Maryland Institute College of Art presents its third annual MICA Art Market!
The sale, featuring 250 MICA students, alumni, faculty and staff, includes jewelry, illustrations, paintings, prints, posters, sculptures, mosaics, stationery, T-shirts, ceramics, textiles, book arts, toys and wrapping paper.
The market, sponsored by the MICA Alumni Association, fosters student professional development and peer-to-peer networking, and provides funding for need-based student scholarships. Last year scholarships of $2,500 each were awarded to three MICA students who had participated in the event: Sarah Machicado '12 (illustration and graphic design), Nisha Ramnath '10 (animation) and Michele Stidham '10 (graphic design).
Vendors will accept the following forms of payment: Visa, MasterCard, cash and check. Admission to the market is free.
For more information, visit the website here. Wednesday, Dec. 9-Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Leidy Atrium and Falvey Hall lobby of Brown Center 1301 W. Mount Royal Ave.
12.10.09
Instant Messages and Reinvent @ MAP Maryland Art Place presents Instant Messages and Reinvent an exhibition and installation created by students in MICA’s Graphic Design MFA program, directed by Ellen Lupton. These two special projects explore the empire of signs and messages in which we live. Participating artists: Lauren Adams, Christina Beard, Chris Clark, Elizabeth Herrmann, Ann Liu, Chris McCampbell, Ryan Shelley, Wesley Stuckey, Beth Taylor, Isabel Uria, Supisa Wattanasansanee, Krissi Xenakis Rush Hour: Art Beats Traffic- Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009 5-8pm Celebrate the exhibition Instant Messages and the unveiling of MAP’s first public art installation in our entrance hallway. Interact with original works of art and design in the galleries.
Maryland Art Place Power Plant Live! 8 Market Place, Suite 100 Baltimore, Maryland 21202
12.12.09
Heady Mugs @ Nudashank
An overwhelming show of psychedelic portraits and trippy faces featuring work by:
Henry Gunderson / Michael Skattum / Luke Ramsey / Benjamin Edmiston / Shaun Flynn / D'Metrius Rice / Lesser Gonzalez / Eric Shaw / Bill Dunlap / Robby Rackleff Ryan De La Hoz / Matthew Feyld / Bill Fick / Lizz Hickey / Nick Mann (Doodles) / Edward Max Fendley / Ryan Riss / Christian Herr / Caitlin Cunningham / Jordan Bernier / Felipe Goncalvez / David Ubias / Marcello Velho / Mike Bull Exhibtion Dates: December 11, 2009 - January 1, 2010 Opening Reception: Friday Dec. 11th, 7-10pm
Nudashank H&H Arts Building 405 W. Franklin St. 3rd Floor Baltimore, MD 21201
Hybrids of Tutela: New Works by Melissa Dickenson Melissa Dickenson exhibits works made of acrylic paint and ink on cut paper, mounted on acrylic backing. The resulting pieces are uniquely shaped and dimensional, moving out from the wall and breaking free of the traditional rectangular picture plane. A fantastical world inhabited by imaginary flora and fauna is created within the confines of these flowing, meandering and intricate structures, wholly original and at once both sweet and slightly sinister. In the Atrium Gallery. Exhibition Dates: December 3, 2009 - January 8, 2010 Opening Reception: Thursday Dec. 3, 2009 7 - 9pm
MICA 2002 alumni Hilton Carter presents his new short film Moth at MICA. STORY LINE: Sophie, a beautiful drug abusing young actress, flies into Los Angeles from New York, for a job. While staying at the home of some family friends, who just happen to be out of town, Sophie finds her boredom and unhappiness to the least of her problems. Screening: Friday December 4, 2009 7:30-9:30 pm
The Brown Center 1301 Mt. Royal Ave. Baltimore, MD 21217
Sarah Hammond @ Unicorn Gallery
Unicorn Gallery presents the new work of Baltimore artist Sarah Hammond created this past summer at a residency in Rochefort-en-Terre, Bretagne France. Opening Reception: Friday December 4, 2009 6-9 pm Unicorn Studio 626 S. Broadway Baltimore, MD 21231
Los Solos @ LOF/T Los Solos presents Shana Palmer (Childe Bride) and C. Ryder Cooley for a night of performance at the LOF/T. Shana Palmer is a multidisciplinary artist and self-taught musician. Her solo music project Childe Bride is going on its third year with releases in the US and in the UK. Her improvised music is described as mysterious tribal drone and sometimes noise folk. C. Ryder Cooley is an interdisciplinary artist, musician and performer. Weaving together chimeric images with found props and forgotten objects, she creates cinematic performances and installation spaces. She will present Animalia, Stories of Collapse, Calamity and Departure, performed with Natalie Agee. Animalia is an inter-species fairytale that combines live music on singing saw, accordion and strings with movement and projection. Performed within a landscape of mesmerizing video and archival film, Animalia invokes visions of secret bee societies and haunted circus scenes. Friday December 4, 2009 8:30pm (doors open at 8pm) $6
Los Solos Series the LOF/T at Load of Fun 120 W. North Ave. Baltimore, MD 21217
12.5.09
Holiday Heap @ St. John's Church Charm City Craft Mafia presents Holiday Heap. Holiday Heap brings together highly talented and infinitely creative artists and crafters from Baltimore and beyond to sell their wares in a festive indoor market. This year’s event will feature the finest in handmade jewelry, apparel, housewares, papergoods and soft sculpture. And at price points to fit every budget, and products to suit from the youngest on your list to the greatest of grandparents, you’ll be sure to find exactly what you’ve been hoping for.
