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BmoreArt’s Picks: May 17-23

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This Week: Baltimore Crankie Festival at Creative Alliance, American Craft Council Marketplace at the Convention Center, Andrew Snyder and Clay from the Classroom opening reception at Baltimore Clayworks, Transforming the Prototype at Baltimore Jewelry Center, Kumasi J. Barnett exhibition at The Peale, Tricia Zimic and Kevin Herdeman opening receptions at Gallery Blue Door, Liliana Guzmán and We Are Present group exhibition openings at Creative Alliance, Linda Campbell Franklin workshop at Gallery 1448 — PLUS Maryland Arts Summit Artists Bazaar Call for Vendors and more 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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2022 Baltimore Crankie Fest
Friday, May 20 | Ongoing through May 22
@ Creative Alliance

Watch the world’s greatest stories unroll before your eyes! Baltimore’s beloved festival of scrolled panoramas known as crankies, returns for its 8th year of fireside wonder!

* All performances will feature the same lineup of artists and musicians *

View the full program of performers, including their bio’s and info about their crankie’s, here.

Featuring: Emily Schubert | Katherine Fahey | Tine Kindermann w/ Michael Winograd & Josh Kohn | Maise O’Brien | Samuel James | Donna Oblongata | Dirk Joseph | The Bronze Medalists 

 

 

The American Craft Council’s American Craft Made Marketplace
Friday, May 20 | In-person, Ongoing through May 22

Our flagship marketplace is back, and we can’t wait to gather in person again after two years! Come out to support and shop from more than 350 artists and take a weekend to celebrate all things handmade. Can’t make it to Baltimore? The online side of American Craft Made is designed to bring our exciting marketplace to you wherever you are.

Now in its 45th year, this ACC event was formerly known as our Baltimore American Craft Show. Mark your calendar and join us for the stellar handmade goods and inspiring connections with artists you’ve come to expect—with a fresh new look and feel.

RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKET TODAY

We’re pleased to announce that our Baltimore event will be free to attend in 2022—part of our effort as a nonprofit to keep this marketplace accessible at a time of economic uncertainty for artists and shoppers alike. American Craft Made is one of many ACC programs intended to celebrate craft and uplift the field. When registering, you will have the opportunity to make a donation to help us continue supporting artists’ livelihoods and connecting people to craft through events like this one. The suggested donation for admission is $15.

 

 

Summer Exhibitions | Opening Reception
Friday, May 20 • 6-8pm | Ongoing through July 3
@ Baltimore Clayworks

Our summer exhibitions are approaching so mark your calendars! “Clay from the Classroom”, our annual summer group show celebrating community work will be featured in our Main Gallery, and “Reinventing the Wheel” by renowned ceramicist and educator, Andrew Snyder in our Solo Gallery. The opening reception for both exhibitions will be on Friday, May 20th from 6 – 8, masks and social distancing required. Our summer exhibitions run from May 20 – July 3, 2022.

Clay from the Classroom

Clay from the Classroom is our annual exhibition celebrating the talent and triumphs of our beginner through advanced students, featuring ceramic art from our kilns and various classes of the past year. In addition to our students, we will feature our Springboard and Mezzanine artists who share studio spaces under the roof of our historic building.

If you’d like to be featured in the show and have work to share, please contact our Exhibitions Curator, Mary Cloonan at [email protected]. All work is due by May 13th, 2022.

Reinventing the Wheel

The Solo gallery will host the Andrew Snyder’s innovative show Reinventing the Wheel in which he created a portable, hand-powered potter’s wheel for his students to use at home during the pandemic. Compact and potent, drawing from historical examples and constructed from readily available materials, it allowed his students to throw at home, while offering a unique set of challenges and skills. Hand-powered wheels are a slower, more meditative process compared to the speed and control of the electric ones we are accustomed to. This unique exhibition reexamines and celebrates the time honored tradition of hand wheels and shares the lessons they can teach us as contemporary clay artists. Andrew Snyder is a professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, where he teaches ceramics and curates their gallery.

