REVIEW: Out of Order

Out of Order
Maryland Art Place

Maryland Art Place has three beautiful galleries designed for the sensitive and intelligent display of art. Its mission is to promote contemporary visual art by artists working in Maryland. Not fringe.

However, one of MAP’s fund-raising events is fringe: “Out of Order” invites any artists to bring a work of their art, hang it wherever they choose and set a minimum price. The night of the gala party, guests bid on the art works between drinks, food and dancing. MAP splits the selling price of works sold with the artist.

This year 310 artists participated, nearly twice as many as last year. When I first walked into MAP, I was struck by how well the works were installed. It is a daunting challenge to hang so many unrelated works of different media. When I learned that artists hang the works themselves when they bring it, I was even more impressed. These artists clearly knew where to put their art to best advantage.

On Friday afternoon before the gala neither titles, media, nor prices were posted, just the artists’ names. And more than ninety percent of these artists were unfamiliar to me, even though nearly all evidenced a high level of training. Most of the art was quite accessible and in the mainstream of contemporary work.

So I had the fun of just looking at art with very little context—what stood on its own merits for me on that Friday afternoon, what did I especially like then and there? Andy Sanders, mixed media photo collages; Jeffrey Kent, painting; Andrew D. Hoch, wall sculpture; Donald Lee Smyth II, mixed media; Edna K. Emmett, painting; Leslie Sheldon, painting; Chris Peregoy, etching/aquatint?; Doug Henson, photograph ; Denise Tassin, mixed media drawing; Christine Bunting, photography; Judy Sellman, mixed media sculpture; Seth Adelsberger, painting; Patrick Ross, photograph; Melanie Chang, water color; Kathleen Hayes, paper construction; Heidi Smith, mixed media painting, and Andrew Yff table. [James Beau is familiar with the work of 29% of these artists.]

When I returned the next day, I learned titles, media, and prices—either sold or minimum—for some of the works listed above. Approximately one hundred works sold at the gala, and the average price was somewhere around $160—a great bargain, way, way, way below what I would expect these works to sell for in a commercial gallery. For something that will enrich your spirit, mind, and environment for years to come.

Viewed April 7 & 8
www.Mdartplace.org
Maryland Art Place
8 Market Place, Suite 100
410-962-8565

APR 7 -- APR 13 EVENTS CALENDAR

Thursday, April 7 at 6 PM TALK*
"Estimating 100,000 or More Civilian Deaths in Iraq"
When will we know how many Iraqis--military and civilian--we (Bush I & II) killed to save them from themselves? Probably not for a generation. But Drs. Gilbert Burnham and Leslie Roberts of JHU's Bloomberg School of Public Health have begun the research. Free
http://webapps.jhu.edu/eventslist/standardtemplate.cfm?date=04/07/2005&mode=daily
Hodson Building Room 110
JHU Homewood Campus
3400 North Charles Street
410-516-8475
*"Distinguished Lecture" per JHU

Friday, April 8 & Saturday April 9 at 8 PM FESTIVAL
Transmodern Age 2005 "A Festival of Experimental Performance, Dance, Sound, and Action"
What is Human
This is perfect Baltimore fringe! Movement, sound, and sights organized and performed by excellent, experienced artists Catherine Pancake, Praxis, Wynne Greenwood, Laure Drougoul, Naoko Maeshiba, Melissa Moore, Audrey Chen, Jackie Milad, Charm City Kitty Club, Paper Rad, Cindy Rehm, Bonnie Jones and more. Check the Transmodern Age website to see who's performing what at the two sites. $10 each night.
http://www.transmodernage.com/artists/index.html
http://www.area405.org/, http://www.creativealliance.org/
April 8 at Area 405
405 East Oliver Street
April 9 at The Creative Alliance at the Patterson
3134 Eastern Avenue
410-276-1651

Friday, April 8 to June 30 PM YOUTH
Music Art and Beautiful Things
Serious artists come in all ages and art appreciators who neglect 'student' art miss out on important and rewarding opportunities. Especially when the young artists are well-mentored and well-challenged. This exhibit includes work by students from Park School, Baltimore Freedom Academy, Roland Park Country School, Johns Hopkins Advanced Writing Seminar, Kids on the Hill, YouthLight, and Stadium School in response to their visits to Evergreen House (Early Baltimore Fringe). Opening reception is from 6-8 PM on April 8. $6
www.jhu.edu/historichouses/
Evergreen House
4545 North Charles Street
410-516-0341

