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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Spencer Finch: Moon Dust | Installation Opening Day
from Wednesday, Feb 21st – October 14th, 2024
Baltimore Museum of Art
10 Art Museum Drive : 21218
Spencer Finch’s impressive light installation Moon Dust (Apollo 17), first presented at the 2009 Venice Biennale, will illuminate the BMA’s Fox Court for the next seven years. The work consists of 150 individual chandeliers with 417 lights. The chandeliers are hung individually from the ceiling and form one large, cloud-like structure. Although an abstract sculpture, the installation is also a scientifically precise representation of the chemical composition of moon dust as it was gathered during the Apollo 17 mission. Finch translated the diagrams of the chemical formulas of the contained molecules by using light bulbs in different diameters and basic customary fixtures with different arm lengths to create a three-dimensional scale model of the moon’s atomic makeup. The diameter of a globe corresponds to the size of an atom and thus represents a specific element, the small globes representing helium, the bigger oxygen. The overall effect is one of science translated into visual wonderment.
This installation is curated by Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.
Moon Dust (Apollo 17) is on extended loan from the collection of Joanne Gold and Andrew Stern, who are generously sponsoring its presentation at the BMA.
Image: Spencer Finch. Moon Dust (Apollo 17). 2009. Installation view at “Fare Mondi/Making Worlds”, Venice Biennial, 2009. Collection of Joanne Gold and Andrew Stern. © Spencer Finch, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Nordenhake Berlin/Stockholm. Photography by Gerhard Kassner, Berlin
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim
Friday, February 23rd : 7:30pm + Sunday, February 25th : 3pm
The Engineers Club
11 West Mount Vernon Place : 21201
Baltimore Concert Opera goes to the barber! Step into gilded ballroom of the Engineers Club to hear Stephen Sondheim’s horror story of a barber with a mysterious past and the best meat pies in London. Onstage antics, witty banter, and a dark twist — Sweeney Todd will keep you on the edge of your seat. BCO’s first-rate operatic voices will elevate this gripping piece of theater into a stunning musical work that is not to be missed.
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House of Stronzo Film Screening + Director’s Talk
Friday, February 23rd : 7-9pm
American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway : 21230
- Museum Members: Free. To reserve your free ticket(s) click here to email Melissa Mauro or call her at 410.244.1900 x238
- General Public: $10* Click here to purchase tickets online.
- Location: Jim Rouse Visionary Center building, 3rd Floor
(60 mins) – House of Stronzo chronicles the quest of Pete Cecere, one of the preeminent collectors of folk art and outsider art in North America, to find permanent homes for his “kids” – the more than 5,000 pieces of original art that are currently housed in his Virginia home – before he dies.
He thinks his house is the star of the show. But it’s Cecere’s bursting passion for his collection, his fondness for the often struggling artists who are driven to leave an artistic mark on the world, which steals this show. He struggles with the effects of diabetes and a breathing disorder, a constant reminder that time is not on his side. His daughter, former U.S. Ambassadors and Foreign Service Officers, as well as museum curators, offer glimpses into the peculiarities of Pete Cecere, a man who has made it his life’s work to honor those artists who receive little recognition but who boast an abundant passion for fulfilling the demands of their creative spirit.
The 60-minute film will be followed by a Q&A with Director Matt White, moderated by AVAM’s Founder & Director Rebecca Hoffberger. Light concessions will be available for purchase at the event.
*The screening will be held after normal museum hours and AVAM’s galleries will be closed. Museum admission is not included in ticket price.
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Laura Lippman Book Launch: Sunburn
Friday, February 23rd : 7pm
The Ivy Bookshop
6080 Falls Road : 21209
New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman launches her newest novel, Sunburn, a superb story of psychological suspense about a pair of lovers with the best of intentions and the worst of luck: two people locked in a passionate yet uncompromising game of cat and mouse.
Polly and Adam meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west and Adam says he’s also passing through. Yet she stays and he stays—drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other—dangerous, even lethal, secrets.
Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other’s lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away—or even if they want to.
Inspired by James M. Cain’s masterpieces The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and Mildred Pierce, Sunburn is a tantalizing modern noir from the incomparable Laura Lippman.
Laura Lippman is a New York Times bestselling novelist who has won more than 20 awards for her fiction—and been nominated for 30 more. Since her debut in 1997, she has published 20 novels, a novella and a collection of short stories. Lit Hub recently named her one of the “essential” female crime writers of the last 100 years. She also has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and T magazine. Laura lives in Baltimore with her husband, David Simon, and their daughter.
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Roger Beebe: Films For One To Eight Projectors
Friday, February 23rd : 8-10pm
Gallery CA
440 East Oliver Street : 21201
Secret Psychic Cinema is excited to host filmmaker Roger Beebe for his multi-projector performance at Gallery CA.
