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]!
*** BLIZZARD WARNING: Check yourselves (and the event websites for cancelations) before you wreck your cars/bicycles/selves out there in the ice and snow ***
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Writer’s Live: Karen Finley, Shock Treatment (25th Anniversary)
Wednesday, January 27th : 7pm
University of Baltimore Wright Theatre
21 West Mt. Royal Avenue : Baltimore 21201
No other artist captures the drama and fragility of the AIDS era as Karen Finley does in her classic 1990 book Shock Treatment. In her new introduction to this 25th anniversary edition, Finley traces her journey from art school to San Francisco’s North Beach literary scene to her campaign against censorship. She also reflects on publishing her first book as she became internationally known for being denied an NEA grant because of perceived obscenity in her work.
Karen Finley’s performances have been presented at Lincoln Center, the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, the Steppenwolf in Chicago and others. Her artworks are in numerous collections and museums including the Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She has received numerous awards and fellowships including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Obies, two Bessies, Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year Award, NARAL Person of the Year Award, and NYSCA and NEA fellowships. She has appeared in many independent films and has written and/or edited eight books. Finley is a professor at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
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Grit Fund 2: Information Session + Tax Workshop
Wednesday, January 27th : 6-8:30pm
The Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue : Baltimore 21224
The Tax Workshop is co-led by Chris Ryer, director of the Southeast Community Development Corporation and coordinator of Highlandtown Arts and Entertainment District, and Jessica Lanzillotti, general manager of Everyman Theatre, treasurer of Iron Crow Theatre Company, member of the Finance Committee of the Bromo Arts District, and board treasurer of The Contemporary. This Workshop covers tax incentives for designated Arts & Entertainment Districts and offers a tax primer for practicing artists, including tips for tracking deductible expenses.
The Grit Fund, administered by The Contemporary, supports unincorporated and collaborative artist-organized activity that contributes significantly to Baltimore’s arts landscape but seldom qualifies for traditional funding. The fund provides 8-12 grants in amounts between $1,000–$6,000, totaling $50,000 annually.
The Contemporary will lead 4 free information sessions and 3 free workshops in different venues throughout Baltimore City. Each of the 4 info sessions will cover the same information and provide details on the Grit Fund application process, guidelines, eligibility, funding priorities, and more. Each of the 3 workshops focuses on a different topic outlined below. You are welcome to attend just the info session or workshop portion of each event, or both. While attending an info session and/or workshop is encouraged, attendance is not required to apply for funding. No RSVP necessary.
Submissions open: December 8, 2015
Submissions close: January 29, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST
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Artscape Information Session
Wednesday, January 27th : 5:30-6:30pm
The Maryland Science Center
601 Light Street : Baltimore 21230
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts invites artists to an Artscape Information Session on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 from 5:30 to 6:30pm at the Maryland Science Center located at 601 Light Street. The information session is designed to give anyone interested in submitting an application for Artscape an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about requirements for submitting a proposal. It is also an opportunity to meet up with other artists and potential collaborators and learn about locations in the festival footprint that may offer inspiration for a proposal. Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival, takes place July 15-17, 2016 with the theme of “Space: Explore What’s Out There.”
Applications are now open for 2016. To view all available applications, visit www.artscape.org/applications. Deadlines and submission fees vary.
tendees are asked to RSVP at [email protected] by Monday, January 25. For information, call the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts at 410-752-8632 or visit www.artscape.org.
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“Wearables: An Interactive Installation” by Emily Biondo – Opening/Gallery Talk
Thursday, January 28th : 5:30-7:30pm
Rice Gallery, McDaniel College
2 College Hill : Westminster 21157
This interactive installation by McDaniel College alumna Emily Biondo uses light, audio and non-traditional textiles “to create environments that encourage interpersonal and situational interaction,” according to Biondo.
Biondo is a Washington, D.C.-based interactive installation artist. She earned her bachelor’s degree from McDaniel in 2009 and her Master of Fine Arts degree from American University in 2011. She has exhibited at the Arlington Art Center, Flashpoint Gallery and Maryland Project for the Arts, among others. http://www.emilybiondo.com
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2016 RUBYS Grant Information Session
Thursday, January 28th : 6-8pm
The Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue : Baltimore 21224
Attend an information session to learn more about the grant program, tip and strategies for preparing a strong grant application, and have your questions answered by the grants manager in-person. Grant sessions are listed below and are free to attend. –>Please RSVP here<–.
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Text and Context, paintings and ceramics by Jerome Hershey and Robert Toyakazu Troxell – Opening Reception
Thursday, January 28th : 5-7pm
Julio Fine Arts, Loyola University Maryland
4501 North Charles Street : Baltimore 21210
The Julio Fine Arts Gallery at Loyola University Maryland presents Text and Context, work by painter Jerome Hershey and ceramist Robert Toyakazu Troxell. The work of Hershey and Troxell is colorful and playful, and though it has its serious side, not without humor. Text and Context references quotes and clichés taken from history, philosophy and the everyday.
