Baltimore Liste is a series of three four-day exhibitions at the Contemporary Museum. Executive Director Sue Spaid asked several local galleries—Area 405, Current Space, Gallery 4, Jordan Faye Block, Nudashank, Open Space, and Sub Basement Artist Studios—to recommend artists for shows at the Museum. She then invited 12 artists to exhibit in groups of four. The results of this energetic snapshot of some of the City’s best emerging artists are impressive. They hint at the incredible enterprise and imagination of gallerists and curators in our DIY arts community.
Photo by Edward Winter
In its first iteration, May 12 to 15, Baltimore Liste featured four distinct installations that planned or not often took up related themes. Shaun Flynn built a lofty wooden tower in a high-ceilinged room; it was filled with and resting on colorful beach balls. This circular structure was loosely tethered to the ceiling by a blue rope and a large hanging ball, just enough of a suggestion of imminent collapse to make us a little anxious. Stewart Watson took up this theme in a narrow space, positioning delicate metal rods that spanned from wall to wall, often squeezing against silk pillows to remain aloft.
Greeting me as I entered was a print by John Bohl with dozens of brightly colored biomorphic images gently organized on an unseen grid. These were not quite recognizable, but as often with John’s work, reminiscent of human faces and forms. A still life of found objects stood below, a momento mori complete with a grimacing skull. In Jordan Bernier’s darkened gallery, a bevy of television screens played video created from stop-action photographs of his paper arrangements, each one rapidly reconfiguring itself, a constant work in progress.
Photo by Edward Winter
The second show, May 19 to 22, had a strong undercurrent of performance. David Page hung a quilted leather piece, stuffed with coconut shavings, on the wall and invited us to throw ourselves against this bison-shaped form. I did. I bounced. I passed on a second opportunity: to tackle a metal and fabric encased woman whose body leaned forward at a perilous angle, saved from falling only by the industrial looking, heavy metal base she sat on.
Photo by Edward Winter
In another room, Joshua Wade Smith rode a stationary bicycle atop a tall lathe-covered pedestal. As he peddled vigorously, he read from the adventure story Robinson Crusoe, the casual, even pace of his voice belying the great physical effort he was expending to go nowhere. A bright light cast the shadow of his bobbing torso on the wall above. At eye level, Joshua hung a series of black-and-white brush drawings of the same mysterious animal. These were completed in increasingly brief periods of time, an endurance test that make them an appropriate companion for his performance.
Photo by Edward Winter
The next two artists made us aware of their creative process. Caitlin Cunningham’s section of the show culminated in a beautiful hanging installation of living plants. Her wall work, often created in between layers of glass or plastic, incorporated natural or man-made fragments—from a beautiful wreath of dried leaves and petals to a blue rubber glove and expandable net bag—many painted with rich strokes of pigment.
Nicholas Gottlund’s photographs, tacked directly on the wall, often contain surprises. Are the objects we see stranded in nature or the built environment found or positioned? In two photographs, a triangular piece of a shattered mirror is shown lying in the limbs of a tree, reflecting the sky and tree above. It is as though the tree is checking on its lipstick. A random piece of paper with someone’s inaccurate addition of 4,00,000 plus 2,00,000 has been cast on an asphalt road or path. A case in the midst of the room preserves this artifact. Nicholas’ images, which always suggest intriguing narratives to me, are often gathered together in books, giving us the opportunity to embroider his tales as we turn through their pages.
Given the speed of the project, which will conclude this weekend, you’ve likely already missed two-thirds of the work! Be sure to catch the installment that opens on Friday, May 27, at 6 p.m. It features Gary Kachadourian, Michel Model, Kate McKinnon, and DUOX.
Doreen Bolger is always on the move because she can’t stop seeing, supporting, and writing about the arts in and around Baltimore City. Her lengthy love affair for the arts began in Long Island when her father, an executive in the textile industry, brought home breathtaking fabrics every night from the heart of the garment district. 