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BmoreArt’s Picks: March 8-14

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This Week:  Zoë Charlton leads a talk on Baltimore artist residences for MSAC, NMWA presents International Women’s Day virtual festival, reception for E. Brady Robinson’s SK8R GRLS at Hotel Indigo, John Waters reception at C. Grimaldis Gallery, BMA hosts Rikiesha Metzger lecture, Rapid Lemon Productions’ Dead and Breathing opens at Motor House, Rites of Spring group show opening at Gallery CA, 33rd National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition opening at Gormley Gallery, “Night Visions” by Richard Cleaver / “Surface Circus” reception at Baltimore Clayworks, and Majolica Mania begins at the Walters — PLUS Pile of Craft vendor application 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]!

 

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We’ll send you our top stories of the week, selected event listings, and our favorite calls for entry—right to your inbox every Tuesday.

 

 

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Coffee with the Council: Baltimore Artist Residencies
Tuesday, March 8 • 9-10am
presented by Maryland State Arts Council

Coffee with the Council: Baltimore Artist Residencies: Time, Space, and Community. Join MSAC Councilor Zoë Charlton and representatives from the Ibura Arts and Research Residency at Blue Light Junction and The Last Resort Artist Retreat for a discussion about artist residencies and rest and research as integral parts of the creative process.

 

 

International Women’s Day 2022: Virtual Festival
Tuesday, March 8 • 10am-6:30pm
presented by National Museum of Women in the Arts

Spend your International Women’s Day with the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Join conversations with artists from around the world, explore what’s new in the field of book arts, enjoy a cocktail and music with a special broadcast of The Tea, and much more! Free. Live and pre-recorded programming available. Register for each program separately.

 

 

SK8R GRLS: Life in Motion | Reception
Tuesday, March 8 • 5-7pm | Ongoing through March 18
@ Hotel Indigo

SK8R GRLS: Life in Motion
On View: January 25, 2022 – March 18, 2022
Reception: March 8, 2022 | 5 to 7pm
Hotel Indigo | 24 West Franklin Street | Free & Open to the Public

Maryland Art Place in partnership with Hotel Indigo Baltimore is pleased to present SK8R GRLS, a photo series by E. Brady Robinson celebrating the freedom and joy of roller skating. The exhibition is on view at Hotel Indigo Baltimore, located at 24 West Franklin St. from Jan 25th – March 18th. A public reception will take place March 8th from 5 to 7 pm in celebration of International Women’s Day.

In spring of 2021, Robinson took up skating as a way to stay active and reconnect with friends outdoors during COVID-19. During these skate dates, she photographed  friends and eventually, a wider network of Baltimore-based female-identifying skaters. This work combines her love of athleticism, fitness and fashion photography.  These images, made at a moment where it felt like the world was reopening after over a year of closure and isolation during the pandemic, evoke a feeling of release and freedom.

Robinson completed her BFA in photography at MICA and MFA in photography at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.   Her background is in documentary photography and portraiture. The nine archival metal prints on display at the Hotel Indigo depict strong women amidst a backdrop of Baltimore monuments and sites. Locations such as Lake Montebello, Patterson Park, the Druid Hill Tennis Courts and the Ravens parking lot, signal the public landscape of Baltimore for those that know it well, in contrast to photographs made in the artist’s Maryland Art Place studio which utilize strobe and gel lighting to simulate the vibes of the 80’s roller skating rinks  reminiscent of Robinson’s childhood.

The skaters photographed include artists, musicians and female entrepreneurs; women in the creative scene in Baltimore, including Amy Cavanaugh, Caitlin Gill, Jade Davis, Tina Thompson, Brittany Wight, Les Gray, Hayley Furman, Jessica Lauryn, Sophie Kluckhuhn and Wildège François.

 

 

The Worst of Waters: Works Never Before Exhibited in Baltimore. The Rudest, The Hardest to Sell, The Just Plain Wrong | Opening Reception
Thursday, March 10 • 6-8pm | Ongoing through April 16
@ C. Grimaldis Gallery

C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present The Worst of Waters: Works Never Before Exhibited in Baltimore. The Rudest, The Hardest to Sell, The Just Plain Wrong. Featuring twenty-six artworks spanning decades of the artist’s career, The Worst of Waters is a quirky and insightful voyage into the mind of one of Baltimore’s most creative legends.

