BmoreArt

This Week:  The Guardians at The Peale, Rapid Lemon Productions’ Nightbird at Motor House, The Route Towards Equity artist talk at Cade Gallery, the BMA hosts Monica Ikegwu and Tawny Chatmon in conversation with Myrtis Bedolla, MAP’s UNDER $500, Current Space Art Market, Station North Holiday Market, Chris Bathgate book signing at Connect + Collect, Mount Royal Soap Co.’s Night Market, and A.WAKE at Area 405 — plus Mattress Factory 2021 International Open Call and other featured Calls for Entry.

 

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]!

 

To Subscribe for BmoreArt’s Biannual Print Journals or to purchase a 2022 Art Dogs Calendar, head to our online shop!

 

 

 

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The Guardians: Reshaping History Community Update
Tuesday, December 7 • 6pm
@ The Peale

Join us for a virtual event that explores the future of the Guardians and their tireless work. Hear about their community initiatives and how they plan to continue to make change in Baltimore into 2022 and beyond.

We’ll also officially launch The Guardians exhibition in Second Life, the virtual world where the Peale building has been painstakingly recreated for online visitors around the world.

 

 

“Nightbird” by R. Eric Thomas – a reading
Tuesday, December 7 • 7pm
@ Motor House

What goes in the place of a Confederate monument in a black Baltimore neighborhood? Chelle, an artist, has recently purchased her childhood home in Upton; her brother Willard is working on refurbishing it. The place is stunning, honey, but the neighborhood is more weed than flower. The windows let in the sounds of a city street teeming with kids and sirens and the footsteps of white joggers and firecrackers and the chop of the police helicopters. And out of those windows you can see an abandoned lot on one side–an opportunity and an eyesore–and on the other, an empty pedestal that until recently was home to a statue of Robert E. Lee. An eyesore. And an opportunity. Willard is determined to focus on the present, preparing for a Juneteenth festival in the park that used to house the monument, as Chelle starts building a new monument to take the old one’s place.

This is a play about liminal spaces, about the in-between, the tenuous, the fragile and the things on the cusp of exploding. Will a reckoning come? And after that, well, what then?

Rapid Lemon Productions is delighted to present this script reading, directed by Noah Silas, for one night only. The reading will be followed by a brief talkback with the playwright and director.

All tickets are for in-person attendance; no streaming will be available. Attendees must be masked while inside the theater.

 

 

The Route Towards Equity | Public Reception + Artist Talk
Thursday, December 9 • 5-7pm
@ Cade Gallery

Inequality has been so pervasive, it has generated so much suffering, disadvantage and injustice, that equality can no longer be the goal. Humanity has now reached a point where we all need to strive for equity and guarantee that there is no disparity in the opportunities some are afforded over others. Only by “leveling the playing field,” by allowing everyone access to education, housing, health care and decent salaries, will we be able to survive as a fair, productive and -yes- egalitarian society.
The exhibit is open to all visual mediums.

JURIED BY
Ix-Nic Iruegas – Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute DC

ARTISTS
John Affolter, Jenny Balisle, Amy Bumpus, Matthew Coté, Jesse Egner, David Finck, Joan E. Gardner, Hope Gereghty, Nicolei Gupit, Daniel Horowitz, Sunyoung Lee, George Lorio, Samantha Resendez, Gary Rubin, Jose Trejo-Maya, Ila Van, Susan West, Tina Ybarra

EXHIBITION
Dec 2, 2021 – Jan 28, 2022 (Gallery is closed Dec 20 – Jan 7 for AACC’s winter break)Dec 9, 5-7 Public Reception and Juror Talk
VISIT THE GALLERY
Open, Mon & Wed, 8 – 4pm and Tues & Thurs, 12 – 6pm
Cade Center for Fine Arts, Anne Arundel Community College
101 College Parkway, Arnold, MD 21012

VISITATION PROTOCOL
Masks are required. If you are not currently a student please fill out a health attestation prior to entering the gallery. Attestations and a dropbox will be available outside the gallery door.

