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BmoreArt’s Picks: Baltimore Art Openings, Galleries, and Events February 17 – 21

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BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.

To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!

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CoHosts: Tamms Year Ten & John Fonda Gallery
Tuesday, February 17 from 6 – 8:30 pm

Baltimore School for the Arts
712 Cathedral St, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

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CoHosts is presented at the Baltimore School for the Arts located at 712 Cathedral St. The lecture will begin at 7pm with a reception at 6pm. Doors close at 6:45pm.

Tamms Year Ten is a volunteer grassroots legislative campaign that set out to reform or close the Illinois state supermax, launched at the ten-year anniversary of its opening. The effort was a collaboration between men formerly incarcerated in Tamms, their family members, advocates, artists, and legislators. The John Fonda Gallery is a gallery located at the Theatre Project dedicated to creating opportunities for dialog as visual artists and performing artists exhibit their work side by side.

About CoHosts: The 2014 Speaker Series, CoHosts, will be presented at the Baltimore School for the Arts and cohosted with thirteen local commercial and artist-run galleries. Each gallery responded to a simple question: “Who is the one artist or art professional that you want The Contemporary to bring to Baltimore?” Each gallery will co-host a residency for their selected speaker and identify local artists for their respective studio visits.

More info here. Tickets Available www.eventbrite.com

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THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA w/ director Jessica Oreck
Tuesday, February 17 at 7:30 pm at the MICA Brown Center

One of the most intriguing films of Maryland Film Fest 2014 returns to Baltimore, Jessica Oreck’s hypnotic hybrid of documentary, animation, and essay-film THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA. Director Jessica Oreck will be with us to introduce the film and answer your questions!

“A poetic, mesmerizing fusion of fairy tale and cultural commentary from director Jessica Oreck.”—Variety

“An enchantingly shot visual essay from Jessica Oreck about the sylvan soul of Eastern Europe.”—New York Times

Tickets are $10 general public, and FREE to Maryland Film Festival Friends of the Festival members and MICA students/personnel (w/ ID).

Official site: http://thevanquishing.com/

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OPENING: We Should See Each Other More Often @ The Koban Project
Wednesday, February 18 from 6 – 8pm

The Koban Project
N Charles St at E Lanvale St, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. is happy to present We Should See Each Other More Often, a group installation in The Koban Project by Katie Duffy, Dave Eassa, and Ali Seradge.

Please join us at the opening on Wednesday, February 18th from 6:00 – 8:00PM.

We also encourage you to run across the street to Pen & Quill to enjoy their happy hour, stay warm, and socialize! Pen & Quill has been generous enough to extend their happy hour until 8PM to celebrate the opening with us!

ABOUT THE SHOW:

Being able to see someone with out being observed empowers. Being watched by unseen entities subjugates. This installation tries to approach this issue. Surveillance in and of itself is not bad or good. In fact, a community watch with a greater scope is beneficial. However, removing the face of the observer removes access to accountability and introduces suspicion. Simon, the patient observer in the police box, is highly visible. He is neither heroic nor insidious. He is in part made of and defined by the technology he utilizes. By being visible from all sides, Simon is as vulnerable as those he observes. He enmeshes with that community and becomes invested in it.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Katie Duffy is an interdisciplinary artist from Chicago, Illinois. Duffy draws on a blend of humor, feminist theory, science fiction and new media practices to create multidisciplinary installations that provide new perspectives to view the body and society.

Dave Eassa lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Recent solo exhibitions include “The End of Spring” at Big Law Country Club, “Dreamhouse” at Lil’ Gallery, and “Golden Years” at (e)merge Art Fair. He has shown nationally and internationally in exhibitions, most notably at Sophiajacob, Artisphere, Marianne Boesky Gallery, artSTRAND, Reh Kunst, Current Space, and Casa das Artes Criação Ambiente Utopias. In 2014 his work was published in New American Paintings No. 112 and he was awarded an Individual Artist Grant in Sculpture from the Maryland State Arts Council. He facilitates the program “A Different Kind of Home” which brings the arts to long-term incarcerated men at the Maryland Correctional Institute in Jessup.

Ali Seradge is an Iranian from Oklahoma City and proud resident of Baltimore. His current work explores the failure of language and other formal systems to describe events beyond our human scope. This ranges through ancient myths to quantum physics to supernatural phenomenon. He is a firm believer in the importance of public art. He currently teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

More info here.

