BmoreArt

This week’s news includes: Glenstone Museum announces new exhibitions, the sublime Amy Sherald, Savannah G.M. Wood awarded Tabb Center humanities fellowship, from France to Baltimore, Ky Vassor installs work at Govans Presbyterian Church, remembering Susan Alcorn, Smithsonian closes DEI office, John Waters’ 2025 calendar, a new episode of The Walters’ podcast, and the BSO’s February lineup — with reporting from Baltimore Magazine, Baltimore Fishbowl, The Baltimore Banner, and other local and independent news sources.

Header Image: Alex Da Corte. Rubber Pencil Devil (still, 2018) via The Glenstone Museum

Glenstone Museum Announces Full Slate of Spring 2025 Exhibitions and the New Website, Making Glenstone’s Collection More Accessible Than Ever.
Press Release :: February 4

Glenstone Museum will reopen the Pavilions in its entirety on March 20, 2025, welcoming visitors to experience its signature single-artist installations as well as a suite of new exhibitions. On view alongside exhibitions by Jenny Holzer and Alex Da Corte will be special presentations by artists Simone Leigh, Charles Ray, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. In conjunction with the reopening, a refreshed website will make information on the museum’s collection available online for the first time.

Emily Wei Rales, director and co-founder of Glenstone, said, “Like the return of spring, each presentation in the Pavilions offers renewal, revealing fresh perspectives while grounding visitors in the ideas that shape our understanding of art. We look forward to welcoming the public to experience both the long-term single-artist presentations and the new exhibitions.”

In the Pavilions, a selection of bronze sculptures by Simone Leigh will be on view in Room 1. Sentinel (Mami Wata) (2020–21) features an abstracted female form encircled by a serpent. Mami Wata is an animistic deity celebrated in parts of Africa and its diaspora. Expressed in unique ways across cultures, representations of Mami Wata often take the form of a mermaid or snake charmer. Leigh describes the work as “my interpretation of a West African water spirit, a deity who has destructive powers as well as creative-generative ones.” Placed nearby will be Sharifa (2022), a portrait of the artist’s friend, writer and activist Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts; and installed in the Water Court and visible from Room 1 is The Last Garment (2022). Depicting a woman washing clothes by hand, the work references a late 19th-century postcard that marketed Jamaica as a “tropical paradise,” and critiques the exploitation of images from the African diaspora in colonial narratives.

Room 9 will feature a suite of paintings by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who was an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation. Smith critically examined how political systems have imposed borders on Native American populations and forcibly displaced them over the last 200 years. In I See Red: Indian Map (1992) and Map to Heaven (2021), Smith used thick contours of paint to obscure state and national lines, calling into question the validity of the border system of the United States. She layered materials such as paper, wood, beadwork, quillwork, rawhide, and metal, creating multidimensional works that blur the line between painting and sculpture.

Works by Charles Ray return to Room 8 for the sixth in a rotating series of installations since the Pavilions opened in 2018. This presentation highlights Ray’s mastery of material and technique while continuing his fundamental exploration of form and space. Anchoring the exhibition is Tractor (2005), created by casting and reassembling hundreds of individual tractor parts in aluminum. Ray has long been transfixed by the idea of articulating the individual parts of an assembled whole; Tractor exemplifies the premise that a sculpture is comprised of its component parts, the spaces between the parts, and the concealed interior of the object itself. Additional works on view include Jeff (2021), an oversize rendering of a seated man lost deep in thought, and Clothes pile (2020), a detailed depiction of the artist’s clothing casually discarded on the floor. Like Tractor, the pile of clothes is realized in aluminum, but a coat of white paint obscures its material relationship to its neighbor.

“The artists featured in our new exhibitions combine daringly original and ambitious formal methods with thoughtful approaches to issues at the heart of contemporary life,” said Nora Severson Cafritz, senior director of collections. “Whether powerfully assertive or playful, dryly enigmatic or humorous, these works exemplify the sense of breakthrough artistic interventions that distinguish Glenstone’s collection.”

