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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New Arrivals: Matisse Prints + Drawings, Exhibition Opening
Wednesday, December 9th (through July 2016)
The Baltimore Museum of Art
10 Art Museum Drive : Baltimore 21218
Approximately 20 prints and drawings demonstrate the continuing legacy of the BMA’s relationship with the Matisse family. Etta and Claribel Cone’s dedication to collecting the art of Henri Matisse established at the BMA one of the most comprehensive collections of the artist’s work.
The close personal relationship between the artist and the Cone sisters provided the opportunity to acquire key works from the late 20s and early 30s while encouraging Etta Cone to collect all aspects of the artist’s work—painting, sculpture, and graphic arts. Recognizing the unique character of the BMA’s Matisse collection, recent gifts from the family have now established the BMA’s holdings as the most comprehensive collection of Matisse prints in North America.
The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation in New York made a promised gift of an impressive group of prints from the artist’s later years. A major gift from the collection of Marguerite Matisse Duthuit included prints as well as remarkable drawings related to a masterwork from the Cone Collection, The Yellow Dress.
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Year of the Rooster, Previews + Opening Night + Gallery Reception
Wednesday, December 9-12 (through January 10th)
Single Carrot Theatre
2600 North Howard Street : Baltimore 21218
You said, “More shows with chickens!” and we heard you. Loosely inspired by the Odysseus myth, Year of the Rooster takes us unabashedly and unconventionally into the filthy world of cockfighting. Hapless fast-food pusher, Gil, delves deeper and deeper into the business of pitting animal against animal in this acid-tongued comedy. Without guidance, he may lose his grasp on all that’s dear to him, including his relationship with the very bird he’s trained to fight like a champion.
Year of the Rooster. Installation, Exhibit, Performance. Opening Reception, Friday Dec 11. Doors at 7pm, performance at 8 pm.
Previews Dec 9 and 10 at 8 pm.
Preview performances are pay-what-you-can at the door or $15 GA / $10 Student, Senior, Artist; however, our normal performances (12/11-1/10) are $29 GA/ $22 Student, Senior, Artist.
Gallery Opening and Opening Night Reception, Friday Dec 11. Doors 6:30, Show 8 pm.
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School 33 Studio Artists’ Holiday Sale
Thursday, December 10th + Saturday, December 12th
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street : Baltimore 21230
School 33 Art Center presents its first ever Studio Artists’ Holiday Sale on Thursday, December 10 from 5-9pm and Saturday, December 12 from 11am-5pm. The sale features a selection of painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography and more from artists Tessea Antonis-Parr, Atsuko Chirikjian, Michelle Dickson, Tiffany Jones, Elana Webb, and Ruri Yi. Visitors can get their holiday shopping done while supporting local artists and enjoying the galleries at School 33. Works will be available for purchase by cash, check or credit card at prices ranging from $10 to $200. School 33 Art Center is managed by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and located at 1427 Light Street. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 4pm.
Since 1979, School 33 Art Center’s Studio Artist Program has provided exceptional studio spaces to professional artists working in a variety of contemporary media. This program has been instrumental in providing a safe, nurturing community and workspace to both established and emerging local artists. School 33 offers opportunities that engage the studio artists in the Center’s exhibition and educational programming. In 2008, School 33 initiated the Studio Artists’ Mentor Program as a commitment to fostering artistic growth in Baltimore.
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PULSE:SALON:DECEMBER
Thursday, December 10th : 8-9pm
EMP Collective
307 West Baltimore Street : Baltimore 21201
Pulse is back (!!) and sending you new performance works in flux across those ear/eye waves.
Featuring:
Bobby English, Jr.
Sarah Eargle
Sarah Eargle is a Baltimore-based artist currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Art at the University of Towson. Her work includes a diverse range of media, such as painting, sculpture, installation, animation, and performance. Past performances have explored loss and the socially prescribed “duties” of a grieving person.
Maddie Hicks
Madeline Joan lives in Baltimore and does performance, puppetry and other weirdo art stuffs on the reg. She indulges in both collaborative and solo work, longs to explore themes of queerness, embodiment, self-hood and dissociation, is toying with the concept of people as puppets, and is currently learning to play the clarinet.