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Joan Waltemath: In the Absence of Grief @ C. Grimaldis Gallery
Thursday, February 19 from 6-8 pm

C. Grimaldis Gallery is proud to present “In the Absence of Grief”, a solo exhibition of abstract geometric paintings and drawings by New York based painter Joan Waltemath, on view from February 19- March 21, 2015 with an opening reception with the artist Thursday, February 19, from 6-8pm. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition at C. Grimaldis Gallery.

This exhibition high lights paintings and drawings from Waltemath’s “Torso/Roots” series, a body of work that is informed by the mathematical Fibonacci sequence found in nature. Using hand-ground pigments and graphite, she creates precise compositions of geometric forms and vibrant colors that reflect the construct of contemporary urban life from principles of science and mathematics.

In both the paintings and drawings, Waltemath’s painstaking attention to detail is apparent; from her beautifully and meticulously treated surfaces to the precise and purposeful color relationships, her striking compositions have been strategically planned and are based off of a rigid grid structure.

Taking years to complete, these works slowly unveil spatial illusions that change in relation to the viewer’s perspective and give rise to a heightened awareness of time, movement and change. This illusion is created by reflective and absorptive surfaces that change in relation to the paintings, which allow for a deeper, more expansive dialogue of the complex understanding of what it means to be present. Each painting is roughly the size of a human torso and evoke a corporeal feeling. The materials affect a sense of presence, a power that is latent in the work until the viewer experiences it in person. Through visual means, the works engage both mind and body.

Waltemath grew up on the Great Plains and received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Hunter College. She has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and internationally, including solo shows in New York, Basel, London, Brussels, and Bonn, Germany. Her work is in many notable public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Musée des Beaux Arts in Switzerland, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Harvard University Art Museum, among others.

Waltemath has written extensively on art and served as editor-at-large of the Brooklyn Rail since 2001. She taught at the IS Chanin School of Architecture of the Cooper Union from 1997 – 2010 and Princeton University since 2000. In 2010, she was appointed Director of Maryland Institute College of Art’s Hoffberger School of Painting. Waltemath was named a Creative Capital grantee in 2012.

Hours for C. Grimaldis Gallery, which is free and open to the public, are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

C. Grimaldis Gallery
523 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

More info here.

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ARTIST TALK w/ Lynne Parks & Chris Siron
Thursday, February 19 from 6 – 8pm

Full Circle Photo
33 E 21st St, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

THE CLAIRVOYEUR & THE DREAM STRATA: They’re married to art and to each other. Lynne Parks and Chris Siron discuss their life, their creativity, and making sense of the many tiny pieces of meaning in our lives. This is their first time exhibiting in Baltimore together.

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An evening of Queer Music and Performance

Thursday, February 19 at 8pm
H House at 2614 North Calvert, Baltimore, MD 21218

Lab Bodies presents… An evening of queer music and performance with…

Dj set with ABDU ALI

Music with MY GAY BANJO (NYC)

Poetry by SHAMEEK DREAM

Performance by THERESA COLUMBUS

Hosted by ADA PINKSTON of LAB BODIES

Potluck at 7:30
Show at 8:30
Dance Partay at 10

$5-$10 suggested donation for touring band!

More about My Gay Banjo from NYC!!! Singing homespun gay-themed duets and occasional queered-up mash-ups, My Gay Banjo plays songs for you and your kind.

Listen here: https://mygaybanjo.bandcamp.com/
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVjCLHvOU0I

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American Craft Council Show
February 20 – 22, all-day

Baltimore Convention Center
1 West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

COST: $14 one-day pass, $34 three-day pass

It’s a craft show like no other! Join us for our three-day celebration of all things handmade, where more than 650 top contemporary jewelry, clothing, furniture, and home décor artists from across the country gather under one roof. It’s your chance to touch, feel, and explore high-quality American craft and meet the makers behind the fabulous work. This is the American Craft Council’s flagship show – a must-attend for craft lovers.
Wholesale buyers: Click here for more about wholesale buying opportunities.

SHOW DATES AND HOURS
Friday, Feb. 20: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 21: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 22: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

LOCATION
The Baltimore Convention Center is at One West Pratt Street.

ADVANCE TICKETS
Save time and money by purchasing your tickets online. Just click, print your tickets, and then present them at the show door. It’s that easy!
Eventbrite – 2015 American Craft Council Show in Baltimore – February 20 – 22, 2015
$14 one-day pass
$34 three-day pass

ON-SITE ADMISSION
$16 one-day pass
$36 three-day pass
FREE for American Craft Council members and children 12 and under.

