Thursday, October 29, 2009

Group Salon @ Gallery 788

Gallery 788 in Pigtown will host a group salon opening November 5th from 6 - 10 pm

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Photos from the opening of Knit Wit @ Nudashank

















For more information on Nudashank exhibits and events, visit www.nudashank.com

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Matthew Barney Film Screenings @ Shriver Hall

The Center for Art, Design & Visual Culture at UMBC presents:


Matthew Barney Film Screenings
7 pm - Thurs, Oct. 29
Shriver Hall, JHU
FREE

Films:
Cremaster 4, 1994

Cremaster 4, was Barney's first film in a series of five called Cremaster Cycle. Biologically, the cremaster is a muscle that raises and lowers the testicles. Barney uses the descension of the cremaster muscle as a symbol for the onset of male gender (which appears about nine weeks after a fetus is conceived). The five films progress from a state of undifferentiated gender (a fully ascended cremaster muscle, represented by floating Goodyear Blimps and other symbols), through the organism's struggle to resist gender definition, to the inevitable point where maleness can no longer be denied (complete descension of the cremaster and release of the testes).


Drawing Restraint 10, 2005

The Drawing Restraint series is a project Barney began while an undergraduate at Yale. The central theme of the series is the relationship between self-imposed resistance and creativity. Barney's theory is that encumbrance can be used to strengthen an artists output, much as resistance is used by athletes to build muscle. Drawing Restraint 10 is a video re-staging Drawing Restraint 6, which was never documented. In this video, Barney jumps on a trampoline which has been set at an angle, attempting to draw two linked field emblems on the ceiling.


Lettering & Type Book Launch Party @ MICA


Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
Falvey Hall in the Brown Center
Thursday, October 29
6:30–8:30 PM.

Reception, book signing, and collaborative alphabet from 6:30 to 7:30. Fan Letter from 7:30 to 8:30. This event is free and open to the public.

The highlight of the evening will be Fan Letter: 26 Artists and Designers Present Their Favorite Letter or Typographic Character, featuring designers, artists, and musicians (including many contributors to Lettering & Type) giving a two-minute ode to an alphabet letter or typographic character. These may range from multimedia presentations, performances, videos, stories, poems, animations, songs, stand-up comedy, rants, short plays, demonstrations, Gregorian chants, etc—however they choose to depict their letter.

Prior to Fan Letter, there will be a reception with authors Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals, as they help kick off a participatory Exquisite Corpse Alphabet and sign copies of Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces.

Artists, designers, illustrators, and musicians participating in Fan Letter:
Ken Barber & Ben Kiel—Delaware, House Industries (H); Kim Bost and Ted McGrath—New York (T); Andrew Byrom—Los Angeles (N); Jennifer Daniel—New York, New York Times (D); John Downer—Iowa City (J); Shaun Flynn—Baltimore (W); Brockett Horne—Baltimore, MICA (¶); Gary Kachadourian—Baltimore (P); Justin Thomas Kay—New York (&); John Langdon—Philadelphia (X); Eric Leshinsky—Baltimore (*); Ian Lynam—Japan (B); Joe Macleod—Baltimore, City Paper (U); Kelley McIntyre—Baltimore (G); Abbott Miller—Baltimore, Pentagram (A); Adam Okrasinski—New York (K); Kevin O’Neill and Karisa Senavatis—New York, Will Work For Good (C); Jennifer Cole Phillips—Baltimore, MICA (S); Robby Rackleff—Baltimore, Blue Leader (M); Theresa Segreti—Baltimore (O); Whitney Sherman—Baltimore (F); Kevin Sherry—Baltimore, Squidfire (Z); Justin Sirois—Baltimore, Narrow House Recordings (Y); Scott Sugiuchi—Baltimore, Exit10 (Q); Tore Terrasi—Boston (I); Sara Tomko—Baltimore (E); Carlos Vigil—Baltimore (R).

Monday, October 26, 2009

Art & Addiction @ the BMA



Sunday, November 1, 3-4 pm
BMA Meyerhoff Auditorium | FREE

Artists, performers, and medical experts explore the connection between art and addiction, and how art has the power to shed light on addiction and recovery. Featuring guest speaker Dr. Jack E. Henningfield, Director, Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Awards program. A reception follows at 4 pm. For more information, call Art on Purpose at 410-243-4750.