Passerine @ LOF/T MAGIC EYE presents “Passerine”, a projector performance by Raha Raissnia with live sound by Kenny Wollesen "Passerine" is Raha Raissnia and Kenny Wollesen's Baltimore debut. Raissnia is Brooklyn-based expanded cinema artist. Influenced by the work of Harry Smith, Bruce Conner, Jim Davis and Paul Sharits, she incorporates painting, live projection and installation in her performances. Combining collaged and hand-painted 35mm slides with 16mm film projections, Raissnia’s projections produce a “slow-moving montage during which scenes are at once temporary and aleatory. The arrangement underscores cinema’s inherent paradoxical structure of manipulating stillness to conjure up the illusion of movement.” (R.R.)
Sunday December 6, 2009 8-10 pm
Magic Eye The LOF/T at Load of Fun 120 W. North Ave. Baltimore, MD
Call-for-Entry for the 2010 Sondheim Prize Application deadline – December 18, 2009
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, Inc. (BOPA) is proud to announce the fifth edition of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize. The prize will award a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. The prize is in conjunction with the annual Artscape juried exhibition and is produced with our partners, The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Approximately six finalists will be selected for the final review for the prize. Their work will be exhibited in the Thalheimer Gallery of The Baltimore Museum of Art. Additionally, an exhibition of the semi-finalists’ work will be shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Maryland Institute College of Art during the Artscape weekend.
The fellowship winner will be selected from The Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition after review of the installed art and an interview with each finalist by the jurors. The remaining finalists not selected for the fellowship will each receive a $1,000 honorarium. Artist collaborators if chosen as the winner will receive a single $25,000 prize or $1,000 honorarium that will be equally divided among the members of the group.
The Artscape prize is named in honor of Janet and Walter Sondheim who have been instrumental in creating the Baltimore City that exists today. Walter Sondheim, Jr. had been one of Baltimore’s most important civic leaders for over 50 years. His accomplishments included oversight of the desegregation of the Baltimore City Public Schools in 1954 when he was president of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City. Later, he was deeply involved in the development of Charles Center and the Inner Harbor. He continued to be active in civic and educational activities in the city and state and served as the senior advisor to the Greater Baltimore Committee until his death in February 2007.
Janet Sondheim danced with the pioneering Denishawn Dancers a legendary dance troupe founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Later, she turned to teaching where she spent 15 years at the Children’s Guild working with severely emotionally disturbed children. After retirement, she was a volunteer tutor at Highlandtown Elementary School. She married Walter in 1934, and they were together until her death in 1992.
Jurors The Jurors will be announced on December 1, 2009.
Ambiguous Bodies @ Silber Gallery, Goucher College The human body can be interpreted in multiple and diverse ways, for the exhibition Ambiguous Bodies the artists employ the idea of ambiguity, dismantling notions of the classical and ideal form, while simultaneously broadening the scope of the human form to include differences of beauty, race, sexuality, and gender. Artists include: Heather Boaz, Jeanne-Marie Burdette, Zoë Charlton, Elizabeth Crisman, Joshua Crown, Ellen Durkan, Jason Horowitz, Jackie Milad, Jenny Mullins, Lynn Palewicz, and April Wood.
Exhibition Dates: November 3 - December 13, 2009 Opening Reception: Thursday Nov. 19, 2009 6-9pm
Silber Gallery, Goucher College 121 Dulaney Valley Rd. Baltimore, MD
11.20.09
Functionless Form @ School 33 The works in this exhibit reconsider the questions of art as décor, and décor as art. These four artists consider their creative output and its relevance to space, aesthetic, and taste. They perceive and appreciate the prospective place in which their artwork will reside. Like the pop artists, they remove familiar from its context and isloate the objects to provide contemporary interpretations and definitions of fine art. Artists include Chiara Keeling, Allison Reimus, M. Angelo Arnold & Shannon Donovan. Curated by Philippa P.B. Hughes.
Exhibition Dates: November 20, 2009- January 16, 2010 Opening Reception: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 6-9 pm School 33 Art Center 1427 Light Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Merill Feitell & Maria Chavez @ The LOF/T Los Solos Series presents it's 3rd installment of performances by groundbreaking female artists.
MERRILL FEITELL (BALTIMORE) Merrill Feitell’s first book, Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, won the Iowa Award for short fiction. She has received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Byrdcliffe, Bread Loaf, and the Taos Writers Conference. Her short stories have appeared in many publications, including the Best New American Voices series and have been short-listed in Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards. She teaches in the MFA program at University of Maryland in College Park and is Fiction Editor at Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, and Light Industrial Safety. She has spent the past eight years at work on a novel called Any Minute Now. She lives in Baltimore. http://www.merrillfeitell.com/main.php
MARIA CHAVEZ (NYC) Born in Peru, avant-turntablist Maria Chavez currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. With a collection of new and broken needles that she calls “pencils of sound” and a selection of records, she harnesses the electro-acoustic sounds of vinyl and needle. Chavez made her NYC debut in a duet with Thurston Moore, collaborated with Otomo Yoshihide as part of the 2007 Wien Modern Festival, and recently shared a stage with Pauline Oliveros and Lydia Lunch during Vienna’s Phonofemme Festival 2009. She has performed at San Francisco’s Electronic Music Festival, T.I.T.O., a turntable festival in Berlin, STEIM (Amsterdam) and the Kitchen (NYC), and was an artist-in-residence at Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room in 2006. In June and July, 2008, she was selected to be part of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for a series of performances in and around Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses sculptures at DIA: Beacon. Fellow sound artist and writer Tara Rodgers will include an interview with Chavez in Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound, to be published by Duke University Press in 2009/10. http://www.myspace.com/mariachavez
Friday, November 6, 2009 8:30pm (doors open at 8pm) The LOF/T 120 W. North Ave. Baltimore, MD 21201
11.7.09
Torkwase Dyson and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum @ The Creative Alliance
Artists Torkwase Dyson and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum live fearlessly in the world as it is, in a state of becoming, where visual culture elides with visual metaphor, and dragons appear as domineering specters of globalized adaptation and alter egos journey bravely through landscapes that are a fusion of myth and autobiographical make-believe. Dyson, Media Artist in Residence at American University, exhibits nationally and internationally, presents Here Be Dragons, a collection of wall installations, animations and sound design that are dizzying, visionary and political, as if Sun Ra and Chuck D got together with Fela Kuti to make art. Dubbing her practice “The Black Eco Imagination,” Dyson up-cycles bulk goods such as cotton t-shirts, solar panels, belt buckles, earring cards and plastic to address environmental reform alongside economic justice, underground economies, and black visual culture.
