in New York City and thought, ‘This is exactly what we need,’” she explained.

So, in 2008, she began hosting biweekly Photo Salon sessions in the evenings in the Armory Center’s library and now the group has grown to a solid core of about 20 local photographers who attend, and engage, regularly. There are also transient members that come and go and the group does not require a regular commitment, but is open-ended and casual. Participants range in age from high school students to those in their 80s. Seasonal visitors are welcomed.

While there are a few members that are professional photographers, such as Greg Allikas, most are amateurs and hobbyists who do this for enjoyment and for the opportunity to mingle and exchange ideas with other photo enthusiasts.

Their exhibit presents different views of Florida, some that might be expected and others that are a pleasant surprise because they show a quasi-typical scene in a new light. One such work is Marzi’s Blue Heron Baptism (2011), which showcases her artistic skill and a knack for capturing the unusual.

In this image, taken under the Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach, people from a church are participating in a baptism ritual in the canal. Marzi explained that she stumbled upon the event while she was out looking for interesting things to photograph.

“I just came upon it, but I go to that location because it’s an interesting area,” she said.

The composition is complex and that is what makes the image so compelling. Marzi explained that she seeks out images that have different layers of activity happening simultaneously. So, in this image, one views the onlookers in the immediate foreground, the participants in the water, and more onlookers on the shore. The myriad activity creates an intriguing visual story that engages the viewer because of its surface interest, but also because of the contemplation it evokes.

Cigar Bar (2011), by Robert Swinson, who also teaches at the Armory, is equally intriguing, but for different reasons. Unlike in Blue Heron Baptism, here people are not actively engaged in any activity, but rather in conversation. This appears to be a normal night at a local cigar bar, and the depiction of a very ordinary scene with warm lighting is reminiscent of the work of Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting, Nighthawks.

Swinson used a technique called HDR, or high dynamic range, imaging. This technique allows photographers to create nuances between the darkest and lightest areas of an image by capturing multiple photos of the same image and then digitally merging them using photography software, such as Photoshop.

Another photo that stood out because of its intriguing composition and subject matter was Elle Schorr’s Glam (2011). In this photo, Schorr presents an interesting work-within-a-work because in the foreground one views a reflection. The building across from the store window, which is the central subject, is being reflected back on the window. So one sees the building, as well as the mannequin within the store window, and all are representative of Palm Beach “glam.”

“This is what I specialize in. Everything I’ve been showing for years has a reflection in a store window,” Schorr said. “I’m looking to capture a broader perspective of the community and I’m looking for past and present -- time passing.”

All in all, Florida In and Out of View is a charming show by a talented group of photographers who provide though provoking images of familiar and not-so-familiar Florida scenes.

Jenifer Mangione Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with painting for most of her life. Visit her art blog at www.fineartnotebook.com.

Florida In and Out of View is showing at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach until Oct. 15. Hours for this exhibition are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Admission is free. The Photo Salon meets biweekly on Thursdays in the Armory’s library from 6:45 until 8:45 p.m. There is a $10 fee to attend. For more information, call 832-1776 or visit www.armoryart.org. The exhibit moves to the Dixie Art Loft, also in West Palm Beach, on Friday, Oct. 21, for the opening reception and remains there until Nov. 14. Hours for this exhibit are 10-4 p.m. daily. For more information, visit: http://www.dixieartloft.com.

The visual arts season in Broward and Miami-Dade counties offers its usual host of dichotomies, plus some surprises.

There are trippy, hallucinatory drawings and religious icons; Baroque paintings and contemporary female-centric photographs; sculptures both austere and intricate and installations inspired by the American palate, vinyl records, Beethoven and the Beats. If we so desire, we can view the cinema of modern design or listen to art world denizens talk shop, enter the glamorous maw of Art Basel or drift between the working studios of artists in residence.

Fairs, museums, galleries, and art centers have assembled a wide and tasty slate of art, with offerings for the schooled and novices alike. Here’s a sampling of what’s in store.

The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood ratchets up its already stellar programming with the Hot Topics Lecture Series, presenting visual arts luminaries discussing trends, film, web-based media and more. The lineup includes Marvin Heiferman, who has curated projects at the New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Whitney Museum of Art; senior art critic for New York Magazine, Jerry Saltz; and filmmakers and visual artists Julie Lara Kahn and Hayley Downs, who collaborated on Swamp Cabbage: A Dark & Sweaty Survival, a documentary set in Central Florida that chronicles personal experiences with cracker culture.

Also at the ACCH this season (Oct. 29-Jan. 29): Artist Unknown/The Free World - Organized by John D. Monteith and Oliver Wasow, the U.S. premiere of hundreds of photographic images by anonymous amateurs, collected by organizers as a window into American culture and social media. Mysterious geometries and psychedelic segments appear in drawings and a site specific installation in Freddy Jouwayed: Forks in the Wave Function. Giannina Dwin: Nothing We Can Call Our Own mines rituals and women’s bodies as fodder for performance pieces and photographs, and a slice of Florida’s exotica is examined in the drawings of Christina Pettersson: The Sentinel (Feb. 11-March 11). In spring, look for exhibits by John De Faro, Philip Estlund, Moria Holohan, Nathan Sawaya, and Karen Starosta-Gilinski. (www.ArtandCultureCenter.org)

On exhibit through early November at the Coral Springs Museum of Art, Jan Kolenda, Susan Maguire, and other ceramicists present utilitarian objects and figurative works in Ceramics: By Artists for Collectors, and Jan Johnson & George Lyon: The Print Connection explores printmaking, painting, drawing, and alternative photography. Michael Mills: The Object in Question presents recent photographs by the locally based artist and art critic, and Dagmar Hollmers: Connecting to Nature, a series of mixed-media and collage, examines South Florida’s palettes and curious vegetation (both exhibits, now through Jan. 5). (www.csmart.org)

The Girls’ Club Collection hosts Art Fallout, in conjunction with Sailboat Bend Artist Lofts and 18 Rabbit Gallery, in mid-October. The Girls’ Club will showcase visual works on paper

for one day, selected through an open call and by South Florida artists and curators. The event also features a free trolley whizzing patrons between the three venues and nearby artist spaces and galleries.