Children's Halloween Matinee @ Charles Theatre


On Saturday, October 31st at noon the Charles will host a special children's matinee of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. Children will be admitted free. Adults $6.

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN will screen again on Monday, November 2 and Thursday, November 5. (No free admission for children on Monday and Thursday)

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948 Charles Barton) Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Lenore Aubert, Jane Randolph. 83m. bw. Archival 35 mm film print. Not Rated.

The comedy duo's finest onscreen hour comes in the shape of this wonderful horror spoof which also unites all of Universal's scariest horror heroes under the same cinematic roof. Here, the pair are at the mercy of Dracula, Frankenstein and the werewolf, after the neck-chomper (Lugosi) hatches a plan to resurrect the long-dead bolt-head with Abbott's brain. This works so well not only because of the tight comic control which builds to a hysterical finale (all the monsters on the loose), but because Lugosi and Chaney as the werewolf play the entire thing as straight as can be, leaving the truly wacky antics to Abbott And Costello. (Channel 4)

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Amarcord @ Charles Theatre

This week's revival: A new technicolor print of Federico Fellini's AMARCORD.


SHOWTIMES
Saturday, October 24 at Noon
Monday, October 26 at 7 PM
Thursday, October 29 at 9PM

1973 Federico Fellini. Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Magali Noël, Bruno Zanin, Ciccio Ingrassia.123m. In Italian and Greek with English subtitles. Technicolor.


"If ever there was a movie made entirely out of nostalgia and joy, by a filmmaker at the heedless height of his powers, that movie is Federico Fellini's AMARCORD. The title means "I remember" in the dialect of Rimini, the seaside town of his youth, but these are memories of memories, transformed by affection and fantasy and much improved in the telling. Here he gathers the legends of his youth, where all of the characters are at once larger and smaller than life -- flamboyant players on their own stages.

At the center is an overgrown young adolescent, the son of a large, loud family, who is dizzied by the life churning all around him -- the girls he idealizes, the tarts he lusts for, the rituals of the village year, the practical jokes he likes to play, the meals that always end in drama, the church's thrilling opportunities for sin and redemption, and the vaudeville of Italy itself -- the transient glories of grand hotels and great ocean liners, the play-acting of Mussolini's fascist costume party."
-Roger Ebert



Sunday, October 18, 2009

Magic Eye presents: Survey the Landscape tonight @ Load of Fun

Survey of the Landscape is the first of a series of screenings focused on the landscape film The conversation begins with Larry Gottheim's meditative "Fog Line" and continues with Deborah Stratman's "From Hettie To Nancy," a fascinating work that blends documentary and experimental film.

Sunday, October 18 at 8pm.
$5
Lof/t


Larry Gottheim's "Fog Line" (1970)
“One stares, one stares, and the fog begins to lift, the exquisite image reveals itself. The three patchy trees, the landscape lines, the tension lines, the moving ghost animals, the moving emulsion swirls, all impress themselves on consciousness, are consciousness. Still, rigid lines attempt to contain the amorphous elusive moving fog. Line nature competes with fog nature, but all is harmony, bathed in gorgeous paleness.” - Larry Gottheim
From the late-1960s series "single-shot" films to the dense sound/image constructs of the mid-1970s and after, his cinema is the cinema of presence, of observation, and of deep conscious engagement. While addressing genres of landscape, diary and assemblage filmmaking, Gottheim's work properly stands alone in its intensive investigations of the direct, sensual experience in collision with complex structure of repetition, anticipation and memory. (REDCAT)



Deborah Stratman's "From Hetty to Nancy" (1997)
"The stoic beauty of the Icelandic landscape forms a backdrop for a series of witty and caustic letters written at the turn of the century by a woman named Hetty as she treks with her companion Masie, four school girls and their school marm. The film juxtaposes Hetty's ironic cataloguing of the petty social interactions as they endure discomfort and boredom with historic accounts of catastrophes that reveal the Icelandic people subject to the awesome forces of nature." - Deborah Stratman
Deborah Stratman is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker interested in landscapes and systems. Her films, rather than telling stories, pose a series of problems - and through their at times ambiguous nature, allow for a complicated reading of the questions being asked. Many of her films point to the relationship between physical enviroments and the very human struggles for power, ownership, mastery and control that are played out on the land. (pythagorasfilm.com)