Rooted in drawing, but ranging to installation and animation, Pamela Sunstrum charts the hero-quest of her alter-ego Asme (pronounced “AZ-mee”) who embodies selves that are trans-cultural, trans-historical, trans-geographical. In my skin of mirrors and clouds, Asme ventures into the underworld, where the outlines of her being are porous and unfamiliar. Sunstrum was born in Mochudi, Botswana and grew up living in Africa and Southeast Asia. Currently, she is a Resident Artist at The Patterson, exhibiting both nationally and internationally and teaching at the Maryland Institute College of Art. On Thu Dec 3, Dyson and Sunstrum share an evening in the theater, presenting solo works that combine performance, installation, puppetry, video and animation. Click here for more info!
Main Gallery On view: Nov 7-Dec 19, 2009. Opening Reception: Sat. Nov 7, 2009 5-7pm. Performances: Thursday Dec 3, 2009 7:30pm.
The Pendulum, The Pit, and Hope @ Metro Gallery Metro Gallery presents photographs by artist Natasha Tylea. This work strives to find the most overlooked or ordinarily mundane subjects and locate the corner where it all gets weird. To witness the irk in life. Little explorations in the moment between a grim reality and a possibly great reality, the space between despair and enlightenment. There is a comfort there, as these sensations are the sustenance of life, but there is also the spook of fate in our bones. The photographs conjure this sensation while giving new light to the spook. There is always a sense of hope in all these mixed emotions, if one resists the whitewashing methods of this America and the dumbing, numbing, narrowing down of letting fear live here. The photographs are carefully conceived in seconds. The work is often composed entirely of painterly moods from hues, stark instances, quaint folks or insect perspectives. The camera for Natasha, lives in this hope and that spook, and channels it by hand.
New Art Dialogue Series @ MICA The second season of the Contemporary Museum’s New Art Dialogue Series, a forum for discussion of contemporary art in Baltimore, will begin Wednesday, November 11 at 7 p.m. with Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
A renowned curator of international exhibitions, Carlos Basualdo will share his experiences curating at prestigious international art venues and museums. His most recent work includes the celebrated Bruce Nauman exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Other projects of note include the exhibitions Structure of Survival, also for the Venice Biennale, and Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany. The lecture is held in collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art, and will be held in MICA’s Falvey Hall, located in the Brown Center at 1300 Mt. Royal Avenue in Bolton Hill. Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 7pm www.contemporary.org
Andy Holtin is a kinetic sculptor based in Washington, DC. He teaches at American University and is currently featured in the Washington Project for the Arts' Options Biennial. interviewed by Rachel Sitkin
RS: Can you start by telling me where you’re from and how you got to this moment?
AH: I’m from mostly southern states and I ended up at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) for Graduate School.That was the first time that I had really come to this part of the country and I felt like it was a place I could be from.
RS: Richmond?
AH: This whole subdivision of Mid-Atlantic States- the whole region of the country you don’t know exists when you’re from the south.When you’re deeply from a given area, you don’t really know what the boundaries are of other areas.Like people in Texas think that Virginia is in New England or they think of Colorado as the Midwest.Once here, I got to know the culture that defined this region- southern enough not to be too fast moving but northern enough not to have this addiction to it’s own prejudicial past that makes up the south in way that I was never really comfortable with.I really liked it here.
I graduated from VCU and adjuncted for two years at VCU, University of Richmond and George Mason and then I taught in Texas for four years and decided that wasn’t really a long-term scenario for me.I feel like I jumped and the earth rotated a random amount and I came down and it happened to be in Texas.It was a good school but it wasn’t a place that I wanted to be and I decided that I really wanted to be back in this region.I enjoy the art community, and just the geography, I mean it being fall right now which is something that an awful lot of the country doesn’t get to appreciate the way that we do.So getting the job at American University turned out to be a really good opportunity.
RS: You mentioned at some point that you were a drawing major in undergrad.Can you talk about how your worked changed from strictly works on paper to 3D and performance?
AH: In some ways it was my allowance of what I was “allowed” to do that really changed.A lot of us that end up in art, it’s because at some point we were the kids that could draw well. That was the only thing I had in common with art making.I had very little understanding of the cultural complexities or the ways that art overlaps so many other disciplines and fields- I didn’t know any of that.Most of us, in my experience think we’re either going to be illustrators or graphic designers.
I went through a very small undergraduate program.Small programs really focus on 2D because, superficially, image making is the history of art making.I say superficially because there are a whole lot of other things out there, but 2D is the predominance of product.It doesn’t require as many facilities, and there are more people out there teaching it so when you have a small program, it usually ends up being drawing/painting based.So that’s what I went into and I really struggled with thinking in terms of images- I just never really did it.Even though I produced some good work and had some nice drawings, I found that I got more enjoyment out of building the stretchers or priming the surface, dealing the with the real materials than actually making a painting.
