BmoreArt

This Week:  Creative Confluence at TU Asian Arts & Culture Center, Candice Carty-Williams book release at Greedy Reads, 24th Annual High Zero Festival, C. Grimaldis Gallery hosts a reception for Janet Olney, Annette Sauermann, Bill Schmidt, and Nora Sturges, Neighbor Night at MCHC, Andrew Liang and Jeremy Rountree opening reception at Current, Alberto Cavalieri opening reception at Catalyst Contemporary, artist reception for Suzy Kopf at Gormley Gallery, Lavett Ballard, Monica Ikegwu, and Megan Lewis opening reception at Galerie Myrtis, and “The Return” puppet show at CPM — PLUS Sweaty Eyeballs call for animation submissions and more featured opportunities.

 

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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< Events >

 

Creative Confluence: South Asian Community Reflections, Connections, and Dialogue | Opening Reception & Meet the Artists
Wednesday, September 14 • 7:30-9pm | Ongoing through December 17
@ Towson University Asian Arts & Culture Center

Celebrate the opening of Creative Confluence with a reception and introduction to the exhibition by guest curator, Nikita Yogaraj. Meet and chat with the artists.

Featured artists: Riya Ashby, Shirey Baig, Aishwariya Chandrasekar, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Pothik Chatterjee, Ameena Fareeda, Farida Hughes, Sughra Hussainy, Sagar Kamath, Sitarah Kassam, Priyanka Kumari, Anila Kumari, Alif Laila, Prachy Mahbub, Sushmita Mazumdar, Neha Misra, Adrianna Morgan, Nadia Nazar, Kanika Sircar, Jasmin Smith, Asma Waheed, and Nikita Yogaraj.

Suggested donation: $10. Make a donation at bit.ly/aacc-donate
Top images: (Left) Partition by Pothik Chatterjee, (Right) The Melody of the Flute by Sushmita Mazumdar.

************

EXHIBITION – Creative Confluence: South Asian Community Reflections, Connections, and Dialogue
September 14 – December 17 (closed November 23-27)

Asian Arts Gallery, Center for the Arts, Towson University

Explore the rich array of creativity, cultures, and traditions expressed through the works of twenty-two South Asian artists from across the Greater Baltimore and Washington, DC area. Discover the intersecting and distinct experiences of these artists—with cultural roots in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania and Trinidad—who share their perspectives on lineage, self-identity, ideas of homeland, spiritual traditions, sensory experience, and connections to the natural world.

This exhibition is part of AA&CC’s celebration of creativity and diversity in the DMV’s South Asian communities curated by a team of local South Asian artists and leaders including Samia Mahbub Ahmad, Nadia Amdad, Ryan Artes, Shanthi Chandrasekar, Nilimma Devi, Ameena Fareeda, Harjant Gill, Farida Hughes, Anila Kumari, Shyama Kuver, Alif Laila, Neha Misra, Adrianna Morgan, Pratisha Pradhan, Rachana Saurabh, Priya Sekar, Manoj Singh, Jasmine Smith, Shobha Subramanian, Nimi Trehan, and Nikita Yogaraj.

Info: towson.edu/asianarts

 

 

Candice Carty-Williams presents PEOPLE PERSON
Wednesday, September 14 • 7-8:30pm
@ Greedy Reads Remington

Candice Carty-Williams returns to Greedy Reads Remington for the first time since our opening in 2019 to celebrate the release of her new book, PEOPLE PERSON! This is a ticketed event; each ticket includes admission to the event and one hardback copy of the book. Please note that masks are required at all times inside Greedy Reads.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The author of the “brazenly hilarious, tell-it-like-it-is first novel” (Oprah Daily) Queenie returns with another witty and insightful novel about the power of family—even when they seem like strangers.

If you could choose your family…you wouldn’t choose the Penningtons.

Dimple Pennington knows of her half siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about.

She’s thirty, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half siblings Nikisha, Danny, Lizzie, and Prynce crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

From an author with “a flair for storytelling that appears effortlessly authentic” (Time), People Person is a vibrant and charming celebration of discovering family as an adult.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Candice Carty-Williams is a writer and the author of the Sunday Times (London) bestselling Queenie, which has been shortlisted by Waterstones, Foyles, and Goodreads for book of the year, 2019, as well as selected as the Blackwell’s Debut of the Year. In 2016, Candice created and launched the Guardian 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize, the first inclusive ini­tiative of its kind in book publishing. Candice has written for The Guardian, i-D, Vogue, every itera­tion of The Sunday Times (London), BEAT magazine, Black Ballad, and more. She will probably always live in South London.

