This week is Maryland Film Festival Week! There are too many movies to watch, at a number of different locations. This is happening May 7-11 and Baltimore is so lucky to have this event. Get your gourmet popcorn ready. This is not to be missed!
On Tuesday, participate in Design Conversations sponsored by D Center. This session’s topic: the resilient city. Also, learn about The Rubys, Baltimore’s newest project-based artist grants at a free information session at Baltimore Clayworks. On Thursday, go to Area 405 for Process: Baltimore City College IB Visual Arts Exhibition 2014 or head up the road to The Chicken Box for Open Walls Baltimore X: a free LAS CALLES HABLAN Film Screening.
On Saturday night, Jeffrey L. Gangwisch & Douglas Johnson present ORGANISM at Creative Alliance, a collaboration between painting and film. And if you are in the Washington, DC area, head to Civilian Art Project’s new space for Are You Gonna Eat That? New Work by Amy Hughes Braden. Then, fast forward to Monday night: Celebrate the 2014 Baker Artist Awards at WTMD Studios. Specifics and information are below.
The Resilient City: Design Conversation #61 May 6 at The Windup Space, 6-8 pm
Design Conversations are a monthly series of events loosely curated by a group of volunteers, focusing on rotating topics that are timely and engaging. These events are always free, always at the Windup Space (at 12 W. North Ave, Baltimore), and on the first Tuesday of every month. Design Conversations are encouraged by the generous support of D center Baltimore and Baltimore Community Foundation. Cash bar, AV hookup available for spontaneous presentations. More info here.
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RUBYS: Artist Project Grants in Visual and Literary Arts Info Session
Tuesday, May 6 at 6 pm at Baltimore Clayworks / RSVP here.
Clayworks is pleased to host an informational session on the current cycle of the Rubys Artist Project Grants program. The Rubys, which is a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA), offer support of up to $10,000 to individual artists for original, creative projects. At this session, GBCA’s Grants manager, Sonja Cendak, will present all the details of applying for a Rubys grant.
The upcoming grant cycle is open to visual and literary artists and has an application deadline of June 30, 2014. More information on the grant program can be found here: http://
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The 2014 Maryland Film Festival will take place May 7-11 in downtown Baltimore
Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day event that takes place in early May, presenting top-notch film and video work from all over the world. Each year the festival screens approximately 50 feature films and 75 short films of all varieties — narrative, documentary, animation, experimental, and hybrid — to tens of thousands of audience members.
For every North American feature film screened within the festival, a filmmaker attends the festival to present their work. The hundreds of filmmakers who have hosted screenings within Maryland Film Festival include such names as John Waters, Barry Levinson, Kathryn Bigelow, Jonathan Demme, Melvin Van Peebles, Alex Gibney, Matt Porterfield, Joe Swanberg, Lisandro Alonso, Todd Solondz, Bobcat Goldthwait, and Lena Dunham.
In addition to a wide range of contemporary N. American films, each festival also includes a sampling of cutting-edge international features (including such titles as Dogtooth and Syndromes and a Century), a vintage silent film with live musical accompaniment, a classic 3-D film, and a feature selected and hosted by legendary filmmaker John Waters (whose choices have ranged from Joseph Losey’s Boom! to Gaspar Noé’s I Stand Alone).
Celebrity guest hosts from outside the world of film are also invited to present favorite films, including musicians such as Ian MacKaye, Branford Marsalis, Will Oldham, Jonathan Richman, Harry Belafonte, and Bill Callahan.
More info at the MD Film Festival Website
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Process: Baltimore City College IB Visual Arts Exhibition 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 8, 201, 5-8PM
Exhibit Dates: May 8-18, 2014
Featuring the work of both juniors and seniors, PROCESS will not only showcase student artwork, but through an examination of the process and preparations IB students practice, will illustrate the philosophy and mission of the International Baccalaureate program.
PROCESS seeks to give these exceptional students of our public school system the opportunity to show their work outside of the classroom, as well as introduce the IB program to the population at large.
The celebratory reception with food and drink will begin at 5PM with words from students, parents and school officials to start at 6:00.
Gallery hours will be Sundays 12-3PM and by appointment. You may also view the exhibit before and after performances of Sweeney Todd and Una Noche Flamenca with a ticket to these events.
Please direct any questions to [email protected] / FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
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OWBX: Free LAS CALLES HABLAN Film Screening @ The Chicken Box – Thursday, May 8
On Thursday, May 8th at 7:00PM, Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc. will host a free screening the documentary film Las Calles Hablan, with a discussion featuring the film’s creator/co-producer, Katrine Knauer to follow. Knauer is the founder of Mapping Barcelona Public Art, a project developed to increase awareness of the importance of graffiti in Barcelona and beyond.
Las Calles Hablan (Onist Films and Mapping Barcelona Public Art) is a feature-length documentary film about street art in Barcelona that explores the history, motivation, politics and the numerous characters involved in the street art scene in the city. Though the documentary takes place in Barcelona, it exposes themes relevant to street art across the globe.
This film screening is a project of Open Walls Baltimore X.
Chicken Box is located at 1 W. North Avenue.