These installations will join previously announced major presentations by Jenny Holzer and Alex Da Corte. Holzer’s exhibition in Room 2 will include a selection of silkscreened paintings that feature heavily redacted texts from declassified government documents, in addition to stonework, drawings, LED signs, plaques, and paintings leafed in precious metals. In Room 6, Alex Da Corte’s Rubber Pencil Devil (Hell House) (2022), commissioned by Glenstone, will be paired with The Decorated Shed (2019), a recreation of the miniature model from the television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in which neighborhood houses are replaced by fast food stores. The gallery walls will be upholstered in a flower pattern inspired by Prince’s 1985 album Around the World in a Day in a color palette made especially for Glenstone.

Concurrent to the reopening of the Pavilions, will be the launch of Glenstone’s redesigned and more accessible website with content in English, Spanish, and Mandarin. New features include an interactive map, resources for educators and a detailed nature section visitors can browse online and during museum visits. “We’re excited to introduce new digital content that enhances the experience we offer our visitors in person,” said Valentina Nahon, senior director of public engagement. “With this refreshed website, we will expand access to the art collection and information about what’s on view at Glenstone including details of many native plants that thrive in our landscape.”

From February 24 through March 19, 2025, Glenstone will temporarily close to prepare for opening on March 20, 2025. Tickets to the fully reopened Pavilions will be available online starting March 1, 2025.

About Glenstone

Glenstone, a museum of modern and contemporary art, is integrated into nearly 300 acres of gently rolling pasture and unspoiled woodland in Montgomery County, Maryland, less than 15 miles from the heart of Washington, DC. Established by the not-for-profit Glenstone Foundation, the museum opened in 2006 and provides a contemplative, intimate setting for experiencing iconic works of art and architecture within a natural environment. The museum includes its original building, the Gallery, as well as additional structures opened in its 2018 expansion: the Arrival Hall (LEED platinum), the Pavilions, and the Café (both LEED gold).

Glenstone is open Thursdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors are also invited to explore the grounds or participate in self-guided sculpture tours. Admission to Glenstone is always free and visits can be scheduled online at: www.glenstone.org.

What Is the ‘American Sublime’? Amy Sherald’s Biggest Museum Show Ever Has an Answer
by Sarah Cascone
Published January 30 in ArtNet News

Excerpt: There are nearly 50 paintings in Amy Sherald’s biggest museum show to date, currently on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and set to touch down at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in April. Each and every one of them—most famously, of course, her portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama—features African American subjects in colorful, fashionable outfits, their skin carefully rendered in shades of gray.

“Grisaille is originally a Renaissance technique, but Sherald uses it in effect to minimize the associations with race,” SFMOMA associate curator Auriel Garza told me during a walk-through of the show. “It also creates a nice connection with black and white photography.”

But Sherald’s reliance on grayscale does not mean the 51-year-old artist’s work has not evolved since she first hit upon this signature style in 2008. The exhibition includes her largest and most ambitious paintings to date, including a monumental new triptych—her first—titled Ecclesia (The Meeting of Inheritance and Horizons), that greets visitors at the show’s entrance.

See also:

The Quiet Power of Presence: Amy Sherald at SFMOMA
by Petala Ironcloud
Published February 5 in The Observer

Sheridan Libraries’ Tabb Center Announces 2024/25 Public Humanities Fellow
by Joseph Plaster
Published December 11 in The Sheridan Libraries & University Museums Blog

The Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center is pleased to announce that Savannah G.M. Wood has been awarded a $25,000 public humanities fellowship for 2024-25. The program, which was launched in 2022, supports Baltimore-based organizers, artists, cultural workers, and knowledge-creators as they research with and creatively interpret the university’s Special Collections and Archives.

Wood is an artist and writer with deep roots in Baltimore and Los Angeles. As executive director of Afro Charities, she works to increase access to the archives of the AFRO American Newspapers, the oldest family-owned African American newspaper in the United States.

“Savannah’s research and creative work exemplify how archives can uncover powerful narratives and contribute to meaningful social and institutional change,” said Joseph Plaster, director of the Tabb Center and curator in public humanities at the Sheridan Libraries and University Museums.