 

 

24th Annual High Zero Festival
Thursday, September 15 | Ongoing through September 18
@ Baltimore Theatre Project

The 24th annual High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 15 and continues through Sunday, Sept. 18. The 22 featured performers include 2022 Pulitzer-winning composer Raven Chacon.

High Zero’s unusual music festival presents exclusively improvised performances. Further, the performer roster comprises 22 individual artists – 11 international and 11 from the Baltimore area – who are combined by the festival’s curatorial team into fresh ensembles each night, prioritizing combinations that have never occurred before. (See below for link to full performer list.)

Performers include sound artists, experimental musicians, dancers, and performance artists. Some are classically trained, some in the jazz tradition, and still others are entirely self-taught. Some artists perform using their own invented instruments or techniques.

High Zero Foundation has weathered COVID shutdowns through collaborative streamed presentations with like-minded organizations across the U.S. as well as its own streamed concert series, Red Room in Your Room. The festival’s devoted local fan base has welcomed hundreds of new international fans that discovered High Zero’s thrillingly unusual programming via Twitch.

High Zero Foundation has expanded its programming in recent years, bringing high-profile artists to the Red Room, the year-round performance space operated by the group, as well as launching the Diffusion Festival of multi-channel electroacoustic music and continuing to mount the Worlds in Collusion festival as part of Baltimore’s Artscape.

High Zero has proven time and again that radical music can be popular, and has had a palpable effect on the cultural scene in Baltimore. The festival highlights Baltimore as home to highly unusual, risk-taking, and adventurous artists and productions.

 

 

/ / ABSTRACTION / / | Reception
Thursday, September 16 • 6-8pm | Ongoing through November 5
@ C. Grimaldis Gallery

Featuring: Janet Olney, Annette Sauermann, Bill Schmidt, and Nora Sturges

September 15 – November 5, 2022

Opening Reception Thursday, September 15, 6-8 PM

C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present ABSTRACTION, an exhibition featuring Janet Olney, Annette Sauermann, Bill Schmidt, and Nora Sturges; four artists presenting a unique perspective on form and gesture in their work. Linking moments of control and spontaneity, this exhibition showcases contemporary paintings and wall sculptures with captivating space and luminous color.

Baltimore-based artist Nora Sturges’ recent work in abstraction is an evolution of her early dystopian landscapes. Drawing reference from the mystery and humanity of late medieval Italian frescos, Sturges’ expressive forms interact like characters arguing, battling, and dancing across a gouache surface. Her layers of microscopic brushstrokes on postcard-size panels become worlds of their own. Bill Schmidt, another local legend, further proves that non-representational painting can still be narrative. His systematic shapes produce strict figure-ground relationships. Yet somehow these relationships connect to each other and to the surface in a way that seems so organic. His haloed lines play with depth and his balanced compositions focus on rhythmic iterations of design principles.

Janet Olney’s serpentine marks and geometric forms utilize smooth gradients and drop shadows to create complex spatial ambiguities. To stand out from her Baltimore peers, Olney has developed a signature visual language with a distinct sensibility to color and illusion, introducing the viewer to both the seen and the unseen. She thinks about how our experiences influence perception in ways beyond our awareness. Across the Atlantic in Aachen, Germany, Annette Sauermann works through a similar subconscious, creating architectural wall pieces that feature ambient light as material. As sunlight slowly shifts throughout the day, Sauermann’s acrylic sculptures adapt and react seamlessly. These transitions express how natural light acts as a constant covert companion in our everyday lives.

ABSTRACTION will be on view at C. Grimaldis Gallery from September 15 through November 5, 2022. A reception will take place on Thursday, September 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM. We are pledged to follow certain requirements for COVID-19 safety compliance and therefore 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 Wednesday through Saturday, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

 

 

Neighbor Night at MCHC
Friday, September 16 • 5-8pm
@ Maryland Center for History and Culture

A Walk in Progress | Opening Reception
Friday, September 16 • 7pm | Ongoing through October 9
@ Current Space

Current Space is pleased to present “A Walk in Progress,” an exhibition of works by Andrew Liang and Jeremy Rountree. Please join us for the opening reception!