Membership
Join or renew as a member of the American Craft Council and receive one FREE three-day pass to all four American Craft Council shows (Baltimore, Atlanta, St. Paul, San Francisco) OR to the American Craft Council show in Baltimore. In addition, a membership includes a one-year (six-issue) subscription to American Craft and access to a community that celebrates artists and their work, and inspires people to live a creative life. Join the ACC and get in free!

SPECIAL FRIDAY EVENING ADMISSION
Get into the show for just $5 after 5 p.m. Sorry, no other discounts apply.

More info here. Read BmoreArt’s Interview with ACC Exhibiting Artists here.

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Untitled no. 5: Lauren Adams, Amy Boone-McCreesh, Alex Ebstein, Sarah Jacobs, Cara Ober and Stewart Watson

Reception Friday, February 20 from 6 – 8pm
Exhibit: February 20th-March 21st

RandallScottProjects
216 West Read, West Baltimore, Maryland 21201

RandallScottProjects is pleased to announce our next exhibition, Untitled no. 5, a group exhibition of Baltimore based visual artists opening February 20th and continuing through March 21st. RandallScottProjects continues an ongoing series of “Untitled” group exhibitions, where an intimate group of artists are selected to exhibit together to stimulate a visual discussion.

While the gallery asserts it’s aesthetic by selecting the artists and works, there is no specific theme besides the intrinsic merits of each and the relationships that evolve through proximity. Each of the six artists selected creates mature and complex work. All are equal players in making Baltimore a stronger artistic community.

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ALL OF THE THINGS AND ALL OF THE TIME: BrowserAs.com Launch Party
Opening Reception: Friday, February 20 from 7 – 10pm

Platform Gallery
116 W Mulberry St, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Platform Gallery is pleased to present ALL OF THE THINGS AND ALL OF THE TIME: BrowserAs.com Launch Party and Opening Reception. This collaboration will be on view from February 20th- February 23rd.

ARTIST TALK: February 22 from 6-8pm

BrowserAs is a digital platform that exists as an ongoing collaboration between the co-founders, Katie Duffy & Katherine Gagnon, and a revolving lineup of artists, curators, designers and engineers to collaborate on virtual installation projects. It is our goal to give artists, who are traditionally underrepresented in technology, the opportunity to embrace the web as a medium, rather than just a place to showcase images, by connecting them to designers, engineers and other web professionals. Merging fine art and design, our digital interface investigates how ideas are accessed, communicated and defined in today’s art world.

BrowserAs is pleased to present its first three Collaborations:

THE PHONE RANG, SO IT BEGAN TO SNOW ~ Artists: Cici Wu & Designer Katie Duffy with development by Charlie McGeorge

PAY PER VIEW PERFORMANCE (PREVIEW) ~ Artists: Ada Pinkston and Hoesy Corona of LabBodies & Designer Katie Duffy

TIME AND PLACE ~ Artists: Ryan Nord Kitchen and Ali Harrington, Curator Katherine Gagnon and Designer Katie Duffy

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LECTURE: Anri Sala in conversation with Michael Fried @ BMA
February 21, 2015 @ 2 pm

Baltimore Museum of Art
Art Museum Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218

Acclaimed Berlin-based artist Anri Sala speaks with one of the greatest art historians of our time, Michael Fried, on February 21 at 2 p.m. in the BMA’s Meyerhoff Auditorium. This is a rare opportunity to meet the artist and discuss the impact of narrative, sound, and the limits of language in his evocative films. The artist conversation and reception is free. Seating is limited.

Black Box: Anri Sala is on view through February 22.
Michael Fried’s book, Four Honest Outlaws, is available in the BMA’s Shop.
Sponsored by the BMA’s Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art

More info here.

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Victoria Fu: Bubble Over Green

Opening Reception Saturday, February 21 from 7 – 10pm

101 W North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201

The Contemporary presents Bubble Over Green, an exhibition by artist Victoria Fu (b. 1978, Santa Monica, CA; lives in Los Angeles and San Diego, CA) on view February 21 – April 3, 2015. This solo commission is the museum’s first project since its reopening in 2013.

Bubble Over Green, is a multilayered audio-visual experience in the former KAGRO building located at 101 W North Avenue in Baltimore’s Station North Arts & Entertainment District. The exhibition consists of moving images projected onto architectural surfaces, aligning the physical site with the space and textures of digital post-production.