I started doing drawings on those objects and materials, like plexiglas or aluminum sheeting.Initially, I was just treating them as surface.But it’s a pretty short skip from that to turning those materials into object.You just bend them, fold them or break them and suddenly they stop being a surface.That really opened things up for me.I started bringing in other materials and realizing that I thought much more in terms of the real-time relationships of objects rather than a completely illusionistic image world. I was really pushing these weird fractured paintings and putting chunks of objects into them, making stretchers with holes in them, or putting a piece on the wall and then drawing around it- things that Vernon Fisher figured out a long time ago, but you have to go through it for yourself.
There wasn’t a lot of discourse around it at my school.People still wanted to see the work as image and kept looking for the skill justification in it.At one point I was so down on it that “I thought” I had a realization that I was really a painter.Because painting has this kind of umbrella history, I thought if I could define myself as a painter I could eliminate all of this answerless groping-in-the-dark for this other kind of art form that I didn’t have a name for at the time.If I could just default into this existing craft it’d be so much easier.So I started on another set of paintings but quickly realized again that I couldn’t stand working that way and started making those into objects… again. It was a strange realization after I had spent my whole life being a “facile drawer”.
It wasn’t until I went to grad school that I realized I could give up on images completely and work with objects and materials.
The Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
RS: Would you say that right now your work is shifting?Does the work that’s in the Options Biennial relate to the cardboard surveillance cameras?
AH: The shift that I see in my work happened about two years ago- as always I didn’t notice at the time.My previous work was an early exploration of using mechanism to create phenomena.Most of those phenomena are based on perceptual analysis- using an event visually and it’s sound as separate layers of reality that we experience by separate senses, that we then cognitively stitch together.I have several pieces that are about amplifying the sound of a tiny event but exporting that sound to another location so it breaks up the event.They all use some sort of mechanical system so that it happens in real time, something that you’re actually watching happen.That way of working is something that I am physically interested in enough to stay with it, but what began to happen was a shifting away from a choreography of cognitive or perceptual phenomena and towards a theater of the objects themselves.
I think of it as puppetry but with a material instead of a figure.I bring a material in and I make that material do what I want it to do or perform in its way, and I do it with a visible mechanism. I really like Japanese Bunraku puppetry where the puppeteers are all in black and they are actually holding the puppet. Yet within about the first 8 minutes of a 3 hour performance, you forget completely about the puppeteer and you spend the rest of the time focusing entirely on the sophisticated graceful gestures of the figure they’re moving.But some part of your brain knows your ignoring the mechanism.
RS:You’re not fixated on “how is this working?”You know how it’s working and you’re just enjoying that it is working.
AH:Yes, but I think that some part of us is enjoying the act of ignoring.It’s like the difference between a Titian painting and a Constable painting.I’d much rather look at a Constable painting, being given the experience without having to define every object in the way that a faithful realist painter would.
The thing that the most recent pieces have in common, including the cardboard cameras and the population of flashlights piece and these landscape pieces I’ve been doing recently, is that they all play with asking, “How much does it take to make us believe that something is what it is in the representation”.
They’re more about analyzing the degree to which the behavior of the piece is real or compelling or correct for our categories of assumption, and the degree to which is it completely incorrect.These little landscapes looking just like landscapes but we know that they’re not.And in a way they don’t really look the way mountains look, they just stand in close enough or the fact that they do look like it given what they’re made of or they’re scale- it’s that we want it to look that way.So the mechanism that produces these things is like the marionette strings that you want to ignore but you know that you’re ignoring them and that’s more fun than having them go away completely.
RS:Can you talk a little about where you find inspiration for new pieces?Is it generated while you’re working on a piece- if you come across a material that you think “wouldn’t it be interesting if this material were working in this way”?Or are ideas generated more outside of the studio?
AH:It changes.There are times when being in the studio working, surrounding myself with materials and things to a play with is the only way things happen. But sometimes it’s just stumbling across something in real life.
There was this optics piece (Very Close) I did not too long ago and that was prompted by a trip I made to an elderly relatives house where I found their magnifying glass with a light in it, for reading.For that piece, I began by bringing in all sorts of lenses and playing- seeing what events looked like.I ended up making a machine with a thin wire stylus that pricked the edge of a quarter while it rotated and it made a sound.I had a magnifying glass looking at the event, but if you looked at it without the magnifying glass you couldn’t even tell that the little needle was moving.
Under the glass it was really bouncing around and suddenly it accounted for the amount of noise that came out of the thing too. So, a piece like that comes about entirely by bringing those bits and pieces of material into the studio, the lab, where I start dissecting them, pulling them apart to see what happens.There was no endgame in mind, no idea whether it would be mechanical or involve sound or anything.
The most recent ones with the sifter- I had worked with the chalk before but was kind of dissatisfied and wanted to play with it some more.So I contacted a friend of mine, Galo Moncayo, that I collaborate with on large-scale projects (causality labs) and was talking about ways of getting this chalk to behave differently and how I wanted it to look like a landscape, how I wanted to build it up or erode it with water. After talking about the idea for a while, we both ended up miming the motions of a flour sifter, and there was the solution.And that was brilliant! So within a few hours I had one of those hand crank ones hooked up and it built beautiful little mountain ranges, unbelievable little landscapes falling out of this kitchen device.
RS:I never noticed the landscape in your work before.What inspired that?