Central to Wood’s Tabb Center fellowship will be her current film project titled Hard to Get and Dear Paid For, a speculative documentary that traces seven generations of her family, from their enslavement in Montgomery County, Maryland to their emergence as entrepreneurs and civic leaders in Baltimore and Ontario, Canada.

“My research is centered on Baltimore’s post-emancipation period and explores the relationship between land ownership, inheritance, and generational wealth in Maryland,” said Wood. “The Tabb Center Public Humanities Fellowship is a huge support for me to pursue my research and to draw on the significant archival holdings at Johns Hopkins.”

Using the Baltimore Civil Rights History Project collection, Roland Park Company Papers, James Birney Collection of Anti-Slavery Pamphlets, and additional special collections material, Wood will investigate Baltimore’s social, political, and economic landscape from the mid-1800s to the present, particularly as it pertains to the lives of Black Marylanders emerging from enslavement. In addition, she will have the added benefit of engaging Hopkins archivists, faculty, post-docs, and students within History, Africana Studies, Film and Media Studies, and other related fields.

During her fellowship, Wood also plans to create an audio soundscape for use in her documentary and develop a concept for a podcast mini-series to accompany the film.

Is Baltimore ‘soon to be the most desirable destination’ in the U.S.?
by Dan Rodricks
Published January 30 in Baltimore Fishbowl

Excerpt: I don’t know why anyone in Europe would want to travel to the United States right now, or during the next four years, but few in Baltimore are likely to complain about France’s oldest daily newspaper promoting a visit to the Queen City of the Patapsco Drainage Basin.

Le Figaro, with more than 350,000 subscribers, recently urged its readers to “travel to Baltimore, soon to be the most desirable destination in the United States.”

Wait. What?

Historic Church Confronts its Racist Legacy With Artwork Embracing Diverse Congregation
Press Release :: January 27

WHAT: Govans Presbyterian Church will dedicate a work commissioned from a local Black artist on Sunday, Feb. 9. The work celebrates diversity and is part of a years-long effort by the church to recognize the role of racism in its founding on a former plantation. It also helps create a welcoming space for all parishioners.

DETAILS: The dedication will take place during a 10:30 a.m. service at the church, at 5828 York Road just south of Northern Parkway and the Senator Theater in north Baltimore.

Camera crews and still photographers are invited to come and set up prior to the service or by appointment during morning shows when there will also be an opportunity to interview the artist, Ky Vassor; Govan’s Minister of Racial Justice, Lea Gilmore; David Harris, chair of the Truth and Reparative Justice Subcommittee of the Racial Justice Ministry; and Myra Brosius, a member who researched the church’s racist history.

The church will open at 8 a.m. or earlier by appointment for standups or interviews.

Parking is available on York Road and in a lot behind and south of the church. Due to construction, access to the on-site lot is from Bellona Avenue or from the drive at 5820 York Road, immediately south of the church property. Do not park in the driveway to the house on the south side of the church campus.

Close up shots of the work may be taken before or after the service or in the days leading up to it by appointment.

A reception follows the service from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the building south of the church across the terrace where parishioners may be interviewed.

BACKGROUND: The work represents a milestone in the work of the church’s Racial Justice Committee. Formed in 2021 by the mostly White congregation, the committee undertook years of research that revealed a legacy of racism, including that the church was founded in 1844 by enslavers on land that had been part of an 18th century plantation worked by enslaved men and women. After the Civil War, its leaders discussed, but rejected, the idea of building a segregated church for Black worshipers on the property. A search of records showed no Black members well into the 20th century.

Through efforts to welcome the neighboring communities to the church, Its congregation is now blessedly diverse and the new artwork is designed to reflect that as well as balance the euro-centric worldview depicted in stained glass windows – including one by Tiffany Studios – and other decorations in the sanctuary.

