This Week: MICA Grad Show, David MacDonald artist talk at Clayworks, Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick of LittlePuss Press at Red Emma’s, The Maryland Traditions Archives 10 year anniversary, IMDA MFA Thesis Exhibition opening, Silas Munro at Stevenson University, Jiha Moon at Goucher College, Katie Kameen opening reception at Baltimore Jewelry Center, Theresa Robertson opening reception at Area 405, 2024 Capital Art Book Fair, and Phaan Howng and Andy Yoder opening reception at MONO Practice — PLUS Out of Order + KIDOOO installation and call for volunteers at MAP and more featured opportunties!
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!
Maryland Institute College of Art’s 2024 Grad Show, Featuring Emerging Artists
Ongoing @ Various Locations
Meet the next generation of creative thinkers
Art emerges as an indispensable tool in this era of political unrest, pervasive racial and social injustice, and community polarization.
MICA Grad Show 2024 will host on-campus and community engagements and virtually showcase the culminating work of MFA and MA graduate students from 14 of the College’s internationally renowned programs.
The work of these artists, designers, filmmakers, educators, and curators demonstrates how art disrupts in the most benevolent sense, awakens us to the present moment, and contributes to our shared becoming, that we might imagine things otherwise and become more fully human.
Campus galleries are open to the public daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.* On weekends, outside visitors will need to be accompanied by a MICA community member with a MICA ID in order to swipe and gain access into respective buildings.
*Pinkard Gallery in Bunting Center is open to the public Monday – Friday only.
Baltimore Clayworks Artist Talk with David MacDonald
Tuesday, April 2 :: 12:30-1pm
@ Baltimore Clayworks
Ceramic artists are at the heart of Baltimore Clayworks. Artists are at the center of the mission of Baltimore Clayworks, and provide the organization with talent and innovation to inspire our community and to enliven the artistic impact of ceramics in our region. Their professional and personal networks provide a kaleidoscope of interactions with peers, galleries, and academic institutions, which keep the organization at the forefront of contemporary ceramic art.
Artist Bio
David R. MacDonald was born in 1945 in Hackensack, New Jersey, the third oldest of nine children. He graduated from Hackensack High School in 1963 and was awarded an athletic scholarship to Hampton Univeristy (Hampton, Virginia) where he majored in art education. While there he was greatly inspired by noted African American ceramic artist Joseph W. Gilliard.
During his studies at Hampton his work became influenced by the political and social issues of the time (the Civil Rights Movement). After graduating, he was awarded a graduate fellowship at the University of Michigan where he studied with John Stephenson and noted African American ceramist Robert Stull. During this time, his work continued to focus on social and political commentary and expand technically.
After receiving his Master of Fine Arts degree he joined the faculty of the School of Art and Design at Syracuse University. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, MacDonald’s work received most of its creative inspiration from his investigation of his African heritage. Looking at a variety of design sources in the vast creative tradition of the African continent, MacDonald draws much of his inspiration from the myriad examples of surface decoration that manifests itself in the many ethnic groups of sub-Saharan Africa (as pottery decoration, textiles, body decoration, and architectural decoration). MacDonald’s work spans the complete spectrum of ceramic forms of a utilitarian nature.
MacDonald received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in 2011.
Cat Fitzpatrick & Casey Plett – ‘LittlePuss Press and Trans Community’
Tuesday, April 2 :: 7pm
@ Red Emma’s
Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick talk trans poetics, community-making, and radical publishing at their press LittlePuss!
Casey Plett is the author of A DREAM OF A WOMAN (Arsenal Pulp, 2021), which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize; LITTLE FISH (Arsenal Pulp, 2018), winner of a Lambda Literary Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and the Amazon First Novel Award in Canada; and A SAFE GIRL TO LOVE (Topside Press, 2014; Arsenal Pulp, 2023), also a winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She was the co-editor of MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY FROM TRANSGENDER WRITERS (2017) alongside Cat Fitzpatrick. Most recently, Plett authored the essay collection ON COMMUNITY (Biblioasis, 2023), which draws on a range of firsthand experiences to start a conversation about the larger implications of community as a word, an idea, and a symbol.
Cat Fitzpatrick wrote the book of poems GLAMOURPUSS and co-edited the anthology MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE: SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY FROM TRANSGENDER WRITERS, which won the ALA Stonewall Book Award for Literature. Her verse novel, THE CALL-OUT, was published in 2022 by Seven Stories Press. She is the Director of the Women’s Studies program at Rutgers University – Newark and the Editrix at LittlePuss Press.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