AH: Well, what I’m not interested in is landscape in the historical sense of painting landscape, although maybe it’s just been kind of maligned and is more interesting than we give it credit for.I saw a show in Ghent, Belgium this summer at the Contemporary Museum, called The Picturesque, that really had its finger on it.It was a show about the way in which we envision the world and how that may not be anything like the world itself.The history of our notions about [landscape] become as much of a thing that we are referencing when we imagine the world as our real experience of it.Like, I was recently on the Oregon beach, and I hate it but I can’t stop thinking “this looks like a really great painting”.We now equate the frame of our vision with the frame of the image.It’s a change in our DNA from a hundred years ago and I think it’s permanent.
This show really got me thinking about representing the way that we make images or objects in relation to the landscape being like our pursuit of artificial intelligence.How do I represent the real or the other, and how am I going to acknowledge that I am dealing with a thing that is not just my perception of it but is in fact a real thing? It’s dealing with it ontologically and not just epistemologically, which is kind of impossible.So producing these landscapes that look nothing like any real mountain range that you’ve ever seen, in color or in shape or in anything, but there is something about the basic logic that is compelling in spite of the things that don’t make sense.So in a way these landscapes look like our notion of the world more through the images of the world, not the real world.They look like paintings of landscapes, not landscapes.
RS: If all you had was a picture of a landscape and you were to think about how these things came into being, you wouldn’t necessarily think that they were formed by tectonic plates bashing into each other, you might think they were created by something that fell from the sky.
AH: Yeah.So that’s how it’s more about our “view” of the landscape, than representing the real thing.
RS:Ok.I have just a few more ending questions.If you could visit the studio of any living artist, who would it be?
AH:[long pause]…One of them would have to be Jenna Cardiff and George Bures Miller, a partner couple.I hesitate so long because I really wonder what their studio is like, their pieces are so different from each other but one of the things I like about them is that the pieces are experiences that you walk through, and they use sound and projection but integrated into the physical environments so that you’re not just aware of the video editing or sound quality exclusively.So their studio must be some beautiful combination of installation space, fabrication space and technical production space.I would like to see how they interact, how they layer the different tasks that have to be done in their process.
Some of the artists that I like the most, their work is sort of less physical than my own.Erwin Wurm is a good example. Vic Muniz I bet would be a really interesting person to hang around with for a little while.I like the fact that there are some physical solutions to his work, but it is always about the variety of ideas and the layers of interest.His work reflects how complicated contemporary culture is more than any other artist I can think of.Maybe I’d move him to the top of the list.
RS:If you were me, and you could interview any regional artist, who would it be?
AH:It sounds like an industry plug, but Alberto Gaitan.One of things I’ve really enjoyed about coming to D.C. is how strong a community there is for people that are interested in the same sort of technical things that I do.Especially the micro-controllers, the computers I use to choreograph the pieces.Within just a few weeks of coming out here I was able to get in touch with a number of artists that work with similar systems and are far more advanced at it than I am.Alberto is guy that’s been working with electronics and interactive artwork for a really long time and has some really interesting work.
Desire, Destruction, Transcendence @ The Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is proud to present selected works from the John and Berthe Ford collection of traditional Indian and Himalayan art in visual dialogue with contemporary paintings by India born artist, Amita Bhatt. Bhatt derives her imagery from Hindu and Buddhist tantric sources infused with her understanding of Western philosophy. She explores classic themes of desire, conflict, struggle and transcendence as they manifest themselves in the present day. This thought provoking installation recognizes the power of visual expressions to articulate, to mobilize, to activate, and to provoke. Informed by tradition but speaking in the present, Bhatt’s works explore fundamental struggles and eternal tensions common to all cultures. This installation will be in the Ford Gallery of South Asian and Himalayan Art. The Ford Gallery is located in the Hackerman House. Exhibition Dates: October 31 - December 13, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009 3-5 pm The Walters Art Museum 600 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MS 21201
11.1.09
Sejayno, Melissa Moore & Layne Garrett @ 2640 Space Baltimore's stalwart innovators Sejayno and Melissa Moore join DC improviser Layne Garrett for an evening of sonic merriment and wonderment. Working with a menagerie of homemade electronic instruments, field recordings, and perhaps a strange assembly of strings and electronics known colloquially as a "guitar", they promise an evening of time travel facilitated by light-sensitive oscillators, touch-sensitive circuits, aura-sensitive biospheres... possibly even some finger-sensitive strings! Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009 7pm $5 - $10 sliding scale suggested donation.
