Press Releases

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 30, 2011
Contact: Maryland Art Place 410.962.8565 | map@mdartplace.org

Maryland Art Place: Performance and Workshop Series
A collaboration with Baltimore’s innovative performance collectives to bring an inside look at the creative process to the public.

Flux/us Dance Projects presents The Key is Only One

Choreographed by Judy Kurjan 
with selected works by Anne Reeder and Beth McKee Elliott

7pm: January 13 and 14, 2012: Performances
2-4pm: January 14, 2012: Modern Dance Workshop

The Performance and Workshop Series is a collaborative effort between Maryland Art Place (MAP) and a selection of Baltimore’s most exciting performance collectives. Baltimore’s art scene is vibrant with challenging work in performance art. To provide a platform for such explorations, MAP has initiated the Performance and Workshop Series. Pairing access to innovative performances with hands-on workshops, the series aims to give participants an intimate look at the spotlight group’s creative process and allow a unique perspective on the art form.

Kicking off the series are performances by Flux/us Dance Projects, which will take place at 7pm on Friday, January 13 and Saturday, January 14. Flux/us will present The Key is Only One, a piece that explores themes of duality and contrast through choreographed and improvisational modern dance. As choreographer Judy Kurjan describes it, “The Key is Only One explores relationships between mind and body, self and other, dominance and subordinance, inner world and outer world.” Kurjan’s dancers for this performance are drawn from the regional dance community.

A reception will follow Saturday’s performance and feature Baltimore-based electronic music act Tek SubPort. Kurjan will also lead a free modern dance workshop on Saturday, January 14 from 2-4pm. Space is limited; RSVPs are encouraged. To reserve a space, contact Program Manager Sofia Rutka at sofia@mdartplace.org.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 21, 2011
Contact: Maryland Art Place 410.962.8565 | map@mdartplace.org

Painting in Parts
September 15 - October 29, 2011

Thursday, September 15: Curators’ talk 6pm; Reception 7pm

Painting in Parts, MAP’s second exhibition by Consulting Curator, Michael Klein, draws connections between painters of three different generations, all working in the Minimalist mode. Says Klein, “The idea for this exhibition was prompted by two recent New York exhibitions, one which included early work by Don Dudley and another devoted to the early paintings of Tadaaki Kuwayama. I subsequently met both artists, who are now in their 80’s, and had the opportunity to discuss their careers with them. I began to connect their work with that of younger painters I knew from my work with the Microsoft Collection, specifically Anne Appleby in Montana and Yunhee Min in Los Angeles, both of whom were also working with Minimalist concepts. Add to this my recent, sudden discovery of the work of young English artist Luke Frost, and the exhibition began to take form.”

As institutions look to their existing collections for exhibition content, there has been a resurgence of interest in the art of the 1960’s and 70’s. Artists who may have been overlooked or undervalued are now enjoying a period of re-evaluation and renewed acclaim. The Minimalist movement is typically associated with sculpture; however this exhibition is concerned with the impact of Minimalist concepts on painting, particularly how the medium adjusted to embrace the principles of the movement. It is from this impact that the title of the exhibition is drawn. One of the major revolutions in Minimal painting was the re-imagining of the painting from a single image to a painting made up of multiple panels, or parts. Painting in Parts is not an historical survey; instead it addresses the expansion of the Minimal style and the ongoing exploration of its principles in the contemporary arena.

The exhibition will include works by Anne Appleby, Jo Baer, Jake Berthot, Daniel Buren, Alan Charlton, Thomas Downing, Don Dudley, Luke Frost, Tadaaki Kuwayama, Robert Mangold, and Yunhee Min.

Please join us Thursday, September 15, 2011, 6pm – 8pm for a reception and curators talk.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2011

For more information: 
Call: 410.962.8565 or Email: map@mdartplace.org

Maryland Art Place welcomes D center to 218 West Saratoga Street

D center Baltimore is a group invested in improving and encouraging design in the Baltimore region, now located in the Maryland Art Place (MAP)-owned first floor gallery at 218 West Saratoga Street. D center will offer a full season of programming from this location through a collaborative partnership with MAP, and a 2010 Operation Storefront grant from the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Now called D center @ MAP, the organization’s opening exhibition at the Saratoga Street space, Urbanite Project: The Open City Competition, will showcase project proposals submitted to address quality-of-life issues surrounding construction of the Red Line in Baltimore. Self-organized teams compete for $10,000 in prize money and the opportunity to implement their solutions to this pressing Baltimore City issue. The Red Line is a 14-mile light rail transit line that will run east-west across the city, linking to existing public transit to create a more comprehensive transportation system, and connecting neighborhoods that have historically been disconnected.