Through processes of reconstructing film strips and appropriating everyday objects, Waters intentionally directs instances that shift the gaze to raw depictions of queer identity, racial inequality, and class dysphoria. His work examines the distance between fine art, entertainment, and the human experience. Recurring themes of humor and tragedy serve to disrupt our presumptions, becoming self-reflective agents of truth. The bizarre, the absurd, and the poorest of tastes act as entry points to fully unpacking Waters’ perspective.

John Waters empowers the often unseen and overlooked. This exhibition highlights the “worst” as an exclamation point … a moment to feel untethered, to bare our teeth, and to howl with glee.

Cult filmmaker, artist, actor, and writer John Waters lives and works in Baltimore, MD. He has directed numerous unforgettable film projects including Pink Flamingos (1972), Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), and A Dirty Shame (2004). In 2014 the Film Society of Lincoln Center honored Waters with a Film Retrospective, Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take? John Waters’ work in photography and sculpture has been shown in galleries all over the world including the Swiss Institute (New York, NY), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, NY), the Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), the Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD), Laumeier Sculpture Park (St. Louis, MO), the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), and the Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA).

John Waters is the author of several successful published works including Shock Value (1981), Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1986), Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America (2014), and Art: A Sex Book (2003, co-written with Bruce Hainley). His most recent book Role Models (2010) appeared on best-seller lists for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Waters is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is on the Wexner Center International Arts Advisory Council. He is a past board member for the Andy Warhol Foundation and Printed Matter and was selected as a juror for the 2011 Venice Biennale.

The Worst of Waters will be on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery from March 10th through April 16th, 2022. A reception will take place on Thursday, March 10th, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. Masks covering the nose and mouth are REQUIRED at this event. Hours for C. Grimaldis Gallery, which is free and open to the public, are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. We are pledged to follow certain requirements for COVID-19 safety compliance. Please see our website for details. Press Inquiries: [email protected]

 

 

JJC Talks: Rikiesha Metzger
Thursday, March 10 • 6:30-7:30pm
presented by the Baltimore Museum of Art

Join the Joshua Johnson Council’s March meeting featuring artist Rikiesha Metzger.
Watch on Facebook Live.

About the Artist:  Rikiesha Metzger is a multifaceted community artist working with themes related to race, identity, and beauty. Originally from Philadelphia, PA, she has traveled extensively as an artist interested in experiencing and collaborating with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Built upon a strong spiritual foundation, she desires to teach people how various forms of art can provide them with an outlet for self-expression. As a socially engaged artist, her professional and research interests revolve around the transformative power of art and its ability to create new experiences, rebirth, and reignite the spirit of underserved communities. As a working mom, adjunct professor at MICA, and art teacher at Hampden Christian School, Rikiesha believes the Creator of the Universe helps her to balance all aspects of her life. Currently, Rikiesha is a student at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, pursuing a degree in Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory.

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.

 

 

Dead and Breathing
Friday, March 11 | Ongoing through March 27
@ Motor House

Cranky old Carolyn Whitlock has been in hospice for far too long and just wants to die already. But she’ll have to work harder than she ever has in her privileged life to convince her oversharing and very Christian nurse to help her end it. Through surprising humor and persistent questioning, Dead and Breathing investigates morality, mortality, and the intense tug-of-war between the right to die with dignity and the idea of life as a gift.

This Baltimore-premiere is directed by Noah Silas.

Produced by special arrangement with Playscripts, Inc.(www.playscripts.com)

 

 

Rites of Spring | Opening Reception
Friday, March 11 • 6-8pm
@ Gallery CA

A new group show at Gallery CA, featuring local and resident artists featuring: Hannah Brancato, Amelia Carroll, Markele Cullins, Danielle Damico, Dave Eassa, Caity Gill, Kate Haberer, Nora Howell, Deb Jansen, Ilenia Madelaire, Ada Pinkston, and Rey Sagcal.

Regular Gallery Hours: Monday- Friday Noon-4pm
Please email [email protected], or call
410-528-9239 to schedule an appointment.

 

 

33rd National Drawing & Print Competitive Exhibition | Artists’ Reception and Juror’s Talk
Saturday, March 12 • 4-6pm | Ongoing through April 14
@ Gormley Gallery

For 33 years, the annual National Drawing and Print Competitive Exhibition at Gormley Gallery has provided the community with a glimpse of contemporary artistic practices happening on a national level. Each year an outside juror representing a local arts institution serves as curator for the exhibition, selecting the artworks for the show and awarding a purchase prize to one or more pieces. This year’s juror is Joy Davis, Director and Curator of Waller Gallery and Visual Art Director for the Creative Alliance.

