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BmoreArt’s Picks: Baltimore Art Galleries, Events, and Openings April 12 – 17

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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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<><><><><><><><>SHAG Present: Design & Civil Rights with Ellen Lupton
Wednesday, April 12th : 7-8:30pm

School of Design Soundstage
Stevenson University : Stevenson

<><><><><><><><>2017 UMBC IMDA MFA Thesis Exhibition: Glass, Oil, and Blood :: Opening 
Thursday, April 13th : 5-7pm

Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture
Fine Arts Building : UMBC

UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC) and the Department of Visual Artspresent the 2017 Intermedia and Digital Arts Masters of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition “Glass, Oil and Blood.”

Intermedia works on display will include time-based works, digital photography, objects and installations presented by three MFA Candidates in the Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) program: Melissa Penley Cormier, Ghazaleh Keshavarz and Jaclin Paul.

Originally from Appalachia, Melissa Penley Cormier creates time-based projects, installations, objects and works on paper. She received a BFA from Radford University in oil painting. Her MFA thesis project Fret + Focus is a time-based work made up of 365 microscope slides that physically sample worries in a way that allows them to be observed and archived. Viewing devices are borrowed and hand-made from various found objects and optical devices and fragments.

Naftoon is a multimedia art installation poetically integrating the essential role of oil in Iranian society through photo, video, audio, and animation elements by Ghazaleh Keshavarz. Keshavarz is an interdisciplinary artist with an emphasis on photography, installation, and site-specific projects. This installation explores the history of oil from the discovery of it in 1908, through the nationalization of oil in 1951 and up till now. Keshavarz received a BA in Photography from Tehran University of Art in 2012 and is UMBC’s RTKL Award recipient of 2017.

Jaclin Paul presents Sibling Portraits, a series of large-scale photographs that explore relationship, similarity, difference and family mythology through digitally manipulated photographs of eight brothers and sisters, along with animation and audio elements. Her work about the semiotics and pragmatics of phenotypes depicts her subjects in real and imagined spaces, directly implicating the photographer, the siblings, and by proxy, the viewer. Paul, a Shriver Fellow at UMBC, received her BFA in Photography and Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 2015 and spent a year in Ghana with the Peace Corps in 2014.

<><><><><><><><>(Global) Awareness: Senior Capstone Exhibiton :: Reception + Talk
Thursday, April 13th : 5:30-7:30pm

Rice Gallery, Peterson Hall
McDaniel College : Westminster

“(Global) Awareness” runs Tuesday, April 11Friday, April 21, with a reception on Thursday, April 13, 5:307:30 p.m., including a gallery talk at 6 p.m. Students showcasing their works are Suzannah Bannister of Cockeysville, Md., Jennifer Brown of Spotsylvania, Va., Sarah Lighter of Olney Md., Amber Smith of Baltimore, Rebecca Suraci of Mount Airy, Md., and Adriana “Summer” Villarosa of Knoxville, Md.

Suzannah Banister’s work in “(Global) Awareness” focuses on “opacity and color to represent different perceived identities,” while Jennifer Brown examines “how people perceive those with mental disorders.” Both running track and the experience of studying abroad in Australia has influenced Sarah Lighter’s artwork, which includes a website and three games “based off the Egyptian environmental struggles.” Amber Smith’s personal experience with histiocytosis, a rare blood disease, has inspired her to look at the “disconnect between childhood innocence and the harsher realities children often have to face.” Rebecca Suraci said that her work “focuses on perception, both on an individual and cultural spectrum.” In addition, Adriana “Summer” Villarosa uses an array of media from vinyl letters to photography in order to bring awareness to rape and sexual assault.

<><><><><><><><>Amplified Cactus v
Thursday, April 13th : 8pm

Spirits of Mount Vernon
900 North Charles Street + Read Street : 21201

Amplified Cactus v: can I be in balance with my ecosystem and not be lonely? Amazing art in response to this question …

<><><><><><><><>Ted Low Lecture: Toward Equity in the Arts 
Thursday, April 13th : 7pm

The Walters Art Museum
600 North Charles Street : 21201

Free, advance registration requested.