Opening Reception: Friday, September 16 from 7-10pm
On View: September 16 – October 9, 2022
Gallery Hours: Fri & Sat 1-5pm, during public Garden Bar hours (Wed-Sat, 5-11pm), or by appointment
Location: Current Space, 421 North Howard Street, Baltimore, MD

“A Walk in Progress” meanders through forests, clouds, sasquatch sightings, human rights, human wrongs, ping pong, and hope despite experience. It’s like a near-sighted, space telescope on an odyssey in search of corrected lenses.

Andrew Liang is exhibiting his most recently completed work of sculptures and animation. They are self portraits commenting and exploring the rationality of human behavior, the meaning of morality, and humanity’s relationship with its environment. Jeremy Rountree is showing work selected from ten years of paintings and drawings, none of which have been exhibited.

We bring their work together, here, for the first time and are thrilled to share it.

 

 

Have + Have-not | Open House + Artist Talk
Saturday, September 17 • 12-5pm | Ongoing through November 5
@ Catalyst Contemporary

Catalyst Contemporary presents “Have + Have-not” a solo exhibition featuring the work of Venezuelan artist Alberto Cavalieri, best known for his large-scale metal sculptures that echo the shape of untethered knots. Featuring a spectrum of works from the last 15 years, the entire collection of twisting sculptures, blocks stacked in symbolic towers and piles, and prints come together to highlight Cavalieri’s turn towards symbolic sculptures that examine monetary structure, the network of cultural values, and the global consumption of goods.

Dates: September 17th – November 5th, 2022

Open House: September 17th 12 – 5 PM

Artist Talk: September 17th 4 – 5 PM

 

 

Suzy Kopf: Orange Crush | Artist Reception
Saturday, September 17 • 4-6pm
@ Gormley Gallery

Gormley Gallery at Notre Dame of Maryland University is pleased to present Orange Crush, a solo exhibition by Baltimore-based artist Suzy Kopf.

In her research-based art practice, Kopf focuses on unpacking hidden history within aspects of everyday American leisure culture. The subject of this new body of work is citrus, a staple of middle-class western diets since the 1920s that has come to symbolize the bounty of our past as an agricultural nation and functions as a shorthand for vacation, in part because it is primarily grown in the two largest sunshine-destination states, Florida and California. Today incorporated on everything from shampoo bottles to pool floats, we associate imagery of oranges and lemons with beauty and above all else, pleasure. Kopf’s watercolors, collage work, digital illustrations, ceramics and site-specific vinyl installations explore this mythology erected by advertising, contrasting facade with fact, sometimes within a single work.

Underneath the pleasant veneer built throughout the first half of the twentieth century by the groundbreaking advertising acumen of the Southern California Fruit Exchange (which renamed itself Sunkist in 1952), there are many complexities to ponder. As a research fellow at the Hagley Museum of Industry in July of 2021, Kopf made new connections between the growth of entire towns in California and Florida and advertisements aimed at potential new residents using altered photos of “orange girls” picking fruit and lifting their skirts suggestively to hold their harvest. Presented alongside some period pieces collected by the artist, the works in this exhibition are the summation of two years of research into a single subject that touches many others.

It remains striking that this industry is based entirely around plants that are indigenous to Asia, which struggle to survive in the North American climate and suffer tremendously under the changing conditions of our warming planet, cracking, greening and decaying on the trees as a result. Today whole fruit is mostly imported from Africa and the Southern Hemisphere, yet in the U.S. oranges remain a three-billion-dollar industry, primarily because of orange juice, a product that was initially invented to use up unattractive, bruised fruit unfit for sale.

The artist asks us to contemplate that running alongside the symbolic and cultural impact of citrus are the human and ecological costs of this industry which throughout its existence has relied on low-cost immigrant labor, including the artist’s own family, who worked as migrant fruit pickers during the Great Depression. Perhaps even less discussed is the application of poison (which began in the 1880s with arsenic and continues today), applied directly to a food product to combat bacteria and insects. In 2021, to little fanfare, then-President Trump’s EPA approved for use on citrus the cancer-causing pesticide aldicarb, which the World Health Organization has classified “highly dangerous,” and the antibiotic streptomycin, which if overused in the environment limits its effectiveness at fighting bacteria in a medical setting.

