Wednesday, May 27, 2009

This Weekend

5.27.09
ONE @ Tilt Studios
featuring local artists Jessica Van Brakle, Kris Vandevander and TwoCan Collective (Emily C-D and Jessica Unterhalter). This collective of artists have one thing in common: connection. Whether it is community relationships, human presence or just connections to nature, these three artists have displayed their work in a way that brings everyone closer together; to become one.
Exhibition Dates: May 27- July 2, 2009
Opening Reception: May 27, 6-8 pm

5.29.09
The Unbroken Circle of Things @ The LOF/t
truetheatertheater presents The Unbroken Circle of Things, a tale about the unbreakable spirit energy of love. The company of fourn intermixes costumes, puppets, shadows, jokes, saong and dance with live and prerecorded sound to create a captivationg 40 minute psychedelic narative.

For tickets call the LOF/t at 443-759-8314


Diagnosis: Dyke @ The Creative Alliance
The Charm City Kitty Club present Diagnosis: Dyke- music by Jana Hunter and Mzery Loves Company, Eliza Blaze on hot trapeze, the contortions of Rebecca Nagle, and Ariel Schrag with scenes from her acclaimed graphic novels and more!
Friday May 29- Saturday May 30, 2009
Cocktails: 7pm, Showtime: 8pm

The Creative Alliance

5.31.09
From Sketchbook to Suspension: Trajectories in the Age of Synthesis @ St. John's College

Helen Frederick, Curator
Exhibiting Artists: Maria Barbosa, MD / Roberto Bocci, DC / Mark Cooley, VA / Eve Ingalls, NY / Helen Frederick, MD / Janis Goodman, DC / Beth Grabowski, NC / Lawrence Hamlin, Ill / Lisa Hill, MD / Cara Ober, MD / Michael Pestel, Conn / Michael Platt, DC / Andrew Raftery, RI / Paul Ryan, VA / Barbara Tisserat, VA / Yuriko Yamaguchi, VA
Exhibition Dates: May 21 - June 11, 2009
Panel Discussion: May 31, 3 p.m.
Opening Reception: May 31, 4-6 p.m.

For more information or directions to the gallery, go to:
http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa207.htm or
http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/about/AN/map.shtml

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Studio Visit with Amy Boone-McCreesh

Amy Boone-McCreesh was interviewed by Joseph Keli Anaya


Where are you from and can you tell me a little about yourself?

I'm from Pennsylvania, but my mom is from England. I'm recently married and moved to Baltimore about a year ago. My parents divorced when I was four years old and that plays a large role in forming my personal relationships.


Why Baltimore?
I wanted to go to grad school that was relatively close to where I'm from. It really just made sense for this point in my life.

What medium did you first start working in seriously?
I started in large oil paintings because liked expressing through gestures and the texture.



How did you make the shift from oils to your work now?

I had the desire to achieve different line quality and oil paint only allows for a certain kind of line quality. I also liked thick paint which helped me move into 3-D work.


Will you talk about your process a little bit?
I have a pretty short attention span, so I work on sculptures, drawing, and anything in between even if it's just ideas. Working on several things at once helps the cohesiveness of everything. When I create a drawing it makes me excited to create something in 3-d and then merge the two. I'm never satisfied with what I'm working so it spawns the next piece. My work mainly from intuition and usually use very little planning.



What draws you to the materials that you use?

I use a limited color palette because it avoids the danger of being too busy. Cohesive colors also unify my 2-d and 3-d work in same space.


What materials do you use and why?
When I work in 3d, I use second hand fabrics. Those handled, worn or used fabrics have a history and I use them because I like to reference home and items in the home. For example, a certain fabric might have been a cushion or some other thing that was comfortable for someone else. I have a skewed sense of home because I was shuffled around a lot, so I try to recapture that comfort.


How do you feel about craftsmanship?
Craftsmanship is important, but I struggle with it. I work so quickly and fast paced that those issues are difficult to face, but if I don't take the time to face them I regret it.

How do you take the time for craftsmanship?

I desire to have a successful finished product, which overrides the need to produce for the sake of producing. The process of making during the piece is as important as a successful finished product. As much as I love the process it's detrimental to my work, but if that was not an issue the work would be totally different.



How do you feel about concept in relation to your work?
I'm never not thinking about concept. I make aesthetic decisions, but always with a concept in mind. Visual decisions influence the concept by either reinforcing the concept or working against it.