Then, beginning in November, GCC presents Re-framing the Feminine, a survey of prominent female photographers working in film and digital media. Curated by Dina Mitrani, more than 50 prints address gender as subject and object; artists include Julie Blackmon, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Rineke Dijkstra, Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Lori Nix, Peggy Levison Nolan, Catherine Opie, Cindy Sherman, Zoe Strauss, Jo Ann Walters, Gillian Wearing and other talents. (www.girlsclubcollection.org)

Primordial: Paintings and Sculpture by Isabel de Obaldía 1985-2011 (now through May 27) showcases demons, gods, and beasts in a mid-career retrospective by the Panama-based artist at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale-Nova Southeastern University. The work is inspired by the primitive art forms of ancient cultures, at times engraving symbols acquired from Panamanian antiquities and pre-Colombian art. Offering of the Angels: Old Master Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery (Nov. 19-April 8) is a traveling exhibition of 45 paintings and tapestries by Botticelli, Parmigianino, Allesandro Allori, Luca Giodano, Lorenzo Monaco and others. In Wall Paintings: Installations by Auturo Herrera, Gavin Perry, Jen Stark, and Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt, four public artworks can be viewed on the museum building’s exterior walls through 2013. (www.moafl.org)

At the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 11 international artists investigate the impact of products and conventions within art, film, media, fashion, and architecture in Modify, As Needed (now through Nov. 13). The majority of art on display was made specifically for this exhibition and include works by Kathryn Andrews, Darren Bader, Nina Beier, Karl Holmqvist, Adriana Lara, Natalia Ibáñez Lario, Jose Carlos Martinat, Amilcar Packer, Nick Relph, Anders Smebye, and Nicolas Paris Velez. Mark Handforth: Rolling Stop presents the artist’s large-scale sculptures, inspired by quotidian objects such as a lamppost, a coat hanger, a traffic stop sign, and a mournful moon. The show brings together more than 30 works imbued with Handforth’s thoughtfully playful aesthetics, as well as works ensconced throughout South Florida, including an Electric Tree in Griffing Park, North Miami.

Other highlights at the MOCA include Pivot Points V: Teresita Fernandez, featuring the spare and organically spatial installations and sculptures of the internationally acclaimed artist (and recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Fellowship”); a survey of identity-rich paintings, collages, and drawings by Rita Ackermann (March 15-May 6); and the new body of work found in Ed Ruscha: On the Road, paintings, drawings, photographs, and a limited edition art book inspired by the classic novel by Jack Kerouac (May 24-Sept. 2). (www.mocanomi.org)

The Miami Art Museum has organized Schneebett (“Snow-bed”) in its Anchor Gallery, a two-room environment by Enrique Martinez Celaya inspired by the end of Beethoven’s life in Vienna in 1827. This powerfully austere ode to the self and the past makes its U.S. premiere at the MAM (Oct. 14-Jan. 8). American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s offers a thorough survey of the African-American artist’s pictures, murals, and political posters, many which respond to race and gender, as well as to the social strife of the Civil Rights era (Nov. 6-Jan. 1). Absurdism, new myths, and raw color appear in the narrative canvases of Dana Schutz: If the Face Had Wheels (Jan. 15-Feb. 26), and The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl (March 18-June 10) promises to explore the devoted culture of vinyl records as it has appears in contemporary artworks from the 1960s to the present, combining sound work, sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, video and performance. (www.miamiartmuseum.org)

In the Wolfsonian Teaching Gallery at The Frost Art Museum, the technology and design behind food production, preparation, consumerism, and good old-fashioned chowing down is considered in Modern Meals: Remaking American Foods from Farm to Kitchen. Posters, prints, advertisement, and objects such as cookware and tableware trace how food moves from field to factory, from grocery to table. The Venezuelan-born artist Magdalena Fernandez’s installation 2iPM009 assembles a collection of geometrically abstract sculptures and videos, and The Florida Artist Series: Humberto Calzada: The Fire Next Time presents recent works themed around the element of fire by the Cuban-American artist (all three exhibits, Oct. 12-Jan. 8). Tour de France/Florida: Contemporary Artists from France in Florida Private Collections features paintings -- many never seen by the public -- by French artists such as Christian Boltanski, Sophie Calle, Annette Messager, and Bernar Venet (Nov. 9-March 18). Interactive and conceptual installations that consider the environment are presented in Annette Turrillo: A Thought for the Planet / Un Pensamiento por el Planeta and the rich flora and habitats found on the Amazon River inspired the monumental canvases of Maria Therreza Negreiros: Offerings. (http://thefrost.fiu.edu/)

At The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, The Visual Language of Herbert Matter (Oct. 21) screens the life story of the masterful, mid-century modern designer, and early 20^th-century stats graphics, used by Portuguese imperialists and American New Dealers alike, are culled from the museum’s rare book and special collections library in Statistically Speaking: The Graphic Expression of Data (now through January). In Manifest and Mundane: Scenes of Modern America from the Wolfsonian Collection (now through Aug. 1), more than 50 American paintings, sculptures, and fine art prints from the 1920s to 1940s address how artists utilize both profound and banal aspects of American life in their works. Closing the season, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (Nov. 25-March 26) examines French cultural identity through design, with approximately 150 furniture, industrial design, and craft objects displayed by Philippe Starck, the Bouroullec Brothers, Pierre Paulin, Roger Tallon, Oliver Mourgue, and others. (www.wolfsonian.org)

Reliably unstoppable, and celebrating its decade anniversary in South Florida, Art Basel Miami Beach returns Dec. 1-4, with the expected (demanded!) blur of gallery events and openings, satellite fairs, public murals and performances, bands and DJs, wine and coffee bars, guest lists and hangovers, lectures and panels, and yes, loads of 20^th and 21^st-century art from more than 2,000 artists from around the globe. (www.artbaselmiamibeach.com)

On the first floor vitrines at the ArtCenter of South Florida, How I Lost My Accent, by Cecilia Moreno-Yaghoubi displays gender-infused paintings by the artist, who references Goya, Delacroix, and ethnic Middle East influences in her work. Newly Juried Artists in Residence showcases artists who have recently entered the center’s long-term residency program, including Tony Chimento, Pablo Contrisciani, Katerina Friderici, Gustavo Matamoros/Rene Barge, Peter Hammar, Tom Cocotos, Rosa Naday Garmendia, Lissette Schaeffler, and Antonia Wright. In January, Jenny Brillhart’s serenely minimal cityscapes, which include oft-ignored views of back alleys and parking lots, appear in collages and paintings, along with the urban and architectural canvases of Vincent Hempel. Mixed media and photographs transmogrify religion and its icons in the works of Alex Heria. (www.artcentersf.org)