Kopf leaves us to examine the absences in our knowledge base about our food and the artifice that 20th century advertising planted that continues to thrive unpruned.

Exhibition research and art work production supported by the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Hagley Museum & Library. Some historical imagery in this exhibition appears courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library.

 

 

The Beautiful and the Damned | Opening Reception
Saturday, September 17 • 2-6pm
@ Galerie Myrtis

Galerie Myrtis is honored to announce “The Beautiful and the Damned” a forthcoming exhibition featuring Lavett Ballard, Monica Ikegwu, and Megan Lewis curated by Myrtis Bedolla. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, September 17th from 2 – 6 PM at Galerie Myrtis with no appointment necessary to attend. After the opening reception the work will be on view, by appointment only, until November 5th.

“The Beautiful and the Dammed asserts beauty as imagined through the lens of three African American women artists who challenge the notion of the historic limiting and unattainable standards of what is desirable.”- Myrtis Bedolla, Curator

To schedule a viewing, contact our Gallery Assistant, Ky Vassor, at [email protected]. For sales inquiries please reach out to our Sales Manager, Noel Bedolla, at [email protected].

 

 

“The Return” Puppet Show
Saturday, September 17 | Ongoing through September 25
@ Critical Path Method

In The Return, a woman relives her near-death experience in an effort to cope with her past and to remember what she learned on the other side for how to move forward. This exploration of what it means to live significantly is examined through a multi-artist collaboration of marionette puppetry, sculpture, painting projection, and sound installation to consider what contemplating death within a culture prone to death-denial can teach us.

Saturday, Sept. 17th : 2-3pm
(Limited Availability)

Saturday, Sept. 17th : 8-9pm + Conversation w/ Director & Producer (9-9:30pm)

Sunday, Sept. 18th : 2-3pm

Sunday, Sept. 18th : 6-7pm + Jazz Guitar Performance by Oleg Smolkin (7-7:30pm)
(Limited Availability)

Saturday, Sept. 24th : 2-3pm + Conversation w/ Director & Producer (3-3:30pm)

Saturday, Sept. 24th : 8-9pm + Conversation w/ Vlad Smolkin & NDE Experiencer, Eileen Wiseman (9-9:30pm)
(Limited Availability)

Sunday, Sept. 25th : 2-3pm

Sunday, Sept. 25th: 6-7pm + Jazz Guitar Performance by Oleg Smolkin (7-7:30pm)
(Limited Availability)

 

 

< Calls for Entry >

 

25th Annual Celebration of the Arts | Call for Volunteers
posted by Howard County Arts Council

The Howard County Arts Council is seeking volunteers to assist at the 25th annual Celebration of the Arts gala on November 5, 2022 at the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College, Columbia. Volunteer opportunities are available in a variety of areas including reception, performance, art auction, set-up, etc. This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved, support one of Howard County’s premier art events, and have fun while doing it!

The Celebration is a multi-faceted signature event, showcasing and promoting the arts while raising funds in support of the arts, artists, and arts organizations in Howard County. The evening features a reception from 6-8 p.m. with fine food from area restaurants, a gala art auction, and musical performances. At 8 p.m., guests will take their seats for the main event – a special 20^th anniversary edition of the Rising Star Performing Arts Competition and the presentation of the Howie Awards!

Anyone interested in volunteering should visit hocoarts.org/volunteer to submit a Celebration Volunteer Interest Form.

Tickets to the Howard County Arts Council 25th annual Celebration of the Arts gala are available online at hocoarts.org or by phone to the Howard County Arts Council, 410-313-2787.

 

 

Intern at the BMA
deadline September 18

We’re accepting applications for fall internships! Students and recent grads are encouraged to apply for available opportunities across departments. Browse open positions at artbma.org.

 

 

Foundwork Artist Prize
deadline September 27

The Foundwork Artist Prize is an annual juried grant that we award to recognize outstanding practices by emerging and mid-career artists working in any media. The Prize is open to artists worldwide with limited exceptions and our selection process takes place each fall. This year, one honoree will receive an unrestricted $10,000 grant and studio visits with our jurors who include distinguished curators, gallerists, and artists. Honorees and shortlisted artists are also invited for interviews as part of our Dialoguesprogram to further public engagement with their practices. For instructions on eligibility and how to participate, please see our FAQ.