ABOUT PULSE
An ongoing performance art salon and event series created by member Carly J. Bales to provide a platform and incubation nest for new and experimental performance works in Baltimore. This year’s “Best Series” in Baltimore (Baltimore City Paper).
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American Studio Orchestra Presents: Pearls on a String
Thursday, December 10th : 7pm
The Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles Street : Baltimore 21201
Baltimore-based American Studio Orchestra performs a new work commissioned by the Walters Art Museum: Pearls on a String, a multimedia piece in three parts mirroring the exhibition’s vignettes. The work will be augmented in its world premiere at the Walters by projections of masterpieces from the show and a spoken narrative by exhibition curator Amy Landau.
Steadfast in generating a new model of artistic expression and performance, American Studio Orchestra integrates tradition with technology. ASO artists collaborate to create original artistic experiences. ASO has served as artist in residence at several educational institutions, including Johns Hopkins University, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Maryland Institute College of Art.
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Under $500 2015 | Friday, December 11, 2015 |
Maryland Art Place invites you to join us at our third annual “Under $500” affordable art sale this December!
On Friday, December 11 at 6 o’clock join us for a first-come, first-served opportunity to purchase affordable and original works of art. The event will feature the work of Baltimore and surrounding area artists at a price point of $500 or less. Purchase work at any point throughout the evening and take home that night!
Guests can expect to mingle with other artists, collectors, patrons and general art enthusiasts at the event with an open wine and beer bar, along with light tastings with a holiday twist.
Tickets are $20 for presale / $30 door tickets. Purchase Tickets HERE. To pay with cash or check, please connect with Paul at [email protected]
Can’t make it on Friday night? Stop into MAP the next day, Saturday, December 12 between 11a – 4p to view the remaining works for sale. This day requires no ticket and is open to the public.
Artists: Angela Arrigo, Matt Klos, Alex Ebstein, John Paradiso, L.E Doughtie, John Viles, Heather Boaz, Jeremy Flick, Andrea Pippens, Kyle Hackett, Seth Adelsberger, Abby Cheney, Lydia Petit, Steve Silberg, Suzy Kopf, Jill Fannon, Jodi Hoover, Dan Ubias, John Bohl, Maggie Gourley, Bart O’reilly, Andrew Liang, Matt Bovie, Cara Ober, Mia Halton,Emily Dierkes, Stephanie Garmey, Andy Karnes, Marian Glebes, Curtis Miller, Ed Gross, Bryan O’Neill, Michael Childers, Eric Garner, Aubrey Garwood, Darcie Book, Matthew Moore, Christine Sajecki, Karen Klinedinst, Joshua Chance, Mike McConnell, Magnolia Laurie, Rex Wire, Kevin Runyon and more…
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Towson University Department of Art + Design Senior Exhibition
Friday, December 11th : 6-9pm
Maryland Art Place
218 West Saratoga Street : Baltimore 21201
An exhibition featuring the work of Towson University’s senior class. Refreshments courtesy of Union Craft Brewing!
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Queer Threads: Crafting Identity + Community, Opening Reception
Friday, December 11th : 5-8pm
MICA Decker Gallery
1301 West Mount Royal Avenue : Baltimore 21217
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Just Press Print, Opening Reception
Friday, December 11th : 5-8pm
MICA Meyerhoff Gallery
1303 West Mount Royal Avenue : Baltimore 21217
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Paul Gagner: A Beginner’s Guide to Home Lobotomy, Opening
Saturday, December 12th : 7-10pm
Guest Spot @ The Reinstitute
1715 North Calvert Street : Baltimore 21202
Guest Spot @ The REINSTITUTE is pleased to announce the solo exhibition A Beginner’s Guide to Home Lobotomy, by Brooklyn-based artist Paul Gagner. The exhibition will open on Saturday, December 12, 2015 and will be on view through Saturday February 6, 2016. The Opening Reception will take place on Saturday, December 12, 2015 from 7pm-10pm. The opening will coincide with Guest Spot’s holiday celebration, with a special evening of cocktails and light fare.