 

 

Transforming the Prototype
Friday, May 20 from 5 to 8pm
@ Baltimore Jewelry Center

The Baltimore Jewelry Center will host Transforming the Prototype, which explores the power of alterations and metamorphosis in metalsmithing and art jewelry processes.

For this exhibition the Baltimore Jewelry Center, Montgomery College, and Towson University invited students, alumni, and emerging and established artists to reimagine a traditional ring by radically altering a vintage wax pattern. Participants from the three educational institutions as well as independent artists submitted nearly 50 transformations that will be on view in the BJC’s gallery in Baltimore’s Station North Arts & Entertainment District (10 E. North Ave.) from May 20 thru July 2, 2022 with an opening reception on Friday, May 20 from 5 to 8pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Founded in June 2014, the Baltimore Jewelry Center is the successor organization to the MICA Jewelry Center, which served the metalsmithing and art jewelry community in the Baltimore area for twenty-two years. Today, the nonprofit is providing a rigorous academic program and robust studio access program for metal and jewelry artists.

Born out of a chance Ebay purchase of vintage wax ring patterns and the subsequent donation of said patterns to Towson University’s metals program, the concept for the show developed out of a series of conversations around how to reimagine or update these vintage blanks. Students and jewelry artists affiliated with TU, Montgomery College, and the BJC were given a prompt to reimagine a prototype wax pattern into a bespoke object or piece of jewelry. Participants chose a vintage ring design that they wanted to work with from a curated group of rings selected for the project. They then received a wax version of this ring which they radically transformed through additive or subtractive processes, integrating new components using wax or casting the ring in metal and altering it through soldering, sawing, adding stones, or a combination of these processes.

“The Baltimore Jewelry Center features one of the only art jewelry galleries in the Mid-Atlantic. Our exhibition program exposes the larger public to contemporary and traditional metal arts, and acts as a platform to promote and sell the work of local artists and national artists in the metalsmithing field,” said Shane Prada, Director. “Transforming the Prototype is a great exhibition to see if you want to experience the way different artists approach the same prompt and blanks, but end up creating pieces that are wildly dissimilar. The show also creates an avenue for viewers to learn about the versatility of the casting process and the multitude of ways in which it can be used to create different effects and outcomes.”

Kumasi J. Barnett

THE AMAZING BLACK MAN: Kumasi J. Barnett Solo Exhibition
Saturday, May 21 | Ongoing through July 16
@ The Peale

The Peale is thrilled to present THE AMAZING BLACK MAN, a groundbreaking exhibition by Baltimore-based artist Kumasi J. Barnett, curated by Jeffrey Kent, the Peale’s Chief Curator, and represented by L.A-based gallery Lowell Ryan Projects. With inspiration from classic comics like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Superman, Daredevil and Captain America, this important exhibition features exuberant, hand-painted comic book covers. Each cover is actually painted over top of an older Marvel or DC comic book, replacing the heroes of yesteryear with new, contemporary characters such as “The Amazing Black-Man,” “The Media’s Thug,” “Whitedevil,” and “Police-Man.”

Other changes to traditional characters are also evident: Spiderman’s red and blue bodysuit turns into a hoodie and jeans; Superman’s logo becomes the stars and bars of the Confederate flag, and in Kumasi’s work, the supernatural, extraterrestrial world villains are more earthly; they are the police. “By addressing real world issues through a superhuman genre, Barnett’s work dissolves the disconnect between contemporary American narratives and the reality of ‘justice,’ making us reexamine cultural conceptions surrounding the Good versus Evil paradigm.” (Excerpted from Lowell Ryan Projects).

Kumasi J. Barnett received his MFA from The Ohio State University, and now lives and works in Baltimore, MD. Influenced by the aesthetics and narratives of comic books, his work subverts and imbues the often timeless genre with a present day social consciousness. Barnett frequently paints directly over old copies of comic books, changing their narratives into critiques of police brutality, racial profiling, and more broadly, systemic racism.