Featured artists:
J. Bradley Adams
Erin Barry-Dutro
Noah Breuer
Morgan Dowty
Dan Talib Latif Flounders
John Grunwell
Jo Hendricks
Zach Manuel
Eleisha Faith McCorkle
Kathy McGhee
Diane McLeod
Joshua Morgan
Nicholas Ruth
Holly Trout
Julie Wallace
Dawn Whitmore
Carole Winters
Dontavius Woody

 

 

“Night Visions” by Richard Cleaver / “Surface Circus” | Receptions
Saturday, March 12 • 6-8pm
@ Baltimore Clayworks

Nationally recognized Baltimore artist Richard Cleaver celebrates 50 years of creating ceramic sculpture with an exhibition in the Solo Gallery. His meticulously designed mixed media artworks will be featured from March 12 through May 7, 2022. Richard Cleaver’s works are intricate, Jungian, and always enigmatically multilayered.

“My sculptures integrate ceramic, which is the primary medium, with wood, fresh water pearls, semi-precious stones, gold leaf, and oil paint,” Cleaver explained. “They are made complete with secret compartments which serve as hiding places for multiple, and often times personal meanings. My recent work is based on narratives drawn from personal and historical events that are overlapped with subconscious images.”

He has exhibited across the U.S. with solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, American University Museum, the Kohler Arts Center, and more. His work is represented in numerous collections including the Renwick Museum in DC, Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento CA, DeYoung Museum in San Francisco CA, Delaware Art Museum, Arizona State University Art Museum, and many others.

The Main Gallery features “Surface Circus,” a group exhibition juried by Sue Tirrell, from March 12 through May 7, 2022. The exhibition features a deep exploration of the myriad ways that texture and surface can complete a piece of ceramic art.

Clay has many potential surface possibilities and “Surface Circus” will show a smorgasbord of ideas from traditional glazes, low to high-fire temperatures, wood-fire atmospheric, and even paint. Artists use the method they need to achieve their vision and function for each object, while colors ranging from bright and whimsical hues to more contemplative earth tones showcase the boldness and skill of contemporary ceramic art.

“Hand-carved or screen printed, kissed by soda or blasted by wood ash, I’m a sucker for a well-executed surface,” said Sue Tirrell. “What makes the most successful surface though – the thing that will draw me across a room in a home or gallery – is the way a surface completes its companion form. Glaze, texture, and graphics don’t exist or make sense on their own in ceramics. These elements complete the form, giving it context, narrative, and function.”

Artists in the exhibit include: Elka Adamowicz, Patrick Bell, Casey Ann Hanrahan, Steve Hilton, Erin Holmes, Shea Kister, Marina Kuchinski, Martine Kuhlman, John Matuszak, Lynne Molner, Rebeccca Murtaugh, Tina Opp, Russ Orlando, Michael Poness, Kit Reseau, Whitney Sherman, Minsoo Yuh, and Kara Zuzu.

 

 

Majolica Mania
Sunday, March 12 | Ongoing through August 2
@ The Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum transports visitors back to the Victorian era with Majolica Mania, an exhibition that highlights the beauty and inventiveness of a once wildly popular ceramic with ties to Baltimore.

Taking over the entirety of Hackerman House at 1 West Mount Vernon Place, Majolica Mania features 350 stunning works in an immersive installation. This exhibition aims to restore majolica, which fell out of favor in the 20th century, to the history of design.

Curated by Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art, and Susan Weber, Founder and Director of Bard Graduate Center, the exhibition highlights the vibrant color of the ceramic’s lead-based glazes and the spectacular variety of forms in which it was produced. Majolica Mania explores themes including the natural world, foods and fashions, class, labor, immigration, and the human cost of majolica’s production.

“The Walters is honored to be a part of this wondrous exhibition, which brings to life one of the great under-recognized ceramics of the 19th century,” said Julia Marciari-Alexander, Andrea B. and John H. Laporte Director. “There’s an intimate connection to the history of this pottery because majolica was also produced in our great city. Majolica Mania is an opportunity for us to connect to that shared past and to reveal the stories of the laborers, many of them women, who created the ceramic.”