As part of MAP's seventh annual Curator's Incubator program, curator Rachel Sitkin will discuss the social relevance of her exhibition, In Our Nature: Artists Reflect on the Manmade Landscape. Artists Michelle Hagewood and Alex Lukas will talk about their work and landscape interests. Closing Reception: 5-6pm Gallery Talk: 6-7pm free and open to the public
Unlimited Impressions @ University of Maryland The Art Gallery presents Unlimited Impressions, an exhibition with Judy Pfaff, Karen Kunc, and Brian Shure. In tandem with Limited Edition, Judy Pfaff the Department of Arts and Humanities 2009 Artist-in-Residence, will be presenting a public lecture on Thursday October 22nd, and an exhibition with Karen Kunc and Brian Shure at the University of Maryland Art Gallery opening on Friday October 23rd. Exhibition Dates: Oct. 22- Dec. 19, 2009 Public Lecture with Judy Pfaff: Thursday, October 22nd 5.00 PM Room 2309 in the Art-Sociology Building
An exhibition of contemporary knit and sewn work featuring Sarah Applebaum, Anthony Record, Nathan Vincent, Jennifer Strunge, Chiara Keeling, Todd Knopke Exhibition Dates: October 23 - November 18, 2009 Opening Reception: October 23, 2009 from 7 - 10 pm
Toppled @ The Stamp Gallery In her current exhibition Toppled, Jessica Vaughn explores historical and cultural issues through the athletic performance of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. In appropriating the iconic image of Jesse Owens from Leni Riefenstahl’s 1938 film “Olympia” as well as archival still images from the Games, Vaughn critiques the sporting event as a heightened connection between euphoria and spectacle, between the body and a public space. Exhibition Dates: October 14th - December 18th, 2009 Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Friday, October 23rd 2009, 5:00-7:00pm Stamp Gallery 1220 Stamp Student Union Adele H. Stamp Student Union - Center for Campus Life The University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742
Do Me a Favor @ John Fonda Gallery
Do Me A Favor: A Solo Exhibit by Christian Herr- A bunch of new paintings dealing with lovers slashing tires, russian knife fights, smokey burnouts, sign switch a roos, hot rod faces, and heros. Opening Reception: Friday, October 23, 2009 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm
John Fonda Gallery at Theater Project 45 West Preston St. Baltimore, MD
10.25.09
Our Common Bond @ Galerie Myrtis In collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of art, Center for Race and Culture, Gallery Myrtis presents Our Common Bond: Mother, Daughter, Sister, Self. This exhibition is a compelling testament to the societal roles of Black Women, derived from imagery of African-American women artists who are bound by their personal experiences as mothers, daughters and sisters; and the effort to maintain their self-identity. Artists: Maya Freelon Asante, Eliabeth Catlett, Linda Day Clark, Oletha DeVane, Kenyatta Hinkle, Margo Humphrey, Martha Jackson-Jarvis, Valerie Maynard, E.J. Montgomery, Annie Phillips, Delilah Pierce, Joyce Scott, Renee Stout, Evita Tezeno and Joyce Wellman. Exhibition Dates: Oct. 17- Nov. 15, 2009 Opening Reception: Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009 1-6pm
Grundlehammer @ 2640 Space The Baltimore Rock Opera Society proudly presents their debut production Gründlehämmer. Gründlehämmer is an entirely original, medieval, fantasy rock opera that combines completely ridiculous stage theatrics with great live music. It will be staged October 2 through 4th at the 2640 space in Baltimore, MD, and will feature 15 original rock songs performed live by a 7-piece metal orchestra, in addition to a full cast and crew of talented people. Our goal is to produce an entirely new and original Rock Opera that is as epic and face-melting as possible, while remaining true to the DIY ethic that inspired the BROS to band together. Show times: Friday & Saturday, October 2 & 3, 2009 7pm Sunday, October 4, 2009 5:30pm Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com 2640 Space 2640 St. Paul Baltimore, MD 21218
Los Solos Series @ The LOF/T This weeks perfomances will feature Baltimore's own Lauren Bender and New York based Trisha Baga. It will be an evening of live video performance from two exceptional solo artists. Friday, October 2, 2009 8-11pm $6 The LOF/T 120 W. North Ave. Baltimore, MD 21201 Los Solos Series
Northernmost Southern Exposure @ Metro Gallery Metro Gallery presents Northernmost Southern Exposure: an evening of interesting actions & modern day signs & wonders. Featured artists are Spoon Popkin, Kelley Bell, Sarada Conaway, Jackie Milad, Ric Royer. October 2 - November 1, 2009 Opening Reception: Friday, October 2, 2009 7pm Metro Gallery 1700 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21217
10.3.09
Crafty Bastards in Adams Morgan Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair is now in its 6th year. Crafty Bastards is an exhibition and sale of handmade alternative arts and crafts from independent artists presented by the Washington City Paper and powered by Hello Craft! Saturday, October 3, 2009, from 10am to 5 pm in Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C., Marie Reed Learning Center at 18th & Wyoming Vendor List
Curator's Incubator '09 @ Maryland Art Place Three curators were selected this year to take part in Curator's Incubator '09 at Maryland Art Place. Margaret Winslow's Soft Space: Architecture in Contemporary Art, combines a set of drawings and installations that explore physical and psychological nuances in the built environment. Rachel Sitkin's In Our Nature: Artists Reflect on the Altered Landscape features artists who mine the outfall of urban development. The Art of the Set Up: Sound Objects as Artifacts was curated by Shelly Blake-Plock.
artwork by Alex Lukas
Artists include Peter Blasser. Alessandro Bosetti. Andy Hayleck. Bonnie Jones. Melissa Moore. Mike Muniak. Kim Beck. Laura Cooperman. Michelle Hagewood. Alex Lukas. Igor Pasternak. Ronald Longsdorf. Janell Olah. Stephen Ruszkowki. September 15- October 24, 2009 Opening Reception: Thursday, September 24, 2009 6-8pm
Maryland Art Place Power Plant Live! 8 Market Place, Suite 100 Baltimore, Maryland 21202
8.26.09
Relative Terrain @ The Whole Gallery The Whole Gallery presents: Relative Terrain, new work by Andrew Geddes, Phuong Pham, and Marty Weishaar. In this exhibition, Geddes installs pedestrian commodities through structures that have been simplified into wood and vinyl; Pham presents drawings in horsehair, silk, and wax that communicate displacement and meditation; and Weishaar explores different modes of location, destruction, and play in his dollhouse installations. Geddes and Weishaar both teach art in the Baltimore City school system, and Pham works as a book conservator. All three artists reside in Baltimore. September 26 - October 24, 2009 Opening Reception: September 26, 2009 8-10pm, with light refreshments and live music by Ten Elevenths and Sweatpants
Coming in October... Studio Visits with Baltimore artist Kim Manfredi and DC based Andy Holtin!