Barnett’s works have been exhibited widely both in the United States and abroad, including exhibitions at Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; the SPRING/BREAK Art Show, New York, NY; City Lore, New York, NY; Con-Artist Collective, New York, NY; The Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY; Sulphur Bath Studio, Brooklyn, NY; and The Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY. Museum exhibitions include the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa; The Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL; and most recently the Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA. Barnett presented a solo booth with Lowell Ryan Projects at The Armory Show 2020, in the Focus section curated by Jamillah James. Barnett’s work has been featured in Artforum, Ammo, Vibe, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, Autre, Artnet News, and The Guardian, among others.

 

 

from Kevin Herdeman: Watch Your Friends Melt

​​Tricia Zimic: Anthropocene // ​Kevin Herdeman: Watch Your Friends Melt | Opening Receptions
Saturday, May 21 • 4-6pm | Ongoing through June 25
@ Gallery Blue Door

Tricia Zimic: Anthropocene

My art is a narrative statement of human impact on wild animals and their adaption to urban areas and weather pattern changes. Through global warming, urban sprawl and excess human consumption, indigenous animals have persevered and even evolved to fit in to our world. I have worked many years as a re-forester and have seen the devastation that can happen when things go awry with nature. I have seen animals trying to survive in the most unlikely places; birds nesting in high tension towers, salamanders making homes in beer cans, bears, coyote and bobcat roaming urban territory.

After researching the endangered status of each animal and becoming familiar with their stresses, I sketch my thoughts on paper and decide whether I will sculpt, etch or paint my subject.

I paint or etch what I cannot create in clay. Coming from an illustration background, I use this opportunity to tell a story or set a mood more deeply. Showing fight scenes among native and non-native birds, the rush of a pack of wolves running through city streets or a bobcat roaming through an abandoned building — all have an impact that go beyond the boundaries of sculpture.

My etchings have a way of freeing my hand that sculpture and painting can’t really achieve. There are always happy “accidents” and the pleasure I feel when I pull the damp paper off the plate that I will never tire of.

My current direction is to continue to push forward into the world of ceramics, etching and painting, creating work that focuses on climate change. I will continue to show how the animals are adapting to new weather patterns; mudslides, superstorms and wildfires and how we might help them survive.

Recently, I have been exploring the Kintsugi method of repair. This centuries old Japanese art is used to restore what was once broken and make even more beautiful using gold leaf. This is a very tricky process that takes skill and patience. I mend and then use the gold leaf to ‘heal’ an animal back into existence. I have used this gold metaphor with both my porcelain sculptures and painting.

Kevin Herdeman: Watch Your Friends Melt

For this exhibit I tried to get as many pieces together that would, in some way, make whoever sees them laugh or just feel a little joy. My whole point in making art is to have an end product that displays well and hopefully brings some kind of joy to the viewer. I generally try to keep some kind of deep “meaning” out of my art. I’ve found that most collectors don’t like my approach in that aspect, but I want the viewer to feel however the work makes them feel. It’s open for their own meaning. I really put this collection together in hopes that even if you’re not into BigFoot, you’d still smile or enjoy what you see. Maybe even enough to have one on your shelf or wall. I like making these figures and I want people to like them as well. Sometimes I feel if I put too much meaning into them, it may not be something that the viewer would agree with and in turn it ends up putting limitations on the piece. I tried to keep these simple and fun, that’s basically the bottom line. I just make what I want to see and hope the viewer digs it as much as I do.

 

 

from Liliana Guzmán: Next to Myself

Liliana Guzmán: Next to Myself // We Are Present | Opening Receptions
Saturday, May 21 • 6-9pm | Ongoing through June 21
@ Creative Alliance

Liliana Guzmán: Next to Myself

Extending from within the body and outward, Next to Myself combines painting and photography to reflect upon the formation of the self as an individual with social and ethnic components. Photographic elements ground the body in a concrete physical space while paint emphasizes what the mind perceives. Stemming from artist, Liliana Guzmán’s, background as a bicultural Colombian-American woman, this series addresses the sociocultural dualities of my exposure to different conceptions of the Latinx female body. In private family spaces as well as in religious social environments such as church or school, the body is either celebrated or restricted. The manifestation of cultural and personal dualities is one of the main threads expressed throughout this artwork.

