This Week: Teresita Fernández and Dolores Zinny in conversation at MICA, Tahira Chloe Mahdi talk at UMBC, opening reception and curator talk with Dr. Bibhakar Sunder Shakya at TU Center for Asian Art + Culture, TU Faculty Biennial and MFA Candidate Exhibitions, MICA Bicentennial Exhibition opening reception, Ouroboros opening recepiton at MICA, opening reception for Richard Cleaver and Cindy Cheng at Connect+Collect, Baltimore Crankie Festival at Creative Alliance, America Will Be! opening reception and performance at the Driskell Center, Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk, Gathering Act at 2640 Space, BJC’s Ornamenta Fundraiser, and Ancestors’ Marks artist talk at Eubie Blake — PLUS SAAM Internship applications 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.
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Teresita Fernández in Conversation with Dolores Zinny
Tuesday, February 3 :: 4:30pm
@ MICA Brown Center
Join artist Teresita Fernández in conversation with Dolores Zinny on Feb. 3, 2026, at Falvey Hall on MICA’s campus.
This event is a part of MICA’s Graduate Studies Interdisciplinary Speaker Series and Bicentennial Celebration.
Reception to follow.
Teresita Fernández’s work is characterized by an expansive rethinking of what constitutes landscape: from the subterranean to the cosmic, from national borders, to the more elusive psychic landscapes we carry within. Fernández unravels the intimacies between matter, human beings, and locations. Her luminous, sculptural works poetically challenges ideas about land and landscape by exposing the history of colonization and the inherent violence embedded in how we imagine and define place, and, by extension, one another. Questions of power, visibility, and erasure are important tenets of Fernández’s work, which confronts these themes in subtle ways that insist on intertwining beauty, the socio-political, the intimate, and the immense.
Fernández is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of numerous awards, including a: Guggenheim Fellowship; Creative Capital Award; Meridian Cultural Diplomacy Award; Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award; American Academy of Rome Fellowship; and a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist’s Grant. Her works have been shown both nationally and internationally at The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Museum of American Art; The Menil Collection; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Castello di Rivoli, Turin, among others. In 2011, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and is the first Latina to serve on the 100-year-old federal panel. In 2016, she conceived and directed the U.S. Latinx Arts Futures Symposium with the Ford Foundation.
Dolores Zinny is a Whitney Museum ISP (1995-96) alumni, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pollock Krasner Fellowship, a IASPIS Swedish Arts Grant , a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Program Award, and 1st Prize for International Public Art Competition of Hessen, Goethe University, Frankfurt. As part of the artist duo Zinny Maidagan, her work has been exhibited internationally, in venues like the 50th Venice Biennial, the 2nd Sevilla Biennial, the 5th Berlin Biennial, the 8th Gwangju Biennial, with exhibitions at LACMA los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT, The New Museum of Contemporary Art New York, Artist Space New York, Moderna Museet Stockholm, Museo Tamayo Mexico City, DAAD Galerie-Berlin, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Museo Nacional Bellas Artes Buenos Aires and Singapore National Gallery.
Adjuncts, Artists, and Other Innovators Engaging Community from the In-Between Spaces
Wednesday, February 4 :: 12-1:30pm
@ UMBC CADVC
What is the difference between having membership in a community and being of a community? How does one engage different communities while carving a career through the in-between spaces? Are belonging and trust necessary in our work? What do we do when belonging and trust are not possible? In this interactive workshop, participants are invited to explore and expand their perspectives on what it means to be in community with people outside of and between our boundaries.
This program is led by Tahira Chloe Mahdi, and will be introduced by Kate Drabinski
Transformations: Lain Singh Bangdel, Art, Nepal | Opening Reception + Curator Talk
Wednesday, February 4 :: 7:30-9pm
@ Towson University Asian Arts + Culture Center
Join us for Transformations: Lain Singh Bangdel—a captivating journey through art, culture, and history from 1940s–80s Nepal.
