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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Talking Shop: Humor + Absurdity
Wednesday, September 30th : 7pm
Baltimore School for the Arts
712 Cathedral Street : Baltimore 21201
Humor + Absurdity, moderated by Business Manager Lu Zhang, will pair New York-based art critic Jerry Saltz and Baltimore-based comedian Stavros Halkias. The panel will explore instances of absurdity and humor in contemporary art.
Talking Shop, our 2015 Speaker Series, partners acclaimed artists and professionals from various disciplines to discuss the nexus of art, science, medicine, technology, politics, and more. Where are the intersections of these practices? How can society utilize these disciplines in collaboration as catalysts for creative thinking? Each evening will begin with short presentations by the invited participants which will set context for moderated group discussion. Talking Shop is made possible with generous support from The Aaron and Lillie Straus Foundation. This series is free and open to the public and hosted at the Baltimore School for the Arts located at 712 Cathedral St. Each panel will begin promptly at 7pm, doors close at 6:45pm.
Jerry Saltz is Senior Art Critic for New York Magazine; a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism; and Winner of the 2015 National Magazine Award in Criticism. He was once ranked 24th “Most Powerful Person in the Art World.” Um, one in front of Jasper Johns. Hah!
Stavros Halkias is a stand up comedian from Baltimore, Maryland. After dabbling with comedy in college, he started performing regularly in 2012, when he was named Baltimore’s New Comedian of the Year. Since then he’s become a regular at clubs, colleges and independent shows in the Baltimore and DC areas, toured the United States with Wham City Comedy, and has performed at festivals like the Bentzen Ball in DC and Hell Yes Fest in New Orleans. Here’s a list of some the great comedians he’s had the opportunity to work with: Tom Papa, Robert Kelly, Tig Notaro, and Gilbert Gotfried. Here’s a list of people that don’t approve of his comedy career: Emmanuel Halkias, his father.
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New Day Exhibitions, People and Places: A Primer, Opening
Thursday, October 1st : 5pm
Eubie Blake Cultural Center
847 North Howard Street : Baltimore 21201
People & Places: A Primer presents profiles of people with mental illness and addiction, and the people and places that care for them. While not a comprehensive survey, this exhibition offers, in sample-platter style, a range of good things happening in Baltimore’s behavioral health ecosystem. Six artists profile 22 individuals, each selected by one of 22 behavioral health organizations or entities in the Baltimore region.
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Michelle Ivette Gomez Community Curator Talk
Thursday, October 1st : 5-7pm
Office of MultiCultural Affairs, Johns Hopkins University
3003 North Charles Street : 21218
The Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center presents an artist talk by curator, artist and organizer Michelle Ivette Gomez. Learn how Gomez collaborates with underrepresented audiences and artists to create exhibitions about community, social issues, cultural identity and more in Baltimore. Gomez will deliver her 45 minute presentation and then take questions. Food and refreshments will be provided.
Raised in Miami, Florida, Michelle Ivette Gomez is an independent curator and artist who has worked collaboratively with Baltimore’s Latino and African American communities. Notable exhibitions and programs she has co-produced include THIRTY: 30 Creative Minds Under 30 at Maryland Art Place, CONGREGATE art + faith + community in Baltimore’s Station North neighborhood, and curated Devociones y Fe (Devotions and Faith) at El Tesoro Restaurant in Southeast Baltimore. In 2012, Gomez received her B.F.A in General Fine Arts, and in 2014 received her M.F.A. in Curatorial Practice from The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). She is is the recipient of numerous honors; including serving as a 2013 Latino museum Studies Program Fellow at the Smithsonian, then as a 2014-2015 fellow of the Urban Arts Leadership Program through the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and has been named a 2015 Joan Mitchell Visual Arts Scholar through Alternate ROOTS.
The ‘Michelle Gomez Community Curator Talk’ is presented by the Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center (DMC) and Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) as part of the Fall 2015 DMC Salon Series in which rising Baltimore cultural stars give multimedia talks on their critically engaged work. The DMC is a multimedia lab and resource center for students exploring creative uses of emerging media and technology to communicate their ideas. The OMA provides opportunities for students to engage in multicultural initiatives, celebrations and educational programs; community service; mentoring, and academic support.
Contact: Graham Coreil-Allen / [email protected] / 410.516.3817
Additional Information: studentaffairs.jhu.edu/dmc | oma.jhu.edu michelleigomez.org
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Skepsis: A Collaboration Between Breon Gilleran + McDaniel College Bio Majors, Opening
Thursday, October 1st : 5:30-7:30pm
Rice Gallery, McDaniel College
2 College Hill : Westminster MD 21158
An exhibition opening at McDaniel College is the culmination of the collaboration between Baltimore artist Breon Gilleran and McDaniel College students in a comparative anatomy class taught by McDaniel biology professor Katie Staab. “Skepsis” runs Thursday, October 1 – Friday, October 30, in McDaniel’s Rice Gallery, Peterson Hall, at 2 College Hill, Westminster, Md. An opening reception takes place Thursday, October 1, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., with a gallery talk by Gilleran and Staab at 6 p.m.
