Artist-Archivist
Originally published July 28, 2017 on Bmoreart.com
"The Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center presents Botany, the first solo exhibition of mixed media artist Clare Elliott. “My artwork is about highlighting the relationships and the love that I have and how they are important to me,” Elliott offered during our brief interview.
The direction of the show changed when Elliott learned that her godmother, Lori S. Goodman, an esteemed dancer/choreographer with Arena Players and award-winning instructor of Western High School Dance Team, passed away from lupus. Elliott grew up in Northwest Baltimore and attended Western High School. “I’ve known [Goodman] since I was 14 years old. You think fundamentally in the time that you mature; you become who you are. She was a huge part of that.”
In response, Elliott rallied her community of Western Alumni and members of Goodman’s family together to create a profound memorial. Goodman’s Girls, the prominent collection within the Botany exhibition, features twenty-eight small collaged portraits of women who were deeply impacted by Goodman’s tutelage and mentorship." CONTINUE READING
Originally published July 18, 2017 in Bmoreart.com
"Visionary social innovators and beloved Reservoir Hill Dovecote Café owners Cole and Aisha Pew have had an extraordinarily busy and productive year. In partnership with local and national entrepreneurs, the pair facilitated countless initiatives designed to combat systemic disinvestment in underserved communities within Baltimore City; food deserts, home ownership, lack of investment in POC led ventures, and others.
The latest venture, The Black Arts Executive Director Pipeline Program, launched via sister organization Brioxy, seeks to prepare Black artists, administrators, philanthropists, creatives and cultural workers for arts administration leadership careers.
“In the past year and a half we have worked with hundreds of leaders around the country,” Cole shared during a brief interview. “Part of our goal over the next couple of years is to really deepen our roots in Baltimore and to be able to support leaders from across different sectors.” " CONTINUE READING
Originally published June 22, 2017 in Bmoreart.com
"Bloodlines at Transformer DC curated by Martina Dodd features fine and performance artists who work with blood as a medium and metaphor for the familial, feminine and/or spiritual experiences all women encounter. Artists Lisa Hill, Tsedaye Makonnen, Samera Paz, Iman Person and members of the aje collective, made up of queer Black trans-media artists, each honor, interpret and display their personal connections to blood, motherhood, women’s bodies and menstrual cycles." CONTINUE READING
This is the last week Bloodlines will be on display at Transformer DC (Closes June 24, 2017). Be sure to visit www.transformerdc.org for more info and visit the show before it closes this weekend.
Originally published June 21, 2017 in Baltimore City Paper
"For thousands of years people all over the world have used materials sourced from the earth to record and grapple with cultural histories, memories, and identities in the form of masterful ceramics, tiles, and tools. Baltimore Clayworks' latest exhibition, "People of Color. People of Clay.," features a vast collection of works by 30 contemporary artists who continue this human tradition, folding their own stories into the earth." CONTINUE READING
"People of Color. People of Clay." is up at Baltimore Clayworks through July 1. For more info, visit baltimoreclayworks.org
Originally published June 19, 2017 in BmoreArt.com
"Inspired by early American figurative painting, Mequitta Ahuja’s huge portraits critique and engage the tradition of painting and the greater art historical canon. By featuring masterly rendered images of black women, primarily self-portraits in classical poses, the collection produces what Ahuja terms, “meaningful fictions,” to make atypical subjects, and the typically unnoticed compositional and aesthetic conventions of early figurative painting more visible." CONTINUE READING
More Sondheim Info:
The Walters and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts are partnering to present the Sondheim Artscape Prize Finalists’ Exhibition, one of summer’s most anticipated events. On view at the Walters Saturday, June 17 through Sunday, August 13, the exhibition showcases the work of the seven finalists competing for the Janet & Walters Sondheim Artscape Prize, a $25,000 fellowship that is awarded each year by an independent panel of jurors to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Greater Baltimore region. This year’s finalists are all based in Baltimore.
