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BmoreArt’s Picks: Baltimore Art Galleries, Openings, and Events August 29 – September 4

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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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Have you gotten your tickets yet to BmoreArt’s Magazine Launch Party??? Release of our next print journal, Issue 04: Community, happens on Saturday, September 16 at the Baltimore Eagle. Tickets and info here! We can’t wait to celebrate with you!

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<><><><><><><><>New Arrivals | Opening Reception
Wednesday, August 30th : 6-8pm

UMCP Stamp Gallery
1220B Adele H. Stamp Student Union : College Park

This fall the Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park, presents New Arrivals 2017, an exhibition of artwork acquired this year by the university’s Contemporary Art Purchasing Program (CAPP). On view August 28 through October 14, 2017, with an opening reception on August 30, 6–8pm, the exhibition features fourteen artworks by nine emerging and mid-career artists. All completed within the last decade, these works examine contemporary experiences of race, gender, class, embodiment, and personal identity. Spanning photography, collage, textile, sculpture, and video, the works explore inclusivity and intersectionality, offering unique visions of human interdependence and vulnerability.

Highlights include:

  • Brooklyn-based artist, archivist, and educator Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s Lower the Pitch of Your Suffering and Take It Like a Man, But Don’t Take It Up With “The Man”—both part of the artist’s “How to Suffer Politely (And Other Etiquette)” series. This pair of prints shows Rasheed’s effort to expose the policing of “suffering, anger, and responses to trauma,” that aims to “ensure that said expressions of suffering do not declare accountable oppressive systems,” as she explains.
  • Baltimore-based artist and composer Paul Rucker’s November 5, 1893 – Savannah, Georgia, a panel of wood gracefully hand-carved by the artist to resemble the body of a cello. Part of Rucker’s “Soundless Series,” the silent sculpture is titled in reference to an event organized against violence, offering hope that prejudices can be overcome.
  • Korean-born, Brooklyn-based Kakyoung Lee’s Dance, Dance, Dance, a single channel video accompanied by ten drypoint prints. Lee’s video, an animation created from a total of 348 of these prints, emphasizes the cathartic experience of repetitive and intensive study, suggesting possible practices of self-care and self-love expressed through meditative motions.
  • Sophia Narrett’s So Many Hopes, a work of embroidery that explores both fantastical and real environments where women actively bond without male presence.
  • Two works from Martine Gutierrez’s “Line Up” series, images that feature the artist photographed together with six mannequins, staging scenes in which human identity emerges as fluid and shifting, defying stable paradigms of perception.
  • Two works by Washington, DC-based artist Nate Lewis, from his “Tensions and Tapestries”series. Lewis, a registered critical care nurse, creates hand-sculpted photo paper prints that reimagine physical biology and the interconnectedness of human bodily systems.
  • A pair of works by Baltimore-based artist Zoë Charlton, part of her “Those Girls” series, collages that exploit strong contrasts between negative space and vivid figures to suggestively probe the limitations of the American Dream.
  • A commissioned ‘rammed-earth’ work by Margaret Boozer, founder of Red Dirt Studios in Mt. Rainier, MD, created with locally sourced earth and stone and installed in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union concurrently with the exhibition.
In association with her works on view in New Arrivals 2017, artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed will visit campus on October 6, 2017, to deliver an artist talk. Rasheed’s work will also be on view in a solo exhibition entitled Unto Itself (open September 14 through October 6, with a reception on September 14, 6-8pm, free and open to the public) in the Herman Maril Gallery at the University of Maryland, College Park. The artist will also create a unique poster installation in the entrance to the university’s Art-Sociology Building (where the Maril Gallery is located).

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Paul Rucker: Rewind
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 31, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., Wolf Hall lobby
Artist Lecture: Thursday, August 31, 7:00 p.m., Cora Miller Gallery

York College Galleries (Main Campus)
August 31 – October 21, 2017

Paul Rucker is a visual artist, composer, and musician whose work integrates live performance, original compositions, and visual art to weave together a powerful historical narrative. REWIND, named “Best Solo Show 2015” and “#1 Art Show of 2015” by the Baltimore City Paper, includes handmade objects, video, photographs, sound art, original music compositions, and historical artifacts and documentation to offer a layered, multi-sensory investigation of human rights issues and basic human emotions. Rucker has received several prestigious grants, awards, and residencies. Most recently, he was named the first artist-in-residence at the National Museum of African American Culture and 2017 Guggenheim Fellow.

*Must show YCP ID or make an appointment to view this exhibition

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Baltimore Comedy Festival | Opening Showcase
Thurday, August 31st : 8-11pm

Motor House
120 West North Avenue : 21201

The Baltimore Comedy Festival partners with The Motor House in Station North Arts District to bring you the Opening Ceremony for the Baltimore Comedy Festival. Admission – $5.00 -Come And Support your Baltimore Comedy and Arts Scene.