Gathered in Vanishing Points, paintings from the collection of Debra and Dennis Scholl at the Bass Museum of Art offer three categories of works: “Sweeping Horizontality and Aerial Views,” which considers perspectives often seen in cinema; “The Painterly Without Paintings,” where painting dissolves to unrecognizable forms; and “Impossible Task,” an examination of cosmology and order (now through Oct. 30). Laurent Grasso runs through mid-February and blends imagery from the historical works found in the museum’s permanent collection with the artist’s paintings, video, sculpture, and neons. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, TC: Temporary Contemporary curates a selection of artists who will create and display temporary, site-specific public art projects in the City of Miami Beach through 2012. (www.bassmuseum.org)

Sacred Stories, Timeless Tales: Mythic Traditions in World Art at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami (now through Oct. 23), features 100 paintings, drawings, ceramics and sculptures, drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, that note the thematic connections between mythic traditions in world art, spanning 5,000 years and representing western and non-western cultures. Saintly Blessings from Mexico: The Joseph D. And Janet M. Shein Collection of Retablos (Oct. 8-Sept. 23) collects 28 retablos, paintings featuring images of saints and made by folk artists in supplication or in gratitude for answered prayers, and China: Insights (Nov. 12-Jan. 15) draws together the work of seven photojournalists who have documented emerging or vanishing facets of Chinese culture. Also on view from the museum’s permanent collection: the Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts; Points of View: African Art; the Kress Collection of Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art; Native American Art; and Art of the Pacific. (www.lowemuseum.org)

Emma Trelles is an arts writer in South Florida and the author of the poetry collection Tropicalia.

The state of all things is pretty much still looking gray and uncertain, which makes the list of shows and exhibits you are about to read possibly the only piece of good and colorful news you hear in a while.

By the time you are done reading this, I predict, there will be several shows competing for your attention. My advice? Write them down.

The artists and creations hitting the local museums and art venues are (lucky us) diverse and fun, ranging in subject from the human body and wildlife to ghosts, gods and Tiffany lamps. By the time the season ends, self-taught artists, glassblowers, printmakers, photographers, painters and designers, among others, will have been represented. They will have brought you explicit interpretations of the human body, tiny Japanese teapots and luxury designer attires, among many other surprises.

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach: Fresh and widely awake from its two-and-a-half week hibernation and record-breaking summer attendance, the museum reopened Saturday with a redesigned wi-fi main lobby and the reinstallation of its American and European galleries.

Photographic works acquired during the past year will be presented in Recent Acquisitions: Photography (Oct. 1-Jan. 1). The works will depict the visions of a younger generation of photographers who will ask us, as the professionals do, to reconsider finding beauty and value in the mundane and the normal.

The end of October will see on display objects -- painting, jade, ceramic, glass, and metalwork -- that once belonged to one of the greatest art collector in 18th century China, the Qianlong emperor. Running from Oct. 22 to Feb. 19, The Emperor’s Orders: Designs from the Qianlong Imperial Workshop (1736 -1796) will be composed by the museum’s own collection and some loans.

A monumental 15-by-30 foot American flag will be the centerpiece of the Dave Cole: Flags of the World (2008) exhibit opening Nov. 3. The artist is known for grabbing ordinary and familiar materials and turning them into highly-provoking pieces. This particular piece is made up of red, white and blue pieces of fabric taken from the 192 international banners from an official United Nations flag set. They are organized by color and sewn together with gold thread to form the gigantic quilt-like American flag, which will most likely take an entire wall. At the foot of the suspended piece will rest discarded colorful remnants from the flags of the world. This is one piece that promises to make us think.

Following Flags is a show for those not all too concerned with physical appearance. Jenny Saville (Nov. 30-March 4) is the first exhibit of the RAW series the Norton will present -- Recognition of Art by Women -- and definitely not one to be missed. Prepare to face works of tremendous physicality, volume and mass. They are created by a female British artist whose entire work got purchased by a prestigious art collector (Charles Saatchi) when she was still in her 20s. Her style is said to resemble that of the recently deceased Lucian Freud and seems at times derived from her extensive observation of plastic surgery procedures. Surgical photographs of liposuction, trauma victims, deformity correction, disease states and transgender patients figure in her published sketches.

This selective exhibit of 25 canvases and drawings dating from 1999–2011 will include some works never exhibited before. Among the better-known pieces will be Fulcrum (1999) and Reverse (2002-3). Saville is known to produce works with an “agonizing frankness.” The sense of weight and imperfection she gives to her fleshy subjects -- often nudes -- is at times unbearable.

Cocktail Culture will open Dec. 15 just in time for the holidays. This is one for the voguistas (Vogue readers) or young future designers who wish to admire the masters. The exhibit, consisting of about 200 objects, will explore the social ritual of drinking and entertainment through fashion and design. Cristobal Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Jeanne Lanvin, Yves Saint-Laurent and Valentino are among the big names that will be featured. Accompanying their cocktail attire designs will be accessories by Tiffany, Christian Dior and Van Cleef & Arpel, among others. The show will run through March 18, 2012.

Contemporary artist Beth Lipman is said to have been inspired by the Norton’s Old Master still life paintings. The result? The museum’s commission of a large-scale glass construction that will be installed in the center of the European galleries. Beth Lipman: A Still Life Installation opens Jan. 18 and runs through May 27. The Wisconsin-based artist creates pieces made of clear glass that stand for the concepts of wealth and consumerism. She is also interested in representing the sumptuousness of life often represented in 17^th- and 18^th-century European still-life paintings. The commissioned work will be displayed in the context of works by artists Lipman selected, such as Flemish painters Daniel Seghers and Jan Fyt and the Spanish Baroque painter Juan de Arellano. Her installation will be accompanied by The Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Roadshow (Jan. 18–March 25). The Roadshow is the world’s premier mobile glassblowing unit housed in a 28-foot-long trailer. The exciting 10-week long program will include live demonstrations and hands-on workshops. Please note that admission for this show is an additional $3, but free to museum members as well as children under 13 years old.

Adding to the glass theme, and running simultaneously with the Lipman exhibit, will be Studio Glass: Works from the Museum Collection (Jan.18- May 27). Among the famous glass artists featured will be Dale Chihuly (whose creations are owned by the Queen of England, Elton John, Mick Jagger and hundreds of museums) William Morris (whose style is considered innovative and provoking) and Toots Zynsky (known for his striking colors).