The winner will be announced at an award ceremony and reception at the Walters on Saturday, July 15, at 7 p.m., with extended gallery hours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. This year’s jurors are: Ruba Katrib, curator at SculptureCenter in Long Island City, New York, where she organizes exhibitions, educational and public programs, and publications, and coordinates program presentation; Clifford Owens, a New York-based contemporary artist who works in performance, photography, text, and video; and Nat Trotman, associate curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
The Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize is held in conjunction with Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival, and is produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts. Artscape runs from July 21 through July 23 along Mount Royal Avenue and North Charles Street. Additionally, an exhibition of the semifinalists’ work is shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) Friday, July 21 through Sunday, August 6.
Originally published June 12, 2017 in Bmoreart.com
A new venture from Wilde Thyme Baltimore, a catering company based in Charles Village/ Remington, hopes to pair locally sourced, organically grown food with creative goods from local artists and artisans in Baltimore City. Taking a note from the brilliant model famously employed by the Taharka Bros—who provide delicious ice cream and radical literature to neighborhoods throughout the city—Wilde Thyme seeks to offer Mexican-Greek fusion treats and a diversely curated selection of visual art works. The company also aims to have accessible price points to those starved of organic foods and imaginative creations. CONTINUE READING
Originally Published May 26, 2017 on BmoreArt.com
"Theo Anthony’s Rat Film is a nonlinear feature about rats and residential segregation in Baltimore City. I hesitate to call the film a documentary because the work is not always transparent about the people and events it depicts. Spoiler alert: the fishing rod rat killers are actors.
As such, it falls into an interdisciplinary category of hybrid films; films that combine traditional documentary aesthetics with fictional narratives to create or reinterpret a supposed truth. Footage captured by Anthony, the writer/director, is spliced with archival photographs and virtual worlds. The result is a hyperreal framing of the city and its residents, which is at times entertaining, but reveals issues around the artistic privilege of representation. A few days after the film screened at this year’s MD Film Festival, Anthony shared some thoughts with me about his intentions in making the film." CONTINUE READING
Originally published May 10, 2017 on Bmoreart.com
"DeVane’s works are revisionist histories that celebrate and activate the power and influence of colonially marginalized people; in her creations so called savages and pagan ritualists, are holy, her subjects are whole and fully realized humans, systems, and/or sciences." CONTINUE READING
Oletha DeVane: The Other Side of Darkness is up at Project 1628 from April 9, 2017 – May 21, 2017 (with a closing reception 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm)
Originally published on April 26, 2017 in Baltimore City Paper
Like Baldwin's queries about constructions of masculinity, race, sexuality, and gender, artist/writer Devin N. Morris' solo show "In a Dignified Fashion," at Terrault Contemporary through May 6, expands and subverts conventional categories of identity both in content— queer subjects in flat, surreal environments—and in his technical style. CONTINUE READING
"In a Dignified Fashion" is up at Terrault Contemporary through May 6. For more information, visit terraultcontemporary.com
Docs N Toons
A short experimental film celebrating and investigating the significance of Angela Y. Davis' scholarship and activism. Watch the Trailer
A powerful documentary covering the impact of the 2010 7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti from the perspective of Haitians. Watch the full documentary.
"Operation Small Axe" is a timely raw and unflinching documentary that investigates the 2010 murder of unarmed Oakland resident Oscar Grant. Watch the Trailer.
Watch Docs N Toons
Originally published August 9, 2017 on Bmoreart.com
READ THE REVIEW
"When Watching God, the sophomore solo exhibition from emerging artist Asha Elana Casey, curated by Gallery 102 Director Andy Johnson at The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at GW, juxtaposes texturally dense black and white abstraction with figurative portraiture to visualize West African rituals and transcendental states of consciousness.
The metaphysical, meditative landscapes Casey invokes are derived from the ritual iconography of pre-Abrahamic spiritual systems that proliferated throughout the African Diaspora as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade; IFA, Akom and Haitian Voudoun. I sat with the artist at Gallery 102 to discuss her influences and intentions." CONTINUE READING