Options Biennial @ Conner Contemporary, 2nd Floor Washington Project for the Arts presents the thirteenth installment of the biennial exhibition, OPTIONS, curated by Anne Collins Goodyear. The exhibition will include works by Leah Beeferman (VA), Jessica Braiterman (MD), Graham Coreil-Allen (MD), Younseal Eum (VA), Andy Holtin (DC), Sue Johnson (MD), Patrick McDonough (DC), Kim Manfredi (MD), Jenny Mullins (DC), Ding Ren (DC), Matthew Smith (DC), Polly Townsend (DC), and Matthew Wead (MD).
As a tradition, OPTIONS is a survey of the brightest and most talented emerging artists in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia regions and offers visibility for artists who do not have gallery representation.
September 17 - October 31, 2009 Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 2009 6-8pm Conner Contemporary 1358 Florida Avenue NE, second floor Washington, DC 20002
9.18.09
Smoke Rings @ Gallery Imperato Gallery Imperato is pleased to announce Smoke Rings, a solo exhibition of new work by Rob Tarbell from his series, Smokes. Comprised of smoke-marked works on paper that depict performing animals, the work intends to balance accident with control and give permanence to the ephemeral. The parallel between the artist's subjects and unconventional process makes for a thought-provoking exhibition. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to animal rescue organizations. September 18, 2009 - October 31, 2009 Opening Reception: September 18, 7-10pm Gallery Imperato 921 E. Fort Ave. Suite 120 Baltimore, MD 21230
9.19.09
Isabel Manalo: Once, Upon @Addison/Ripley Isabel Manalo’s exhibition, Once, Upon, is a collection of new paintings where innocence and danger reside in a verdant and timeless place. It is a space where her two daughters exist and even seem to belong to -- as in a garden or sanctuary. At the same moment, it is a place where they can be vulnerable in the lushness of their surroundings.
September 19 - October 17, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 19, 2009 5-7pm Addison/Ripley Fine Art 1670 Wisconsin Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20007
In Sargent and the Sea, the Corcoran Gallery of Art brings together for the first time more than 80 paintings, watercolors, and drawings depicting seascapes and coastal scenes from the early career of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), the pre-eminent American expatriate painter of the late 19th century. The Corcoran’s masterwork En route pour la pêche(Setting out to Fish) (1878), will serve as the centerpiece of the exhibition, and will be joined by other works produced during, and inspired by, the artist’s summer journeys from his home in Paris to Brittany, Normandy, and Capri, as well as two transatlantic voyages.
Robert Guevara: Three voices @ The Creative Alliance
At first glance, Robert Guevara’s sculptural installations resemble abandoned sites of construction. Then you notice the 2x4’s are planed by hand, the fasteners individually stamped, and the materials possess an internal logic, even vitality. Playing off of The Patterson’s girders, conduits, and gallery walls, Guevara suggests architecture’s nature as a living system. In the Amelie Rothschild Gallery September 10-26, 2009 Opening Reception: Thursday, September 10, 2009 5:30-7:30pm Creative Alliance at The Patterson 3134 Eastern Avenue Baltimore Maryland 21224
High Zero @ Theater Project High Zero is the premier festival of Improvised, Experimental music on the East Coast, being fully devoted to new collaborations between the most inspired improvisors from around the world. Lasting two weeks in total, the festival brings together 28 core musicians each year, but also involves a much larger subculture of musicians in Baltimore and on the East Coast. Unlike many related festivals, High Zero is not narrow in terms of sensibility or subculture, but rather widely inclusive of all the different types of experimental music-making in the moment. The fact that half of the festival's core participants are from Baltimore speaks to the depth of Baltimore's experimental music subculture, which in recent years has grown to be one of the richest cities in the country for experimental art. Concerts every night September 10-13, 2009 at Theater Project For details: http://www.highzero.org
9.11.09
Love Letters & Debriscapes @ Civilian Arts Project Civilian Art Projects is pleased to present two solo exhibitions: Love Letters by Cara Ober and Debriscapes by Nikki Painter. Love Letters is Baltimore-based artist Cara Ober’s first solo exhibition with Civilian Art Projects.
Ober layers drawing, painting, and printmaking into mixed media works that examine and reinterpret sentimental imagery. Intricate and funny, Love Letters explores the relationship of the artist to image, word, and personal meaning found in the exploration of secret fantasy and expressive interlude.
With Debriscapes, her first solo exhibition in Washington DC, Richmond VA-based Nikki Painter exhibits new drawings and a site-specific installation that explore -- in bright neon colors, pencil lines, and various materials -- the relationship and continuum between the built and natural worlds.
