At a time of year when many art and film lovers are honoring the best of recent work — culminating with the Oscars — John Waters is going in a different direction.
“The Worst of Waters” is the name of an exhibit that will open next month at C. Grimaldis Gallery in Baltimore, featuring visual art created by the Baltimore-based writer and filmmaker.
“Works never before exhibited in Baltimore” the gallery says on its website. “The rudest, the hardest to sell, the just plain wrong.”
Waters announced the show during his spoken word performance on Valentine’s Day at Baltimore Soundstage. “I try to keep all my brands going,” he said. “Come see it, come see it.”
Waters’ last visual art exhibit in Baltimore was ‘John Waters: Indecent Exposure’ at the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2018 and 2019. He has another show coming up this fall at the BMA, featuring some of the 375 works from his private collection that he has promised to leave the museum when he dies.
Contacted after his Valentine’s Day performance, Waters declined to say what inspired the Worst of Waters show or exactly what visitors will see.
The Grimaldis website shows a black and white triptych featuring two male faces and a drawing in between. The biggest clue about the contents is the message the art on display will be “works never before exhibited in Baltimore,” which presumably rules out anything from the Indecent Exposure retrospective.
During his spoken word performance, Waters strongly hinted that the Criterion Collection, a home video distribution company, will release a new edition of Pink Flamingos, the 1972 cult classic that will mark the 50th anniversary of its release on March 17. According to a lengthy article about Waters in Time magazine this week, Pink Flamingos “will get a 50th anniversary Criterion Collection reissue in June.”
Waters also mentioned his recent appearance on HBO’s Search Party, which he jokingly calls Millennium Maniacs, and said viewers will soon be able to see him as a guest star on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video. The first two episodes of the show’s fourth season will drop on Friday, February 18, but it’s unclear if either of those episodes are ones that will feature Waters.
Waters’ latest charity auction item for the Provincetown Film Festival – a dinner for 10 at the Provincetown Dump – recently raised more than $15,000, and he’ll have a book signing in the spring for his next book, Liarmouth, at Atomic Books on Falls Road.
C. Grimaldis Gallery is located at 523 North Charles Street, near the Washington Monument. “The Worst of Waters” will run from March 10 to April 22, with an opening reception on March 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