Jerome Hershey received a B.F.A from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. He has exhibited his paintings at museums and galleries throughout the United States, at such places as the State Museum of Pennsylvania; Arlington (VA) Arts Center; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA; and the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA. His works can be found in many public, corporate and private collections including the State Museum of Pennsylvania; Reading Public Museum; Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA; Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA. Active in the Lancaster art scene since the mid 1970’s, he has had over 30 solo exhibitions, including three at both the Lancaster Museum of Art and the Demuth Museum. Hershey has worked out of his current studio overlooking historic Central Market since 1981.
Robert Troxell received a Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, School of Art and Architecture; an M.F.A. from The University of Delaware; and a B.A. from Millersville University. Troxell was a Professor of Art at Harrisburg Community College from 1991-2015 and is now the co-owner of Susquehanna Center for the Arts in Columbia, PA. Troxell was a summer resident at the Lower East Side Print Shop, New York, in 2012; a visiting professor at Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, China, in 2010; and a lecturer at The Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA, 2000-2002. Troxell has shown his work in many group and solo exhibits around the world and has sold his work through The Guggenheim Museum, NY; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Martin Lawrence, Van Nuys, CA; and Neiman Marcus. Robert Troxell has acted in two short Kickstarter funded films, Sushi Cop, 2015, and I Dig Persepolis, 2014.
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Headspace: Jordan Kasey and Carolyn Salas – Opening Reception
Saturday, January 30th : 7-10pm
Phoebe
510 West Franklin Street : Baltimore 21201
Phoebe is pleased to present, in its inaugural exhibition, new works by Jordan Kasey and Carolyn Salas. Both artists use their medium to present a blurry border between physical and imagined space. Rooted in a familiar reality, the works present tandem dualities: experience and intuition, intimacy and isolation.
Kasey’s large-scale paintings depict monumental figures, their flesh and limbs exaggerated and becoming one with the landscape. Recognizable moments of their environment emphasize their psychological distance from the viewer, their forms more akin to landmasses and ancient ruins than the expected human occupants of the spaces that confine them.
Salas’s table top sculptures echo the influence of and escape from the ordinary physical environment. Twists and small clusters draw from contemporary architecture both in material and in structural integrity, while also diverging into their own, self-contained language.
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Dark Passenger – Opening Reception
Saturday, January 30th
Gallery Four
405 West Franklin Street : Baltimore 21201
An anecdote on the occasion of Dark Passenger, which brings together the art of Peggy Chiang, Patricia Moisan and John-Elio Reitman. The work included individually communicates the sublime, the paranoid and the entropic. Here they converge, embodying a sinister, nebulous entity in transit.
To Whom It May Concern:
I travel a lot by bus, mostly alone. These days the vibrations and bumps of the open motorway are like a lullaby. Asleep on the road, I imagine myself as a small nimbus cloud, which for some reason or other resigns to traveling this way. It’s not so much a downgrade as it is a new set of feelings. In the confines of the bus, free to evaporate, becoming one with the sweat, the breath, whatever odor escapes the restroom, the tears; and then to condensate against the windows, amidst the humidity and perspiration. On the bus I can only dream of what it was like to look down on the desert, rain down on windows and wear down leather. Whereas my body would otherwise be dispersed and perpetually reconstituted, this is a feeling of place, an aspiration. It doesn’t make sense to claim direction suspended in the air, rising and converging forever. And yet how many people hit the road in search of non-existent emptiness, to lose their selves? And how can they believe in emptiness when there are windshields to remind us that the air is impactful. Or when I precipitate as a cloud, out of the blue, by Greyhound.
Maybe people travel these days to remind themselves of their own corporeality. I once held a germinating apple seed in my mouth through 5 states. It was something to do that I wouldn’t think of doing out of captivity, but it seemed like my body would be the only thing that could keep it alive for those hours – does that make sense? The things on the other side of the window traveled at speeds, lived in pressures unsuitable for the apple seed or myself.
Slowly but surely,
The Dark Passenger
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Ready to Drop: Body by Body, Bradford Kessler, Erin Jane Nelson – Opening Reception
Saturday, January 30th : 7-10pm
Springsteen Gallery
502 West Franklin Street : Baltimore 21201
Springsteen is excited to present Ready to Drop, an exhibition featuring work by Body by Body, Bradford Kessler, Erin Jane Nelson, and text by Ed Fornieles. Please join us for the opening reception on Saturday, January 30, from 7-10pm. The exhibition will be on view through March 12, 2016.
Body by Body is a collaboration between Cameron Soren and Melissa Sachs, who live and work in New York, NY. Selected solo exhibitions: Eli Ping Frances Perkins, New York (2015); Mission Comics, San Francisco (2015); Levy Delval, Brussels (2014); Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles (2014). In fall of 2015 they wrote and produced the opera BDSMozart, which was commissioned by Rhizome and presented as part of Performa15.