ABOUT THE JUROR
Ix-Nic Iruegas (Mexico City, 1970). She is a member of the Mexican National Art Creators System (SNCA). Translator and cultural manager, she was raised and educated in different countries and languages due to the Diplomatic activities of her parents. She holds a B.A. in Communication at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She has worked in radio and television, and has been a style corrector and researcher for non-fiction books. Since 2001 she started working in the production of cultural and corporative events. She was technical secretary at the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, where she was in charge of the operation of the virtual reality installation Carne y Arena, by Mexican film director, Alejandro G. Iñárritu., as well as the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 student movement in Mexico.  She was director of the Casa Universitaria del Libro, where she coordinated more than 150 activities. She worked at the Cervantino International Festival as PR manager and at the Centro Cultural Roberto Cantoral. As translator, she worked for PR agencies, law firms, museums and NGOs. In 2012 she conducted her first literary translator for the Fondo de Cultura Económica. Since then, she has translated more than 30 books for the FCE and other editorials, including El niño que nadaba con pirañas, by David Almond, which obtained a recognition from the Banco del Libro in Venezuela as the best translation in a children book in 2014; Miedo, by Kevin Brooks; Paisaje con mano invisible, by M. T. Anderson; El árbol de las mentiras, by Frances Harindge; Los hijos del Rey, by Sonya Harnett; Curaduría, by Michael Bahskar, and the anniversary translation of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, in collaboration with Mexican writer, Ignacio Padilla, selected by the Banco del Libro in Venezuela as one of The Best Books (Los Mejores) of 2018. She has recently published a translation of Gastronomía e Imperio: La cocina en la historia del mundo, by Rachel Laudan, and a A través del Espejo y lo que Alicia encontró ahí, de Lewis Carroll (fortcoming), as part of her work as member of the SNCA. Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute DC since 2020.

 

 

JJC Talks: Monica Ikegwu, Tawny Chatmon, & Myrtis Bedolla
Thursday, December 9 • 6-7pm
presented by the Baltimore Museum of Art

Join the Joshua Johnson Council on Facebook Live for their December meeting featuring the artists Monica Ikegwu and Tawny Chatmon in conversation with curator Myrtis Bedolla of Galerie Myrtis.

Watch live on Facebook.

About the Artists and Curator

Tawny Chatmon: Through the lens of photography and the layering of mixed media materials, artist Tawny Chatmon has captured the regality of Black youth. Inspired by the aesthetics of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s Golden Phase, Chatmon’s subjects are often depicted in period dresses and then layered with a mixed media of gold leaf, acrylic paint, and detailed with precious and semi-precious jewels. To add a spiritual presence to her subjects, Chatmon employs the Byzantine art aesthetic of elongating their bodies and dress. Consequently, these figures overwhelm the space. Adding emphasis are the grandeur and versatile styles and textures of natural black hair that serve as a celebration of Black beauty. Yet, there is also a stillness of these figures that echoes what Kevin Quashie (2012) describes as “the sovereignty of quiet” in which quiet “is a metaphor for the full range of one’s inner life—one’s desires, ambitions, hunger, vulnerabilities [and] fears.” Chatmon’s work primarily focuses on creating a safe and healing space for Black childhood in western society, which is feared and often indistinguishable from Black adulthood. The World Gold Council recently featured Chatmon in a documentary about the global gold industry. She lives in Annapolis, Md.

Excerpt from the essay “What I Want You to Know: Chatmon’s Visual Love Letter to Black Children” By Tanisha M. Jackson, Ph.D.

Monica Ikegwu: Monica Ikegwu is a Baltimore-based figure painter. She presents her ideas of the figure in a way that is not only captivating, but also unconventional in her use of color, texture, and composition. The figures presented in her work are often her siblings and family from whom she draws most of her inspiration as she watches them progress through life. Monica is a graduate student at the New York Academy of Art. She won many art awards during her student years and graduated in May 2020 from Maryland Institute College of Art.

Myrtis Bedolla, Founding Director, Galerie Myrtis: Myrtis Bedolla is the owner and founding director of Galerie Myrtis, an emerging blue-chip gallery and art advisory specializing in twentieth and twenty-first-century American art with a focus on work created by African American artists. Bedolla possesses over 30 years of experience as a curator, gallerist, and art consultant.

Established in 2006, the mission of the gallery is to utilize the visual arts to raise awareness for artists who deserve recognition for their contributions in artistically portraying our cultural, social, historical, and political landscapes; and to recognize art movements that paved the way for freedom of artistic expression.

Bedolla has recently gained national press in the New York Times article “Black Gallerists Press Forward Despite a Market That Holds Them Back” in June 2020 and authored “Why My Blackness is Not a Threat to your Whiteness” in Cultured Magazine in July 2020. Past coverage also includes being voted Best Gallery by the Baltimore Sun in 2017; “Black Art in the Spotlight,” Baltimore Magazine, September 2018; “Living with Art: Myrtis Bedolla Builds a Home and Gallery in Old Goucher,” BMORE Art, Issue 3; “Women in the Arts,” which honored women at the helm of the Baltimore art scene, Baltimore Style Magazine, October 2013.