February 4 – May 16 (closed March 15-22)
Monday – Saturday 11 am – 4 pm
Explore the remarkable artistic journey and cultural legacy of Lain Singh Bangdel (1919–2002), widely regarded as the “Father of Modern Art” in Nepal. This collection of paintings—spanning the 1940s to the 1980s— reflects and reframes the cultural, political, and emotional realities of Bangdel’s time and traces his evolving vision as he navigated multiple worlds: colonial and postcolonial South Asia, cosmopolitan Europe, and an emerging modern Nepal.
Opening Reception & Curator Talk
Dr. Bibhakar Sunder Shakya: Lain Singh Bangdel and the Making of Modern Nepali Art
Wednesday, February 4. 7:30 p.m.
Dr. Bibhakar Sunder Shakya, Founder and Chairman of the Bangdel & Shakya Foundation, will present the opening talk for Transformations: Lain Singh Bangdel, Art, Nepal, offering insights into Bangdel’s artistic journey and the vision behind the exhibition. As Bangdel’s son-in-law, Dr. Shakya first came to know him as a distinguished novelist before discovering the depth of his artistic genius. During his time at The Ohio State University, Dr. Shakya met and married Professor Dina Bangdel, the daughter of Bangdel, an esteemed art historian and curator whose scholarship helped redefine the study of Himalayan and South Asian art. Following Dina’s untimely passing in 2017, Dr. Shakya dedicated himself to preserving and sharing Bangdel’s legacy. Through exhibitions, publications, translations, and films, he has become a leading advocate for modern and contemporary Nepali art. His work has brought Bangdel’s story to audiences around the world, ensuring that Nepal’s modernist heritage is recognized as an essential part of global art history.
TU Departments of Art + Design Faculty Biennial // MFA Candidate Exhibitions | Lecture + Receptions
Thursday, February 5 :: following 6:30pm lecture
@ Towson University Center for the Arts
On View: February 6 – April 18 (closed March 15 – 22)
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Towson University Department of Art + Design, Art History, and Art Education Faculty present examples of their recent aesthetic concerns in a broad range of media.
Reception February 5 following the 6:30 p.m. lecture.
Rooted/Growing Bicentennial Exhibition | Opening Reception
Thursday, February 5 :: 5-8pm
@ MICA Decker Gallery, Fox Building
From January 29th through March 8th 2026, the Maryland Institute College of Arts presents its undergraduate Bicentennial Exhibition.
This year’s exhibition, Rooted / Growing is curated by the students of the Exhibition Development Seminar program in conjunction with their professor Joo Yun Lee, Celebrating two centuries of creativity, the exhibition honors the intertwined histories of MICA and the city of Baltimore, whose relationship is defined by resilience and mutual transformation. Rooted/Growing aims to highlight the memories, stories, and histories of all peoples that have contributed to the shared experience of the college and all of those to come.
The Exhibition will have a catered reception with a live performance, open to the public, followed by two workshops over the course of its duration.
The exhibition hours are Monday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Please note that on weekends, outside visitors will need to be accompanied by a MICA community member with a MICA ID in order to swipe and gain access into respective buildings.
January 29, 2026 – March 8, 2026
Decker Gallery, Fox Building, 1303 W Mount Royal Ave
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 5, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Opening Performance: Eternal Horizon: The Sunrise and Sunset with Yoonjung Lee & Michelle Shengyu Li (Synesthesia: Peabody x MICA)
February 5, 2026, 6:30 PM, Brown Center Atrium
Catering by The Empanada Lady, (vegan and vegetarian options will be provided.)
OUROBOROS | Exhibition Reception
Thursday, February 5 :: 5-8pm
@ MICA Meyerhoff Gallery, Fox Building
The Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) Curatorial Practice MFA is proud to announce Ouroboros, an exhibition on view February 2 through March 8, 2026, at the Meyerhoff Gallery. The show features eleven artists with deep connections to MICA and the city working through printmaking, photography, collage, textiles, illustration, and performance. It examines the mutual connections and enduring tensions between MICA and Baltimore—particularly in the face of systemic erasure.
