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Visual Art

Baltimore on Film: “Flashback” at the BMA

“Baltimore’s history is photography’s history.”

Flashback is the first major museum exhibition devoted solely to Baltimore photography. And through an admixture of very old and very recent images, it makes a convincing case that Baltimore has always played an active role in shaping the history of a vital medium.

Visual Art

Baltimore on Film: “Flashback” at the BMA

“Baltimore’s history is photography’s history.”

Flashback is the first major museum exhibition devoted solely to Baltimore photography. And through an admixture of very old and very recent images, it makes a convincing case that Baltimore has always played an active role in shaping the history of a vital medium.

Visual Art

Follow Me: Divine Inspiration at the Walters

Exhibition Paying Tribute to Saint Francis of Assisi Recalls the Potency of Focus, Meditation, and Care

The centerpiece of the show is the so-called St. Francis Missal, likely produced around 1200. It may be the very volume that inspired Francis, when he was seeking spiritual direction as a young man, to give away his possessions and pledge himself to a life of prayer.

Visual Art

Books, Hours, Avatars: Medieval Mindscapes at the Walters

A Tidy Survey Show Highlights Excerpts from The Walters Collection of Medieval Books of Hours—One of the World's Largest

You can almost sense the pleasure that the curator, Lauren Maceross, took in choosing her examples. Juxtaposed with tidy bands of text, the images on display range from playful to grisly and from conventional to conceptually complex. Cumulatively, though, they offer considerable rewards.

Visual Art

George Ciscle: A Life in the Service of Art

From "Mining the Museum" to Making it More Accessible, Few Art Workers Have Left as Indelible a Mark on Institutional Practice

“I didn’t want to be the center of things... I wanted to see what would happen creatively from this group of people that were not me. I wanted to be the facilitator.”

Media & Literature

Charting the Sea: Meggs’ History of Graphic Design

The Definitive Design Textbook's Seventh Edition Diversifies the Canon

The idea of a master narrative and the Eurocentric bias of earlier editions of this text have been pressured, and forced to make room for multiplicity and inclusivity. The history of graphic design appears here fresher, livelier, and more relevant.

Visual Art

Seeing Purposefully: The Legacy of Maurice Berger

UMBC’s newly launched Maurice Berger CADVC Program Fund pledges to support work on the histories of race, representation and justice in visual culture

Berger’s notion of us was always an expansive one, so it’s fitting that his legacy continues to grow, even after his death.

Visual Art

Ivory, Bloodroot, and Agate: Earth as Medium at the BMA

A Small Exhibition takes on Big Ideas, with Six-Continents-Worth of Objects from the Collection

For a small show, then, it doesn’t think small. And does it work? Certainly, the works of art are generally compelling, and offer a collective testimony to the vast range and potency of materials used by artists across the centuries.

Visual Art

Artists Challenging Authoritarianism

"Trying to avoid politics in art is like trying to dodge raindrops on a rainy day."

In 2020 alone, 133 artists around the world were detained, 82 were jailed—and 17 were killed. And yet, artists have repeatedly ignored the possibility of reprisal and made work envisioning change in trying circumstances.

Visual Art

Killer Reads: Toxic Books at the Walters

The History of Communication Has Always Been a History of Calculated Risk

The cheekily titled If Books Could Kill (on view through August 5, 2025) focuses on toxic materials—mercury, arsenic, and lead—that were used by scribes, illustrators, and printers in a variety of historical contexts.

Bmore Art