Bedolla holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland, University College, received her curatorial training at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned online certificates in Cultural Theory for Curators and Curatorial Procedures from the Node Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin, Germany.

Board appointments: Association of Art Museum Curators & AAMC Foundation Trustee; University of Maryland Global Campus, Arts Program Chair; and the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City Board.

She holds memberships in ArtTable and the Association of African American Museums (AAAM).

About the Joshua Johnson Council (JJC):

Joshua Johnson Council (JJC) Members share a passion for African American and African art. Named after an 18th-century African American portrait painter who lived and worked in Maryland, the JJC is one of the oldest African American museum support groups in the U.S. Its mission is to forge meaningful connections between Baltimore’s African American communities and The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) by promoting and highlighting the achievements of African American artists.

JJC Membership offers a wide range of opportunities for active participation within a network of friends and colleagues dedicated to art, education, community, and family. JJC programs and meetings take place on the second Thursday of each month.

Find JJC on Facebook at: facebook.com/groups/joshuajohnsoncouncil

 

 

UNDER $500 | Virtual + In-person
** POSTPONED** Friday, December 17 • 6-10pm
@ Maryland Art Place

UNDER $500: Friday, December 17
6pm to 10pm | Tickets

Last Chance: Saturday, December 18, 12 to 4pm

Virtual Exhibition & Sale: Saturday, December 18-20, 10 pm

To view the virtual exhibition click HERE

Current Space 8th Annual Art Market
Saturday, December 11 • 12-5pm
@ Current Space

Join us for our 8th Annual Art Market in support of local artists and friends on Dec 11th!

– 11am-12pm: Members-Only Entry
– 12-5pm: General Entry

Come buy art directly from the artists, meet the people behind the work, and support them by buying something for yourself or someone special.

This year, we’re opening the Art Market up to our sustaining members an hour early (11am-12pm). Interested in supporting us? Memberships start at just $5/month and help make these events possible!

Masks required for all vendors and guests. We may limit capacity as needed.

Vendors include:
– Alyssa Dennis
– April Wood
– Danielle Hernandez
– Dan Talib Latif Flounders
– Elena Johnston
– False Chanterelle
– NegativeZombieFilmLab
– Sarah Magida Art
– Selected Moments
– Spatial Oddity Studio
– Wilson Kemp
& more!

This program is made possible in part by supporting members like you; the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization; the generous contributions of The Maryland State Arts Counsel; and The Creative Baltimore Fund, which is a grant program funded by the Mayor’s Office and the City of Baltimore.

Image from past Art Market.

 

 

Station North Holiday Market
Saturday, December 11 • 1-5pm
@ Station North Arts + Entertainment District

Need a few more gifts as the holidays get closer? Come back on Saturday December 11th from 1-6pm to support local artists and organizations. Artists are busy preparing their work in studios and we can’t wait to share their beautiful creations with you on December 11th. While you are shopping for that one-of-a-kind item, don’t miss an opportunity to sign up for classes and buy handmade home goods, jewelry, games, and more from our partners: Open Works, Station North Tool Library, Baltimore Jewelry Center, No Land Beyond, and City Arts resident makers. RSVP here. 

 

 

Craft as Muse in the Age of Digital Manufacturing | Gallery Open Hours With Book Signing
Saturday, December 11 • 4-6pm
@ Connect + Collect

Craft as Muse in the Age of Digital Manufacturing
A solo exhibition by Chris Bathgate

On view via appointment from November 20th through January 3rd, 2022.

Zoom Artist Talk
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021 at 6:30PM

Gallery Open Hours With Book Signing
Saturday, December 11th, 2021  from 4-6pm

Artist Statement:

“Within the arts, the word “craft” has always been problematic. Even in basic usage, it can be a noun (what you do) and it can be a verb (how you do it). It is used to describe a class of practices (such as pottery), as well as elements within them. Like the word “art” it can be near impossible to define in a way that satisfies everyone.

When viewed through the lens of modern manufacturing, the idea of “craft” with its traditional emphasis on handwork and dexterous skill, can seem out of place. But for me, as a self taught machinist who routinely uses both manual and automated processes, the idea of craft only becomes richer and more nuanced with the introduction of automation. Craft has been a conceptual through line in much of my sculpture work, even as I have pursued digital manufacturing as a medium.

Machine work is technologically holistic, it straddles the worlds of design, engineering, and the materials sciences. It has geological layers, with modern processes augmenting old ones. The mixing of old and new processes within my sculpture practice inspires a curiosity about other studio crafts that have been transformed through their adoption by artists. Practices such as glasswork, woodturning, and ceramics are all crafts that (like machining) got their start on a factory floor.