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Jeffrey L. Gangwisch & Douglas Johnson | ORGANISM at Creative Alliance
Working in two different mediums, painter Douglas Johnson and filmmaker Jeffrey L. Gangwisch both discover a sense of peace and place in their first collaboration. Organism explores the bonds between human and animal, spirit and body, myth and reality.
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 10, 5:30-7:30pm
Exhibition: May 10-June 7
Gallery Talk: May 31, 2:30pm
More info here.
Faunic icons have inspired artists throughout the ages from cave paintings to our animal analogues in a thousand fairytales. At once our companion and predator, these images terrify and comfort in equal measure. Human-animal hybrids are part of the world’s mythology, taking the form of animal-headed gods, winged angels, mysterious sphinxes, and dancing satyrs; wherever we look, humankind is made one with the animal kingdom. Organism continues this tradition of coupling the beast and the human figure as an eternal theme of spiritual creation.
At first glance, Johnson’s paintings seem purely from the realm of allegory and ancient myth, but they might have been inspired by modern science. The painting “In Communion” depicts man, his mortal enemy the serpent, and his savior…the horse, from whose blood anti-venom is derived. Gangwisch’s stop motion animations transform human figures into wildlife entrapped, challenging the viewer to reflect on their own participation with the natural world. Their installation throughout the gallery offers perspective on the viewers’ own enclosures, both physical and psychological.
Jeffrey L. Gangwisch collaborates on diverse motion media projects with various cinema and performance groups for video installation, cinematic exhibition and new media distribution. Gangwisch earned his Bachelor of Arts in Film Production from the University of New Orleans and was a Fulbright Media Scholar when he received his Masters of Arts in Television Production from Falmouth University in Cornwall, UK. After working for several years on film and television productions across the U.S. and Europe, he continues his diverse static and time-based media work as a Resident Artist of the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD.
Douglas Johnson is a painter who has made Baltimore his home since 1987 when he attended the Maryland Institute College of Art, earning his BFA in General Fine Arts in 1991. His oil paintings and watercolors are concerned with the human form and are expressionist in nature. As he puts it, “with the psychology on the surface.” He makes his living as a self-employed artist painting portraits, murals, restoring antiques and creating sets for several local theatres. His work during the last few years as an actor, director, playwright, set-designer, mask-maker, and puppeteer with local DIY theatres (Yellow Sign Theatre, Annex Theater, and the Baltimore Rock Opera Society) has been a central inspiration for his recent paintings.
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“Are You Gonna Eat That?” New Work by Amy Hughes Braden at Civilian Art Projects
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 10, 2014
Exhibition on view: Saturday, May 10 – June 14, 2014
Exhibition hours: Saturday 1 to 6pm and by appointment
Civilian Art Projects launches its new space with the exhibition “Are You Gonna Eat That?” new works by Washington-based artist Amy Hughes Braden. Please join us on Saturday, May 10, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. for a public reception with the artist in our gallery at 4718 14th Street NW (at Crittenden).
In her first solo exhibition with Civilian Art Projects, Amy Hughes Braden presents new work from a prolific studio practice where she tests ideas and techniques dealing with appropriation, ironic humor, portraiture, and her role as a female artist in a still male dominated art world. “Are You Gonna Eat That?,” a reference to a crass comment that literally takes something off of another’s plate, or more obliquely asks if one is going to accept what one has been dealt, indicates both the playfulness with which she approaches this body of work as well as the subtle messaging underlying it.
Presenting painting, collage, works on paper, video and minimalist sculpture, Braden’s process is rooted in experimentation, not just thinking about ideas and shelving them, as is too often the case with women artists. According to Braden, “It seems that there are more successful male artists despite the fact that more females graduate from art school. I recently learned from an art professor that the difference was that male artists executed all of their ideas (not to the fullest extent, but they tried everything). Apparently female artists were much more likely to decide their idea wasn’t good or wouldn’t work before physically trying it out. So I don’t want to go around saying I’m going to make a piece or think about making a piece. I want to just execute. Critiquing can come later.”
Braden’s work considers feminism and relationships, fame and value, appropriation and homage to famous and not so famous artists and historical figures. The new pieces appropriate the works of Richard Prince (Joke paintings), John Baldessari’s text pieces, and the visage of the ultimate male artist, Jackson Pollock. While some works are direct responses to her male predecessors, Braden endeavors to push forward employing techniques learned from them, while moving beyond the initial conversation.
NEW LOCATION: Civilian Art Projects / 4718 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20011
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2014 Baker Artist Awards Celebration at WTMD Studios Monday, May 12
The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund invite you to celebrate the winners of the 2014 Baker Artist Awards.
Mary Sawyers Baker Prize Winners: Chris Bathgate, Todd Marcus and Brent Crothers.
b-grant winners: Ed Gross, David Paul Bacharach and Jowita Wyszomirska.
Meet the artists and experience a sample their work, including a performance by the Todd Marcus Quartet! Also, delicious treats from Relay Foods as well as wine and beer will be served for your enjoyment.
***The first 50 people to arrive will receive a FREE copy of the Baker Artist Awards Five Year Retrospective Catalog provided by The Ivy Bookshop!***
This event is free to the public.
Sponsored by Relay Foods and the Ivy Bookshop.
RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1fVVb0r
