This Week: Derrick Adams Visiting Artist lecture at Goucher, Asia North 2023, Aaron Dante and Ngaiire at Creative Alliance, AVAM’s Kinetic Sculpture Race, Baltimore Open Studio Tour, opening reception for Schroeder Cherry curated exhibition at Hamilton Gallery, Beth Yashnyk & Fanni Somogyi opening reception and artist talk at Transformer DC, Michelle Erickson exhibition at the BMA, Black Art: In the Absence of Light opening reception at Gallery B, and The Farm Alliance of Baltimore’s Field Notes Dinner Series — PLUS applications due for The Enoch Pratt Free Library Artist in Residence Program and more featured opportunities!
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!
Derrick Adams | 2023 Nancy G. Unobskey ’60 Visiting Artist in Modern and Contemporary Art
Thursday, May 4 :: 7pm
@ Goucher College, Merrick Lecture Hall
Derrick Adams is a Baltimore-born, Brooklyn-based artist whose critically admired work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. His multidisciplinary practice engages how individuals’ ideals, aspirations, and personae become attached to specific objects, colors, textures, symbols, and ideologies. His work probes the influence of popular culture on the formation of self-image, and the relationship between man and monument as they coexist and embody one another.
Adams is also deeply immersed in questions of how African American experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. Most notably in his Floater series, he portrays Black Americans at leisure, positing that respite itself is a political act when embraced by black communities. The radicality of this position has materialized in Adams’ work across his Deconstruction Worker, Figure in the Urban Landscape, and Beauty World series.
In formal terms, Adams’ practice is rooted in Deconstructivist philosophies related to the fragmentation and manipulation of structure and surface, and the marriage of complex and improbable forms. His tendency to layer, hybridize, and collage not only images and materials, but also different types of sensory experiences, link the artist to an estimable lineage of pioneers ranging from Hannah Höch and Henri Matisse, to William H. Johnson and Romare Bearden. In Adams’ art, the process can also be understood as an analog: “Everything that we are is based on a specific construction,” he once remarked.
Adams received his MFA from Columbia University and BFA from Pratt Institute. He is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation’s Studio Program.
Adams is a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2019), a Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship (2018), a Studio Museum Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize (2016), and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award (2009). He has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including Where I’m From — Derrick Adams (2019) at The Gallery in Baltimore City Hall; Derrick Adams: Sanctuary (2018) at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; and Derrick Adams: Transmission (2018) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver.
Adams’ work has been presented in numerous important public exhibitions, including Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth. (2019) at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati; PERFORMA (2015, 2013, and 2005); The Shadows Took Shape (2014) and Radical Presence (2013–14) at The Studio Museum in Harlem; The Channel (2012) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Greater New York (2005) at MoMA PS1; and Open House: Working In Brooklyn (2004) at the Brooklyn Museum. His work resides in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Asia North 2023 | Opening Event
Friday, May 5 | Ongoing through June 3
Asia North celebrates the arts and Asian culture that are defining characteristics of Baltimore’s Charles North neighborhood, part of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.
Inaugurated in the spring of 2019, Asia North is a collaborative community celebration that recognizes, showcases, and honors the art, culture and the Asian heritage of Greater Baltimore, especially the Korean history of Baltimore’s Charles North community.
The Asian Arts & Culture Center co-produces events with the Central Baltimore
Partnership, and multiple community partners. Area artists and organizations present exhibits, performances, films, and more. In spring 2020, the programs expanded to online formats.
Celebrate the kick-off of Asia North 2023. Meet the artists featured in TRANSition/TRANSformation/TRANScendence. Enjoy performances by Hee Kyung Lee Dance Company, Hyejin Kim, Yong Han Lion Dancers, and Ashling Han. Enjoy Korean food. Opening remarks by Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott. Hosted by Dami Soh Schlobohm. Presented with the Baltimore Changwon Sister City Committee and Korean American Foundation – Greater Washington.
Location Info:
Motor House, 120 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201
The Parlor, 108 W North Ave, Baltimore, MD 21201
Asia North graphic by Mika Nakano.
The Deep Dive with No Pix After Dark Podcast + Ngaiire
Friday, May 5 :: 6pm
@ Creative Alliance
Aaron Dante of the award winning podcast NoPixAfterDarkhosts the FIRST in a series of LIVE podcast recordings with Creative Alliance artists! It’s time for the Deep Dive with NoPixAfterDark! For this extra special collaboration we invite you in for a special interview before Ngaiire’s incredible performance in our theater.
6pm – Live Podcast in the Theater
7pm – Mingle with Aaron & Ngaiire in the Marquee Lounge
8pm – Performance by Ngaiire in the Theater
Tickets:
Creative Alliance Members can join the live podcast for FREE!
Live Podcast Only – $10
Live Podcast, Mingle & Performance – $30, $22 for Creative Alliance Members