What are some specific issues that interest you and what are your goals with those issues?
I'm working with human relationship issues because of the way I grew up and because of my life currently. I'm influenced by family dynamics like mother/daughter, husband/wife, and brother/sister and the different issues that can arise within those relationships. I'm interested in how one changes whether you are with your mom or with your husband. For example, I bring the history I have with my mom to the table when I form a relationship with my husband.
My goals are to examine specific situations that can some up in a single relationship or in a group dynamic and bring those emotions to the surface. Ideally I'd like to illicit an emotional reaction with my work.

What are you working on now?
I'm working on fusing 2-D and 3-D.



What is most important for people to get from your work?
Ideally, I would like people to make a connection from abstract visuals to human interactions and for people to get a sense of me because my work is a visual extension of who I am. It means a lot to me when people come in to my studio and understand that my work is a direct visual representation of myself. My work provides me with a forum to express things that I can't express daily. It's like having a translator. I feel way more comfortable with the visual vocab than I do with real communication.



What are you most proud of?
I am very fortunate for all the things in my life right now.I most proud of getting to where I am right now because when I was born my mom wasn't even an American citizen. That's where I started and the awareness of my path here makes being in grad school really exciting.

What artists are you looking at right now?
Petah Coyne: I like her monochromatic arrangement and the assemblage quality of it.
Lauren Owens: I like her sparse compositions, particularly the grand scale.
Egon Shiele: I like his line quality
Louise Bourgeois: I'm fascinated with her because she's still making work about her childhood.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Young & So Fresh

Visit with Alex Ebstein at Nudashank Gallery
interviewed by Rachel Sitkin

Alex is a curator, arts writer, and artist in Baltimore. She writes for the City Paper and contributes to Gutter Magazine, as well as writing her own blog, There Were Ten Tigers. She and Seth Adelsberger recently began Nudashank Gallery, a new curatorial project on the 3rd floor of the H & H building.

Their second exhibition, Picture Plane, will open at Nudashank on Friday, May 15th 7-9pm

RS: Where did you go to school?

AE: Goucher. I started as a photographer but by the end I was focusing on sculpture and drawing, and so my senior show only had two photographs in it, and they were shots from installation work and a collaborative work I’d done with my friend Andrew Williams.

RS: So I know you do a lot of writing. Is it just for the City Paper?

AE: I’m also doing some writing for Gutter Magazine. I’ve been the fashion editor and I’m taking over as arts editor for a little while.

RS: How did you begin writing for the City Paper?

AE: It started because I helped with their 2008 year end issue and then I ran into Brett (McCabe) at Paperwork Gallery and he asked me if I was interested in writing longer reviews.

RS: How does that work? Do you write about what you want or do they give you assignments?

AE: So I suggested the first couple of articles. And now I kind of work it out with Brett. It’s a mix of what I’m interested in, what I know about and what needs to be covered.

RS: You are kind of filling three roles right now, critic, curator and artist. In terms of aspirations, do you feel like there are one or two that you want to pursue more actively?

AE: I’m feeling invigorated by this project (Nudashank), the curating aspect, continuing to look at what’s new. Which sort of ties into writing because I’m looking at as much art as I can, thinking about work for my own shows. So I form opinions about the way things are presented, the way things are curated. Those two things sort of go hand in hand, but ideally all three will even out.

A lot of my roles I’ve sort of fallen into. With curating, I did the Current show exactly a year after I’d started my blog and so I’d been looking at stuff all over locally and I knew what I wanted to see more of. I pulled together a show that represented what I didn’t see a lot of in Baltimore. After that, I felt it was something I really wanted to keep pursuing; it was a really good fit for me. And out of that experience came Nudashank.  I  wanted to see a fresher gallery space in Baltimore, with a hipper sensibility, a focus on young artists, a venue that is easier for artists just out of school to approach.

It’s a good thing to have a space that focuses on young artists that are really in tune with what’s going on in other cities and sort of breaks with the Baltimore old regime.

RS: It seemed like there was a really great turnout for the first show. Did you get any specific feedback that you think will influence future plans for the gallery?

AE: The turnout was amazing! And I think people were really looking for a new and young space. We got a mention in the Washington Post and on Fecal Face, and we didn’t really even have to try, they found us. I think because we are connecting the Baltimore scene with bigger city contemporary trends in art and trying to keep it as current and relevant as possible (while still true to a Baltimore aesthetic). People really really responded to the work and the space.


RS: Since you have been all over this past year what are some of the better shows that you’ve seen. And what are the criteria for you right now for what you think is “standout” work?

AE: Can I answer that in a round about way? After going to the art fairs in Miami and being exposed to everything all at once, it was sort of obvious what stood out to me as being interesting and new. The west coast illustration aesthetic is something that I personally gravitate towards.  And for the business aspect of running a gallery, it was interesting to see what was commercially viable.

RS: Are there specific artists that you just Love, Love Love?