Included in the exhibition are works by the Chesapeake Pottery and the Edwin Bennett Pottery, two American majolica makers founded in Baltimore. The Edwin Bennett Pottery created a nearly three-foot-tall planter, supported by griffins and glazed in pale blue, triumphantly displayed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and on display in Majolica Mania.

 

 

 

Calls for Entry // Opportunities

 

shrek forever after you've got a friend gif | WiffleGif

 

Actors who can Move (Dance) wanted for Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea (Non-Union, Paid)
March 12 + 13
sponsored by Sisters Freehold

Production:

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea
by Nathan Alan Davis
Directed by K. Shaka Opare

Non-Union

Compensation: $1,000 stipend

Rehearsals: April 1 – June 2, 2022 (2 – 3x/week) in Baltimore City

Performances (12): June 3 – June 19, 2022

The Voxel (9 West 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218)

Synopsis:

Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea is a modern love story set alongside a young man’s pursuit for ancestral connection. Told through movement, rhythm, and poetry, this dramatic comedy follows eighteen-year-old Dontrell Jones III on a journey that leads him from Baltimore City to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean in search of an ancestor that gave the ultimate sacrifice for freedom during the Middle Passage. Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea invites audiences to consider family, identity, and a shared legacy that extends beyond bondage.

“Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

More info & link to sign up: https://www.sistersfreehold.org/audition

Questions? Contact [email protected]

 

 

CIRCA-IMET Artist-in-Residence Fellowship
deadline March 13
sponsored by UMBC

The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) and Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) invite applications from full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty members, non-tenure track faculty, Lecturers, and Senior Lecturers in the Arts (Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts) at UMBC for the CIRCA-IMET Artist-in-Residence Fellowship for the Fall 2022 semester.

The award is intended to support and promote significant collaborative research in the Arts between colleagues at IMET and UMBC. The awardee will receive a release from teaching in the Fall 2022 semester (one course release, with permission of the Chairperson) and a research stipend of $5,000 in order to conceive, establish, or accelerate a substantial project that engages IMET scientists and ventures. In addition, IMET commits $2,000 towards supplies and materials. IMET will provide office space for the awardee and, if necessary, can also make available a studio space. IMET will work with the awardee to provide opportunities to engage with a wide range of scientists and to present work and have discussions with IMET stakeholders, including faculty, students, and start-up companies in the IMET Harbor Launch business incubator.

Previous CIRCA-IMET AIR awardees may re-apply three years or longer after receiving an initial award with a proposal for a completely new project with a new partner. Successful awardees who want to continue existing collaborations beyond the term of their award should seek other sources of funding. In exceptional cases, only if no competitive applications are received for new awards, previous CIRCA-IMET AIR awardees may be considered for a second term of support for a previously funded project, three years or longer after an initial award.

 

 

Pile of Craft 2022 Vendor Application
deadline March 14

Interested in applying to be a vendor at one of Baltimore’s favorite craft shows? Please read through this application thoroughly — in particular, our new COVID policies! — and complete all required sections to be considered.

Charm City Craft Mafia’s Pile of Craft will be held in person on May 1st from 11 am – 4 pm at the Peabody Heights Brewery (note the new location!), which is located at 401 E 30th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. This show will have INDOOR and OUTDOOR vendors.*  Vendors are REQUIRED to be set up and ready to sell at 11 am.

Because we receive many more applications than we have spaces for, be sure to fill out the application ENTIRELY and pay your $15 non-refundable application fee in order to be considered. You must pay through the link from this form; please do not attempt to pay through PayPal separately.

Accepted vendors will pay an additional $125 for a 8′ x 4′ space (or $90 for a 4’ x 4’ space for packaged food / herbal products vendors only). Tables are not supplied. All display tables, racks, etc. MUST fit within your 8 x 4′ space and allow you to enter/exit without disturbing your neighbors. This is a table show rather than a trade-show type set up, so plan your booth accordingly. Vendors should have no more than 2 people associated with their table to avoid overcrowding neighboring vendors.

Some vendor spaces will be outdoors, under Peabody Heights’s big tent. Please let us know in the application if you prefer your spot to be inside or out — we will do our best to honor these requests, but we cannot guarantee placement!