Ouroboros positions MICAʼs Bicentennial as a moment of reflection, and includes an in-gallery archive that investigates the coexistence of MICA and Baltimoreʼs artistic communities over the past two centuries. The show reveals the interdependence between MICAʼs pedagogical legacy and Baltimoreʼs grassroots culture through partnerships with community resources to build the archive, a free library of historical content. Ouroboros represents an interactive process of research and collaboration that continually brings forward narratives shaping the identities of artists, the institution, and the city.
The Bicentennial celebration arrives at a crucial moment as national and local administrations adopt policies that deport international students, defund cultural institutions, and restrict the teaching of race, gender, and equity. Ouroboros responds by leveraging MICAʼs 200-year legacy to invoke acknowledgment and accountability, providing a framework for how institutional histories converge with broader social, political, and cultural contexts. The curatorial team invites viewers to consider how art education institutions might reconsider their relationships with the places they occupy, and how artists move through or work around institutions to create space for themselves.
Location: Meyerhoff Gallery (Fox Building, Floor 1 )
On View: February 2 – March 8, 2026
Reception: Thursday, February 5th, 5:00-8:00pm
Participating Artists:
Annette Smith Burgess, Rosa Chang, Lola Flash, Kei Ito, Dr. Virginia Jackson Kiah, Juan Miguel Marin, Edgar Reyes, Rafael Soldi, Theophobia, Didier William, Bria Sterling Wilson
Idiosyncratic Iconoclasts: works by Richard Cleaver and Cindy Cheng | Opening Reception
Thursday, February 5 :: 6-8pm
@ BmoreArt Connect+Collect Gallery
Join us on Thursday, February 5, from6:00 to 8:00 pm at the BmoreArtConnect+Collect Gallery for the opening ofIdiosyncratic Iconoclasts, featuring works by Richard Cleaver and Cindy Cheng.
This show brings together Richard Cleaver and Cindy Cheng, two artists who share a wild imagination and a remarkable attention to detail. Both artists explore a precarious line between the sacred and the profane, subverting the visual language of sanctified relics and precious gems, in order to conjure up bizarre and beautiful planes of reality.
Cleaver’s jewel encrusted ceramic sculptures and paintings function like tiny worlds: full of intricate detail, hidden elements, and allegorical human figures. Cheng’s work, encompassing sculpture and wearable art, carries a profound curiosity and playful challenges to the status quo through ceramics, metal, gemstones, and experimental materials.
2026 Baltimore Crankie Festival
Thursday, February 5 – Sunday, February 8
@ 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 12th year of fireside wonder!
The festival, the largest of its kind in the country, works with artists to showcase crankies from Baltimore and beyond! A crankie is basic in concept: it is a scroll that provides the visual narration to a story or song. Versions of the crankie have been around for hundreds of years, if not longer; their most recent iteration is directly linked to moving panoramas popular in the 19th Century. In recent years, artists have begun to embrace the intimacy of the format, creating multi-layered, immersive experiences for audiences.
America Will Be! | Opening Reception
Friday, February 6 :: 5-7pm
@ David C. Driskell Center
Join us for the opening reception of our spring exhibition, America Will Be! Featuring a live performance by artist Sheldon Scott .
The Driskell Center at the University of Maryland is pleased to announce its next exhibition, “America Will Be!”Timed to coincide with the United States’ 250th anniversary, this exhibition explores the rich and ever-unfolding history of how artists and communities have explored the complexities, opportunities, failures, and triumphs of “The American experiment.” On view at The Driskell Center gallery from February 9 through May 8, the exhibition will open with a public reception on February 6 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Preview and opening reception, featuring a commissioned performance by the artist Sheldon Scott, will be held in The Driskell Center Gallery on Friday, February 6, 2026, 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
America Will Be! is curated by Dr. Nicole Archer (Montclair State University) and Dr. Jordana Moore Saggese (University of Maryland, College Park). Significant support for the exhibition is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art, with additional support from the Maryland State Arts Council (http://msac.org) and the University of Maryland’s Arts for All initiative.
Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk
Friday, February 6 :: 5-9pm
@ Highlandtown Arts District
The Highlandtown First Friday Art Walk is a free, self-guided walking tour of arts venues, exhibitions, pop-up shops, musical performances, comedy acts and more! The neighborhood comes alive with incredible talent and vibrant vendors. Local restaurants and shops offer Art Walk specials and discounts, teaming up with DJs, musicians, and artists to turn the evening into a full-on celebration! Come out, explore, get inspired, and be part of the fun!
Gathering Act – Love as Transgression
Friday, February 6 :: 6:30-10pm
@ 2640 Space
Gathering Act is an intentional community building space to uplift social change and support a strong experimental performance community in Baltimore. We are coming together around the shared values of advocating for social and environmental change and the power of art to connect people.
MC’d and produced by Red Rae, Bao Nguyen, and Theresa Columbus with guest curator Talbolt Johnson. This event will have live ASL interpretation.
We welcome performers regardless of gender expression or identity, sex assigned at birth, sexual orientation, race, age, religious identity, political affiliation, ability, class, or immigration status. We do not tolerate racism, transphobia/homophobia, sexism, ableism, ageism, classism or Zionism in this space.
Accessibility Information:
The Clark Room (Great Hall) is not ground level and requires a few steps, but there is a wheelchair ramp for the 27th St entrance.
Bathrooms: There are 4 single user bathrooms, one of which is ADA accessible.
Parking: Street parking on St. Paul St; pay attention to signage.
Saturday, February 7 :: 7-11pm
@ 2640 Space
Join the Baltimore Jewelry Center on Saturday, February 7th, 2026 for Ornamenta, our annual fundraising event. Every year, Ornamenta provides the BJC with the opportunity to raise much-needed funds while sharing our love of metalsmithing and art jewelry with the broader Baltimore and DMV communities. By attending Ornamenta, bidding in our auction, buying raffle tickets, or by contributing to our fund-a-need, you are directly supporting a range of programs including our artist residency, workforce development, scholarships, and kids and teens programs.
Ornamenta is a night of celebration that includes dining, dancing, a silent auction, and a raffle. This year, we are inspired by Rubies for our theme! In addition to our party, there are plenty of ways the broader jewelry community outside of the Baltimore area can support our fundraising efforts.
Ancestors’ Marks | Artist Talk
Saturday, February 7 :: 1pm
@ Eubie Blake Cultural Center
Ancestors’ Marks: Artist Talk offers an opportunity to hear from the artist and discuss the ideas, process, and inspiration behind the work.
Curated by Shawn Kwofi Holmes
Artists:
ERIC BRISCOE
MR. HOUNDZ TOOTH
DALIN SMITH
JOHN HENDERSON
AINSLEY BURROWS
JOHN BRICK ART
ALLI ADEWALE
BRIAN FURR
SHAWN KWOFI HOLMES
Featured Opportunities
MacDowell Fellowship for Fall/Winter 2026
deadline February 6
About 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships each year and the sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available to open the residency to the broadest possible community of artists.
MacDowell encourages applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. Any applicant whose proposed project does not fall clearly within one of these artistic disciplines should contact the admissions department for guidance. We aim to be inclusive, not exclusive in our admissions process.
Call for Performers
deadline February 6
posted by Black Cherry Puppet Theatre
Greetings, performers! Please use this form to apply for a slot in an upcoming puppet slam. Acts should be 3-10 minutes long. (If you are interested in pitching a longer show on a solo bill, please contact Michael Lamason, Executive Director: [email protected]). Slamwich artists will perform their act TWICE on the day of the show; be prepared for a long – and rewarding – day!