February 21 – April 3, 2015
On View: Wednesday – Sunday, 4-8pm

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, February 21, 7-10pm
ARTIST TALK: Monday, February 23, 6-7:30pm*
CURATORIAL TOUR: Thursday, March 12, 7-8:30pm
CLOSING RECEPTION: Friday, March 27, 7-10pm

Bubble Over Green is free and open to the public—additional information can be found at contemporary.org/projects.

Bubble Over Green is made possible with lead support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with added support from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Station North Arts and Entertainment, Inc. Additional project partnerships and sponsors include Suntravel Service (Ellicott City, MD & Annandale, VA), Sun Insurance (Ellicott City, MD), C&H Restoration and Renovation, Current Space, Chaudron Glass & Mirror Co., Inc., and The Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center. The Contemporary is funded through the generosity of foundations, government agencies, corporations, and individuals. Major programming support has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and Aaron & Lillie Straus Foundation. The museum also gratefully acknowledges an ongoing partnership with the Baltimore School for the Arts. The official graphic designer of The Contemporary is OOKB, and the hotel sponsor is Brookshire Suites.

Victoria Fu received her BA from Stanford, MA in Art History/Museum Studies from USC, and MFA from CalArts. Her work has been exhibited most recently at the 2014 Whitney Biennial, New York, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla, CA; 52nd New York Film Festival, New York, NY; Simon Preston Gallery, New York, NY; IX Nicaragua Biennial, Managua, Nicaragua; University Art Gallery, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA; among others. She lives and works in Los Angeles and San Diego, CA, where she is Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at the University of San Diego. www.victoriafu.com

The Contemporary is a nomadic, non-collecting art museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Our mission expands the idea of a museum as an incubator that commissions site-specific and subject-oriented projects. We engage diverse audiences and advance contemporary art through projects and educational programming. Our work is inspired by three guiding principles: artists matter, collaboration is key, and audience is everywhere. www.contemporary.org

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Bread and Conversation and Creating Together @ The Creative Alliance
February 21, 2015 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

The Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224

COST: $10 suggested donation

This extended workshop and dialogue is hosted by MacArthur fellow Liz Lerman and Robert W. Deutsch Foundation fellow Paul Rucker, based on a modified version of Liz’s Critical Response Process, along with interactive experiences based on the thoughts and hopes of the assembled group. 10am-2pm Suggested Donation of $10 – No one will be turned away because of lack of funds.

Paul Rucker’s exhibition, REWIND, presents a challenging visual and emotional experience in the gallery and artist’s studio from Feb 7 – Mar 7. This extended workshop and dialogue is hosted by MacArthur fellow Liz Lerman and Robert W. Deutsch Foundation fellow Paul Rucker. You’ll have a chance to engage and respond to REWIND through a modified version of Liz’s Critical Response Process, along with interactive experiences based on the thoughts and hopes of the assembled group.

Lerman, through her Critical Response Process, is gaining national recognition for her ability to confront and deal with the pressing social issues that affect us all in the wake of events such as Ferguson, and the shootings of police officers in New York City. Break bread and make conversation with your neighbors and fellow members of the community.

More info here.

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Creative Alliance Residents’ Open House
February 21, 2015 @ 6pm

The Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224

In conjunction with – Paul Rucker gallery performance: 8pm / Bands: 8:30pm

Once a year the Creative Alliance Resident Artists throw open all of their studios and invite Baltimore to share in one of the most anticipated events of the year, culminating in a free concert by a veritable trifecta of creative Baltimore musicians– this year featuring a live experimental cello performance in the gallery by resident artist Paul Rucker, followed by sets in the theater with Jana Hunter (of Lower Dens), and electro-dance duo Chiffon! Explore the work of painters, sculptors, puppeteers, writers, actors and video artists while making direct connections with pillars of our artistic community. Be the first to find a special work of art for your developing collection. FREE!

The sexy-synthed out jams of Baltimore’s Chiffon (Amy Reid and Chase O’Hara) might hearken to 90’s R&B, but dig a few layers deeper and you will find a vibe all their own. A Chiffon set might include scintillating, syrupy dreamscapes paired alongside sweat-drenched club jams. Theirs is a veritable then and now of danceable enjoyment that none will want to miss.

Jana Hunter is leader, founder and principal songwriter of the Baltimore-based Lower Dens. Her ghostly voice, trans-humanist lyrical bent coupled with the Lower Den’s intricately layered sound and kraut-rock rhythmic propulsion have pushed the group to the fore of creative bands working today. Jana will be performing a solo set at the open house, exploring her own material and music to be included on the forthcoming Lower Dens release, set for later this year.

More info here. Read BmoreArt’s recent post on the Creative Alliance Residents’ open house here.

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