The season will end pretty much in the same fashion it started: with photography. But this time with works by a British female artist who actually began her journey as a painting student. Tacita Dean (Feb. 3-May 6) will focus on the artworks produced by the Berlin-based artist during the past twenty years. Hers would be conventional photography if it were not for the paint, drawings, or handwritten text that gets often added to the images.

Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach: Howard Chandler Christy and J.C. Leyendecker are two of the best American illustrators of the 20^th century. It is no surprise then than the society is highlighting their work with a month-long show titled The Art of Illustration, Original Works of Howard Chandler Christy and J.C. Leyendecker (Dec. 3-Jan. 15). This is for those who respect illustration as a form of art and for those who are still not convinced. Just consider that in one single page an illustrator must convey a message, have an impact.

Running simultaneously to the illustration exhibit will be Andy Warhol, the Bazaar Years 1951-1964 (Dec. 3-Jan. 15). The show focuses on Warhol’s work as an illustrator for magazines and books during the 1950s. Before he became the king of Pop Art with works that keep on living, Warhol collaborated with many prestigious publications including Harper’s Bazaar. The works on display will be shown as originally published and are considered rare, given that very few of his original illustrations exist.

Beginning Feb. 4 you will have the chance to see what is believed to be the only existing image of Billy the Kid. The image, which is preserved on a metal plate, is part of a rarely seen private collection that focuses on the Western expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries. Recapturing the Real West: The Collections of William I. Koch will feature paintings, sculptures, ephemera, and photographs. The collection is made possible by Koch, who bought the rare tintype image of the Kid for $2.3 million at a Denver auction of Wild West memorabilia earlier this year. Koch is a son of Fred Koch, founder of energy conglomerate Koch Industries.

The photo was taken in 1879 or 1880 in Fort Sumner, N.M., before the outlaw's death, and shows him grasping a 1873 Winchester carbine with one hand and a Colt pistol in a holster. At the time of the purchase Koch was quoted saying “I plan on enjoying it and discreetly sharing it. I think I’ll display it in a few small museums.” The show ends April 5.

Back for a third year is Florida Wetlands, a show of more than 50 photographs that capture the essence of this habitat. It is housed in the Mary Alice Fortin Children’s Art Gallery and will run through June 2013.

Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton: If there is something an art crowd never gets tired of is seeing everyday common objects become art. Most of us have at some point done just that, turned something mundane into a curious creation. But how many of us received international recognition because of it? Colombian artist Federico Uribe has. Not one but many times.

His creations will be on display at the museum until Dec. 4 under The World According to Federico Uribe: an exhibit that highlights the humor and irony in his work. It is never too late to catch a show that will make you smile plus give you en exclusive. Uribe’s newest work: life-sized palm trees made from the spines and fanned pages of books and gardens constructed of gardening tools, is debuting here. Also included in the show are works from his 2008 Animal Farm. Farm animals here are made from clothes hangars, corks, pencils, sneaker soles and wood.

Running now to Jan. 8 is an interesting take on the Outsiders. Not the film. I mean the self-taught artists who seem to have escaped every categorization except, perhaps, that of their very nature: self-taught. Outsider Visions: Self-Taught Southern Artists of the 20th Century is a loose and flexible as an exhibit can be. It features more than 15 artists with no formal artistic training/education who come from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The subject matters covered by the 96 works on display range from politics and social commentary to UFOs and sex. Some of the works have never been shown in South Florida. The show is meant as an exploration of a genre that does not exclude anybody. It is commonly known as folk art or outsider art and some of its key figures are featured in the show. They are Purvis Young, Lisa Cain, Clementine Hunter and Jeff Payne among others.

To discover the power of a portrait sometimes it is necessary to stare. Luckily, the subjects depicted in Portraits from the Permanent Collection (Sept. 6-May 13) will not mind. They include artists and public figures such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Mohammed Ali. The 50-plus images on display come in all media -- painting, drawing, prints and photography. Take your time taking them in, even with an image you think you have seen before. You might just discover something new about it.

Beginning Dec. 13, you will get to see works on loan from one of America’s finest art museums dedicated expressively to American art. American Treasures: Masterworks from the Butler Institute of American Art will bring 36 pieces representing la crème de la crème of 19^th- and 20^th- century American masters with their many styles and genres. And here the list gets long, but let me just say Edward Hopper, George Inness, Victor Higgins and Jackson Pollock, figure among the many names that will be featured. The show ends March 18.

The new year will bring the photographic honesty of Martin Schoeller, who was Annie Leibovitz’s assistant in the 1990s before going to work for The New Yorker. Martin Schoeller: Close Up consists of about 48 images of celebrities, politicians and icons such as Angelina Jolie, Bill Clinton and Andre Agassi. The New York-based artist is known for grabbing these famous subjects and showing them with plain sincerity. His style is said to capture the essence and true personality of even those accustomed to masking their true emotions. But just how true and transparent Schoeller’s posers appear through his lenses is for the observer to decide. After all, most of them are trained in the art of acting and can play many different roles on short notice. What bigger challenge than convincing an experienced photographer of their sincerity? You have from Jan. 18 to March 18 to visit and determine just how much truth was captured.

Running at the same time, and continuing with the photography theme, the museum will present Natura Morta: Photographs by Patrizia Zelano (Jan. 18-March 18) a confrontational show focusing on the relationship between man and nature and the consequences derived by the mentality that has them being separate entities. Natura Morta (Still Life) will feature 18 color photographs from three of the Italian photographer’s portfolios: Attesa Silente (Quiet Wait), Cenci (Rags), and In Carne ed Ossa (In Flesh and Bone).

Images of stored hay bales appear in Attesa Silente, while bales of used American clothing make up Cenci. In Carne ed Ossa comes to life with recycled slaughterhouse waste such as heads, hooves, intestines and bones from cattle, sheep, and pigs. Each of the three documents the consumption and discard of society and the humanity-nature conflict.

Works by an American master almost 100 years old and still creating will be on display from March 27-June 3. Will Barnet at 100: Eight Decades of Painting and Printmaking will mark the 100^th birthday of this painter and printmaker with about 50 works. The show will takes us through a very important moment in his career, when his art shifted from realism to abstraction. This is one man who is not afraid of reinventing his art and moving on to new styles. Barnet's career as an artist and America's foremost printmaker has evolved from 1930s social realism to 1940s cubism to 1950s geometric abstraction, and since 1961, figurative realism.

