Idiosyncratic Iconoclasts at BmoreArt’s C+C Gallery 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.
On March 26, 2026, BmoreArt Connect + Collect Gallery hosted a conversation with artists Richard Cleaver and Cindy Cheng. Their work is featured in the exhibition Idiosyncratic Iconoclasts. The conversation is moderated by curator Christine Sciacca of the Walters Art Museum.
Video footage from Artist Talk with Dr. Christine Sciacca
Richard Cleaver has been working in sculpture for 50 years. He received his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The artist has exhibited nationally, including solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art Delaware Art Museum, American University Museum, Kohler Arts Center, the Noyes Museum, the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery (New York and Miami) and Franz Bader Gallery. His work is in the collections of the Crocker Art Museum, George and Dorothy Saxe Collection at the DeYoung Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, Diane and Sandy Besser Collection at Arizona State Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, Harvey Fierstein Collection, and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian. Awards include the National Endowment for the Arts, Evergreen Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, The Trawick Prize, the Franz and Virginia Bader Fund, and the Baker Artist Award.
Cindy Cheng is a jeweler, novice gem-cutter, and sculptor based in Baltimore, MD. Cheng received her BA from Mount Holyoke College, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from MICA in 2008, and then earned an MFA from MICA’s Mount Royal School of Art in 2011. She is a recipient of a 2018 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant and in 2017 she won the Sondheim Artscape Award. She has been an artist resident at the Joan Mitchell Center NOLA, Anderson Ranch, and the Vermont Studio Center. She began an artist residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center in August, 2025. Most recently, in 2005 Cheng exhibited her work at Baltimore’s Asia North 2025 exhibition Exceeds Expectations in Currency Studio and in A Dream Outside My Body at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond in 2025.
See more photos from the gallery at BmoreArt.com by Vivian Doering
Video by Maria Sanchez