Paul Gagner’s exhibition, A Beginner’s Guide to Home Lobotomy, encapsulates the sublime relationship between art and suffering through a whimsical narrative that outlines a fate that is all too common for artists: the self-fulfilling prophecy. The neurotic persona attributed to artists is revealed through Gagner’s disposition towards his personal estranged relationship with abstraction, which he demonstrates through a psychoanalytic perspective. Like most artistic personas, heroism has been attributed to some sort of societal ill or conflict. Gagner’s Dr. Howard Moseley, M.D. book cover paintings reflect the self-help franchise that foreshadowed the rapid decline of the middle class. The series of works serves as satiric analysis for vetting artists and their societal neuroses. While, Gagner’s relationship with Dr. Moseley can be compared to necromancy, their co-dependency is intertwined beyond an earthly bond, brought together by irony and lunacy. The relationship between art and self-affliction are historic wounds that are expressed in paint, the magnificent forms resemble the weight of seriousness that percolates behind abstraction today. Just as irony and satire run through the veins of the human condition, an authoritative bias clogs the arteries.
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topo(log) typo(log) : Lu Zhang, Artist Talk
Saturday, December 12th : 11am-1pm
George Peabody Library
17 West Mount Vernon Place : Baltimore 21201
ICA Baltimore presents topo(log) typo(log), a series of six books documenting Lu Zhang’s yearlong studio residency at the George Peabody Library. Emulating the Dewey Decimal system of relative location, each book embodies a level of the library: General Reference; Biography; History; Language, Literature, and Translation; Science and Art; Bibliography and Books about Books. Readers are invited to navigate through the pages as they would move through the cast-iron stacks and narrow passageways of the library’s interior.
Employing tasks common to a library of choosing, collecting, sorting, recording, transferring, scanning, and photocopying, Zhang reinterprets the building’s contents to create an associative and accumulative narrative that is specific yet arbitrary, expansive yet fragmentary. Gathering imagery from a wide range of sources including 18th century encyclopedias, architectural protrusions, guided tours, insurance maps, office supplies, renovation remains, and an essay on clouds, Zhang investigates the nature of work, the limitations of collective knowledge, and the poetics of place.
Additionally, the exhibition will include a selection of books curated by the ICA Baltimore from the Peabody’s collection in response to Zhang’s project, as well as books from the Johns Hopkins Library and the Maryland Institute College of Art—further contextualizing topo(log) typo(log) within library preservation theory and contemporary art movements.
After the duration of the exhibition, the six volumes will be acquired and cataloged by the George Peabody Library, becoming a part of the permanent collection.
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Fall Solo Exhibitions, Gallery Talk
Saturday, December 12th : 1-4pm
Arlington Arts Center
3550 Wilson Boulevard : Arlington VA 22201
In keeping with AAC’s mission of promoting rising regional artists, the semiannual SOLOS exhibition returns this fall. Following a call in early 2015, jurors Melissa Ho, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, and Chicago-based artist, Jefferson Pinder, recommended 14 artists for inclusion in AAC’s 2015-16 cohort of SOLOS artists.
Seven artists hailing from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the District of Columbia will each mount a self-contained show in one of seven separate gallery spaces, resulting in a sampling of never-before-seen art.
Artists: Katie Duffy (Baltimore, MD) | Rachel Guardiola (Baltimore, MD) | Dean Kessmann (Washington, DC) | Sonya Lawyer (Columbia, MD) | Nara Park (Washington, DC) | Austin Shull (Arlington, VA) | Benjamin Zellmer Bellas (Chestertown, MD).
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SHAG Presents: Mad Men Part 2, Open Discussion + Pot Luck
Saturday, December 12th : 11am-4pm
Arlington Arts Center
215 Central Avenue : Glyndon MD 21071
FREE program. All are invited.
Design Salon — Prieview Mad Men Part 2, Open Discussion, Pot Luck
December 12, 11:00am – 4:00pm
Stanley House, 215 Central Avenue, Glyndon MD
RSVP by Dec 4th. Space limited. RSVP to [email protected]
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MDVLA Art Law Clinic
Saturday, December 12th : 1-4pm
City Arts
440 East Oliver Street : Baltimore 21202
Come meet with an attorney for a 30-minute consultation regarding your arts related legal issue! There is a $5 fee for clinic services. We recommend scheduling an appointment as time slots fill fast ([email protected]).