AE: Well, having been exposed to a lot more painting, people like
Kim Dorland and Allison Schulnik really stand out. They are these really thick goopy painters, impasto painters that are both illustrative but really expressive at the same time. I really like people who really have developed a style and aesthetic all their own- work that is really fresh and interesting.  Paintings, sculpture, illustration that has a voice of its own.  Like Xavier Schiapani’s creates these intense isolated vignettes, this kind of creepy really tense world.  It’s complete and speaks for itself. 

A lot of work in the first show was very illustrative and narrative and that’s my own aesthetic preference, similar to the show, Stories From the Woods, which I curated at Current gallery. That’s the way I lean, work that is a look into a fully imagined and realized space.  In our new show, Picture Plane, I am really drawn to Morgan Blaire’s piece. She has this entire world and story going on without any figures, without any specifics. 


RS: And from a curatorial perspective, are there certain exhibitions or group shows that you thought were really well put together?

AE:  I was really into Agenda, Jamillah James's show.  Her show looked at new media and queer media- the way people interact and react to it, make art through it and about it.  It was a show that came back around full circle in every way.  The artists that she chose work in a variety of media, but the majority of the included work was video.  So seeing someone who has such a strong vision and stays true to their own interests while still making it accessible for everyone was really great.  There was sculpture, drawings, interactive work, she had additional screenings- the exhibition filled every inch of the gallery, but wasn't overcrowded.  The whole show was very tongue-in-cheek; there was a humor throughout the whole thing that was coupled with this overall seriousness that rang really true for the subject matter.  It was in your face.  That was definitely one of the most memorable group shows from the past year.


I think curation has become a little loose in Baltimore.  It’s sort of like “Here’s this one idea, and I had this one artist in mind, who’s my friend, and I’ve just thrown a bunch of other stuff at it that vaguely fits,” as opposed to going through and deciding on a good theme and bringing together something that has a full message


RS: Ok. I know that a lot of young artists, they end-up staying in Baltimore after school, not necessarily at first because its what they want but because it’s so affordable and so easy to pursue the things they want to pursue. But now that you’ve been out of school for a couple years and you’re setting up projects here, do you feel like you are forming some sort of commitment to Baltimore? Do you have a goal for what you want to cultivate in Baltimore or is it more of a personal goal and you may end up moving to New York or San Francisco or LA to pursue those things?


AE:  They are goals for myself but they’re rooted in Baltimore.  I have friends in the art scene here and I think there are a lot of amazing things going on here.  We have awesome opportunities, and a really sympathetic press.  But I think if Baltimore artists had some exposure in other cities the scene could really take off.  I’d like to see Baltimore scene receive some national attention for art instead of just Dan Deacon. 

RS: If you were me, whom would you interview next?

AE:  Mark Brown!  He collaborates a lot with musicians making video pieces that he projects with live sets.  He bridges the gap between the music and arts scenes in a lot of interesting ways. He and Kari Altmann also co-coordinated an online curitorial project, “Netmares/Netdreams”.


You know, Jamillah and Mark have given me my first real exposure to new media and there is so much going on. I think it’s an expanding section of the art world, I’m curious to see where it goes.

RS: Do you have any plans to do a new media show at Nudashank?

AE: Yeah!!! It’s gonna be all video and digital work. We don’t have a date yet but it’ll be sometime in the next year. I’m not gonna give out the title cause it’s so cool somebody might steal it!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

This Weekend

5.15.09
Picture Plane @ Nudashank

Nudashank is pleased to present our second exhibition- “Picture Plane.” This show brings together paintings that combine hard-edged abstraction with a post-digital return to pictorial space and linear perspective. Equal parts modernism and classicism, the exhibiting painters are from a generation that has been influenced by screensavers, vector graphics, MS Paint, Google maps, and Photoshop. The paintings evince the pervading luminescence of the computer screen, the digital color spectrum, and the expanding universe of virtual spaces. Flat, planar shapes are used as devices to depict scenes void of inhabitants. These paintings reflect a new, synthesized (perhaps alienated) perception of the world and how visual information is coded, condensed, flattened, and transmitted.
Featuring the work of Dan Bina (NYC), Morgan Blair (NYC), Michael Dotson (DC), Allison Reimus (DC), Dale Ihnken (BMO), & Tim Horjus (BMO)
May 15th- June 19th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday May 15th, 7 - 9 pm

H & H Building
405 W. Franklin St.  3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201


Urban Blight @ Gallery Imperato
Gallery Imperato is pleased to announce Urban Blight, a solo exhibition of new works by Alyssa Dennis. Through a series of mixed media drawings, Dennis attempts to "track the development of urban living systems." Her work is a collection of ideas, information and experiments that study the human relationship to the built environment.
May 15, 2009 - June 27, 2009
Opening Reception: May 15, 2009 7-10pm