ABOUT THE WORK: Titled “Sanctuary City Part I & II,” the colorful acrylic panels depict fourteen men, women and children. Inspiration for the characters depicted include the Hispanic road workers killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed; a late matriarch to the local Chinese-American community; Freddie Gray, a Black man whose 2015 death in police custody sparked demonstrations; and the enslaved people who worked the plantation on the site of the church.

According to Vassor, “Each panel serves to encapsulate Baltimore as a sanctuary city, emanating from the unity and sense of protection between its neighbors.” The panels are eight-and-a-half feet tall and two-and-a-half feet wide.

Learn more about the artwork on Govans’ website.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Ky Vassor, who uses they/them pronouns, is a Black mixed-media illustrator, muralist, educator and curator who holds a master of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is based in Baltimore. “My work honors the communities across Baltimore that raised me,” Vassor says.

ABOUT THE CHURCH: Govans is a theologically progressive Christian community that is at the forefront of confronting social injustices. The church is currently led by Interim Pastor Ron Hankins – the church’s first Black pastor. Lea Gilmore, the Minister of Racial Justice and Multicultural Engagement, is a nationally recognized civil rights leader and musician.

Susan Alcorn, known internationally for pedal steel guitar, made Baltimore her home
by Al Shipley
Published February 4 in The Baltimore Banner

“There’s just something about Baltimore that really grew on me,” Susan Alcorn told me in 2023.

The Ohio-born pedal steel guitarist was living in Texas in 2004 when she began performing in the city. She made appearances at local havens for improvised music like the Red Room and the High Zero Festival, crashing at festival co-founder John Berndt’s house. “I had met a lot of these great musicians and these goofballs from here,” she said. Within three years, Alcorn took a teaching job in Baltimore and made it her permanent home.

Alcorn, who died Jan. 31 at 71 years old, lived in historic Lauraville in Northeast Baltimore with her husband, photographer David Lobato, and their three cats. During her two decades here, Alcorn became an integral part of Baltimore’s experimental music scene and, increasingly, an internationally recognized pedal steel innovator who performed in over 20 countries. The New York Times named the Susan Alcorn Quintet’s “Pedernal” one of the best jazz albums of 2020. When the High Zero Foundation broke the news of Alcorn’s death Friday, experimental music luminaries like David Grubbs, Matmos’s Drew Daniel and Helado Negro posted fond memories and praised her talent.

I was blown away the first time I saw Alcorn in 2009 at a Charles Village venue called the Carriage House, where I heard her bend notes and summon eerie, surprising textures out of an instrument that conventionally plays a supporting role in country music. While many artists who make instrumental music prefer to let the music speak for itself, I found it refreshing that Alcorn spoke to the audience and offered some brief explanations of how the compositions she was playing were actually quite autobiographical.

I finally met Alcorn when I wrote about the 2023 High Zero Festival. By that time, she’d built up a formidable catalog of dozens of albums, and there was far more that I wanted to ask her than would possibly fit into my piece. For over an hour, we sat in the (now-shuttered) Red Canoe Café in Lauraville, discussing her long artistic journey over the last half century.

Alcorn learned her instrument the old-fashioned way, playing in country and western bands in Texas for over 20 years. “When I was in college, I started getting into country rock. I just liked the way it sounded, I liked the harmonies from the singers, and it just felt like fresh water or something ran over rocks in a stream,” she said. It was only once she’d learned all the rules that she started to break them, playing her first solo improvisational show in 1997 and releasing her first album, “Uma,” in 2000.

Though she’d often go onstage and improvise an entire set with other musicians, Alcorn remained interested in songcraft. “I like melodies, I like songs,” she said. Two of her best and most rigorously composed albums, “Pedernal” and 2023’s “Canto,” however, took a lot out of her. “Both of them, I’d wake up in the morning thinking, ‘Man, I have no ideas, I can’t think of anything.’ Somehow it comes together, but it’s kind of a — it’s a difficult process, at least for me.”

One of my favorite Alcorn melodies is “Northeast Rising Sun,” the closing track from “Pedernal.”