These traditional crafts however, differ from machine work in important ways. Unlike machining, the above craft movements represent processes that have largely fallen out of commercial use. They have since been picked up by artisans and turned towards more creative ends. Likewise, these crafts have signature forms that are common within their trade (Vases, bowls, urns). Shapes that tell that craft’s particular history and have become inseparable from its visual language.

While machining is a vocation that shares a similar industrial past, it is an evolving industrial process that remains in commercial use today. Likewise, there are few signature objects that uniquely represent modern machine work as a medium, as the same paradigm of craft and craft-form does not exist. Because of this, I have spent considerable time exploring what a “machined craft-form” might be. What forms might come to define such an expansive discipline as it cements its place within the arts.

In my sculpture work, I have become captured by the idea of borrowing craft-forms and materials from other Industrial mediums. I might remix a simple flower vase into a highly engineered object ringed by razor sharp knife-forms, or take a novel mechanic and integrate it into a stubbornly sculptural format. The goal is to bring attention to the sculptural nature of these utilitarian subjects by challenging their own functionality. By thwarting easy classification, these objects ask that they be considered for more than mere utility.

The works in this exhibit seek to find connections across various industrial eras. Every craft, no matter how old, was cutting edge technology at some time, and the arts are a powerful tool for understanding and preserving our technological heritage.”

For purchase inquiries or to make an appointment to see the exhibition email [email protected]

 

 

Night Market + Anniversary Party
Saturday, December 11 • 4-9pm
@ Mount Royal Soap Co.

Please join us Sat Dec 11th for our anniversary party & holiday market! Enjoy complimentary beer & hot beverages and warm up under our heat lamps! Everything will be 20% OFF ALL DAY to show our gratitude to you! See you soon! ⠀

 

 

A.WAKE | Benediction
Saturday, December 11 • 5-9pm
@ Area 405

Sculptural Works by David Page and Jordan Tierney

 

 

 

Calls for Entry // Opportunities

 

 

Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund
rolling deadline

As the largest crowdfunding platform for cultural projects, Kickstarter supports the success of thousands of new creative ideas every year and provides an opportunity for the public to counter larger structural inequities in how capital is distributed. However, research studies suggest that Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous communities face larger barriers on crowdfunding platforms, be it via access to community support or early investment to begin a proof of concept.

The mission of this Creative Capital x Skoll Creator Fund is to increase the number of funded Kickstarter projects launched by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators through removing early financial hurdles. These funds will help bring more of their creative projects to life in the world, creating a more diverse and equitable artistic ecosystem overall.

To select fund recipients, Creative Capital, Kickstarter, and Skoll Foundation will work closely together to continually review active projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators on the platform. The final selections will ultimately be made by Creative Capital and Skoll Foundation.

As part of the partnership, Kickstarter’s category experts will offer strategic guidance throughout each of the selected projects’ runs and Creative Capital will offer its extensive artist career development programming to the creators after they have successfully funded their project. Kickstarter will regularly promote the chosen creators on its platform, highlighting who has been funded and including them in promotional efforts through newsletters and social media.

For Creators
All projects launched on Kickstarter following their rules are eligible, and creators can nominate themselves for specific Forward Funds via this form—though applying does not guarantee funds. Our teams also work with Forward Funder organizations to proactively curate live projects that line up with their missions.

For Organizations
Forward Funders share in our belief in creative works as essential to a healthy and vibrant society. By working with Kickstarter to find projects that align with related missions, we create a bridge between institutions that champion creative projects and the creators bringing those projects to life. If your organization is interested in participating as a Forward Funder on Kickstarter.

 

 

Mattress Factory 2021 International Open Call
deadline December 10
sponsored by Mattress Factory

The Program – By Artists, For Artists

Continuing our commitment to centering artist voices and decentering institutional voice, the review of submissions and selection of artists will be done by artists who have previously exhibited at the Mattress Factory.  The artists forming the Artist Review Panel for the 2021 International Open Call are vanessa german, Sohrab Kashani, Christopher Meerdo and Sarah Oppenheimer. The Artist Review Panel will review submissions and select artists to be offered residencies and solo exhibitions, shaping the upcoming programs of the Mattress Factory from submissions to the open call.

During their residency, artists are free to explore wherever their process leads them. The Mattress Factory will support each artist’s process from development through production and installation to exhibition. Solo exhibitions resulting from residencies will be scheduled from Spring 2023 onwards.