Saturday, April 9 at 10:00 PM EXPERIENTIAL
All-night Ambient Event
Billed as a slide show and sound... Jimbo's not sure what this is, but the first link below gives details, and the second talks about the producer. It's billed for adults (21+ ID), but since it starts at 10 and goes all night, it's for adults younger than James Beau. No dancing, enjoy a dream-like environment, bring a pad or blanket. Equinox Hang Space, $8
http://www.sheldondrake.com/FLATTERY_02.html
http://www.sheldondrake.com/
Copy Cat Building
1501 Guilford (at Federal Street)
410-366-6207

Sunday, April 10 at 6 PM CHOIR
Morgan State University Choir
Benefits "Giving for the Children." Jimbo could learn nothing more, but the MSU Choir in a church sounds like a fine Sunday afternoon! Donation?
St. Michaels and All Angels Episcopal Church
2013 St. Paul Street

Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 MUSIC PLUS
BSO Concert Lab
Sadly, this is one of two great opportunities to hear contemporary music in Baltimore on this night. Digital, visual augmentation and discussion. Free, tickets required, call.
http://www.mica.edu/
Falvey Hall, Brown Center
1301 Mt. Royal Avenue
410-255-2516

Tuesday, April 12 at 8:00 MUSIC
Ruckus
Sadly, contemporary music is still fringe in Baltimore. But tonight's it's worth a trip to hear Elliott Carter, Anneliese Wiebel, Mark Osborn, Stuart Saunders Smith, Linda Dusman, and Thomas DeLio performed by UMBC's professional contemporary music ensemble. $7
http://www.umbc.edu/window/
UMBC Fine Arts Building
1000 Hilltop Circle
410-455-2942

Wednesday, April 13 at 8 PM CLASSIC
Pink Flamingos (1974 John Waters)
$5, free popcorn for CA members
Creative Alliance at the Patterson

MAR 31-- APR 6 EVENTS CALENDAR

Thursday, March 31 at 5:30 PM GRIOT
Herstories
There are wonderful story-tellers keeping a great tradition alive in Maryland. For those who enjoy humor, wisdom, and great entertainment, the Griots' Circle of Maryland. Free
http://www.pratt.lib.md.us/
Walbrook Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library
3203 West North Avenue
410-396-0935

Friday, April 1 at 7:30 PM THEATRE
Theatre Serenissima
Rick Shelley has been performing shadow puppet theatre in his Reservoir Hill home to appreciative audiences for a number of years. He writes, scores, and narrates plays using a miniature stage, sets, and puppets he created. These are literally fabulous entertainments, which were enhanced by the intimacy of his crowded auditorium/living room. Like Fluid Movement, Theatre Serenissima is reason alone to live in Baltimore.
Given that the audience size is limited to 28 for these performances, his work should lose none of its magic at AVAM. Also showing at 7:30 on April 3, 8, 10, 15 and 17; and at 2 PM on April 9 and 16. $20, make reservations and arrive early for a good seat.
http://www.avam.org/cgi-bin/Events.cgi
American Visionary Arts Museum
800 Key Highway
410-244-1900

Friday, April 1 at 5:45 PM MUSIC
Lukasz Kuropaczewski
Solo guitar at Homewood House will be a relaxing way to end the week and start the weekend. $15, reservations required.
http://www.jhu.edu/~hwdhouse/events.html
Peabody at Homewood Concert Series
Homewood House
3400 North Charles
410-516-5589

Saturday, April 2 thru April 9 VISUAL
Lotta Art Preview Exhibition
School 33 invites artists to donate a work (in any medium) to be raffled at its fund-raising auction. The fun part of the auction is that each ticket holder selects the work she or he wants in the order that her/his ticket number is selected. (The number of tickets sold is limited to the number of artworks donated.) Even the year Jimbo's number was called very near the end, he was able to get one of his top ten 'picks.' Times vary by day. Free, excluding benefit
http://www.school33.org/
School 33 Art Center
1427 Light street
410-396-4641

Sunday, April 3 at 7 PM ELECTRONIC
Double Concerto for Two Composers
Keith Kramer and Mark Williams compose accompanied by the visual art to Fred Merrill. There's marvelous, largely ignored, electronic music in this town thanks to George Peabody. $5
http://www.andiemusik.com/
An die Musik
409 North Charles
410-385-2638

Monday, April 4 at 7:30 PM FILM & TALK
Documentary Shorts
Per title, plus a discussion afterward lead by Scott Calonico who directed three of the films which will be shown ("lively tours of weird U.S. history" Lee Gardner in the City Paper). Jimbo's adding a Maryland Film Fest link. $10
www.mdfilmfest.org/documentary.html
Falvey Hall, Brown Center, mica
1301 Mt. Royal Avenue
410-752-8083