Friday, October 16, 2009

Knit Wit @ Nudashank

Anthony Record's "The Gulf"
Knit Wit
An Exhibition of Contemporary Knit and Sewn Work
October 23 - November 18

OPENING RECEPTION: October 23, 2009
7 - 10 PM

Sarah Applebaum (California)
Anthony Record (Florida)
Nathan Vincent (New York)
Jennifer Strunge (Baltimore)
Chiara Keeling (Baltimore)
Todd Knopke (New York)

Nudashank
405 W. Franklin Street 3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201

Gallery Hours:
Saturday and Sunday 11am - 5pm
and by appointment

Also: For news and information visit http://nudashank.com

Thursday, October 15, 2009

School 33 Art Center's 21st Annual Open Studio Tour


School 33 Art Center’s Open Studio Tour is an annual city-wide event that for over 20 years has brought together professional artists and the general public, giving collectors and art lovers the opportunity to visit the studios of visual artists.

On Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18, 2009, between the hours of 10am and 6pm, meet the artist, see their work and get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their working processes.



The Open Studio Tour Exhibition runs from October 16 - November 14m with an opening reception on Friday, October 16 from 6pm -9pm. This exhibition is located in Gallery I and features work from artists participating in Open Studio Tour.


School 33 Art Center is located at 1427 Light Street.



For a complete listing of studios and to map out your itinerary, go to
 www.school33.org.

Axis Alley opening this sunday

Opening Reception/alley walk/barbecue on Sunday, October 18th from 2-6 pm
2014 N. Calvert through 2214 North Calvert (between 20th and 23rd street)




Axis Alley seeks through creative engagement to utilize the backyards of vacant properties and vacant lots as a  canvas for creative works that transform, activate and revitalize the overlooked, under-attended areas of Baltimore’s back alleys. In neighborhoods where the vacancy rate of properties runs high, the alley seems to become the indicator of urban difficulties…trash, rats, homeless people, prostitution and drugs. These somewhat forbidding alley’s (dark and unlit at night),while speaking of endemic problems in the city, posses a certain toxic beauty and  provide a fascinating possibility of urban intervention and creative gesture.

For more information, please check out the Axis Alley website

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

King Me Opens @ Open Space

King Me, the two person show of fresh MICA alums, Dan Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax which opened at Open Space this past Saturday was, in short, a hot mess (please refer to definition 2 in the Urban Dictionary). The chaotic/slacker/inside-joke-based installation was, while undeniably enthusiastic, a little lack-luster. Amidst the phonebooks, sawhorses, and porn clippings (all of which there could honestly have been more of), the best moments were when the artists went big with the bold. The two large wall pieces, which half-concealed smaller framed objects, helped to reign in the smaller collages and object-piles around the room, while simultaneously calling attention to those areas lacking impact. Each object was treated a tad too preciously for the overall aesthetic, and many of the details were swallowed by the enormity of the space.












Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Hexchange opens @ the Hexagon


Hexchange
October 9 - November 6, 2009
Opening Reception: October 10, 6 - 9pm
light refreshments (BYOB)
1825 N. Charles Street

Hexchange, an emerging artist printmaking portfolio with over 40 participants nationwide. Following the exhibition, Hexchange will become a part of the permanent collections at the International Printing Museum in Southern California, and Goya Contemporary and Nudashank Gallery in Baltimore. Hexchange will also travel to Philadelphia for satellite exhibition during the Southern Graphics Council in 2010. Individual prints and whole portfolios will be available for purchase for the duration of the show.

Participating printmakers include: Irma Alba, Sara Allred, Kathy Beachler, Kelsey Beyer, Sherry Blase, Rachel Bone, Graham Boyle, Miranda Bushey, Aisha Butler, Sarah Casamassima, Brandon Cox, Katherine Fahey, Greg Gazdowicz, Diana Nicollette Jeon, Tiffany Jordan, Lou Joseph, Val Lucas, Tonia Matthews, Melissa Mauro, Kathleen Mazurek, Heather McLaughlin, Ursula Minervini & Jon Poliszuk, Anthony Morrow, Chris Muccioli, Maggie Muth, Lauren Peterson, Phuong Pham, Ece Piper, Nikholis Planck, Cynthia Protzman, Matt Readout, Jasmine Sarp, Kevin Sherry, Caro Sturges, Mary Tasillo, Rachel Valsing, Kyle Van Horn, Siobhan Vicens, Linda Wilson, Adam Woods, and Alex Worthington.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Hand-made Experimental Animation @ Charles Theatre




This week's revival: Hand-made experimental ANIMATION programmed by animator Karen Yasinsky and sponsored in part by the MICA Animation Department and JHU Film/Media Studies.