4′ TABLE FOR FOOD AND HERBAL VENDORS ONLY: Vendors selling packaged food/drink and herbal goods may apply for a 4 foot table for $90. Only check this option if you are selling products in this category.

We are NOT accepting applications for shared tables at this show.

Sorry, we are unable to accept incomplete or late applications. All correctly completed applications are DUE March 14 by 11:59 EST. Submissions will be juried and applicants will be notified of their status on or before March 23. If you have questions, please email [email protected].

Submit your very best photos and let us know what makes your work special!

You will recieve confirmation emails showing you that your application & payment have gone through. If you do not receive confirmation that your application has gone through, or if you experience any problems, please contact us BEFORE March 14.

 

 

Critical Confabulations | Call for Art
deadline March 20
sponsored by Towson University

A critical Confabulation is a tool, and a method to evaluate stories from the past.

The term critical confabulation, coined by the scholar Saidiyah Hartman has evolved to consider the space of possibility that exists in the gaps of historical narratives. The silences in the space in between are the ones that create the space for the griots, the time-traveling, and the imagination of understanding the past to make sense of the present and inform the future.

The CoLab at Towson University is seeking artists to participate in a one-day public art happening on May 14, 2022, from 6-9 pm outside of the East Towson Carver Community Center.

Critical Confabulations is a mixed media art event that will circle around the questions that consider how the past impacts the present. Musicians, dancers, visual artists, theater artists, video artists, and mixed media artists will be asked to respond to a series of questions including but not limited to: How can we remember the stories that are intentionally ignored? How do we reconcile a toxic past to build a more healthy future?

Historic East Towson is the center of the landscape of this art happening. With this center point, we will create a moment, a happening, an evening of art to remember outside of the mistakes and errors of the construction of the story of the past in the region.

This local story is connected to the global story. From imminent domain to settler colonialism, the ways that power takes control of land and dominates the story of that land is part of the ongoing project that started with the construction of time zones in the 18th century.

Memories of Black and Indigenous peoples are often bulldozed over, erased, and intentionally ignored. While historical memories of people in power remain intact and unscathed.

This call is open to Towson University Graduate students, faculty, staff, and all members of the greater Baltimore, Maryland community to create new work or present old work that was made in response to the true stories of East Towson. Six selected artists will receive an honorarium of $500 to participate in the project.

 

 

Teen Portrait Competition | Call for Entry
deadline March 29
sponsored by The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

Are you between the ages of 13 to 17? Live in the U.S.? Make art? 

If you answered “yes” to those questions, you can enter a photographic portrait in the National Portrait Gallery’s Teen Portrait Competition.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has opened the “call for entries” for its 2022 Teen Portrait Competition. Artists between the ages of 13 and 17 may submit a photographic portrait to the juried competition via email: [email protected] . The deadline for submissions is March 29th 2022. The two grand-prize portraits will be printed and displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2022.

Local teenagers designed the competition for their peers under the supervision of the museum’s education department. The competition was designed to introduce teenagers to the concept of representing identity through portraiture.

“Our main goal for this project is that it be ‘for teens, by teens,’” said Rebecca Kasemeyer, director of Audience Engagement for the National Portrait Gallery. “We want the competition to be available to all teens.”

Entry applications will be submitted via email, and the grand-prize winners and finalists will be chosen by the National Portrait Gallery. The jurors for this competition will include the Teen Museum Council, Curator of Photographs Leslie Ureña, Education Specialist Irina Rubenstein, and guest jurors.

The competition accepts submissions of photographic portraits only, though digital editing is allowed. Entrants should email their portrait as a JPEG attachment and include their first name, last name, school grade, and zip code in the body of the email. Two winners will be chosen: one in the 13- to 15-year-old category and one in the 16- to 17-year-old category. The two winning portraits will be displayed in the museum, in the Summer of 2022, outside The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today exhibition. The portraits by the winners and finalists will be featured on the National Portrait Gallery’s website.

More information about entering the competition is available at https://npg.si.edu/learn/teens. Additional questions can be sent to [email protected] .

 

 

Compassion in Action Scholarships for Students
deadline April 1
sponsored by AVAM

APPLY NOW! AVAM’s Compassion in Action Student Scholarship program to be awarded to Baltimore K-12 students who have demonstrably put compassionate actions into their own daily lives, and to the benefit of fellow students, elders, family, animals, and their community.

 

 

header image: Richard Cleaver

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