Eligibility & Submissions

The International Open Call is open to artists from around the world as well as from around the corner. Artists are invited to submit a portfolio of work and supporting documentation, which will be reviewed by the Artist Review Panel.

Artists must submit a single, multi-page PDF file including (max. file size: 25mb):

• A 2-page (max.) Bio or CV.
• Up to 10 images for consideration. Images must be accompanied by the artwork’s Title, Year, Medium, and Dimensions. Please include any notes regarding installation if relevant. For video or audio works, please include a static image in the PDF (you may also include a URL pointing to the file online in the text of the PDF). You may also submit up to 4 supporting audio or video files.
• Artists may also submit supporting documentation, but it is not required (i.e. press reviews or videos of artist talks).
• Please do not include project proposals in your submission.

 

 

2022 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards | Call for Entry
deadline December 10
sponsored by BOPA

The Maryland Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Awards facilitated by the Baltimore City Arts Council is part of the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. Through the awards, students receive opportunities for recognition, exhibition, publication, and scholarships. This year’s competition deadline is fast approaching! Interested students should apply by Friday, December 10, 2021.

Bernheim’s Artist in Residence
deadline December 15
sponsored by Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

For over four decades, the Artist in Residence program has attracted artists from around the world who seek to use Bernheim as their inspiration. Established in 1980, this internationally renowned program annually awards artists the opportunity to live and create site specific work inspired by their total immersion experience in the natural environment. The work created through this program allows our visitors to experience nature in new and exciting ways while enhancing awareness of Bernheim’s mission of connecting people to nature. In 2021, we expanded the program to include an Environmental Artist in Residence that encourages artists to examine environmental issues and severity of the climate crisis to promote dialogue and positive change for the natural environment and world at large.

In exchange for comfortable rustic housing, access to studio space, financial and staff support for the development of new work, artists will create a site-inspired artwork, temporary installation or project as a donation to the Bernheim Foundation. Recipients are also asked to engage the public with their work and/or process while in residence.

Artists are encouraged to explore ideas that reinforce Bernheim’s mission of connecting people with nature and to use their residency to take risks, experiment, and explore new avenues in their own work. Any questions can be addressed with Arts in Nature Curator Jenny Zeller, [email protected].

We encourage visual artists of all mediums, with the broadest range of diverse perspectives and experiences, to submit work for consideration.

 

 

Elsewhere Funded Family Residency
deadline December 17
sponsored by Elsewhere Studios

Thanks to the generous support of Sustainable Arts Foundation, Elsewhere Studios is happy to host our third family residency month in July of 2022.

Accepted artists have the choice to bring their spouse/ partner and children or come on their own. They are provided with living and studio space, and are awarded a stipend of $1000 for a 10 day residency. The artist has the freedom to use the stipend for childcare, bills, travel / material costs, or for summer camp fees for children (there are several in Paonia.) Elsewhere staff can assist in connecting parent artists to childcare, summer camps, additional housing, etc.

Families will be housed in either the Basement Apartment: an independent living / studio space with its own kitchen, bathroom and sauna in the lower level of the main house, or the Suite: the upstairs living / studio space with two bedrooms, its own bathroom and shared kitchen. Two families-in-residence will overlap during their 1.5 week long residency, giving the opportunity for collaboration, shared childcare/meals/experience, etc. We are happy to have the children pursue their own creative pursuits as part of the residency and will include them (if they desire) in critiques, open studios, and other Elsewhere events.

We will be accepting four artists for this opportunity. Please email [email protected] for more information or any questions.

 

 

SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY. A STATE OF CONTROL | Call for Exhibition
deadline January 9
sponsored by LOOSEN Art

Accepted media: Photography, Digital Visual Design, Video
Group Exhibition in Rome or Milan city. April 2022
–
This call intends to collect works that are useful while critically commenting on contemporary society and on the tools used to regulate the behavior of the masses.
“A state of control”, this is how the condition of men who live within the spaces of an evolved society can be defined. More and more technologies are being used to guarantee the safety of individuals, in an attitude of trust towards those who have the task of nipping in the bud the emergence of behaviors not recognized by social norms.
Surveillance also means recording, analyzing behaviors and lifestyles, it means collecting data and information useful for the growth of a nation, for the protection and safety of one’s people, but also and above all, useful to those who know how to make economic profit out of all this.
It is here that, once again, that vision of the world made known by G. Orwel in his novel “1984” is called into question, where contemplation on human rights and freedoms are at the center of a conscious criticism of the social system and of an idea about the future.