Wednesday, April 6 to Friday, April 8 HANG FREE
Out of Order
Maryland Art Place invites all area artists to hang a piece (one artwork) from 9 AM Wednesday through 9 AM Thursday. Then, at its annual gala on April 8 from 8 PM to 1 AM the works are sold as priced by the artist, who split the proceeds with MAP. The work is exhibited from 11 to 5 on Thursday and Friday. Free (excluding gala)
www.Mdartplace.org
Maryland Art Place
8 Market Place, Suite 100
410-962-8565

LAST CHANCE: Richard Cleaver and Joyce Scott

Through Saturday, April 2 Mixed Media Busts
Dirtwork: Joyce Scott
If you haven't seen this exhibition at C. Grimaldis Gallery, make time and go! It is spectacular, beautiful, disturbing, thought-provoking, complex, and sublime. Yes, I don't know if this is mainstream or fringe, but these distinctions aren't important. And yes, I remember my promise not to mention Tour de Clay exhibitions. [Disclosure: Scott is a friend of Jimbo's.] Free
http://www.cgrimaldis.com/
C. Grimaldis Gallery
523 North Charles Street
410-539-1080

Through Sunday, April 3 Installation
Richard Cleaver: Gathering at the Latrobe Spring House
If you haven't seen this exhibition at the BMA, make time and go! Richard Cleaver speculates on slavery at Oakland, the orginal location of the Spring House. His work (and Joyce Scott's) offers insightful perspectives on the roots of Maryland contemporary life. Mystical, historical, beautiful, and sublime. Yes, I don't know if his art is mainstream or fringe, but I do know that readers of this blog will greatly appreciate this exhibition. [Disclosure: Cleaver is also a friend of Jimbo's.] Admission $7
www.artbma.org/
The Baltimore Museum of Art
10 Art Museum Drive
410-396-7100

MAR 17 -- MAR 23 EVENTS CALENDAR

Thursday, Mar 17, Doors open at 7 CELTIC ROCK
O'Malley's March with the Crawdaddies
Supposedly this is the last St. Patrick's Day that Baltimore's Mayor will be performing with his band, O'Malley's March. And there's absolutely no other city in the USA with a Mayor better at Celtic Rock. $12 in advance, $15 at the door
http://www.omalleysmarch.com/
http://www.rechertheatre.com/index.cfm
Recher Theater
512 York Road, Towson
410-537-7210

Friday, Mar 18 from 7 to 10 PM ARTISTS' RECEPTION
American Al2O3SiO2 2H2O: Contemporary Sculpture
One of many Tour de Clay exhibitions, this features eighteen artists whose works are based on non-traditional and contemporary philosophies. Exhibit through April 2. Free
www.area405.com
Area 405
405 East Oliver Street
410-528-2101

Friday, Mar 18 at 8 and 10 PM IMPROV MUSIC
Elliot Sharp and Bobby Privite
An Die Musik brings another great night of improvisational music to Baltimore with guitarist Elliot Sharp and drummer Bobby Privite. Make reservations. $18
http://www.bobbyprevite.com/
http://www.nndb.com/people/117/000036009/
www.andiemusiklive.com
An Die Musik
409 North Charles Street
410-385-2638

Saturday, Mar 19 at 9 AM - 1 PM SCREEN PAINTING
Workshop
Screen painting is yet another peculiarly Baltimore practice. To maintain privacy in their right-on-the-street row houses and still have air circulation, many home-owners commissioned artists to paint their front door screens and sometimes their first floor window screens, often with idyllic country cottage scenes. Dee Herget, one of the finest screen painters still practicing, conducts a workshop on screen painting. $40, registration required.
www.mdhs.org
Maryland Historical Society
207 West Monument Street
410-685-3750

Saturday and Sunday, Mar 19 & 20 at 8 PM DANCE/THEATER
Mathnavi
DC's Open Theatre offers an adaptation of this work by Jelaluddin Rumi, the "Shakespeare of the Middle East" and "America's bestselling poet." (Who knew that Americans had such good taste in Muslim poetry!) Directed and designed by Joe Martin with original live Persian music by Kasem Davoudian. Billed to encompass movement, sacred Indian dance, parables of peace and unity, tragedy, amazing reversals of fortune, laughter and visual delights. And I believe it! General public $16, members $12
http://opentheatre.org/
www.creativealliance.org
Creative Alliance at the Patterson
3134 Eastern Avenue
410-276-1651

Monday, Mar 21 at 7:30 PM FILM/TALK
Don't Look Back/D.A. Pennebacker
This is a great 16mm documentary from 1965 about Bob Dylan early in his career. Director D.A. Pennebacker presents it. $10
www.mdfilmfestival.com
Falvey Hall, Brown Center
1301 Mt. Royal avenue
410-752-8083