In liner notes, interviews, Facebook posts, and onstage statements, Alcorn always made her leftist political convictions clear. Last April, she performed at a benefit for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund at 2640 Space. And she often covered music associated with revolution and civil rights movements, whether the songs came from America or Chile’s political folk music genre, nueva cancion

A 7-minute deconstruction of the Impressions’ 1965 anthem “People Get Ready” that Alcorn arranged for 2003’s “Curandera” is one of the most moving pieces she ever recorded. The tenderness and detail with which Alcorn interpreted Curtis Mayfield’s melody is enough to communicate how strongly she believed in the song’s message.

I saw Alcorn live for the last time in March 2024 at Rhizome, a Washington, D.C., venue that’s really just a house in Takoma Park where performances are held in the living room. I was seated maybe eight feet away from Alcorn, close enough to hear her feet operate the pedals of her instrument. Her improvisations were as intriguing and unpredictable as they’d been the first time I saw her 15 years earlier.

When I talked to Alcorn in 2023, she mentioned several albums she’d recently recorded, some of which were released in 2024, like “Filament” with saxophonist Catherine Sikora. One project she mentioned that hasn’t yet surfaced is a collaboration with Philadelphia drummer Julius Masri that fuses death metal with free jazz, recorded live in a studio (“no audience, except for the cat”).

The idea of bringing different genres she loved into the realm of experimental improvisation excited her. “I think about doing that with country music as well.” So while there still may be some unheard Susan Alcorn recordings released in the future, sadly, she had a lot more music in her that we’ll never get to enjoy.

This story was republished with permission from The Baltimore Banner. Visit www.thebaltimorebanner.com for more.

Smithsonian Institution to Shutter Diversity Offices
by Maya Pontone
Published January 28 in Hyperallergic

Excerpt: The Smithsonian Institution reportedly told staff members today, January 28, that it is closing its office for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to comply with an executive order (EO) issued by President Donald Trump last week. The controversial order requires all federally funded agencies to end their DEI programs and initiatives.

In a staffwide email, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III said that the closure of the institution’s office is a “first step” to respond to the new federal mandate, as reported by the Washington Post.

A spokesperson for the Smithsonian told Hyperallergic that the institution is “fully committed to excellence in our workforce, free from discrimination and harassment.”

On John Waters’ 2025 calendar: Book signing in Hampden; assessing Luigi Mangione; and more
by Ed Gunts
Published February 4 in Baltimore Fishbowl

Excerpt: Writer and filmmaker John Waters will sign copies of three new books at Atomic Books in Hampden on May 21, the Falls Road retailer announced on its website.

“Save the date – May 21st, 7 p.m.,” Atomic Books’ website says. “A book signing for the first three of six of John’s screenplays being released this year!”

“This is your chance to grab a piece of cult cinema history and meet the master of bad taste,” teases a John Waters social media fan site, which calls the book signing an “event you do NOT want to miss!”

Can Books Kill? [Audio]
by The Walters Art Museum
Aired on Free Admissions Podcast

Did you hear the good news? Free Admissions is back with a brand new season to inspire creativity, curiosity, and connection. Be among the first to listen to a new episode of the Walters Art Museum’s podcast, which goes behind-the-scenes of the museum’s latest exhibitions, programs, conservation projects, and more with the people who make the work of the Walters happen.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s February Lineup Celebrates Ravel’s 150th, Black History Month and the Legacy of Tina Turner
Press Release :: January 30

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is excited to share its February 2025 concert lineup featuring a wide array of performances that celebrate classical music titan Maurice Ravel, the fusion of Brahms with Radiohead’s groundbreaking sound and honors the legendary Tina Turner. February also spotlights community and culture with inspiring tributes to Black History Month and engaging educational experiences for the next generation.

A Ravel Anniversary & Prokofiev Violin Concerto
Robert Treviño, conductor
Karen Gomyo, violin
Celebrate the 150th birthday of Maurice Ravel with a vibrant tribute to his artistry, featuring iconic works that showcase his mastery of instrumentation. The program also highlights Prokofiev’s dazzling Violin Concerto No. 1 and Zhou Tian’s evocative Metropolis.