For the first time since 2011, filmmaker/curator/
The program features several of his best-known projector performances (including the six-projector show-stopping “Last Light of a Dying Star”) alongside recent award-winning work in single-channel HD video as well as his latest multi-projector mayhem, “SOUNDFILM.”
These works take on a range of strategies from formalist explorations of the materials of film to essayistic explorations of popular culture and a range of topics from the forbidden pleasures of men crying (“Historia Calamitatum (The Story of My Misfortunes)”) and the secret logic of the book of Genesis (“Beginnings”) to Las Vegas suicides (“Money Changes Everything”) and companies jockeying to be at the start of the phone book (“AAAAA Motion Picture”).
The 75 minute performance starts at 8pm and is FREE.
Secret Psychic Cinema’s third season is made possible in part by a Grit Fund Grant from The Contemporary.
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MICA’s 3rd Annual Benefit Drag Show
Friday, February 23rd : 8-10pm
Gateway BBox Theater
1601 West Mount Royal Avenue : 21217
Join MICA’s Faculty and Staff Queer Alliance (FASQA) for their 3rd Annual Gender Performance Show! This is a fundraiser for the FASQA scholarship award; therefore all proceeds will go directly towards scholarship funding. The show will feature Baltimore Queens and Kings: Miss Sue Nami, Chris Jay, Dee Dee Dereon, and Monet Dupree along with MICA’s staff and students performing in drag.
Tickets are $5 for MICA student tickets, $10 for general admission, and $20 for VIP passes (includes priority seating, snacks/drinks before the show and during intermission).
The FASQA Award was created to recognize student achievement and contributions to the LGBTQIAP community. Two prizes are awarded yearly, one to a student who demonstrated financial need and another to a student involved with and/or commitment to the LGBTQIAP community and issues.
If you have any questions, please contact FASQA at [email protected].
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Black History Month Student Competition | Opening Reception
Saturday, February 24th : 12-2pm
Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue : 21224
Baltimore City Public Schools and East Baltimore area community groups are invited to submit individual or group projects that represent Black History in Baltimore. The Black History Month Art Exhibition presented by Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Community Affairs gives local youth a forum to display their artistic talents at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson. Young people, families, community members and others will screen student work at the Creative Alliance’s Amalie Rothschild Gallery from February 24 through March 10, 2018. First prize is $1000, secod prize is $500 and third prize is $250. Honorable Mention is $100. People’s Choice award receives its own trophy!
Sponsored by Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Community Affairs Office and Creative Alliance.
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Test Pattern Gallery Talk
Saturday, February 24: 2-4 PM
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light St, Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Join us on Saturday, February 24th at 2pm for a Gallery Talk with the artists of “Test Pattern” at School 33! This is the final day that the exhibition will be on view. Come check out the show for the last time and hear from the artists and curator!
Test Pattern demonstrates a collective longing for reconnection with the simplicity of the analog era, while examining the psychology of our multi-generational society post Digital Revolution. Alternating between the material and the virtual, these artists layer analog and digital technologies through the use of video and sound, textile, painting, sculpture, and live performance. Throughout their processes of making they convert voltage into data, synthesized and percussive sound into imagery, and computerized experiences into physical objects. The resulting works explore social conventions and family life in the Information Age, the handmade vs the digitally rendered, the preservation and degradation of information, and ultimately, the relationship between the simulated and the tangible.
Featuring Tom Boram, April Camlin, Roxana Alger Geffen, Luke Ikard, LoVid, and Rives Wiley. Curated by Melissa Webb.
*Image credit- Tom Boram- “A New Type of Sex Nobody Has Ever Tried Before” (still from video)
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Anna Cutler Lecture
Monday, February 26 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM
MICA Lazarus Center Auditorium
131 W North Ave, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
The Mixed Media Lecture Series, MFA in Curatorial Practice, and Graduate Studies at MICA are hosting Anna Cutler who is responsible for the conception and direction of the Tate Exchange. Anna’s visit is an opportunity to think together about publicly-facing/
At 6:00 pm, Monday, February 26th, Anna will lecture and then there will be time for questions and discussion. The lecture is free and open to the public in MICA’s Lazarus Center Auditorium. Please join us, invite others and spread the word.
Here is a short introductory video: http://www.tate.org.uk/
Anna Cutler is Director of Learning and Research at Tate. Over the last 30 years, she has worked in education and cultural settings at a local, national and international level. Her purpose has been to explore and improve educational interventions in a range of cultural and cross-disciplinary arts environments. She is known for her innovative experiments in practice and the building of new theoretical perspectives. She aims to generate high-quality educational provision that is rooted in research, and is committed to positive, long-term change that is profound, sustainable and inclusive. Anna believes in transformational leadership and partnership working practices that are based on trust, generosity and respect. In September 2016, she initiated Tate Exchange, an ongoing program of events developed by artists, practitioners, the public and associates, both within and beyond the arts sector, aimed at building a dialogue around art, society, and the wider issues facing us today.
http://events.mica.edu/