A screening of experimental animations from some of the masters. Don't miss this chance to see magicians of the single frame, from Lewis Klahr's bursting collage of image and color to Robert Breer's sublime manipulation of our processing of image through time. Including long lost dolls, operatic divas, sausages and a few surprises. 16 mm.

2 Screenings Only!
Monday, October 5 at 7pm
Thursday, October 8 at 9pm
(No Saturday Show)



Including Lewis Klahr, Janie Geiser, Robert Breer, Adam Beckett and others.

Lewis Klahr: Lulu
"Lewis Klahr has developed a signature style of cutout animation using illustrations from old magazines and, occasionally, photographic cutouts. LULU was commissioned to be shown as an interlude for a Danish production of Alban Berg's opera, and it is a remarkably intricate piece of work. Berg's instructions call for an expository filmic sequence, but Klahr takes a more indirect approach, collaging stills of diva Constance Hauman with iconographic motifs and metaphoric condensations derived from the heroine's lurid fall from grace. A roulette wheel is a central image, at once a harbinger of chance and a catherine's wheel on which the body and soul of this femme fatale is broken. Intensities of color - predominantly gold, red, and blue - join with vertical movements into and out of frame in mirroring the rising and subsiding intensities of Berg's musical phrases. For those familiar with Lulu's dramatic trajectory, it is like watching an implosion of elements drawn to the center from opposite ends of her story, the moment at which Fate drops its mask of neutrality." - Paul Arthur, Film Comment
1996, 16mm, color/so, 3m,

Janie Geiser: The secret story
The Secret Story arose as a response to several beautifully decayed toy figures from the 1930s that were given to me as a gift. These figures, and other toys, objects and illustrations that I found from the period between the world wars, suggested a kind of unearthed hidden narrative which I have attempted to re-piece together, as if these figures were the hieroglyphics of a just-forgotten tongue. The Secret Story revolves around the central figure of the woman, and her girl-double, who look somewhat like versions of Snow White. She wanders through landscapes of rivers and floods, home and war, and memory and illness, culminating in an ecstatic walk in the forest, suggesting both the dark and cathartic trajectories of the richest fairy tales.
1996, 16mm, color/so, 8.5m,

Robert Breer: 69
"It's so absolutely beautiful, so perfect, so like nothing else. Forms, geometry, lines, movements, light, very basic, very pure, very surprising, very subtle." - Jonas Mekas, The Village Voice; "A dream of Euclid." - Donald Richie
Awards: NY Film Festival; London Film Festival; Tours Film Festival; Oberhausen Film Festival.
1968, 16mm, color/so, 5m

Robert Breer: Fuji
"A poetic, rhythmic, riveting achievement (in rotoscope and abstract animation), in which fragments of landscapes, passengers, and train interiors blend into a magical color dream of a voyage. One of the most important works by a master who - like Conner, Brakhage, Broughton - spans several avant-gardes in his ever more perfect explorations." - Amos Vogel, Film Comment
Awards: Oberhausen Film Festival, 1975; Film as Art, American Film/Video Festival.
1974, 16mm, color/so, 8.5m,

Adam Beckett: Sausage City
Newly preserved print courtesy Iota Center and Academy Film Archive, Music: Brillo
Starting with a white screen a city of interlocking boxes evolves, always moving, constantly changing perspective. After a while, this group of sausages begins to emerge. They are a thoroughly rendered (using fancy colored-pencil technique) bunch of sausages. As time passes there get to be a whole bunch of sausages; in fact, the screen becomes one mass of seething, throbbing, pullulating life. The ending is a surprise.
Awards: Humboldt Film Festival, 1974; Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1974.
1974, 16mm, color/so, 5.5m