Each piece is a culmination of layers; the photographic print, gouache paint, charcoal, and other mark-making objects. The meaning and influence of touch and emotional performance (masks) are both prominent in my artwork. The use of the mask obscures the face and acts as a mechanism to compel the viewer to identify with the woman. The yellow circles are derived from the religious iconography of the halo, which is meant to signify light, divinity, and a distinct separation between the holy and the laymen and women. Next to Myself emphasizes how ethnicity, gender, and memory continuously build upon the many layers that make up who you are.

 

We Are Present

A new exhibition presented by Joy Davis, Creative Alliance’s new Visual Arts Director entitled We Are Present. This exhibition explores the multitudes of art production and craft in what is currently considered the Maryland, Delaware, and DC metro areas. This exhibition is a launchpad to acknowledge and celebrate the varying experiences and stories of Indigenous and Indigenous-identifying individuals.

Why do we not inquire about our interactions with Indigenous people in art spaces? Why are indigenous individuals, tribes, and communities presented as lost civilizations instead of present on this land? The salon-style exhibition will showcase Craft, Photography, Illustration, Performance, and other mediums that are beyond the preconceived notions of our production in Indigenous and native contexts.

Featuring work by: Ashley Minner, Penny Gamble Williams, Robert Dyea, Denise Dunkley, and Dare Turner.

 

 

WORKSHOP: There Is a Toolbox in my Head
Sunday, May 22 • 2-6pm
@ Gallery 1448

Share Linda’s world in this afternoon workshop of discovery and play as you create art assemblages. A variety of found objects and paper mache packing squares will be provided. Bring your own found objects, glue and paints. The workshop will take place in the garden at Gallery 1448, weather permitting. Participation is free, but space is limited; please rsvp to Linda Campbell Franklin at  [email protected] | 410-383-2249.

 

 

Calls for Entry

 

5 Ways To Maintain Your Mental Health During COVID-19 – The Brown Perfection

 

Art Connection in the Capital Region | Internship Application

ACCR is looking for an Intern to support the organization this July! This short-term internship is all about photography. We’re looking for a photo enthusiast with a passion for art archiving to help us document our massive collection of artwork. If you love photography, have a keen eye for detail, and want to impact your community positively, then this internship is right for you!

Stipend and/or school credit. We know many students need service hours to fulfill school requirements – we’d love to help! In addition to credit hours, we will offer a small stipend for one month of service to ACCR. The successful candidate will have their own camera, transportation, and the ability to lift artwork to 20 pounds.

If this is you, please complete the application below, and we’ll be in touch!

Questions? Email our Executive Director, Julie Cavnor: [email protected]

 

 

RFQ – 7 St Paul St Mural Project
deadline May 20
sponsored by BOPA

In a commitment to include works of art in construction projects, BOPA is excited to announce a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) from Baltimore-based artists to create an original artwork in BOPA’s new office space.

The selected artist will receive a $200 commission to create two design concepts for review. Upon successful completion of design revision work, the selected artist will receive $3,200 to implement the finalized design in the form of a painted mural in BOPA’s office space at 7 St. Paul Street in Baltimore.

This opportunity is open to emerging and professional artists over the age of 18 residing in the City of Baltimore. The deadline to apply is May 20, 2022. Click below for the full RFQ and a link to the application.

 

 

Art About Art | Call for Entry
deadline May 29
sponsored by Towson Arts Collective

Show off your artistic influences: work that reinterprets mentor artists’ work, shows your work’s inspirations or focuses on the art of making art.
Thursday, June 2 until Saturday, June 25, 2022

TIMELINE:

Drop Off: Sunday, May 29 – noon to 3 pm. (Memorial Day weekend, we may also have a drop off on May 31) – 10 am to 1 pm.

Bring artwork, entry form, and payment to the TAC gallery located at The Shops at Kenilworth; 800 Kenilworth Drive, Towson, MD 21204; 2nd level across from AboutFaces

Entry form PDF is found on our Call for entry webpage, or use the button below. http://www.towsonartscollective.org/call-for-entries

Reception: Thursday, June 2

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Pick up: Sunday, June 26

12:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Featuring our June guest artist Howard Greenberg: “Evolution on my enlarged combined doodles in black and white, and color.”