Advanced-Level Internship Program
deadline February 15
@ Smithsonian American Art Museum
ebruary 15, 2026, is the application deadline for SAAM’s eight-week Summer Internship Program (early June to early August 2026). This program is designed for college juniors (including students finishing their sophomore year), college seniors, or other 4-year graduates with little museum experience. A $2,800 stipend is provided to participants.
KaleidoHOPE
deadline February 28
posted by Kennedy Kreeger Institute
The KaleidoHOPE name stems from a combination of the words Kaleidoscope and HOPE. Did you know that a group of butterflies is called a Kaleidoscope? Butterflies often symbolize transformation, optimism and HOPE. Just as the butterfly emerges stronger and more vibrant, patients too can emerge from Kennedy Krieger’s care with renewed strength and HOPE. All submissions requested by February 28, 2026..
Help us inspire healing through art by participating in this unique opportunity. This initiative recognizes the profound impact that art can have on physical and mental health. We want to create a vibrant environment that fosters healing, comfort and HOPE.
We’re excited for this opportunity for artists like YOU to have your work displayed in our hospital and leave a meaningful mark on the patients, families and visitors we serve!
Residency Program
deadline March 1
posted by Baltimore Jewelry Center
Do you have a body of work you want to develop? Or a new direction you want to explore? Are you looking for an opportunity to engage in experimentation outside the confines of your own studio?
The BJC is accepting applications for one-month and three-month artist residencies! We offer a variety of different residency types to support artists at all different stages of their careers with a diverse range of practices.
The Independent Artists Grant
deadline March 2
posted by Kent County Cultural Alliance
The Kent Cultural Alliance (KCA) seeks to provide support for independent artists residing in Kent County.
Artists do not need to derive their primary income from their art, but these small one-time grants are *restricted to support your artistic practice. This could mean purchasing supplies, paying studio rent, marketing expenses etc. that are directly related to your art. (*Grants may not be used for travel).
Call for Art: Solarpunk
deadline March 3
posted by Crow’s Nest
“We are living now inside the imagination of people who thought economic disparity and environmental destruction were acceptable costs for their power. It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future.” ~adrienne maree brown
Speculative artwork allows us to envision the future, but this genre is dominated by dystopia– notably cyberpunk and steampunk. Though many of these works offer scathing critiques of colonialism and capitalism, the repetition of this imagery makes it easy for audiences to romanticize and aestheticize these critiques instead of engaging with them. In visual arts, dire warnings get lost in the allure of cybernetic partners and elegant Victorian costumes. “Solarpunk” was devised as a genre of speculative fiction to counter these narratives, and will be the theme for our April show.
We can’t be what we can’t see. As fascism destroys our social systems, the ability to imagine a way out is vital– we cannot simply return to the neoliberal structures that failed us and allowed the climate crisis in the first place. Imagining better is difficult, radical work– perhaps more difficult and more radical than critique. What does a liberated world look like? How will we live? We invite artists to share their visions– from grounded to fantastical, of a better world, grounded in justice and restorative systems of living in harmony with nature.
Call for Film Screenings
deadline March 8
posted by Takoma Park Arts
Call for Film Screenings
Application Deadline: March 8
The City of Takoma Park’s Takoma Park Arts series is seeking submissions for film screenings to be scheduled in 2026-27 in the Takoma Park Community Center auditorium at 7500 Maple Avenue. The 155-seat auditorium includes a large projection screen, a stage for Q&As, and a professional tech crew.
Emerging or established filmmakers may submit films ranging in length from shorts (at least 5 minutes) up to full-length features. A $300 honorarium is paid for full-length films. Selected short films are screened together in a Shorts Night and don’t include an honorarium.
Films may be of any genre, including documentary, drama, comedy, experimental, etc. There is more info in the application form, and the deadline is March 8. .