Join us for a conversation with Jess Solomon (Art in Praxis), Sheila Gaskins (ART-PART’HEID), and Darryl Ratcliff (Michelada Think Tank) about equity in the arts. This talk will examine how race and class have impacted access and inclusion practices for funding, promotion, and exhibition opportunities in the arts, and will look at efforts to improve equity in these areas. The annual lecture is held in honor of the Walters’ founding Director of Education, Ted Low, and focuses on an important current topic in the museum field.

<><><><><><><><>MICA UP/Start Venture Competition 2017 Finale 
Thursday, April 13th : 5:30-8:30pm

Brown Center, Falvey Hall
1301 West Mount Vernon Avenue : 21217

Join Us Thursday, April 13th to hear from our UP/Start MICA Venture Finalists and celebrate as we award up to $100,000 in investment funding to winning teams.

About the UP/Start Venture Program:

The Up/Start Venture Program, an initiative of MICApreneurship, focuses on incubating and building creative business ventures within the MICA community. Working with industry partners, the UP/Start Venture Program provides mentorship and capital to help nurture venture ideas into sustainable businesses.

UP/Start 2017 Ventures:

  • Club Sweetness
  • DANAE, INC.
  • Dandelion Wine Collective
  • Guitars by Evil Evil
  • LiFE Arts: Literacy for Everyone
  • Quarters
  • Upcycle Outerwear
  • Zee Bait Co. LLC

Program of Events:

  • 5:30 PM Doors Open & View Finalists’ Table Displays
  • 6:00 PM Welcome & Introduction
  • 6:15 PM 2016-2017 UP/Start MICA Venture Cohort Pitches
  • 6:45 PM Award Announcements
  • 6:55 PM Closing Remarks
  • 7:00 PM Celebration & Closing Reception

<><><><><><><><>That Face by Polly Stenham
Thursday, April 13th – Sunday, April 23rd

Third Space at Center Stage
700 North Calvert Street : 21202

Winner of the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award

Tickets $25; College Student tickets $20

Mia is in trouble at school. Her brother Henry is in trouble at home. Their mother is drunk and in Henry’s bed. And their estranged father is about to come home. That Face is a darkly funny play about a seriously dysfunctional family hurtling toward collapse.

That Face is the August Osage County for the next generation,” said Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah. “A bitter and brilliant portrayal of a modern family from an exceedingly talented young playwright.”

<><><><><><><><>SACRIFICE! by René Treviño :: Opening Reception
Thursday, April 13th : 6-8pm

Motor House Gallery
120 West North Avenue : 21201

History is subjective; there are many blurred lines and so much distortion.  Context and point of view are very important. One person’s hero is another person’s villain…it depends on who tells the story.  As a gay Mexican-American I have always felt excluded and under-represented by history.  By using a historical context as a backdrop for my work, I can reweave these “lessons” of the past. My work is an attempt to make our already complicated history even more complicated. The more layers that I present, the closer I can get to something that might resemble truth.

I am combining imagery from ancient Mexican codices with popular culture references such as Wonder Woman, Oreo cookies and the Lisa Frank canon to create a new, queer world that speaks to the future as well as our past.

Throughout my work are themes of identity; I am interested in challenging traditional ideas of race and sexual orientation.  I feel compelled to make thoughtful and beautiful work that confronts societal assumptions and gives new insight into our human experience.  My artwork addresses a personal quest for heroism and bravery as well as a need to define my place in the world.