Glass creations will make an appearance at the museum starting March 27. The pieces featured in Contemporary Glass: The 50th Anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement are not made in glass factories but individual studios. The movement began in the early 1960s, when Harvey Littleton, considered the father of the studio glass movement, built his own glass-making furnaces in a freestanding studio. The exhibit will show the numerous ways in which leading glass artists including Concetta Mason, William Morris and Jay Musler, use glass as a medium for contemporary art. Other artists being featured are Dale Chihuly and Toots Zynsky. The show runs through Oct. 14.

Flagler Museum, Palm Beach: In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the completion of the Over-Sea Railroad, the museum will bring us an illustrated story of the construction of the railroad to Key West, which was built 1905 and 1912. First Train to Paradise: The Railroad That Went to Sea (Oct. 18-Jan. 8) is based on the accounts of those who risked their lives to make Flagler’s dream come true. And it did. On Jan. 22, 1912, Floridians welcomed Flagler's arrival aboard the first train to Key West. Best-selling author Les Standiford will hold a gallery talk at noon Dec. 6 for those interested in learning more about the exhibit and legacy of the railroad project.

More than 50 Tiffany lamps, windows, mosaics, enamels and ceramics compose the museum’s next exhibit: A New Light on Tiffany: Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girl (Jan. 31-April 22). What better way to start the year? The show will introduce research that highlights the many women, including Clara Driscoll, who played an essential part in the design and creation of Tiffany Studios’ masterpieces. Driscoll (1861–1944) managed the women glass cutting department known as “Tiffany Girls” and her letters reveal she was behind some of the most memorable lampshades including Wisteria, Dragonfly and Poppy.

A New Light on Tiffany features numerous objects made under her direction and also sheds light on the experiences of this New York working woman at the turn of the century. The exhibit previously traveled to The Netherlands, Germany and New Mexico. An inside tour by Margaret K. Hofer, decorative arts curator at the New-York Historical Society, will teach you more about the luxury objects produced by the Tiffany Girls. It starts at noon on Feb. 28.

Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens: When venerated Zen teachers decided to grab the brush and create art as a vessel to mediation and inner enlightenment the Japanese art genre of Zenga was born. Zenmi -- A Taste of Zen: Paintings, Calligraphy, and Ceramics from the Collection of Riva Lee Asbell (Oct. 18-Jan. 22) features more than 80 works associated with the practice of Zen and created by these masters of the 17th to the 20th centuries. The works are noted for their drama, impulsiveness and urgency of expression. Zen is a form of Buddhism that relies on personal introspection to reach enlightenment.

You have heard the beauty is in the details. If that is true, Small Wonders: Japanese Snuff Bottles from the Trammell and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art (Oct. 18-Jan. 22) is as beautiful an exhibit as they come. It will display more than 40 striking examples of Japanese snuff bottles produced during the Meiji Period (1868–1912). Snuff, a ground tobacco product, was reportedly used in China during the Qing Dynasty to relieve headaches and stomach disorders. Japanese craftsmen began creating the snuff bottles and exporting them to the West in the 1860s. Just as they did then, they have come once again to satisfy our thirst for all things Japanese. The small, intricately designed bottles made of a variety of materials -- porcelain, ivory, jade, wood, lacquer, metal, ceramic and glass -- demonstrate the fine technical range and artistic sensibility of these men.

Opening Feb. 7 is Old Techniques, New Interpretations: Japanese Prints from the 1950s to the 21st Century, From the Collection of Paul and Christine Meehan, a collection of about 60 prints that will celebrate the 40 years of sosaku hanga masters from Kiyoshi Saitō (1907–1997) to Toko Shinoda (b. 1913), among others. Known as the creative print movement, sōsaku hanga gave artists control of every aspect of their work, from designing the image and carving the block, to inking and printing the paper. As a result, their compositions were also more expressive, experimental and abstract than those produced by the shin hanga and ukiyo-e schools. The works by these well-rounded artists reveal a more contemporary view of the world. The exhibit runs through May 6.

Running simultaneously to Old Techniques will be Mariko Kusumoto: Unfolding Stories (Feb. 7-May 6) which is an introduction of this Japanese artist’s extraordinary metal sculptures and transformations of found objects into music boxes, clocks and other visions. Kusumoto’s father is a Buddhist priest and she grew up in a temple that was founded 400 years ago. She often uses brass in her metal work because it resembles the colors of the ornaments in the temple. Her magical witty world is among my favorite ones to explore this season.

Another one I am looking forward to is Ghosts, Goblin, and Gods: The Supernatural in Japanese Art (May 22–Sept. 16). This exhibit will bring an array of paintings, colorful woodblock prints, sculptures and masks depicting a host of legendary ghosts, gods, and other-worldly beings. Japan’s native religion, Shinto, is a belief that spirits inhabit the natural world, both animate and inanimate objects including rocks, mountains, trees, rivers and lakes. Among the bad ones are the tengu, half-man, half-bird forest creatures with long noses that are said to abduct children. The better-intentioned ones are regarded as guardian spirits and include Ebisu, the god of fishermen, Daikoku, the god of agriculture, Fukurokuju, the god of wisdom and long life and Hotei, the god of happiness. Do not forget to stop by the fuzzy goblins from the popular Pokemon series before you leave.

Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach: The center will open with the Armory Faculty Exhibition (Oct. 7-Nov. 11) which will present works in all media. Natural and informative photos of wetland birds will follow with Wildlife Photographs of Rosalie Winard (Dec. 16-Jan. 21) Winard is an award-winning photographer and ornithologist. Large-scale steel sculptures will take over also on Dec. 16 with Curved: Herbert Mehler Sculptures. Nature is the main inspiration behind Mehler’s sculptures, which show a clear reference to it with their cylindrical body, spindles, circles, spheres and spirals. The show runs through April 6.

The Lighthouse ArtCenter: Gallery owner Holden Luntz serves as judge for Photo Now! (Sept. 9-Oct. 15), a juried exhibit that focuses on photography and digitally created and/or enhanced images. Two more shows will run at the same time: Le Petit Art Exhibition by Ted Matz (School of Art instructor) and SoFlo Ceramics Invitational Exhibition: a showcase of 15 talented South Florida ceramic artists and educators.