 

 

Call for Animation: Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival
deadline October 1

Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (SEAF) celebrates the world’s most boundary-pushing, mind-blowing animation. This annual festival is focused on supporting unique, experimental and diverse voices in the field of animation, with a lean toward off-the-wall humor and energy.

SEAF returns October 22, 2022!
We remain dedicated to the search for innovative storytelling and craft, and we are working to create meaningful connections across geographic and stylistic divides. The festival will be back to fully In-Person in 2022 with all screenings at the SNF Parkway Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland.

CHANGE TO FORMAT FOR 2022
This year the festival is scaling back to a Baltimore Showcase and International Invitational screenings.
For the Baltimore Showcase, submissions will be accepted free of charge through filmfreeway (must be a film produced within 50 miles of Baltimore City to qualify).
For the International Invitational inquiries can be sent to the Festival Director, Phil Davis, by emailing [email protected].

WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR?
SEAF accepts primarily animated shorts (under 20 minutes). We look for contemporary animated work from across the globe which best highlights the expressive potential of the medium, and pushes limits of what animation means. We are looking for work that is appropriate for any age range and this year there is a special category for young audiences animation (ages 3-12).

WHO ARE WE?
Sweaty Eyeballs began in 2012 as the brainchild of animator and Towson University professor Phil Davis as a way to bring unique voices in international and independent animation to Baltimore audiences. The festival was a single night invitational screening from 2012-2018 with a diverse array of animated narrative, documentary, music video, and experimental work pushing the boundaries of art, craft, and technology. In 2017 the programming of Sweaty Eyeballs expanded to include a monthly animation screening series in collaboration with the Maryland Film Festival and the SNF Parkway Theatre, and in 2019, our first full festival was held, with roaring success.

 

 

Vermont Studio Residency Program & Fellowships
deadline October 1

Vermont studio residency program welcomes artists and writers working across all mediums and genres for two, three, and four week sessions. Accommodations include a private room and shared common areas. The campus features include a print shop, digital lab, and metal, wood, ceramic facility. Studios are open 24 hours a day. A VSC residency provides artists and writers the time and space to focus on their creative practice in an inclusive, international community within a small Vermont village. Fellowships include the VSC Fellowship for writers and artists, the Voices Rising Fellowship for black female authors, the VSC/NEA Creative Inclusion Fellowship for LGBTQ+ visual artists and the Emily Mason-Wolf Kahn Fellowship for visual artists.

 

 

Penn State International New Music Festival and Symposium
deadline October 1

The Penn State University School of Music will be holding the 2nd Biennial International New-Music Festival and Symposium March 24-25, 2023. The festival will consist of multiple concerts and research presentation sessions, featuring the work of composers and scholars selected through an international call for scores and research proposals. Selected composer participants will attend the festival in person, work with performers, network with other participants and within the Penn State community, and hear their compositions presented on a festival concert. Selected scholars will present a paper/presentation on any topic related to contemporary music. The festival concerts will feature performances by Penn State faculty and student performers, Penn State large ensembles, chamber ensembles, and guest performers.

 

 

Telling Tales | Call for Submissions
deadline October 2
posted by SE Center for Photography

Telling Tales. For our entire lives we’ve been told every picture tells a story. A Single image can have a powerful storytelling impact, change the way we see, and leave a lasting impression. Often, a signature image or motif is associated with an artist or photographer or project. We’re looking for images that stand on their own, able to tell a story without supporting images.

Our juror for the Telling Tales is Blue Mitchell. Mitchell is an artist and independent publisher. Based in Portland, Oregon, he has been involved with many facets of the photographic arts.

Mitchell states “ I’m nostalgic. I am deeply interested in photo and art history, yet I’m not crippled by what’s already been done, ‘cause everything has. I do not limit my photographic toolbox. I have no problems ruining my art… for its own sake. That includes film and prints… all those lovely, precious artifacts.”

35-40 Selected images will hang in the SE Center’s main gallery space for approximately one month with the opportunity to be invited for a solo show at a later date. In addition, selected images are featured in the SE Center social media accounts (FB, IG, Twitter) and an archived, online slide show. A video walkthrough of each exhibition is also featured and archived.