<><><><><><><><>Friends Records Presents: Wing Dam, Spaceface, Natural Velvet
Friday, September 1st : 7pm

Current Space
421 North Howard Street : 21201

Friends Records is super proud to present this banger of a show! Friday September 1st, outdoors in the lot of Current Space, come join us in celebrating the official release of the Spaceface “Sun Kids” LP on Friends Records as well as celebrating all that is beautiful about Baltimore!

Doors will be at 7PM
NATURAL VELVET will be kicking things off. Finally home from the road supporting their recent Friends release, “Mirror To Make You”, come see Corynne, Spike, Kim and Greg do what they do best together.
https://friendsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mirror-to-make-you-2

Next up will be Spaceface! Spaceface is the side project of Jake Ingalls of Flaming Lips and while they have been at it for quite a few years, “Sun Kids” is their first proper full length LP. It was originally released independently back in May and is officially coming out on Friends on September 1st! Copies are super limited and super beautiful (each LP is uniquely colored). More info on this release coming soon on the Friends site and facebook pages.
https://soundcloud.com/spacefacememphis/sets/sun-kids-master-finals

Keeping things rolling and closing out the night is Wing Dam. Sara, Austin and Abram will be live and in full color, playing songs from their Friends LP “Glow Ahead” (which was released one year ago) and hopefully we will get a glimpse at some new material. Fresh off of their east coast tour with Jenny Besetzt, expect them to be super tight and firing on all cylinders.
https://friendsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/glow-ahead

We have to be done by 11pm to stay within the boundaries of the law and our noise ordinance permit so get there early!

<><><><><><><><>10th Annual DIY Fest
Saturday, September 2nd : 12-9pm 

2640 Space
2640 St. Paul Street : 21218

Join us at the 10th Annual DIY Fest for a day full of free workshops! Come learn something new and check out our 30+ vendors.

For full workshop descriptions, check out our website:
https://diyfest.org/2017-schedule-information/

Pulled pork sandwiches and jackfruit sandwiches sold by Tree Frog Hot Sauce!

Workshops:

Potted Fruit Trees – First 15 attendees get to take home a fig tree! Taught by Kevin Antoszewski, Civic Works Baltimore Orchard Project

Mehendi (Henna) – Taught by Aayesha The Henna Artist. This is Aayesha’s 2nd year teaching at DIY Fest!

Vegan Cooking – Taught by Dovetta Taylor, 2nd place winner of this year’s Vegan Mac ‘n Cheese Smackdown!

DIY Academia: How to Become an Independent Scholar – Taught by
Jordannah Elizabeth, a local independent scholar, author, musician, & journalist.

Independent Film Making & Distribution – Taught by Peter Azen who has worked in film for the past 11 years.

Acrylic Selfie Portrait Painting – Taught by Katia Baskina, a local artist.

Bicycle Tire Repair – Taught by Baltimore Bicyle Works. We are thrilled to have Baltimore Bicycle Works back to teach another workshop!

Jewelry Making – Taught by Jessica Oby who has taught jewelry making for all 10 years of DIY Fest’s existence!

Fire Starting & Cordage(aka survival rope) – Survivalism 101 – Taught by Dan Devries who taught this workshop at the 4th Annual DIY Fest.

Make Your Own Zine! – Taught by A. Jarrell Hayes, a local Baltimore story teller!

Fermentation Through Sauerkraut – Intro to fermenting taught by Alison Moss.

Activist Self Care & Yoga – Taught by Ren, founder of DC Fire Yoga

All About Bitter Herbs – Taught by Aylén Maquehue, founder of Anümka Che

Plant Propagation – Taught by Jen Doll

Maybe more?

Tablers:
Moongirl Paperworks
Sybil Press
The Word Distrobution
Snack King Comics
Kitten Witch Apothecary
Stardust Herbals
JC
ArtXscape Everything Creative
Katana Lippart
Rachael | Hausos
Parang Kim / DIY to ART
Cory Kram
Hannah Bae
Amadeus Magazine
Stay Kind! Distro
Courteney Gannon
Joe Maccarone
Katherine Charney
Katia Baskina (Kat Art LLC)
thelalatheory
Ipsy Bipsy Studio
Jordan Levin
Léa van der Tak
A. Jarrell Hayes
xelavice
Aayesha (Strvnge Encounters)
+ more TBA!

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Black Man in a Black World | Opening Reception
Saturday, September 2nd : 4-6pm 

Galerie Myrtis
2224 North Charles Street : 21218

“Black Man in a Black World,” Opening Reception: Saturday, September 2, 2017, 4:00-6:00 pm. Exhibition Dates: September 2 – November 18, 2017

Black Man in a Black World features works by Wesley Clark, Larry Cook, Johnnie Lee Gray, and Arvie Smith. Through internal ruminations and visual explorations of historical perspectives and contemporary realities of blackness this exhibition offers individual and collective visions of the multi-faceted intersections of black male identity. Through an interactive installation addressing the issue of reparations, and multimedia presentations of painting, sculpture, printmaking, and photography Black Man in a Black World aims to center the black male perspective through theagency and distinctiveness of their own voices. The reclamation of ownership of the visual representations of black male consciousness and identity, by black male artists, requires the kind of boldness, passion, and honesty that has the power to viscerally ignite the soul and spark a transformation of self and community.