Event Website:
Facebook Page:
Event Contact:
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Post Typography Print Sale
Saturday, December 12th : 12-4pm
Post Typography Studio
2219 St. Paul Street : Baltimore 21218
Come to Post Typography’s new studio space for a one-day-only art print, poster, & ephemera sale on Saturday, December 12 from 12:00 to 4:00 PM. We have many new prints and posters for sale this year, including extra copies of limited edition prints that we unboxed during our move. This smorgasbord of artwork, books, posters, LPs, and apparel is both handsome and affordable — most items are priced between $5 and $50.
Limited edition prints, posters, books, music, and apparel including:
• Screenprinted posters Future Islands, Dan Deacon, Beach House, Built to Spill, and for this summer’s Windjammer concert!
• Post Typography-designed notecards, shirts, and scarves
• Signed posters for the Maryland Film Festival, Baltimore Museum of Art, Artscape, Groundhog Day, and Alien movies
• Complete collection of limited edition prints from our OSAYCANYOUSEE show
Other goods for sale include snazzily-packaged music by Double Dagger and Peals, along with signed copies of Lettering & Type and other Post Typography publications.
At our new studio space in Old Goucher:
2219 Saint Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
Come early! Many items are available in limited quantities available—first come, first served. (Prints cannot be reserved ahead of time).
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The Swan
Saturday, December 12th and Sunday, December 13th : 8pm
EMP Collective
307 West Baltimore Street : Baltimore 21201
We’re kicking off the happy holiday season in style. Join us for a solo performance from member Alex D’Agostino.
The Swan blends performance art, dance, melodrama, fairytale tropes, and grand gore into an operatic serial killer ballet.
The Swan follows the surreal and disturbing journey of an individual bent toward hell, reaching for the stars. Our hero in this journey is an agitated queer activist and failed dancer beaten down by the system and looking to take revenge in order to rise to greatness. Cruising the cyber pastures of Grinder, Tinder, and Scruff, The Swan becomes obsessed with seducing and destroying the world’s Prince Charmings.
Come for the tea and cookies, stay for the homoerotic bloodbath. Your presence is kindly requested.
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In the Moon of Wintertime Concert
Sunday, December 13th : 3-4:30pm
The Walters
600 North Charles Street : Baltimore 21201
The Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, directed by Mark Cudek, will be joined by the Baltimore Baroque Band, directed by John Moran and Risa Browder, in a varied program of Renaissance, Baroque, and Sephardic music that reflects Christian and Jewish traditions, and will drive the cold winter away. Hot cider will be served at intermission. CDs will be available for sale in the Museum Store.
The Peabody Renaissance Ensemble was founded in 1988 and is composed of students and staff of Peabody and the Johns Hopkins University as well as guests from the Baltimore-Washington early music community. Baltimore Baroque Band is the baroque orchestra of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Playing side-by-side with their professors, students learn to play in a conductorless large ensemble that combines the commitment and attentiveness of chamber music with the discipline of orchestral playing.
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Artscape Information Session
Monday, December 14th : 5:30-6:30pm
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 202
1401 North Charles Street : Baltimore 21202
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts invites artists to the first Artscape Information Session on Monday, December 14, 2015 from 5:30 to 6:30pm at the John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 202 at the University of Baltimore located at 1401 North Charles Street. The information session is designed to give anyone interested in submitting a proposal or application for Artscape an opportunity to ask questions about the process and hear 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. A second information session will be announced at a later date. The 35th annual Artscape takes place July 15-17, 2016 with the theme of “Space: Explore What’s Out There.”
Applications are available at artscape.org/applications. Applications fees and submission deadlines vary. Additional applications will be posted soon.
Attendees are asked to RSVP at [email protected]. For information, call the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts at 410-752-8632 or visit www.artscape.org.
Attracting more than 350,000 festival-goers annually, Artscape features a full schedule of performing arts including live concerts from national, regional and local acts on multiple outdoor stages; professional dance troupes and a wide variety of opera, theater, street theatre, classical music and jazz performances. Additionally, the festival showcases visual artists from the Baltimore region and beyond through an artists’ market, outdoor & indoor exhibitions and an extensive variety of local food and beverage vendors. Admission is free.
