Highlights from the Sondheim Semi-Finalist Show @ MICA

Two Can Collective

Alyssa Dennis

R L Croft

Travis Childers

Liz Ensz

Christian Herr

Lisa Moren

Rachel Bone

Sebastian Martorana

Ellen Nielsen

Jason Horowitz

Katherine Mann

Jessica Braiterman

It was kind of funny when the Alzaruba monsters blocked the entrance.

The Sondheim Semi-Finalist Exhibition is on view at the MICA Fox Building through August 2.

Off the Wall Opens @ The Whole Gallery

Spider and web by Freda Mohr, Pink tentacle by Christina Martinelli

Off the Wall, a group show of installation work rooted to the floor or suspended from the ceiling, opened at the Whole Gallery this weekend. Curated by Emily C-D, the show features 19 artists working with plastics, fabrics, fibers, bones, feathers and roller skates, filling the entire gallery and overflowing out the windows to the sub-roof below. Decidedly interactive, the opening included performance, crafting, and lounging in Alzaruba's cave-like plastic installation, complete with couches and chairs. While the opening was the main event, the exhibition will be on view through May 17. For more information, visit the new Whole Gallery blog!

Sarah Matson

Dino by Annie Gray, geodesic domes by Liz Zacharia

Jill Greenberg

Jen Kirby, above and below

Ellen Nielsen's points, Liz Ensz's roller skate parachutes

Caitlin Murphy

John Bohl and Sarah Matson

Alzaruba's plastic in the background

Elisa Urtiaga performing

Edward Knapp's tree with skull, Gina Denton's felt blob

Alzaruba's installation

Me with plastic in my face

Seth with plastic in his face

Someone trying to escape the plastic

Joe Giordano!

Melissa Webb's outdoor installation

Dixie and Rusty

Edie

Congrats to the Sondheim Semi-Finalists!

Seth Adelsberger's Scaffold

From the Baltimore Sun:

Sondheim arts prize names 26 semifinalists

Exhibit coincides with Artscape

By Edward Gunts | ed.gunts@baltsun.com

5:46 PM EST, February 11, 2009

Twenty-six visual artists or groups from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia were named semifinalists today for the fourth annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize, one of the most prestigious arts awards in the Baltimore area.

Named for civic leaders who were strong supporters of the arts, the prize includes a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or "visual artist collaborative" working in the Baltimore region. About six finalists will be selected in the spring, and an exhibit of their work will be shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art during the summer. An exhibit of the semifinalists' work will be shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries at the Maryland Institute College of Art in July, coinciding with the 2009 Artscape festival from July 17-18. The winner of the Sondheim prize will be announced at 7 p.m. July 11 at the BMA. This year's competition drew 334 entries.

The competition is sponsored by Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, and the juried exhibition is held in conjunction with the BMA and MICA. Judges for this year's prize are Ellen Harvey, a New York-based artist; Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and Elisabeth Sussman, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

The semifinalists are:

• Seth Adelsberger, Baltimore

• "Alzaruba," also known as Al Zaruba, Baltimore

•The Baltimore Development Cooperative, Baltimore. The cooperative includes Scott Berzofsky, Dane Nester and Nicholas Wisniewski, who are working on a community farm/art project in East Baltimore. Berzofsky and Wisniewski are former founding members of the artist collective known as Camp Baltimore.

•Lisa Blas, Washington, D.C.

• Rachel Bone, Baltimore

• Jessica Braiterman, Beltsville

• Travis Childers, Fairfax, Va.

• Mary Coble, Washington, D.C.

• R.L. Croft, Manassas, Va.

• Alyssa Dennis, Baltimore

• Liz Ensz, Baltimore

• Leslie Furlong, Baltimore

• Ryan Hackett, Kensington

• Christian Herr, Lancaster, Pa.

• Jason Horowitz, Arlington, Va.

• Jessie Lehson, Baltimore

• Kim Manfredi, Baltimore

• Katherine Mann, Baltimore

• Baby Martinez, Washington, D.C.

• Sebastian Martorana, Baltimore

• Lisa Moren, Baltimore

• Ellen Nielsen, Baltimore

• Louie Palu, Washington, D.C.

• Molly Springfield, Washington, D.C.

• "TwoCan Collective," Baltimore. TwoCan Collective consists of two women, "Emily C-D" and Jessica Unterhalter, who often make work using recycled materials.

• Karen Yasinsky, Baltimore

Two Person Juried Show Opens @ School 33

School 33's juried, two person exhibition, which received hundreds of submissions, features two female, installation artists; in the infinitely wise words of the Spice Girls, "GIRL POWER!" Eun Woo Cho and Liz Ensz divide School 33's main gallery down the middle, into two separate, yet overlapping, socially motivated installation pieces.
Eun Woo Cho's symbol-laden video pieces address tensions that still exist between Korea and Japan over the treatment of Korean women during World War II. She explained that she captures and displays all steps of her process, the past in still photos, the present in video, and future in abstracted sketches.


Liz Ensz works with ornate, decorative patterns inspired by the Spanish Moors, to present subversive, political and social messages. In her new pieces, Ensz creates a dark, meditative space with repetitive patterns of ominous war and religious symbols, and a contrastingly hopeful, white fountain. Perhaps a tad heavy-handed in its color choices, Ensz's labor-intensive pieces carefully conceal their vocabulary in a decorative aesthetic, drawing the viewer into their beauty and then their message.

Liz Ensz in front of her fountain

Walker washing his hands in the fountain

Guest curator, Andrea Pollan leads the artist talk with Liz Ensz

Eun Woo Cho speaks about her work

For more information on the artists and the current exhibition, visit the School 33 website!