<><><><><><><><>Married to Art: Espi Frazier :: Artist Talk
Friday, April 14th : 6-8pm

Gallery CA
440 East Oliver Street : 21201

As the nation pauses amidst the bloom of another spring to celebrate, honor and recognize the contributions of women throughout our collective history, March is Women’s History Month, Gallery CA presents the work of artist, Espi Frazier. On view from March 17th through April 21, 2017, the exhibition is aptly titled Married to Art. M2A features a herstory of one woman’s journey as presented through her art, while creatively commenting on our society, culture and history.

In the 1980s the artist collective, Guerrilla Girls, asked, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?” Married to Art answers this question through Frazier’s artistry and body of work, rather her anatomy. Creating in a range of materials including graphite on paper, acrylic, yarn and wood, Frazier’s work has been displayed at galleries and museums throughout the nation, including the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, Reginald Lewis Museum, Artscape, Howard University, and Maryland Art Place. Featured artwork in M2A includes the stylish and majestic, Church Lady Hats; the iconic and groundbreaking, Josephine Baker; and, the reflective and personal, Self Portrait.

Originally from Chicago and currently residing in Baltimore, Maryland, Frazier holds an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and a BFA from the renown Art Institute of Chicago. An artist and educator, Frazier is an Art Instructor at Friends School of Baltimore. Frazier represents the best of whom America is capable of producing. She is humble, conscious, courageous, creative and dedicated to art. “The show Married to Art is a fact of my life. I have been making art since age five. It has been a steady and dependable ground to stand on. Art has helped me through life’s unpredictable journey. Today, I am happy to say, I have not sought a divorce in 60 plus years. Art has been a lifelong wonderful marriage.”

<><><><><><><><>Cup-A-Thon
Friday, April 14th : 6-8pm

Baltimore Clayworks
5707 Smith Avenue : 21209

Join the Community Arts Department in making cups to support programming throughout the Baltimore community. Learn hand-building techniques, surface designs, and how to use different tools while making cups.Cup-a-thon cups are sold throughout the year and proceeds directly support Community Arts. Don’t worry, if you love the cup you made at the event, you can buy it back for just $10 (and you’re supporting the program!)

Free and open to the public | Please RSVP in advance | Limited to 24 spots

<><><><><><><><>Touchy/Feely :: Opening Reception
Friday, April 14th : 6-9pm

Baltimore Jewelry Center
10 East North Avenue : 21218

Touchy/Feely is the Baltimore Jewelry Center’s twelfth exhibition since opening in their new location in Station North. The exhibition will feature over 30 pieces by national and international artists that explore the tactile nature of jewelry. Jewelry is an intimate and sensual art form, providing a tactile experience for both the wearer and the observer. It’s an excellent medium for exploring the unsung sense of touch. As makers create work, they engage with their sense of touch, making decisions about materiality, structure, and form that will later engage the observer’s sense of touch, communicating a host of sensations and feelings. A dialogue between the maker and the observer is thus built on the social language of touch.

“The Baltimore Jewelry Center features one of the only art jewelry galleries in the Mid-Atlantic. Our exhibition program exposes the larger public to contemporary and traditional metal arts, and acts as a platform to promote and sell the work of local artists and national artists in the metalsmithing field,” said Shane Prada, Director. “Touchy/Feely will be our most engaging exhibition to date as viewers will be invited to touch, hold and wear the work featured in the exhibition.”

<><><><><><><><>Paisley FunkShun: A Prince CelebraShun
Friday, April 14th : 7-11pm

American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway : 21230

On April 14th 2016, Prince played what would be his final concert in Altanta Georgia. Little did anyone know, a short time after, he would pass into the afterlife. Fortunately, his formidable spirit and astounding musical legacy lives on through the body of his life’s work, as an artist and mentor to other artists.

 We are celebrating the anniversary of Prince’s last concert performance and his musical legacy the way he’d prefer, with a supercalifragisexy dance party!

  • Four hours of Prince as well as Prince inspired music (The Time, Shelia E, Vanity/Apollonia 6,  Sheena Easton, etc. and other surprises.)