• Saturday, February 1, 8 PM, Strathmore
• Sunday, February 2, 3 PM, Meyerhoff

The appearance of violinist Karen Gomyo is made possible by the Aber and Louise Unger Guest Artist Fund. 

Symphony in the City: Reginald F. Lewis Museum
Na’Zir McFadden, conductor
Wordsmith, spoken word artist
Celebrate Black History Month and the 20th anniversary of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum with a free community performance. Leading up to the opening weekend of the museum’s new exhibit TITAN: The Legacy of Reginald F. Lewis, this inspiring program is presented as part of the Robert Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Community Concert Series.

• Thursday, February 6, 7 PM, Reginald F. Lewis Museum (SOLD OUT) 

Presenting Sponsor: BGE

BSO Fusion: Brahms x Radiohead
Steve Hackman, conductor
Experience a seamless blend of Brahms’ lush First Symphony with Radiohead’s groundbreaking OK Computer. This innovative program brings together the worlds of classical and rock, featuring songs like “Paranoid Android” and “Karma Police.”

• Friday, February 7, 8 PM, Strathmore
• Saturday, February 8, 8 PM, Meyerhoff

Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto & Stravinsky
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor
Simon Trpčeski, piano
Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski performs Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto, paired with Stravinsky’s neoclassical Symphony in C and Jessie Montgomery’s Snapshots, co-commissioned by the BSO.

• Thursday, February 13, 7:30 PM, Meyerhoff
• Sunday, February 16, 3 PM, Strathmore

Casual Conversations: Enjoy an interactive concert experience with discussions between Christian Măcelaru, Simon Trpčeski, Jessie Montgomery, and WYPR host Tom Hall.

• Saturday, February 15, 7 PM, Meyerhoff

Simply the Best: Music of Tina Turner
Enrico Lopez-Yañez, conductor
John Boswell, piano
Shaleah Adkisson, Tamika Lawrence, and Scott Coulter, vocalists

Celebrate the legendary career of Tina Turner with hits like “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and “Simply the Best.”

• Friday, February 21, 8 PM, Strathmore
• Saturday, February 22, 8 PM, Meyerhoff
• Sunday, February 23, 3 PM, Meyerhoff

Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with Heyward
Jonathon Heyward, conductor
Julia Bullock, soprano
Music Director Jonathon Heyward leads the Orchestra in Mahler’s ethereal Symphony No. 4. The program also features Jessie Montgomery’s Five Freedom Songs, performed by soprano Julia Bullock, and Dvořák’s Carnival Overture.

• Thursday, February 27, 8 PM, Strathmore
• Friday, February 28, 8 PM, The Clarice
• Saturday, March 1, 8 PM, Meyerhoff

The appearance of Julia Bullock is made possible by the Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Guest Artist Fund. 

Tickets are available at BSOmusic.org. For complimentary press tickets, please contact the BSO Press Office.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall |1212 Cathedral Street| Baltimore, MD 21201
The Music Center at Strathmore | 5301 Tuckerman Lane | North Bethesda, MD 20852
Reginald F. Lewis Museum | 830 East Pratt Street | Baltimore, MD 21202
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center | 8270 Alumni Park Drive | College Park, MD 20742

About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

For over a century, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has been recognized as one of America’s leading orchestras and one of Maryland’s most significant cultural institutions. The orchestra is internationally renowned and locally admired for its innovation, performances, recordings, and educational outreach initiatives, including OrchKids.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs annually for more than 275,000 people throughout the State of Maryland. Since 1982, the BSO has performed at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, and since 2005, with the opening of The Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD, the BSO became the nation’s first orchestra performing its full season of classical and pops concerts in two metropolitan areas.

In July 2022, the BSO made history with the announcement that Jonathon Heyward would succeed Music Director Laureate and OrchKids Founder Marin Alsop as the Orchestra’s next Music Director. Maestro Heyward began his inaugural season in September 2023.

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a proud member of the League of American Orchestras. More information about the BSO can be found at BSOmusic.org.