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BmoreArt’s Picks: Baltimore Art Galleries, Openings, and Events November 21 – 27

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Enduring Force: Maren Hassinger

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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Tis the Season: 20 Best Local Handmade Holiday Craft Shows in Baltimore
by Rachel Bone

<><><><><><><><>Depart Africa
Ongoing – Wednesday, November 22nd

Baltimore School for the Arts
712 Cathedral Street :: 21201

Depart Africa, a multidis- ciplinary exhibition investigating hybrid cultural identity, opens at Baltimore School for the Arts on November 2. Presented by Maryland Institute College of Art’s MFA in Curatorial Practice program, the exhibition explores the effects of immersing one- self in a new culture and environment and encourages visitors to interact with participating artists. An opening reception will be held from 4:30pm – 7:00pm on November 2, and the show remains open until November 22.

The works on view explore the architecture of assimilations that contemporary African artists build as they establish a new discourse upon moving to the U.S. It investigates the hybrid cultural identities of two artists: Amare S. Worku, a lecturer at MICA and Montgomery College, and Gabriel C. Amadi-Emina, a Photographic & Electronic Media MFA candidate at MICA. Both artists work within a white ma- jority society and use cultural assimilation as a point of departure in their work.

Depart Africa will utilize painting, installation, video, and photography to articulate the experi- ence of assimilation and the creation of hybrid identities as mechanisms of adaption. Examples include Amare’s I Belong Here (2015) painting, that investigates how relocation can affect artis- tic practice in the formation of a new cultural identity that leads to the creation of a new self, and Gabriel’s Us too go Chop! (2016) photographic sequence, which touches on various interactions and encounters experienced by the artist, with both his new landscape and its citizens.

Image: Gabriel C. Amadi-Emina, 2016, Us too go Chop! from the photographic sequence, Awọn itan pupa | Awọn okun dudu (Red Stories | Black Bodies). 60 x 40 inches.

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Jordan Card Androids In Fiction, Connor Kizer Spirit of America
Wednesday, November 22: 8-10 pm

Hosted by Wham City Lecture Series
1910 N Charles St, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

Jordan Card’s lecture title is, in fact, A long Complaint About Androids In Fiction. She will discuss the inherent moral dangers of creating AI, the risks of biochauvanism, and present examples of our awareness or inawareness of these dangers as they appear in various books movies and TV shows. Your Humble Host will present various personifications of the Spirit of America, and how they each represent the spirit of their times.

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Pop-Up Balloon Installation by Master Balloon Artist HongSeok Goh
Ongoing Work in Progress – Friday, November 24th

American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway :: 21230

The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is proud to host a special, one-time pop-up installation by blind, South Korean artist HongSeok Goh November 19 – December 2017. Goh began losing his eyesight at the young age of 19. But before going blind, he began twisting balloons. Largely self-taught, this master balloon artist has exhibited around the Asia Pacific region, bringing joy wherever his sculptures appear. Now, he visits AVAM the week of Thanksgiving 2017 under the generous auspices of the South Korean government. Inspired by the museum’s current mega exhibition, The Great Mystery Show, Goh will build a wholly original balloon sculpture at AVAM that will be on public view through December 2017 in the museum’s Dame Anita Roddick Tall Sculpture Barn. This will be Goh’s first installation in the continental US. He will be accompanied by a translator.
“Our AVAM focuses on self-taught, intuitive artists who work in unique mediums and make art that speaks directly to people’s hearts,” says Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, founder and director of the American Visionary Art Museum. “Goh’s work is a grand-scale visual feast to delight and surprise people of all ages. I can’t wait for him to meet our beloved friends and neighbors from the National Federation of The Blind, and of course, his presence enables us to sound an especially warm welcome to the area’s beautiful Korean American community.”
image: HongSeok Goh stands alongside one of his balloon sculptures.

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Happy Hour Party & Fundraiser Week for SNTL at R. Bar
November 24 – December 1: 5-10 pm

Hosted by Station North Tool Library at R. bar
301 W. 29th Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21211

The R. Bar @ R. House has created a special cocktail for The Station North Tool Library, which will be available for ONE WEEK ONLY :::: Friday Nov. 24th through Friday Dec. 1st :::: %of proceeds will benefit the tool library!!

** The Impact Driver *** like a screwdriver, but more powerful!

SNTL Friends/ Supporters/ Members —– JOIN US —- for a very special Happy Hour on Dec. 1st /// 6-9p //// or visit the R. Bar anytime that week to get your drink on while helping us meet our fundraising goal!