This exhibition experience will be enhanced by an artists’ talk, panel discussion, musical selections, and a curated schedule of film screenings inclusive of the black male experience within the United States and abroad. Check back for programming schedule.

Myrtis Bedolla, Curator; Khadija Nia Adell, Co-curator; Alexander Hyman and Sterling Warren, Curators of Film & Music.

<><><><><><><><>WORK WORK w/ Studio HH
Saturday, September 2nd : 7-9pm 

Press Press
427 North Eutaw Street : 21201

We are proud to host visiting artist Hannah Hiaasen for an evening of ventilation. She will perform selected readings from Ventilated Work Book, her manifesto, amongst a display of Ventilated Workwear: Back to School– a line of office materials that help you keep cool when the hard work heats up. Following the reading, we hope to casually reflect and discuss the work we’ve all individually and collectively participated in this summer over a potluck dinner (din din) and set our intentions for the work that lies ahead as we step into the new season.

Any snacks / foods are welcome & all is free.

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C O N C R E T E / C O M P L E X: a portrait of McKeldin Fountain by Shannon Collis & Liz Donadio
Artist Talk / Closing Reception Sunday, September 3: 2-4 pm

Current Space
421 N Howard St, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
Exhibition on view: August 12 – September 3
Gallery Hours: Sat & Sun, 12 – 4pm

“Architecture is the establishing of moving relationships with raw materials” – Le Corbusier

Artist Statement: Using photography, video, and sound, Baltimore-based artists Shannon Collis and Liz Donadio documented McKeldin Fountain’s last days. Their portrait of the once-functional space culminates in an immersive installation that conjures a meditation on the essence of this urban landmark. The installation’s sculptural forms reference the fountain’s Brutalist design, and celebrate its minimalism and strong angles; video shot on site traverses each of these surfaces. Collis and Donadio’s abstract visual and auditory impressions offer a sensory memorial experience of McKeldin Fountain, opening a layered engagement with viewers.

Erected in downtown Baltimore in 1982, McKeldin Fountain was an unembellished structure, poetically designed to evoke natural rock formations of the Susquehanna River—the longest river on the east coast and one of the oldest in the world. Its cliff-like forms were made in the architectural style of Brutalism, an uncompromising aesthetic known for minimalism and modular components. McKeldin was part of Baltimore’s urban landscape for over three decades, fusing natural ecology and modern design into the heart of the city.

A designated free-speech zone, the fountain was home to Occupy Baltimore in 2011 and to Black Lives Matter protests in 2015. Bridges and walkways crossing concrete forms allowed pedestrians to gather, sit, and experience a singular space. The fountain’s rushing water muffled the sound of constant traffic, offering an unlikely oasis in the middle of a hectic downtown.

In late 2016, city planners and developers dismantled McKeldin Fountain. Outcry against removal went unheeded and arguments lauding its significance as public art were ignored. Passersby witnessed the fountain’s ultimate demolition that November. Huge machines pummeled away at concrete as hoses sprayed water to prevent dust from flooding the air. For weeks McKeldin was surrounded by chain-link fence and black plastic, allowing only brief glimpses in. What remains of the monumental structure are mental images and memories, full of history but no longer existing in the physical realm. Even in absence, McKeldin retains its significance.

Architecture can be an extension of the physical self: buildings tell us about our bodies, personal and social, and structure our experiences and memories. We assert the right and need to witness and commemorate those public spaces that have been our venues for communal gathering, spaces where we’ve exchanged simple pleasantries or radical ideas. Concrete / Complex is an artists’ tribute to McKeldin Fountain, to its design, history, and life in Baltimore.

Artist bios:

Shannon Collis is an interdisciplinary artist whose studio practice focuses on creating installations and interactive environments that explore various ways in which digital technologies can transform one’s perception of audio and visual stimuli. Her work has been exhibited widely across North America as well as in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Brazil. Collis is a 2005 graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and has completed postgraduate research at Concordia University in Montreal in the area of digital media and computation arts. She is also a 2015 recipient of a Visual Artist Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Collis is currently an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, where she teaches digital media and sound. www.shannoncollis.ca

Liz Donadio is a photographer & video artist who documents quiet moments in her surrounding landscapes, using analog and digital media. Donadio’s work has been exhibited and screened nationally, most recently at Open Lens Gallery in Philadelphia. She received her MFA in 2012 and is currently a Lecturer at Towson University in the Department of Art + Design and Art History. Donadio runs Color Wheel Digital Printing, a fine-art print service in Baltimore. www.lizdonadio.com

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