8 April 23-29, 2026 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | 8 Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | Mixed Media Trailblazing indie film director Harmony Korine debuts his first U.S. museum survey at the ICA. BY SHAWN MACOMBER I f Miami didn’t exist, Harmony Korine might have had to script it into exis- tence. The Magic City, both surreal and re- ally real, is a cultural mélange in which the writer of the 1995 indie cult classic Kids and writer/director of such exuberant, wild, transgressive fare as Gummo (1997), Spring Breakers (2012), and The Beach Bum (2019) thrives. So much so, in fact, that Korine relo- cated here around fifteen years ago. And as if to showcase how the city has slowly evolved into his creative canvas, the Institute of Con- temporary Art (ICA) Miami is hosting the first United States museum survey of Korine’s lesser-known yet beguiling multidisciplinary work, “from early drawings and collage to later paintings, photography, and recent digi- tal experiments” — entitled, appropriately, Harmony Korine: Perfect Nonsense. The exhi- bition is on view through October 4. “Harmony is, in his own unique way, a very astute observer of society, and a lot of his work has been preoccupied with the idea of an out- sider,” ICA artistic director and Perfect Non- sense co-curator Alex Gartenfeld tells New Times. “I would say one of the throughlines in this exhibition is the idea of people who are nonconformist, who don’t exactly fit into soci- ety. And I think that one of his fascinations with Miami is the ways in which this city not only embraces the outsider but also brings together such diverse populations in close dialogue.” For the vast majority of those who primar- ily know Korine as one of the most influential and consequential indie filmmakers of the last quarter century, Perfect Nonsense will un- doubtedly prove a revelation. However, sim- ply because the way Korine has melded and traversed artistic disciplines is understudied or, to some degree, unheralded, does not mean it is some bolt-from-the-blue shocking mid-career left turn. “[Harmony’s work] moves between multi- ple media, and it has actually done that from the beginning,” says Gean Moreno, director of the ICA’s Art + Research Center and co-cu- rator of the exhibit. “So, while the painting practice has come to the fore recently, the quest to make new images has been there all along. I think it will be quite interesting for viewers to trace that arc across three de- cades.” Here is one ex- ample of this pro- gression, as described in a press statement to give readers a bit of fla- vor: “Some of Korine’s earliest works feature childlike figures and writings, and often ex- plore the coming-of-age genre and its complex unfoldings. These childlike and coming-of-age themes have evolved into a ghostly form he calls ‘Twitchy,’ found in paintings that are pro- duced by combining images captured on an iPhone with painterly techniques.” The flip side of this fluidity and intercon- nectedness is that Perfect Nonsense does not ignore or distance itself from Korine’s films. Quite the contrary: It nurtures a deeper, edi- fying experience of his popular work. “I think many people will be surprised at the extent to which Harmony’s collages and notes some- times help form the structure of his films,” Gartenfeld says. “And vice versa: There are frames from some of his iconic films that be- came the starting point for artwork as well.” The exhibit, then, strives to mirror this, mov- ing through different periods in Korine’s life, biography, and production, spotlighting sym- biosis rather than siloing. “You’ll see the development of the seam- lessness with which Harmony works across medium from some of his earliest works, which are closely related to some of his earli- est films,” Gartenfeld says, “to his work on black metal” — recall, Korine has a credited appearance in the controversial landmark Norwegian black metal doc Until the Light Takes Us — “and other subcultures.” As we move closer to the present day, Per- fect Nonsense tackles Korine’s recent grap- pling with technological augmentation. “Harmony has experimented in medium with an eye towards the forces that are so rap- idly changing society,” Gartenfeld says. “His adaptation of both digital tools as well as digi- tal image types, I think, will be new and cer- tainly very timely for audiences.” If that sounds like a lot, well, provocateurs are gonna provoke. It’s not exactly a quiet or sensible moment in this city, nation, or world, and it hasn’t been for some time. Amidst all of this, Korine’s sprawling, crackling Perfect Non- sense is the rare case of an event actually wor- thy of the Hunter S. Thompson maxim quoted typically unduly and ad nauseam: “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” Really, would any self-re- specting Korine fan want it any other way? “Harmony Korine: Perfect Nonsense.” On view April 15 through October 4, at ICA Miami, 61 NE 41st St., Miami; 305-901-5272; icamiami.org. [email protected] ▼ Culture Harmony Korine, Shirley’s Temple, 2016. Watercolor on linen. Craig Robins Collection “WHILE THE PAINTING PRACTICE HAS COME TO THE FORE RECENTLY, THE QUEST TO MAKE NEW IMAGES HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG.”