Starting Nov. 17 until Dec. 31, you will get a change of pace with Landscapes 2011, compiled through a call for artists to submit their imagined and realistic landscapes in any medium. Running simultaneously to the photographic show are the School of Art Faculty Show and Fong Choo: The Artful Teapot, which will include the artist’s internationally renowned and beautifully glazed miniature teapots. A native of Singapore, Choo has always been fascinated by the teapot in its miniature form and has spent more than a decade exploring it.

Contempo (Jan. 6-Feb. 11) will mark the new year with contemporary art produced in the last two years and compiled through a call-to-artist. Mindy Solomon of Mindy Solomon Galleries in St. Petersburg will act as judge. Right after Valentine’s Day realistic painter JoAnne Berkow and nonrepresentational painter Rita Shapiro will pair up to bring us Realism: A Stringing Together of Abstractions.

At the same time, polar bears, sea dragons and more sea creatures will make a stop at the center. They are the protagonists of Sea Creatures Above and Below: Photography by Ruth Petzold who has devoted herself to capturing nature and wildlife above and below the water since getting her first camera at age seven. If you ever wondered how nature looks like in the most remote places, make sure you attend this show and her talk March 15. Starting March 30 center members will exhibit and sell their work throughout the entire museum in a show running through April 25: Lighthouse ArtCenter Member Show and Sale.

Cornell Museum: Coloring Outside the Lines, which runs through Oct. 23 at the downtown Delray Beach museum, is a cheerful show featuring the creations of renowned crayon artists Don Marco and Jeffrey Robert. This is the first time that father and son have exhibited together. Their combined works aim to gain some respect for this medium, usually underestimated and dismissed.

Running from Oct. 27 to Jan. 8 is The American Society of Marine Artists 15th National Exhibition, a national juried exhibition of 100 oils, watercolors, acrylics, bronzes and more depicting the beauty of the marine world. The Cornell Museum is the first of eight stops nationwide for this traveling exhibit. The Brazilian rain forest and the Vatican gardens are among the many subjects featured in Diana Nicosia: A Retrospective (Jan. 12-April 15). This is a solo show comprising about 45 original oil paintings from 1985-2011.

Opening at the same time is Burlini Studio of Art: a two-part exhibit featuring 50-70 works by local artists currently studying with nationally recognized artist Christopher J. Burlini. A solo show focusing on Burlini’s pop-surrealist works will actually open Feb. 28.

Florida Atlantic University: The Schmidt Center Gallery (Boca Raton campus) is housing several shows beginning with the 2011 Biennial Faculty Exhibition (Sept. 17-Nov. 12) which features a wide range of recent artworks by 37 artists/professors from three university departments: Visual Arts and Art History, Communication and Multimedia and Architecture. Drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and video will be represented. The exhibit and opening reception on Sept. 16 are free to the public and a great chance to see the art being produced and taught at FAU. Following it will be Figured Spaces: Selections from the John Morrissey Collection (Nov. 29-Feb. 11), which will display photographs, figurative paintings and drawings by several internationally recognized artists such as Hilary Harkness, Natalie Frank, Anj Smith and Mickalene Thomas.

Tibetan Sand Mandala: A Ritual Art of Peace (Feb. 25-March 3) will provide a peaceful break and call for meditation before we move on to the world of sea gladiators with Surfing Florida: A Photographic History, which some of you may have caught this year. The exhibit and book project exploring the history of the state’s surf culture and community will come back March 17. Its purpose remains the same: to communicate the core values and accomplishments of this daring community. The show runs through May 12.

The Ritter Art Gallery (Boca Raton campus) will house the Fall Bachelor Fine Arts Exhibition (running Nov. 19- Dec. 9) and the Spring Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition (April 21-May 4). Also the Annual Juried Student Exhibition, which comes a month earlier this season, running Feb. 10-25, 2012. Photographic works by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County will be on display for two days, March 9 and 10, 2012. Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition: Tabitha Pennekamp will run March 24 through April 7.

FAU’s Jupiter campus will house several shows in its library gallery, including Shifting Nature (Jan. 6-March 9), a site-specific video and sound installation from Miami filmmaker Juan Carlos Zaldivar that will develop into a feature film over the next year. The two-person show Flightscapes will bring us ceramics by Karla Walter, curator of the Eissey Art Gallery at Palm Beach State College and photographs of professor Dennis Tishkowsky.

Fort Lauderdale sculptor Peter Symons will present a series of mixed-media works in Earth Drinkers (March 23-May11). At the same time, one of the university’s past vice presidents, Kristen Murtaugh, will show a series of black-and-white photographs in Nature. Retired professor John McCoyp will have his pottery on display during Works in Clay (May 25 to Aug. 10). Coinciding with it will be Diva, highlighting Miami-based artist Patricia Gutierrez’s works.

Art fairs: Several events will return to the Palm Beach Convention Center, starting with Art Palm Beach (Jan. 20-23, preview Jan.19). Now entering its 15^th year, the fair is known for showcasing contemporary art in the form of design, public sculpture, photography, video and installation art and for its educational lecture series. Its 2011 installment welcomed a record 28,000 attendees during the five-day run and was marked by strong sales. The year before that saw similar response. If the trend continues, this will be an even better year. Among the 2012 highlights will be a dynamic light installation titled Transformation, by celebrated German artist Hans Kotter. Also featured will be Klari Reis’s Hypochondria, a project comprised of a series of petri dishes that are hand-painted using reflective epoxy polymer to depict electron microscope images of viruses, viscera and pharmaceuticals reacting with the human body. Japanese sculpture artist Jun Kaneko will also make an appearance.

The following month American International Fine Art Fair (Feb. 4-12, preview Feb. 3) will bring us French galleries, artwork, jewelry, food, and wines to go in harmony with its theme: "Paris -- Palm Beach.” The fair's well received lecture series will be broadened in 2012 with Victoria Wyeth, granddaughter of “America’s Painter” Andrew Wyeth, sharing her personal insights and family memories. New to the fair is a special exhibit by Fabergé, which has decided to pay homage to the legendary Imperial Eggs created by Peter Carl Fabergé for the Romanov family. The collection of one-of-a-kind high jewelry egg pendants, Les Fameux de Fabergé, also intends to celebrate the egg as a timeless universal symbol of life. Fabergé has designed each illustrating a traditional Russian proverb. Ancillary social events including evening activities hosted by dealers -- first introduced in 2009 - will return to the 2012 schedule. Fair organizers reported a highly successful 2011 edition with an increased number of long-time dealers reported record sales results.

Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Fair: The ninth annual fair returns Feb. 18 with a special preview on Feb. 17 for those who cannot wait to get their hands on something precious. Featuring the world’s finest antique dealers the fair will also hold a lecture series with discussions on Signed Jewelry: How it Drives the Market and When Does it Add Value and The Uffizi: Against All Odds. World War II and the Florence Flood, among others. The fair runs through Feb. 21. Daily tickets cost $15.

Palm Beach Fine Craft Show: If your art fix is anything limited edition or the one-of-a-kind then this is the show for you. Running March 2-4, the show will feature 115 of the nation's top contemporary craft artists offering unique and inspiring work in ceramics; silver, bronze, and copper; mixed media; decorative and wearable textiles; jewelry; paper; wood; and glass. General admission is $15.

“Visitor experience” is a phrase one hears a lot these days when museums are the topic of discussion.

Now, more than ever before, many, as a direct result of cuts in government funding for the arts, are focusing on how to make changes that keep people coming back to the museum because it is an enjoyable place to be. This can also mean that museums must now find ways to reintroduce themselves as more universally appealing, so that the public’s perception of them is less as an elitist institution and more as a welcoming abode.

The Norton Museum of Art is no exception. Despite the fact that last year the museum had record attendance, with more than 115,000 visitors, an 18 percent increase from 2009, officials want to do more to entice new and returning visitors. Today, the museum reopened after a three-week renovation to reevaluate its layout and to reinstall the art in many of the first- and second-floor galleries—all to make the museum more amenable for visitors.

“The reason that you reinstall galleries the way we have is that the relationship with paintings, and the way in which they’re installed, has an impact on how people perceive them and on the art historical record,” said Hope Alswang, the Norton’s executive director. “So, from time to time it’s really important to reconsider your pictures and to understand these relationships.”

The enhanced visitor experience extends beyond just moving around works of art, and includes making the visitor feel more comfortable and relaxed within the museum space. To do this, the Norton has added seating within the front lobby, which is also getting an overhaul, and within many of the galleries. “You’re going to see more and more visitor amenities over the years as we reinstall,” Alswang said.

The current makeover, however, is only one part of the museum’s overall vision to create a more hospitable environment. Long-term plans involve the London-based architectural firm, Foster + Partners, and a design studio project with 12 graduate students from the architectural school at the University of Miami. That project was coordinated by Palm Beach resident Elizabeth Dowdle, who serves as a planning and historic preservation consultant to the Norton.

Foster + Partners has been hired to audit the space and to address both visitors’ needs and curatorial needs by evaluating its current use and crafting an ongoing, future plan for the best use of the interior space, the external landscape and six adjacent external properties. They’ve done similar projects with other significant cultural institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and London’s British Museum.

“A lot has to do with re-understanding the existing structure and circulation and how circulation can be improved, but it’s also about the entire site and even how landscape can contribute to the overall experience,” said lead architect Michael Wurzel. “We’ll also be able to evaluate and improve how the museum operates in terms of sustainability.”

For the graduate students at the University of Miami, led by professor Sam Roche, the focus will be on history. They will evaluate the museum within its historic neighborhood and help determine a plan for restoration and adaptation of the six historic properties that the museum owns on Crane Nest’s Way, which were built in the 1920s through the 1940s, and are currently designated as rental properties.

The students specialize in designing neighborhoods, streets and civic spaces that are pedestrian-friendly and in understanding how individual buildings fit into the existing fabric of towns.

“Our mission here is to look at one part of the master plan and really to determine how these houses can work together as a group and, really, how they can work individually,” Roche said.

Within the museum space, color is something that has been reevaluated as part of the installation, and many of the walls have been repainted. The colors are striking and warm — deep reds, rich grays, bright yellows — and they serve to create a cozier atmosphere, more reminiscent of a Greenwich, Conn., estate than the white space gallery we’ve grown to associate with museums. This actually does make one feel more comfortable within the surroundings. And the paintings seem more vibrant, too.

The use of different colors on the walls is something that can be controversial, Alswang said. “This is a really difficult issue within a museum and with works of art, in this case from different countries, and different kinds of work — you are asking them to sit on a color that has to be equally beautiful.”

Alswang acknowledged the contribution made by the museum’s curator of contemporary art, Cheryl Brutvan, for choosing the colors and also acting as the lead curator for the reinstallation, with the assistance of curatorial associate Jerry Dobrick.

The Norton has been challenged in the presentation of its collection of modern and contemporary art, because of a lack of exhibition space. While the reinstallation is not greatly increasing the gallery space for this collection, officials are moving the collections and there are some small space additions downstairs, such as in an area that sits near the doors to the exterior courtyard, where work by Josef Albers and a new work by Nick Cave will now reside.

The two galleries that are adjacent to the entranceway at the rear of the lobby will now house the modern collection, rather than the special exhibitions regular visitors expect. The special exhibition space is now a large, warehouse-like area to the rear of these galleries that has been renovated.

Overall, the reinstallation provides for showcasing contemporary art in a manner more conducive for this type of art, which can be larger or more oddly shaped than traditional works, and sometimes can even include electronic elements that can detract from adjacent works. The new spaciousness is evident in the new location for a multimedia sculpture by Dan Flavin, an acquisition made possible by The Contemporary and Modern Art Council. Now the work nestles perfectly into a corner viewing space that provides ample room for contemplation without distraction.

Brutvan said more is on the way. “There will be an additional gallery that will house recent acquisitions—photography and contemporary,” she said.

The defining elements of the new changes at the Norton are a sense of spaciousness and a continuity that was lacking before. The paintings and other works seem to have more breathing room and it’s refreshing to see them hung in a new manner that also creates new relationships. It’s also easier now to navigate because there’s an intuitive flow that was missing before when special exhibitions interrupted the permanent collections.

“We’re trying to create a different version of logic of how we use these spaces because before, as many visitors came through, they didn’t know where they were. Suddenly they’re going through an exhibit and then they’re back in the collection,” Brutvan said. “So, now we’re trying to make it that you’re in the collection.”

Brutvan also noted that the changes are ongoing and uphold the vision of founder Ralph Hubbard Norton, who died in 1953. “Mr. Norton liked things to change, as I discovered in doing research, so that it really did look different when people came back,” she said. “He was constantly reinstalling and adding new things based on his acquisitions.”

