Scene Seen: Goya, MICA, Akimbo, and Randall Scott Projects

September is filled with new projects, new expectations, and new exhibits. It’s been a very full week and, while I cannot believe how many exhibits I have attended, it’s humbling to realize that there are so many more that I have missed. Here are a few photo highlights from last week’s exhibits… If you are following us on Instagram, some of the images will look familiar!

MICA Faculty Sabbatical Exhibit in the Meyerhof Gallery, Fox Building:

Perforated screens by Piper Shepard stole the show. By far, these works were the most intriguing and boasted the strongest presence. Shepard’s time on sabbatical was well spent… most likely poking tiny holes in screens to gorgeous effect.

My next favorite was Cartographies of Loss, a collaborative project between Soheila Ghaussy and Katherine Kavanaugh (who is adjunct faculty and didn’t benefit from a Sabbatical but produces excellent work nonetheless!). This multi-media installation included sound, video, and looping images (recorded by Andrew Keiper and taken from Mohsen Makhmalbar’s Kandahar and Sidiq Barmak’s Osama, with music from Quaishi) projected onto a tent with poetic wall text from Ghaussy. The project was engaging and mysterious and personalized the refugee crisis in the Middle East.

My other favorite was Bill Schmidt’s tiny gemlike paintings, packed with adorably awkward geometries and lines so delicate they are almost impossible to fathom.

Photos by Jane Cottis

Works by Warren Lim, Illustration Dept could have benefitted from editing and spacing. There are too many small images crammed onto a very large wall.

MICA Foundation Exhibition in the other Meyerhoff Gallery, Fox Building:

Loop of videos by Dyland Clark, Sydney Cook, Andrew Graham, Joseph Lee, Jerria Lowery, and Stephen Novak

Austin Beach

Janet Hileman

Dani Toral

Timothy App and Collaborations between Jo Smail & William Kentridge at Goya Contemporary:

These paintings have an inner glow that emanates from subtle, burnished surfaces. Gray and other neutrals offer more depth than you would ever realize under experienced painter Timothy App’s hand. Sharp transitions from one shape to the next offer your eye a wholly believable edge, allowing you to focus even more on the details of the surface.

(with photos by Joe Hyde for Goya Contemporary b/c the opening was too crowded to get images of the work!)

Jo Smail & William Kentridge Conversations – Collaborations from 2002 – 05. This show made me want to collaborate! I’m doing it. Even the simplest mechanism for collaboration – mailing a half finished drawing to a partner on another continent and then sending it back – works, when there is trust and a common aesthetic language.

Akimbo Baltimore, A Site-Specific Festival of Dance and Movement. This event happened all over Station North (rain be damned!) on Saturday, September 12.

Sarah Smith performing at the Windup Space