  • 4 of Baltimore’s top DJs delivering the beats for a great time.

  • Sound, lighting and visuals

  • Mix and mingle with other fans of Prince

  • Drinks and light hors d’oeuvres

  • Party attire? It’s a Prince party, dress up or dress down. Show us what ya’ got! Raspberry Beret maybe?

<><><><><><><><>Everyday Utopias :: Opening Reception + Film & Video Projection
Saturday, April 15th : 4-8:30pm

Pool No. 2
Druid Hill Park : 21217

The Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) MFA program in Curatorial Practice and Baltimore City Recreation and Parks presents Everyday Utopias, a public art installation at Pool No. 2 in Druid Hill Park. The exhibition is on view April 15, 2017–May 7, 2017 daily from dawn to dusk at Pool No. 2, Druid Hill Park, Shop Road Commissary Road, Baltimore, MD 21217. Rain Date: April 22, 2017.

Emerging Curator, Sheena Morrison, brings together ten contemporary artists who respond to the palpable history of Pool No. 2.

OPENING RECEPTION: 

Saturday April 15th 4-8:30pm
Film & Video Projection at 7:45pm

ON VIEW DAILY 6am-9pm Pool No. 2 Druid Hill Park

<><><><><><><>

Tax March on Washington
Saturday, April 15 : 12 PM – 4 PM

U.S. Capitol West Front Fountain
1 First Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia 20510

Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would release his tax returns “later.” Then, just a few days after Trump assumed office, his top adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said that he wouldn’t release his tax returns ever, because the American people “don’t care.” We’re here to say that we do care.

Join us at the White House on Saturday, April 15, 2017, to march and show Donald Trump that he owes us transparency. Two-thirds of Americans are concerned that he may be putting his interests ahead of the country’s. Until we see his tax returns, we can’t know for sure.

Join us to demand protection from corruption: http://taxmarch.org/

Interested in volunteering? Sign up here !

By RSVPing for this event, I pledge to comply with the law and I commit to act non-violently in word and deed.

<><><><><><><>

AIR QUOTES closing reception with an informal discussion with artist Jennifer Grimyser
GUEST SPOT @ THE REINSTITUTE
Saturday, April 15, 2015 2-4pm

“” AIR QUOTES A SOLO EXHIBITION BY JENNIFER GRIMYSER

Photography is known for its contentious history surrounding issues of body politics and legitimacy. Our understanding of history is greatly influenced by the reliance on pictorial memory. Today, society has difficulty discerning a multitude of independent objectives. Manipulation and speed are fundamental to our visceral and political landscapes, contributing to our inability to decipher raw data in real time.

The cultural phenomenon of hyper-connectivity has institutionalized the id.

The physical gesturing of air “quotes” signals the critique of falsehood, similar to the way in which the snap of the fingers punctuates the urgency of time. Jennifer Grimyser’s exhibition “”Air Quotes examines the cultural conditioning through which digital photography desensitizes society’s preconceived ideas around the manipulated image. The exhibition is at the juncture of digitization and the aesthetics of a studio-based practice. Jennifer Grimyser’s photography utilizes both iconography and language for a comparative synthesis of play, physicality, and medium. The process is unique where the photographs are reconstructed in physical space rather through digital manipulated means.

Jennifer Grimyser was born in Milwaukee, WI and received a BFA from MICA and an MFA from Hunter College. She has presented solo exhibitions at Bronx River Arts Center and Solo(s) Project House. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in numerous group exhibitions including galleries such as Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Lesley Heller Workspace, Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Islip Art Museum, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Bronx Art Space, and galleries at both Rutgers University and the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been awarded studio residencies including Vermont Studio Center, Women’s Studio Workshop, and NARS Foundation. Jennifer has published two limited-edition artist books through Women’s Studio Workshop and Kayrock Screenprinting. Her work is featured in several collections including Walker Arts Center, Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Indiana University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

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