The exhibition includes a collection “of sculptural objects and works on paper installed alongside McDaniel students’ scientific works that will transform the Rice Gallery into a cabinet of curiosities,” according to Gilleran.
She promises a “freewheeling exhibit integrating art and science in an encyclopedic collection of objects whose categorical boundaries are porous.”
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Transmodern Festival
Thursday, October 1st – Sunday, October 4th
Various Locations
Baltimore MD
Now in its 12th year, The Transmodern Performance Festival is one of Baltimore’s best-loved festivals celebrating radical, live art both on and off the stage. This year’s festival activates five different venues in the Bromo Arts District of downtown Baltimore and the spaces in-between with four days of genre-defying performances, immersive environments, installations, exhibitions, dance, film and maker-workshops. This year’s festival includes a Twilight Parade on October 4th, to celebrate Baltimore’s chemistry – its memories, history, peoples and of course the LOVE we have for our city as it has gone through many changes this year!
For more information about the artists, images and tickets please visit: http://transmodernfestival.com + https://www.facebook.com/transmodern.baltimore
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Madonnari Arts Festival
Thursday, October 1st – Sunday, October 4th
Little Italy
Baltimore MD
This 4-day cultural event will showcase elaborate chalk paintings created by artists directly on the streets of Little Italy. The event will be enhanced with Italian food, wine, music, theater and dance in a celebration of the contemporary renaissance of Baltimore’s historic Italian neighborhood.
Our model for this event originated in Italy in a tradition that dates back to the 16th century — the art of street painting. Historically, i madonnari were wandering artists in Italy who traveled village to village to earn their livelihood at various festivals and on various holy days. The artists often depicted religious images in their paintings, thus earning their name. Such a festival was first introduced in America in Santa Barbara, California in the 1980s. Today, street painters create breathtaking traditional and expressionistic compositions using the street as their canvas and chalk pastels as their medium.
EVENT PROGRAM. Artists will create chalk paintings on Little Italy’s South High Street for three of the event days (October 2-4). The street will come alive as it is transformed into fine works of art. The theme of the art is “The World is Round: Renaissance in Little Italy.”
OUR MISSION. The mission of the festival is to showcase the exceptional talent, camaraderie and creative spirit of Baltimore and to foster constructive dialogue and inspire innovative solutions to urban quandaries through the arts. The heritage of the neighborhood of Little Italy will be celebrated and artists with new ideas will be welcomed in this forward thinking creative community with its enduring traditions.
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Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Grand Opening
Saturday, October 3rd : 10am-6pm
Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio
700 Eutaw Street : Baltimore 21202
Neighborhood Fiber Co. is opening our very own storefront at 700 N. Eutaw Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. Our grand opening will be October 3rd from 10-6. We will have a full store of yarn for shopping, comfy chairs to sit in and knit, some light refreshments for snacking, and custom dye to order yarn. Come in with pictures, ideas, paint swatches, pretty much anything except someone else’s yarn and we will dye it up for you while you wait. Muppet arm flail, yay!
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Jean Alexander Frater: Painting Between the Means, Opening Reception
Saturday, October 3rd : 7-10pm
Guest Spot @ The Reinstitute
1715 North Calvert Street : Baltimore 21202
Guest Spot @ The REINSTITUTE is pleased to announce a solo exhibition by Chicago Artist Jean Alexander Frater. The exhibition will open on Saturday, October 3, 2015 and will be on view through Saturday November 14, 2015. The Opening Reception will take place on Saturday October 3, 2015 from 7pm-10pm. Guest Spot’s doors will also be open for ALLOVER STREET, with a special evening of cocktails and light fare on Friday, October 9, 2015 7pm-10pm. An exhibition catalogue will be available featuring a forward by Steven L. Bridges, Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA).
Within the current contextual framework, it’s difficult to discuss the relevance of painting. Our means to measure the world and the objects around us derive from a timeline that evades the comprehension of our technologies. While many art practices still align themselves with the act of seeing the world through painting, gravity has taken hold of the gaze. In a culture where we are wide-eyed to our screens, we have forgotten to blink, to look up, to act, and to rise to the occasion. To engage now is a benign political act, and can even be perceived as a spectacle. It’s through this lens that Jean Alexander Frater’s work presents the tension between surrender and resolution, between the means and the in-betweens. Following the construct and path of gravity is the drip. In this way, the beauty of painting exists between the balance of submission and disobedience.
Jean Alexander Frater lives and works with her family in Chicago. Over the last few years, Frater has been focused exclusively on the materials and process of painting. Frater graduated with a BA in Philosophy, and received her MFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as the Wexner Center for Arts in Columbus, El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the Images Festival in Toronto, Possible Project Space in Brooklyn, the Big Screen Project in New York, the Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, and the Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Frater was a recipient the Working Artists Grant, 2014; and shortlisted for the Dave Bown Artist Competition: December 2014. In the summer and Fall of 2015, Frater’s paintings are part of two group exhibitions in Chicago: Plane Figures, at The Mission Gallery and The Annual, An Exhibition of New Chicago Art, at the Chicago Artist’s Coalition.