An opening reception will take place Friday, June 17th, 5-8pm. Project proposals will be on display at the 218 W Saratoga Street gallery from June 17th to July 8th, during which time the public will be invited to vote on their favorites.

During the week of July 15th, a national jury of urban planners, architects, artists, writers, and more will vote on the finalists. The winner will then be announced in October.

The Open City Competition is organized by D center Baltimore, Urbanite magazine, the year-long Exhibition Development Seminar at MICA, the Maryland Transit Administration, and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation. The exhibition is made possible by Maryland Art Place and by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore’s Operation Storefront grant program.

For more information about the Open City Challenge and the exhibition, please visit www.urbaniteproject.com or www.dcenterbaltimore.com. Please visit the D center @ MAP gallery between 5-8pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; 11am- 4pm Saturdays.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 12, 2011

For more information: 
Call: 410.962.8565 or Email: map@mdartplace.org

Young Blood
Work by recent MFA graduates
June 29 – August 27, 2011

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 
6pm-8pm: Artists’ talks and reception

May 12, 2011 – Baltimore, MD, Maryland Art Place (MAP) is pleased to present Young Blood, an annual exhibition of works by recent Baltimore-area Masters of Fine Art graduates. Now entering its fourth year, Young Blood will include emerging artists from the Maryland Institute College of Art, The University of Maryland College Park, Towson University, and The University of Maryland Baltimore County. 

The exhibition is curated by MAP’s Program Advisory Committee, which is comprised of artists, teachers, and other arts professionals, providing the graduates with connections that bridge academic training and the greater art world. 

Young Blood showcases dynamic projects in installation, sculpture, video, painting and drawing from the region’s young talent. 

Please join us Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 6pm – 8pm for artists’ talks and a reception.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information: 
Call: 410.962.8565 or Email: map@mdartplace.org

OUT OF ORDER
MAP’S DO-IT-YOURSELF BENEFIT EXHIBITION, SILENT AUCTION AND PARTY!
APRIL 1, 2011

Friday, April 1st, 8–11pm, Baltimore, MD, Maryland Art Place is thrilled to announce the return of Out of Order, the much-anticipated Do-It-Yourself spring benefit exhibition, silent auction and party!

One of Baltimore’s most beloved events, Out of Order is a one night only opportunity for collectors to acquire contemporary art at outrageously low silent auction prices. Both emerging and established artists present their original work in a first-come-first-served salon style exhibition, covering the walls of our Power Plant Live gallery space. These artists and art lovers mix and mingle while enjoying music, food, beer and wine. Last year, over 300 artists took part in the silent auction exhibition and hundreds of guests gathered for the event!

Proceeds from art sales are split 50/50 between MAP and the artist. Revenue generated at Out of Order directly supports MAP’s programming throughout the year. For the second time, MAP is excited to present to participating artists the opportunity to donate their unsold work to the Art Connection in the Capital Region (www.artconnection-cr.org), a valuable organization that places donated works in the facilities of not-for-profit social service organizations.

How to Get Tickets
Purchase Tickets Online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/156249. Current MAP Members must call to reserve their tickets. New or renewing members must join MAP by March 24 to receive complimentary ticket(s) to the event. Artist/Student/Individual members receive 1 Free Ticket; higher membership levels receive 2 Free Tickets. No tickets are mailed; names of ticket holders are held at the door.

How Artists Can Participate
All Artists are invited to participate. During the thrilling One Day Only, Do-It-Yourself installation, March 29, 7am–midnight, each participating artist hangs one original piece in the MAP galleries. For submission guidelines, please visit MAP’s website www.mdartplace.org. Note: Artists are asked to support MAP by paying $10 to participate in Out of Order. Each participating artist receives one free ticket to the April 1 event.

How to Volunteer and Get a Free Ticket
Volunteers receive free admission to the event in exchange for working a three-hour shift during the installation period or on event day.

For more information, please visit www.mdartplace.org or call 410.962.8565.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 4, 2011
Contact: Maryland Art Place 410.962.8565 | map@mdartplace.org

New Wallworks
April 20 - June 11, 2011

Wednesday, April 20 
5-6pm: Panel Talk
6-8pm: Reception

New Wallworks brings together a selection of striking and vital work of a diverse range of artists from across the country. Organized by MAP’s new consulting curator Michael Klein, formerly curator for Microsoft.

