“I’ve learned that asking for help can be transformative,” Raúl de Nieves says in a tone that makes the statement itself sound almost like a pleading question posed to the group assembled for his artist talk at the Baltimore Museum of Art. “It’s a way to grow,” he clarifies more definitively. “In life we are constantly not realizing how much help is around us. Finding it becomes a catalyst for growth.”
We’re standing on the second floor of the BMA’s East Lobby, in the midst of the prolific artist’s epic installation and imagine you are here. Considering the scope and detail of the various maximalist objects and interventions on display, it’s easy to see why de Nieves might need an extra hand. Twenty-seven panels of meticulously cut, layered, aluminum-taped, and resin-enforced colorful acetate panels create the illusion of biophilic stained glass windows above.
Five ornately beaded (and sometimes otherwise adorned) mutant statues sit, lurk, dance, or stand across the two levels. Nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine tiny clear resin insects—each containing a strand of the artist’s own hair and assortment of his trademark colorful beads—swarm across the walls of the double-height space. Presiding over it all is a glittery humanoid figure suspended in a chandelier cocoon, meeting visitors’ curious gazes with a mask-like grin.
It’s an ambitious hang in a tricky space and represents the sophomore Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Biennial Commission. The program, established in 2018, pairs curators from underrepresented backgrounds with international contemporary artists to commission new, publicly accessible works for the BMA’s lofty East Lobby.
The first, 2019’s Mickalene Thomas: A Moment’s Pleasure, saw a total, set-like makeover of the museum entrance to evoke vernacular domestic architecture. It was produced in collaboration with the inaugural curatorial fellow Cynthia Hodge-Thorne who also worked with Leila Grothe, BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, on de Nieves’ project.