BmoreArt’s Picks: September 22-28
This Week: Anne Patchett in conversation with R. Eric Thomas at Church of the Redeemer, Across Life-Worlds curator talk with Vlad Smolkin at The Jewish Museum, Patricia Massey Momentum Award opening reception at Creative Alliance, High Zero Festival at Baltimore Theatre Project, Art / Sound / Now with John Tyler at The Walters, opening reception for Victoria Rowell at MICA, opening reception for Emma Childs at Mount Vernon Place Church, opening receptions for SHAN Wallace and Jessie & Katey at Current Space, AVAM’s Mutt Gala, BRUSH Mural Fest, opening reception for Devin Allen at CCCC — PLUS apply for a SAAM fellowship 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!
An Evening with Ann Patchett and R. Eric Thomas: WHISTLER
Tuesday, September 22 :: 7-8pm
@ Church of the Redeemer
The Ivy Bookshop is over the moon to be hosting Ann Patchett and R. Eric Thomas for a conversation about Ann Patchett’s latest, WHISTLER!
We love the friendship between these two beloved authors, first cemented in Baltimore in 2023, and can’t wait to bring them back for a reprise.
We’re grateful to partner with Church of the Redeemer for the use of their spacious sanctuary space. Doors will open at 6pm. Seating will be first come, first served.
If you would like a signed copy of Whistler by Ann Patchett or Congratulations, the Best Is Over by R. Eric Thomas, please purchase the ticket option that includes that book. All books will be pre-signed. Additional unsigned copies will be available for sale at the event.
If you’re new to Ann Patchett’s work, you are sure to be delighted by Whistler. As one of our booksellers likes to say, “Man, Ann Patchett can really write a novel!” It’s the story of a surprise encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the sweetness and impermanence of life, and the power of connection to defy time. Oh, and horses and ghosts. It’s no surprise it became a #1 New York Times bestseller. You can read more about the book at this link.
And there’s no one like R. Eric Thomas writing about how to move through the harder parts of life with humor, grace, and graciousness. In Congratulations, The Best Is Over!, Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaving completely out of character. Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he’d left behind while trying to establish a new one.
We can’t wait to see you there. And then to repeat the legendary things said in this conversation to each other for the rest of time!
Across Life-Worlds | Art Talk with Curator Vlad Smolkin
Wednesday, September 23 :: 6-8pm
@ The Jewish Museum of Maryland
Join the Jewish Museum of Maryland for a curator-led engagement exploring the art highlighted in Across Life-Worlds: A Family History of Soviet Jewish Emigration. Curated by Victoria Smolkin and Vlad Smolkin, the exhibition places the stories of several Soviet Jewish families who came to Maryland in conversation with the global and national politics that enabled their emigration. Through presenting a selection of lived experiences, the exhibition explores how American and Soviet Jews, who began as distant strangers on opposite sides of the Cold War divide, came to see each other as family.
At the event, explore the gallery and gain insight into aspects of the exhibition that both directly and indirectly incorporate art and artists. Learn about the ways that art functions to support and integrate the history of Soviet Jewish emigration presented. Hear how the curator’s background in the arts has shaped some of the curatorial decisions.
About Across-Life Worlds
In the late twentieth century, more than a million Soviet Jews left the Soviet Union—the largest ethnic emigration from the USSR, and the largest Jewish migration since the “Great Migration.” In the late 1980s and early 1990s Maryland became a major destination for this Soviet Jewish exodus. Across Life-Worlds follows the stories of these disparate branches of the Jewish family, tracing their converging fates during the Cold War and coming to a focus on their reunification in the U.S. The exhibition curators, themselves children of Soviet Jewish emigration, capture family stories in interviews, photos, home videos, and objects that reflect the years before their departure and after their arrival—a period that also marks the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
About the Featured Curator
Vlad Smolkin was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and emigrated to the United States in 1989 with his parents and sister, co-curator Victoria Smolkin. He is an artist, curator, and founding director of CPM Gallery in Baltimore, where he presents an international roster of contemporary artists, publishes limited edition prints, and partners with a range of curators, writers, and scholars. Across his work, he creates spaces for collaboration and critical reflection, asking how individuals might see and act within the systems that organize their lives. Smolkin received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012 and has exhibited nationally and internationally. His artistic and curatorial work has been featured in Frieze, Artforum, Forbes, The Washington Post, Artnet, Hyperallergic, BmoreArt, among others. He has served as a visiting artist, critic, and lecturer at institutions including Moore College of Art and Design, Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Massey University in New Zealand, Art Institute of Boston, and Wesleyan University, and has taught in the graduate Art History Department at Georgetown University.
Complimentary kosher non-alcoholic beverages will be served.
Please note that capacity for this program is very limited and advance registration is strongly encouraged. Program tickets are available on a sliding scale.
The Patricia Massey Momentum Award Exhibition | Opening Reception
Wednesday, September 23 :: 6:30-9:30pm
@ Creative Alliance
On-View: SEP 23 – NOV 14
Open to artists working in visual arts disciplines, the award provides financial support, exhibition opportunities, and a platform for immigrant artists to share their work with the broader community while supporting the continued growth and visibility of their artistic practices.
Three artists will be selected through this process: two finalists and one Patricia Massey Momentum Award recipient. The award recipient will receive a $10,000 award and participate in public programming with Creative Alliance, and all three artists will present their work together in a group exhibition at Creative Alliance.
This award is made possible by the McNeely Massey Family.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