These energetic artists, each with his or her style and aesthetic principles, represent the many directions of contemporary art at work today, whether it is making use of abstract forms and structures or illustrating representational scenes. And while they explore different visual ideas and express different concerns about content, they do share an interest in redefining that traditional divide that exists between painting and sculpture. The artists selected for this exhibition imagine their work as functioning, in part, to expand on what we define a painting or a sculpture to be. 

Fundamental to contemporary artists is their allegiance to the idea of invention. At the same time they desire to redefine and expand the character of what is called art. Traditionally painting and sculpture have been separated by both methods and means. Today this is less true, by a new definition a painting may include materials other than oil on canvas and sculpture can be anything created in three-dimensional space. 

The exhibition includes works executed directly on the wall, works pinned or mounted to the wall, and works attached to the wall as if the wall were acting as a pedestal. There is no uniformity of materials; the exhibition includes works in painted frames, ink on Plexiglas, video and found wood. 

Exhibition will include works by Ann Agee, Stuart Arends, Luca Buvoli, Greg Colson, Ken Fandell, Charles Goldman, Greg Lamarche, Matthew McCaslin, Cordy Ryman, and Rebecca Smith.

In describing his works, Stuart Arends writes:
"Specifically, the “Wedges” speak about perception. Objects can appear solid or concrete. Occasionally, after a slight shift in the light as the sun moves from one hour to the next, or a subtle change in our own point of view, physical material can become fluid and change into something entirely unexpected. And instead of being static, can actually exist in a state of flux and constant transition."

And Rebecca Smith explains:
"I like a sculpture that declares itself as part of life and not as artifice. I don’t want a sculpture to be pleading a special case for itself. I like a sculpture that quietly occupies a space that is human-scaled, that feels like it has a place in the world. Yet it must embody something alive and charged--as a human being does--as in the ancient human art-making tradition of the totem."

Along with works borrowed, New Wallworks will present newly created works especially for the exhibition by New York based artist Greg Lamarche.

An online catalogue will accompany the exhibition and be available on MAP’s website and by print on demand.

MAP extends a special thank you to Ace Hardware and The Cordish Family Fund for their generous sponsorship of New Wallworks.

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2011

For more information: 
Call: 410.962.8565 or Email: map@mdartplace.org

Announcing:
Small Magic: Photographic Transformations
Nate Larson, Curator

MAP’s first 2011 CURATORS’ INCUBATOR Program Exhibition

February 3-March 19, 2011
Maryland Art Place
8 Market Place, Suite 100
Baltimore

Events
February 3, 6 to 8pm: Reception and Curator’s Talk
February 22, 6 to 8pm: Baltimore Photograms Workshop with Peter Happel Christian
February 26, 2 to 4pm: Paper House Workshop with Libby Rowe

The Curators’ Incubator program was established in 2003 at Maryland Art Place to provide a creative space for the region’s aspiring curators to develop and present their concepts. MAP guides the curatorial process, beginning with an open call for proposals and ending in the presentation of selected projects. In 2010, MAP’s Program Advisory Committee reviewed and selected the following curators: Amy Boone-McCreesh, Blair Murphy and Nate Larson. 

For the first exhibition in this on-going program, Nate Larson conceived Small Magic: Photographic Transformations. Small Magic features the photography of Adam Ekberg, Peter Happel Christian, John Mann, Libby Rowe, Christine Shank, Michael Sherwin and Marni Shindelman, contemporary artists who work with materials on a small scale to construct a staging ground for their imaginative photographs; transforming the ordinary, to suggest as Larson explains in his accompanying essay, “the analytical connections between cultural events, the historical record and the various systems of belief artists use to explain the world around us.”

Nate Larson is a full time faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He serves on the National Board of the Society for Photographic Education and received his MFA from the Ohio State University.

With support from Maryland Institute College of Art, artists Peter Happel Christian and Libby Rowe will offer special talks and hands-on workshops during the exhibition. Participation is free, but space is limited. 

Other Incubator Exhibitions to be featured in 2012 and 2013:

Blair Murphy, Spaces, Produced and Reproduced
Artists: Lisa Blas, Ingrid Burrington, Graham Coreil-Allen, Zaq Landsberg, and Nicholas O'Brien
This exhibition challenges and explores the way the contemporary spaces we inhabit are produced, and how we understand, represent and traverse them.

Amy Boone-McCreesh, The Sum of the Parts
Artists: Emily Barletta, Lauren Clay, Jerry Kaba, and Nikki Painter
Through both two and three-dimensional works, these contemporary artists manipulate physical space through an intense repetitive process.