Gallery Imperato
921 E. Fort Ave., Suite 120
Baltimore, MD 21230


5.16.09
Bruce McClure @ The Loft

"Cycloptically Through The Window Disks - There's Rings For All!"
A Projector Performance by Bruce McClure
Magic Eye is proud to host expanded-cinema artist Bruce McClure in his Baltimore debut. McClure, who recently played with Throbbing Gristle, will perform two half-hour live projector performances. Working with four modified 16mm projectors, film loops, guitar pedals and a handmade soundboard, McClure “plays” the mechanical supports of film like musical instruments. Harnessing the strobing light and percussive sounds from his stockpile of projectors, McClure’s performances are an improvisational audio-visual experience not to be missed.

Saturday, May 16th, 2009  8pm   tickets- $6

The Loft @ Load of Fun 
120 W. North Ave
Baltimore, MD 21217


The Protectors @ GSpot Audio Visual Playground
New Works by Melissa Dickenson
Opening Reception: Saturday May 16, 2009 7-10pm

The GSpot
2980 Lower Falls Rd.
Baltimore, MD 21211


Thursday, May 7, 2009

This Weekend

5.8.09
Maryland Film Festival @ The Charles Theater, MICA & UB Student Center
The film festival will be going on all weekend, featuring a number of shorts programs and a few promising feature length films
*John Waters' 2009 pick! Love Songs (dir. Christophe Honoré)A Maryland Film Festival tradition! For the 11th straight MFF, Baltimore's own John Waters has chosen a film he'd like to share with unsuspecting audiences -- this year selecting Christophe Honoré's (bi-)sexually charged French musical Love Songs.
www.mdfilmfest.com

5.9.09
During the day...
Squidfire's 2009 Spring ArtMart in Mt. Vernon Square Park
Join over 50 of the best local and regional crafters and artists as they display their handmade wares in the most beautiful park in the city. The event goes on rain or shine. See you there!
Saturday May 9, 11-6pm

Mt. Vernon Square (Between Charles and Cathedral Streets)
Baltimore, MD 21201


23rd Annual Critic's Residency Program at Maryland Art Place
Artists participating in the 23rd Annual Critics’ Residency program include: Ken D. Ashton, Jessie Boyko, Dottie Campbell, Bernhard Hildebrandt, Gil Jawetz, Bonnie Crawford Kotula, Kim Manfredi, and Lynn Rybicki.
A public forum intended to address important issues relating to contemporary art on both a regional and national level is scheduled for Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 2 pm. This free event, which will include program participants, will be moderated by WYPR’s Aaron Henkin and will be followed by a reception at 3:30 pm.

Maryland Art Place
Power Plant Live!
8 Market Place, Suite 100,
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

and all night...
Rectified
at Gallery Four
Gallery Four, an independent exhibition space in Downtown Baltimore, features work from four artists from New York, Wilmington, and Baltimore. This newly renovated 4,000 sq. ft. gallery features Xerox enlarged drawings by Gary Kachadourian, new sculpture and installations by Julianna Dail and Ron Longsdorf, and works on paper by Jackie Milad.
Exhibition Dates: May 9- June 13, 2009
Openng Reception: May 9, 2009 5-10pm

Gallery Four
H & H Building
405 West Franklin St. 4th Fl.
Baltimore, MD 21201
www.galleryfour.net


Rebound: Rudy Shepard and Valesk Populoh
at Paperwork Gallery
Exhibition Dates: May 9- June 20, 2009
Opening Reception: May 9, 2009 7-9 pm

Paperwork Gallery
107 E. Preston St.
Baltimore, MD 21217
www.paperworkgallery.com


MASKED
at School 33
Masked is an exploration of work about concealment, secrets, self-conscious and social constructions of identity which ultimately reveal a new face –a brilliant corona of strength, integrity and courage. Each work is a performance piece of sorts; the artists have used their own bodies or their own biographies to very directly create a presence that suggests a story or a secret. However, rather than being a study in psychology or narrative, where one might work to discover that secret, this assembly is exciting in that even while experiencing the powerfully posited content on the surface, we know that there is an equally powerfully complex internal life.
Participating artists include: Dawn Black, Iona Rozeal Brown, Lynden Cline, Bailey Doogan, Susan Fenton, Inga Frick, J.J. McCracken, Ledelle Moe, Elsa Mora, Elena Patino, Phyllis Plattner, and Athena Tacha.
Curated by Joan Weber
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 9 6-9pm

School 33
1427 Light Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
www.school33.org