September 11- October 17, 2009 Opening Reception: Friday, September 11, 2009 7-9pm www.civilianartprojects.com Civilian Arts Project 406 7th Street NW, Second Floor Washington DC 20004 (202) 347-0022
Visions From the End of the World @ Flashpoint Bradley Chriss’ small, apocalyptic watercolors are situated at the unlikely interstice between the sentimental and the nightmarish. The intimate scale and seductive colors cajole and beguile the viewer into confronting the sinister reality that humanity is ultimately powerless within its own environment. Visions from the End of the World will open with a performance by Chriss’ performance art group, The Post-NeoAbsurdist Anti-Collective. September 3- October 3, 2009 Opening Reception: Friday, September 11, 2009 6-8 pm Flashpoint 916 G St. NW Washington, DC 20001
9.12.09
REbirth/Decay @ The Hexagon The Hexagon presents: REbirth/DEcay, an exhibition of local artists who interpret concepts of rebirth and decay, curated by Anna Louise Jiongco. Featured artists include: Sarah El-Jellad, Jared T. Fischer, Brian Casey, Scotbot, and Anna Louise Jiongco. September 12- October 2, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2009 6pm The Hexagon 1825 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21206
FAX @ The Contemporary Museum FAX invites a multi-generational group of artists, as well as architects, designers, scientists and filmmakers, to conceive of the fax machine as a tool for thinking and drawing. FAX will include drawings by over 100 artists that have each been submitted via fax machine. Over the course of the exhibition, as new works arrive via the museum's working fax machine, the exhibition will evolve as new works are added to the walls of the museum. September 12- December 20, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2009 6-8pm The Contemporary Museum 100 W. Centre Street Baltimore, MD 21201
Barry Nemett: Paintings, Poems & Passages @ The Creative Alliance
Barry Nemett’s paintings reflect a busy mind, constantly feeling around for ideas, images, words and other voices, then piecing them back together like grand puzzles, bursting with information. The longtime professor and Chair of MICA’s Painting Department, Nemett is also a published writer and poet, and collaborated for years with Richard Kalter, MICA’s dearly missed philosopher/ poet/ theologian in residence. The spirit of that collaboration hovers over this exhibition, which celebrates the release of Nemett’s full-length retrospective catalog, and draws together work exploring the dynamic interplay between painting and poetry. In the Main Gallery September 12- October 24, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2009 5-7 pm www.creativealliance.org
Jo Smail: Conjurations @ Goya Contemporary September 1- October 14, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, September 12, 2009 5-8pm
Goya Contemporary Mill Center, Studio 214 3000 Chestnut Avenue Baltimore, Maryland 21211
The 50 Greatest Ladies & Gentleman @ The LOF/t The Missoula Oblongata presents their fourth full-scale touring production, The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen. As always, the company has created their own homemade lighting system—run from the stage by the performers, as well as an interactive set made of junk, and an original score played live by the composers-turned-actors. The 50 Greatest Ladies and Gentlemen takes place just after the Treaty of Versailles. A veteran who is genetically predisposed to cowardice searches for his brother from whom he’s received a mysterious letter. When the veteran comes upon the town from whence the letter came, he finds that his brother (and the rest of the town) have been caught in a dance mania—a hysterical mass tarantism. With no one else around, the veteran befriends a spider—likely the one who is responsible for the tarantism, and together, they go up against the town doctor who believes that breakfast (and everything ordinary, for that matter) is beneath love.
Thursday, September 3, 2009 8pm sharp in the theater, $5
In The Jungle & more @ The LOF/t Los Solos will be presenting the Baltimore premiere of Stephanie Barber’s new performance piece in the jungle which premiered in May 2009 at The Stone in NYC. 57 minutes, digital video, live performance, lecture and music
Part musical, part poetic lecture, part video transpiration soaked performance, in the jungle, playfully and sorrowfully tells the tale of an unreliable narrator in a self imposed exile. Given a grant to study the equivalent of animal cries and whines in jungle flora our heroine has lived for 1, 612 days deep in an unnamed jungle.
Sublime Structure @ Grimaldis Gallery A multi-media thematic exhibition featuring artists possessing distinct approaches to the body as their subject. With references to science, sexuality, gender, spirituality, performance and technology, each artist brings a unique and heightened sense of physical being into their work. Featured artists are Effie Halivopoulou, Kim Manfredi, Christopher Myers, Rachel Schmidt and Lu Zhang. Catalog and an essay written by Virginia K. Adams, Ph.D. will accompany the exhibition.
CONECTA @ The Stamp Gallery CONECTA, is an exhibition and artist collaborative project featuring emerging U.S and Mexican Artists. The exhibition, curated and organized by Jackie Milad
9.8.09 Inequalities @ Load of Fun Since 2001, High Zero Festival has included a gallery show of installations, primarily to do with sound and other elements related to the broad experimental music and thought culture of which High Zero is a part. This year, High Zero Foundation presents INEQUALITIES, a gallery show at the Load of Fun curated with works of four very interesting local artists. The following artists will present work in the show: Walter Carpenter, Owen Gardner, Jesse Haas, Ayako Katoaka, Jimmy Joe Roche Opening Party- Tuesday, September 8, 2009 7:30pm, $6
Gerald Habrath & Preston Poe @ The Creative Alliance Recalling the cave walls of Lascaux, the wailing wall, or just community bulletin boards, artists Gerald Habarth (Morgantown, WV) and Preston Poe (Salisbury, MD) make a literal and metaphorical pilgrimage to the gallery walls of The Patterson. There, they produce, display and combine quirky drawings and paper maché sculptures, along with other material gathered on their journeys, to make an animated video about the ways people convene within and around walls to share information. Reception: August 14, 2009 5:30-7:30 pm
The Creative Alliance 3134 Eastern Ave. Baltimore, MD
In a Material World: Costumes by Melissa Webb @ Gallery Imperato Elaborate costumes by fiber artist Melissa Webb will be on display from August 14 through September 12, 2009. A selection of related photographs by Uli Loskot, Lisa Dietrich, and aminibigcircus will accompany the wears. Guests can expect to be served by garden gnomes and mingle among hi-society stilt walkers at an opening reception to be held on August 14 from 7-10pm.
Gallery Imperato 921 East Fort St., Suite 120 Baltimore, MD
Shunpiker & Milan Braslavsky @ School 33 In Gallery 1: Shunpiker curated by R.L. Croft. Featured Artists include: Bill Gusky, Christine Hahn, Ken Huston, and Janet Van Fleet.
In the Member Gallery: Milana Braslavsky
Opening Receptions: Friday August 7, 6-9 pm 1427 Light Street Baltimore, Maryland 21230
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