CURRENT MEMBERS: $10 for entry of 1-2 pieces, maximum 3’ x 3’ space OR $20 entry for 3-6 pieces, maximum 6’ x 6’ space

NEW MEMBERS AND RENEWING MEMBERS: $25, 1 year membership fee (does not include entry fee)

NEW STUDENT MEMBERS AND RENEWING STUDENT MEMBERS: $15, 1 year membership fee (does not include entry fee)

Note: Upon delivery, all works must be ready for hanging. That is, they must be properly framed and wired.

 

 

Maryland Arts Summit Artist Bazaar | Call for Vendors
deadline May 30
sponsored by Maryland State Arts Council

All artists are welcome to apply to table at the Maryland Arts Summit. We would love to have everyone who applies exhibit; however, space is limited. Artists are asked to table both days.

Bazaar hours:

  • Thursday, June 9, 5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m.
  • Friday, June 10, 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

 

 

PRISMA ART PRIZE – 10TH EDITION | Call for Entry
deadline June 5

Il Varco is proud to host the 10th edition of Prisma Art Prize, in partnership with Biafarin, ArtRights, Artuu and Vivivacolors, Atelier Montez and ArtUp a quarterly art contest with €2000 yearly cash prize, more than €3000 in service prizes and the possibility to be exhibited at Contemporary Cluster gallery in Palazzo Brancaccio, Rome, in 2023, one of the most innovative art institutions in the international contemporary panorama.

The prize is under the artistic direction of Marco Crispano and the curatorship of Domenico De Chirico and has a jury panel of professionals from different backgrounds in visual arts.

The goal is to create space and visibility to emerging artists, presenting an inclusive career opportunity that will span throughout 2022 involving visual artists from all over the world, regardless of age, genre and ethniciand featured in the annual catalogue of the event.

Deadline is June 5th, 2022.

Submission link https://www.prismaartprize.com/submit/?lang=it

More information on www.prismaartprize.com

 

 

Film Submissions Open
deadline June 5 | late deadline June 21
sponsored by Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival

Your favorite film festival in Baltimore, Maryland is back! Our 5th annual HYBRID festival will be happening from September 4th – September 10th. On September 4th we’ll be hosting an in-person event to launch the beginning of our festival and introduce you to more films made by and for Black femmes.

This year’s theme is NOURISHMENT: The Recipe to Rebirth.

We want stories that show how Black Femmes nourish their imagination, soul and even their bellies. What does it look like when all you can do is be with yourself? Or when community comes through? Whatever “nourishment” means to you, we would love to see your work.

In addition, this year we are welcoming Indigenous filmmakers to submit their work to the festival for us to get into a greater conversation about the many nuances shared between the Black and Indigenous experience.

Submit your narrative shorts and features, documentary shorts and features, experimental films, music videos, and web series!

*Preference given to directors who are able to come and do a Q+A after the screenings*

 

 

header image: Tricia Zimic: Anthropocene at Gallery Blue Door

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Baltimore news updates from independent & regional media

This week's news includes: J.M. Giordano's Key Bridge community photo essay, changes at BOPA, Area 405 returns, Baker Award finalists announced, MacKenzie Scott's $2M donation to two Baltimore non-profits, Celebrating Joyce J. Scott, Maryland Film Festival updates, and more!

The best weekly art openings, events, and calls for entry happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas.

This Week:  I don’t dream of labor exhibition ongoing at the Galleries at CCBC, Visiting Voices: Supporting Disabled Artist-Educators and Learners lecture at MICA's Hurwitz Center, Womxn of the World Poetry Slam at the Baltimore War Memorial, Trans Day of Visibility at Red Emma's, and more!

Baltimore news updates from independent & regional media

Six Baltimore Artists Selected for Acquisition by JHU, Joyce J. Scott interviewed about her BMA retrospective, Lane Harlan, Carlos Raba, and Rey Eugenio's Mexican + Filipino Pop-up, Monica Ikegwu on CNN's "Art is Life" segment, Mark Rothko works on paper at the National Gallery of Art, and more!