Jenifer Mangione Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with painting for most of her life. She studied art history and received her B.A. from Purchase College. Visit her blog at www.fineartnotebook.com.

The Norton Museum of Art reopened today. Regular visitor hours for the museum are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. till 9 p.m.; Sunday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $5 for visitors aged 13-21 and free for children under 13. Admission is free for West Palm Beach residents every Saturday and free for Palm Beach County residents on the first Saturday of each month, with proof of residency. For more information, call 561-832-5196 or visit www.norton.org.

There’s one element to Rivane Neuenschwander’s artwork, now at the Miami Art Museum until Oct. 16, that probably won’t travel back with it to her native Brazil, yet it is an integral part of the exhibit: You.

Yes, you bring more to Neuenschwander’s mid-career survey, A Day Like Any Other, than you could possibly imagine. In fact, without you, more than half of this exhibit would not be possible. Apparently, you—well, perhaps let’s say people in general—inspire Neuenschwander to such a degree that their deepest emotions, fears and heartfelt wishes are integral to her creative process as an artist.

And this is precisely why Neuenschwander’s work is so poignantly good—good in a manner that makes one want to cuddle up in a corner of the gallery and just remain there so you can continue to feel the emotional benevolence granted by a work such as Eu Desejo o Seu Desejo / I Wish Your Wish, which is composed of thousands of colorful ribbons with other people’s wishes on them.

Part installation, part performance, the work hinges on a participant’s desire to not just take and safeguard another’s wish, but to share his or her own, which they then write on a small sheet of paper and deposit in a box. Later, the artist sorts through the thousands of wishes and chooses the ones that appeal to her for use in this ongoing work.

“It’s based on the traditions of a church in Brazil. You’re supposed to tie the ribbon around your wrist, and if you wear it until the ribbon falls off, your wish will come true,” senior curator Peter Boswell explained during a tour of the show, where the artist was also present. “When you come, you search around for a wish that you want and you take that ribbon and tie it around your wrist. Then you go over to the pen and pieces of paper and you wish a wish.”

Neuenschwander said there are two aspects of this installation that interest her above all.

“They are the participation—it’s a piece that changes everyday—it’s a live painting in a sense. It’s changing constantly. And it travels. The other thing—it’s something that nobody really knows—it looks very playful and funny, but behind every wish you actually have a fear,” she said. “If someone wishes for a long life, behind that might be the fear they would die soon.”

At this point, a tour participant eagerly interrupted the artist and displayed a wrist ribbon that had not yet fallen off, but which had worked nonetheless.

“We saw this for the first time in Buenos Aires and I took one of these ribbons. I wrote ‘I want a house with a garden in front.’ And then we moved to Miami and I got it,” she said, gleefully, to which the artist responded with a shy giggle.

In that very moment, the essence of Neuenschwander’s brilliance shone through. It’s her ability to affect both the mind and the heart of those who view, and engage with, her work. Neuenschwander was both genuinely touched by, and interested in, this individual and her outcome. Through her work, Neuenschwander expresses her unique sensitivity to the emotional experiences of the people whose lives she touches.

This makes her, to some degree, and in a very unique manner, an artist-social worker—encouraging you to reveal your innermost self. While most artists explore their own inner complexities and emotions and convey these through their work, Neuenschwander is less concerned with herself and more concerned with you.

Moving further along through the exhibit, this becomes even more apparent with the installation-performance work, Premeiro Amor (First Love). Here, Neuenschwander really expects you to bare your soul. A table with two chairs sits in the gallery and, on certain dates during the exhibit, a police sketch artist is available. If you make an appointment (details here), the sketch artist will sit with you for about two hours as you recount the visual details of your first love’s appearance. The artist is trained to ask you psychologically probing questions that will spur your memory.

But not all first loves are good loves, and love is a double-edged sword that is both sweet and sour, depending on the moment. This is much like all of Neuenschwander’s work and the title of this exhibit alludes to this dichotomy. Our lives are marked by highs and lows, but, for the most part our days are like any other.

While much of Neuenschwander’s work does pivot on the personal relationship between the individual viewer with the work, it’s not entirely personal. Her work also tackles the global issues that affect everyone. In The Conversation, she is concerned with privacy and paranoia. Inspired by the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same name, this work is eerily prescient. Exactly how much of our privacy will we surrender to the digital age in which we live?

The installation is disconcerting—and intentionally so. To produce this work, Neuenschwander began with wallpaper, carpeting and bric-a-brac scattered throughout the gallery. She then hid surveillance bugs within it. This was followed by hiring security experts to come and rake the room for the bugs. The audiotape of the workers searching is now played in a continuous loop in the installation.

In Chove Chuva, Neuenschwander addresses an important global concern, albeit also local for her as a Brazilian. This work is part-installation, part-performance like many others throughout the show. And it’s important to point out that Neuenschwander hesitates to limit her work to any one category. When pressed, she will simply tell you that it is painting, drawing, installation, performance—that it is, to use her word, “everything.”

One can’t view Chove Chuva without thinking of the threatened Amazon rain forest. The work is comprised of buckets of water suspended from the ceiling, but they have a tiny hole in the bottom. So they slowly drip out throughout the day, creating a cacophony of water droplets that sound both ominous and eerily comforting. The work is not possible without the role of the hired assistant. Ladder in hand, he replenishes the buckets throughout the day. He represents the human influence.

One would have to be a completely emotionally shut down individual to make it through the aforementioned works, and the many others throughout Neuenschwander’s exhibit, without feeling some complex emotions. The combination of representation of global concerns juxtaposed against deeply personal ones is thought-provoking. Adding to the brilliance of Neuenschwander’s work, is her ability to encourage you to frame yourself both within the context of your own life, as well as within the broader global community.

Ultimately, one leaves A Day Like Any Other with a deep sense of gratitude to the artist for her sensitivity and the depth with which she portrays the complexities of daily life. It is, above all, a very affirming exhibit, albeit it one that tackles some grim realities.

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Jenifer Mangione Vogt is a marketing communications professional and resident of Boca Raton. She’s been enamored with painting for most of her life. She studied art history and received her B.A. from Purchase College. Visit her blog at www.fineartnotebook.com.

Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other is on view at the Miami Art Museum until Oct. 16. Hours for this exhibition are Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $4 for seniors, and free for students and children under 12. For more information call (305) 375-3000, or visit www.miamiartmuseum.org.