One of Arturo Duclos’ “I Just Believe in Art” pieces

There were an awful lot of people out crawling through Wynwood for the most recent Saturday night gallery walk. It seemed all of Miami had grasped that this semi-scary enclave south of the Design District, made safe for exploration with the arrival of Target and Circuit City, is a hotspot, at least one night per month. There were too many galleries and alternative spaces to visit in one evening, so here’s a look at three.

Calentando la pista — heating up the road — is the fiery title for a mixed bag of gallery artists assembled at Lyle Reitzel Gallery. Maritza Molina’s panoramic photo, “The Test of Purity (and the Wasted Women),” depicts nubile, half-dressed women kneeling in prayer or conked out in the forest, their wraps artfully exposing milky white breasts and buttocks. This combination of gentle titillation with some weak irony aimed at the Catholic Church is difficult to swallow. As is the video by the same artist ogling the same sexy, ivory buttocks swaying under the weight of a harness as she pulls a plow, Gregorian chants swelling in the accompanying soundtrack. What may be intended as a feminist jab at organized religion ends up being garden variety salacious titty photos. Dominican artist Eleomar Puente is a gifted artist, prone to a mechanical sadness evident in the rote stylization of his marks, which seem to trap the artist in his own unique manner of expression. Perhaps Luis Cruz Azaceta is another artist condemned to perpetually draft his own signature, if we are to judge by the paintings in this exhibition which repeat his familiar black and white linear structures. Several of the works on view were produced two or three years ago, and this gives the whole exhibition a feeling of being stale. Although the two paintings (2007 thankfully) of Victor Payares are the most eccentric in the exhibition, proposing apocalyptic landscapes with hybrid copter/car/lunar module vehicle with science fiction, the paint looks dull and the smudges used to create volume lack vigor. Lyle Reitzel Gallery is the Miami branch of a gallery in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The gallery is located at 2441 NW Second Ave. in Wynwood; you can reach them at 305-573-1333.

DPM Gallery, right next door to Lyle Reitzel Gallery, is showing the works of Chilean artist Arturo Duclos. It was a relief to see a more mature, well-conceived artistic vision. Duclos is an established artist, working in a conceptual vein. His paintings on cotton curtain panels mounted sideways on the wall were each titled “I Just Believe in Art.” And each features a series of “lessons” or instructions for the production of works of art such as “A Sentimental Action,” directing a Muslim terrorist to deliver anthrax to British Parliament through the air ducts, documented live on the BBC. The darkly painted canvases with white handwriting and tightly rendered graphic illustrations resemble chalkboards, and so these works are intentionally didactic. Some lessons are lighter: A geodesic dome a la Bucky Fuller made from beach umbrellas is given the somber title “Domus.” The position of the panels sideways also suggests flags. An entrenched skepticism about statehood and political entities is clearly a favorite subject of Duclos. It’s great to have a chance to see those South American artists whose career arcs often miss the States on their way to Europe. Miami is the obvious point of entry for many artists from Latin America, and their growing participation in the art scene here will only enrich us and our understanding of the world. DPM Gallery shares the space with Reitzel Gallery at 2441 NW Second Ave. Its phone number is 305-576-1777. See more at www.dpmgallery.com.

A distinctive new vision on view currently is work by Ruben Ubiera, an artist having his first solo show at Edge Zones, also in Wynwood. A native of the Dominican Republic, lately residing in the Bronx, New York, Ubiera is heavily invested in a style that has more than a dose of skateboard and graffiti-isms, but is liberally sprinkled with Dominicanisms such as Diablo cojuelos, piri piri vendors and cockfights. Calling his venture Urban Pop, Ubiera dutifully interprets Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans as Goya Frijoles Negros cans and, while that may be irresistible, he should be cautioned to avoid the easy kitsch route. He happens to possess a finer sensibility, which comes through in his subtle and skilled portraits that exploit a classic European (Spanish colonial?) three-quarter view of his subjects. There are works that highlight his own creative process and introspection, such as “Creative Block” and “Tomorrow I Will,” which attempt to fix visual analogs for emotional or ambiguous states of being. His work fairly sings with graphic interest, and he is smart enough to disrupt his bright, controlled manner of painting with distressed and dirtied painting surfaces, such as found pieces of wood and collections of cigar boxes that form scattershot grids. Slightly dingy background palettes, retro floral flourishes and carefully contrived color splotches perform like clockwork. His training as an illustrator is a gift, but is something to fight against as well. It would be a mistake to continue to turn out pleasing compositions with a facile hand when there is clearly more soul to explore. It will be rewarding to view the development of this artist. See Ubiera’s work at Edge Zones, located at 2214 N. Miami Ave. in Wynwood. See also www.edgezones.org or phone 305-303-8852. Through August.