Arts & Culture

Can't-Miss Virtual and In-Person Art Exhibits This Month

Support local galleries and artists with these happenings.
(Left) Beverly McIver. Praying For Peace. Oil on canvas. —Courtesy of C. Grimaldis Gallery

From limited in-person exhibitions to virtual collections, the art world continues to create and evolve in the wake of the coronavirus. This September, support local galleries and artists with these local happenings.

Contemporary

SUMMER ’20
Through the end of the month, the prestigious C. Grimaldis Gallery in Mount Vernon hosts its annual must-see summer exhibit featuring a variety of works across all genres, including those by collage artist Zoë Charlton, light installationist Chul-Hyun Ahn, photographer Ben Marcin, filmmaker John Waters, and painter Beverly McIver.  To 9/26. C. Grimadlis Gallery. Online, or in person by appointment only. Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

JO SMAIL: BEES WITH STICKY FEET
Due to popular demand, Hampden’s Goya Contemporary Gallery has extended this summer exhibit featuring more than 30 works by the prolific South African-born, Baltimore-based artist Jo Smail. Across pigment prints and fabric on wood, each collage is an exploration of past and present through shape, pat- tern, and texture. The gallery will also be presenting Smail’s work via the virtual BMA Salon through January 2021. To 9/30. Goya Contemporary Gallery. Online, or in person by appointment only. Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 12-5 p.m. Free.

MONO PLATFORM
With its exhibition space closed to the public, the Station North gallery continues its goal of showcasing abstract and reductive art by emerging and mid-career artists through this online collection, including colorful and compelling paper works, paintings, sculpture, and photography. We personally love the bright painted panels of Tim Doud, co-founder of local collaborative art project, ’sindkit. To 12/31. Mono Practice. Online. Free.

Living History

FREEDOM BOUND: RUNAWAYS OF THE CHESAPEAKE 
This new exhibit at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum presents nine vignettes of people—slaves, indentured servants, and convict servants—from the Chesapeake region who sought freedom from bondage between the Colonial period and the American Civil War. Tales of resistance and resilience, each tells a larger story about an experience shared by thousands in bondage who lived and labored in Maryland. 9/1-30. Reginald F. Lewis Museum. Online. Free.

FORGOTTEN FIGHT: THE STRUGGLE FOR VOTING RIGHTS IN MARYLAND
The year 2020 marks the 100th and 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th and 15th Amendments, respectively. This new virtual, interactive exhibition from the Maryland Historical Society honors the women who devoted their lives to women’s suffrage and fought an uphill battle for the right to vote across the state. 9/9-3/31/21. Maryland Historical Society. Online. Free.

Art of the Times

THE FREQUENCY OF US
Co-curated by multidisciplinary artists Abdu Ali and Karryl Eugene, the nomadic arts platform As They Lay returns with its second virtual exhibition, an all-new series showcasing selected video works by up-and-coming artists who amplify the importance of Black archival curation and its ability to reshape aspects of culture for the growth of the Black gaze. The exhibit aims to empower viewers to interrogate monolithic ideologies that center a white patriarchal gaze. 9/17-19. As They Lay. Online via Zoom. Free. 

KOTA EZAWA’S NATIONAL ANTHEM
Though the BMA was still officially closed as of press time, its outdoor Spring House is now open to the public and presenting National Anthem, a short, animated film and powerful meditation on protest and patriotism by California artist Kota Ezawa. The museum’s Go Mobile App provided additional commentary from museum curators on the work and the space, which was a former workspace for enslaved people in Baltimore. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Latrobe Spring House. In person. Tues.- Sun. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Free.

REMOTE
Though their spring semester was cut short, MICA Forum Class students still created art, with works from 15 artists now on view through this virtual 3-D gallery in partnership with Pigment Sauvage, an artist-run gallery in Bolton Hill. Browse powerful political photographs of installation art by Yuhan Shen, digital drawings turned puzzles by Stefanie Zins, colorful isolation-inspired paintings by Gloria Logan, autobiographical transferred drawings by Gaeun Chloe Kim, and more. To 10/9. Maryland Institute College of Art. Online. Free.