We are currently trying to raise $35,000 by the end of 2017 – HELP US STAY ALIVE AND THRIVING – we cannot do it with out your support! bitly.com/fundsntl <<< to donate! OR come have an IMPACT DRIVER at RBar after Black Friday Shopping!!!

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Sydney Shen: Four Thieves Vinegar
Ongoing  – Saturday, November 25th

Springsteen
502 West Franklin Street :: 21201

OUR PLESANCE HEIR IS ALL VANE GLORY,

THIS FALS WARLD IS BOT TRANSITORY,

THE FLESCHE IS BRUKLE, THE FEND IS SLE;

TIMOR MORTIS CONTURBAT ME.

—William Dunbar, c.1505

<><><><><><><><>What May Be
Ongoing  – Sunday, November 26th

Tectonic Space
2000 Greenmount Avenue :: 21218

Tectonic Space is excited to announce their October art show, What May Be. The show, exploring futuristic visions, opens Saturday November 4 from 7pm-10pm. What May Be is a showcase of art surrounding the topic of future worlds, and how our current actions will impact the future environmentally, socially, and politically. This event is free and open to the public.

Tectonic Space is an art gallery in Baltimore, MD primarily focused on illustration, graphic style artwork, comic book art, and sci-fi/fantasy artwork. They hold monthly rotating art shows as well as regular events. For more information, visit www.tectonicspace.com.

What May Be will be on display from November 4- November 26 2017. Tectonic Space is open to the public ThursdaySaturday 11-6pm and Sunday 11-4pm. For updates on the event and to RSVP, visit www.facebook.com/events/350671345346497.

<><><><><><><><>Shakespeare in Love 
Ongoing  – Sunday, November 26th

Center Stage
700 North Calvert Street :: 21202

“Shall I compare thee to a something something… mummers play?” And so begins one of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, and this charming story of love, inspiration, muses, and art, based on the Oscar-winning film. This smart and poignant tale offers a smattering of allusions that will delight anyone familiar with the Bard—or simply the English language. This story is as crowd-pleasing as mistaken identities, a shipwreck, and love triumphant, and is set in a time when a Londoner could still utter the words: “Shakespeare? Never heard of him.” A great play for the entire family.

Content Advisory: A bawdy tale of love contains some mature themes and sexual situations making this more suitable for audiences from middle school and beyond.

Approximate runtime is 2 hours and 25 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.

<><><><><><><><>Valerie Maynard: Devotion
Ongoing  – Friday, December 22nd

New Door Creative
1601 St. Paul Street :: 21202

Renowned sculptor/printmaker Valerie Maynard will exhibit at Baltimore’s Station North Arts and Entertainment District gallery, New Door Creative, October 22nd through December 22nd, 2017. The exhibition is entitled “Devotion”, and will feature a collection of woodcut and linocut prints. An opening reception will be hosted on Sunday, October 22nd at 3 P.M., and will feature a conversation with the artist.

“Devotion” explores a range of subject matter: visual interpretations of characters whose personal narratives have registered an imprint on the artist’s life; and examinations of the spirit of resistance, transformation, and creative intent.  The seventeen works included in the exhibition were created over multiple decades of printmaking practice; and reveal an evolution of thought, process, and technique by an artist whose name is synonymous with contemporary art, and the “heart and soul” of the Black Arts Movement.

Varied in scale, the works on exhibit singularly and collectively expose a chapter in the continuing story of an artist devoted to the creative process, the history and nuance of the African American experience, and the politics of art-making.  Throughout her distinguished professional history of more than fifty years, she has informed and inspired a broad scope of artists, students, educators, and collectors.

Born in Harlem in 1937, Maynard apprenticed as a portrait painter with artist Elaine Journey, followed by studying at the Museum of Modern Art. She received a M.A. in Sculpture from Goddard College in 1977.

Widely collected, the work of Valerie Maynard is included in the United States Library of Congress, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, The National Museum of Mozambique, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, IBM Corporation, White Plains, New York, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York, and the Riksutställningar National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.  Numerous public artworks include the New York City MTA Arts in Transit mural (glass mosaic on mezzanine walls and above stairs), Polyrhythmics of Consciousness and Light, which was installed on 125th Street/ Lexington Avenue subway station in Harlem, New York in 2003.

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