Bradford Kessler lives and works in New York, NY. Selected solo exhibitions: Ashes/Ashes, Los Angeles (2015); 247365, New York (2014); Welcome Screen, London (2014). Selected group exhibitions: MonCHÉRI, Brussels (2015); The Duck, Berlin, curated by M/L Artspace (2015); Interstate Projects, Brooklyn, curated by Springsteen (2015); American Medium, New York (2015), 63rd-77th Steps, Bari (2015); Invisible Exports, New York, curated by AA Bronson & Michael Bühler-Rose (2014); Rowing, London, curated by Alex Ross (2014).
Erin Jane Nelson lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Selected solo & two-person exhibitions: Hester, New York (2015); Document, Chicago (2015); Important Projects, Oakland (2012). Selected group exhibitions: Centre For Style, Melbourne (2015); Favorite Goods, Los Angeles (2015); Bureau, New York (2015); Bad Reputation, Los Angeles (2015); Mission Comics, Oakland (2014); 321 Gallery, curated by Holly Stanton, Brooklyn (2014); Interstate Projects, curated by Important Projects, Brooklyn (2014).
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Consumption: Food As Paradox – Opening Reception
Saturday, January 30th : 2-4pm
Galerie Myrtis
2224 North Charles Street : Baltimore 21218
Galerie Myrtis located at 2224 North Charles Street, presents “Consumption: Food as Paradox.” Opening: Saturday, January 30th from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. Free. Artists’ Talk: Sunday, February 21st from 2:00 – 4:00 pm. Free. Panel Discussion: Sunday, March 20th from 2:00 – 4:00 pm offered as part of the Tea with Myrtis art salons series. Fee: $20.
Consumption: Food as Paradox examines how food is inextricably linked to the social, political and economic aspects of life—class, culture, race, religion, gender and health. A baker’s dozen of contemporary artists, working in paint, collage, porcelain and printmaking, explore food and its connection to the world around them.
Consumption: Food as Paradox Features:
Matthew Adelberg
S. Ross Browne
Anna U Davis
Dave Eassa
Roberto Guerra
Christi Harris
Sue Johnson
Jeffrey Kent
Delita Martin
Arvie Smith
Christina St. Clair
Eric Telfort
Stephen Towns
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Beautiful Walls for Baltimore – Documentary Screening
Saturday, January 30th : 12pm
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street : Baltimore 21230
School 33 Art Center presents “Beautiful Walls for Baltimore,” a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Baltimore Mural Program. The multi-disciplinary exhibition encompasses each of the three galleries at School 33 Art Center and features new and re-created mural works, photography, multi-media presentations, drawings, and written histories. The exhibition is on view from Friday, December 4, 2015 through Saturday, January 30, 2016. A free opening reception takes place Friday, December 4, 2015 from 6pm to 9pm. Light refreshments will be served. School 33 Art Center is managed by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and is located at 1427 Light Street. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm.
The murals of Baltimore speak volumes about the city’s history and values. They celebrate Baltimore’s giants like Frederick Douglass and Billie Holiday. They pay homage to its brick row homes and marble stoops. They stand tall over garden sanctuaries and bustling intersections. “Beautiful Walls for Baltimore” celebrates the Baltimore Mural Program and the mural artists who helped shape its 40-year history. The Baltimore Mural Program has produced more than 250 murals across the city, creating an outdoor public museum for the enjoyment of the people of Baltimore. The exhibition includes original works and interpretations by Nate Larson, Alan Lifton, Megan Lewis, Ernest Shaw, Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn, Sean Radaskiewicz, Gary Mullen, Khoran Lee and Dan Van Allen and is curated by Maggie Villegas. Support for this exhibition was made possible in part by the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
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Cody Preseski Solo Exhibition – Closing Reception
Sunday, January 31st : 2-5pm
Alchemy of Art
1637 Eastern Avenue : Baltimore 21231
Cody Pryseski is a Baltimore-based artist specializing in portrait and figurative oil paintings.
He takes a humanist approach to painting, believing in the value of classical, traditional training and techniques. Inspiration is key, but then you have to put in the work. His attention to detail and quality compels him to continually re-work his canvases, until he achieves the right mood. The goal is to capture the personality, even the psychology, of his subject.
Willem de Kooning said, “Flesh is the reason why oil painting was invented.” Pryseski uses the impasto technique, thickly layering his figures with oil paint. This brings additional texture to the work, allowing for the artist to manipulate the play of light and rendering the figure more expressive.
Pryseski is inspired by Stephen Conroy and Chuck Close (whom he met when he accidentally stumbled into Close’s SoHo gallery). But his work is most strongly influenced by Lucien Freud. Pryseski saw Freud’s’ first U.S. show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1993. The well-worn brochure from that show remains in his studio today, always close at hand for inspiration.
Pryseski grew up in Lutherville, MD. He graduated from MICA in 1996 with a degree in painting and drawing. He lives in Reisterstown with his wife, two children and dog.
Pryseski maintains a studio in Canton. He welcomes studio visits and commissions.
