SHAN Wallace’s latest collage is full of life—people young and old, sitting, standing, eating, dancing, all amidst a colorful array of signs hawking everything from crab meat and oysters to lake trout and snowballs. And through it all, there is one main character, which serves as both the backdrop of many of these photographs and the artwork’s ultimate destination: Lexington Market.

“I’ve been going to Lexington Market for most of my life,” says Wallace, 31, an East Baltimore native who grew up visiting the historic downtown landmark, circa 1782, with family and friends. “As a photographer, I felt called to document its history.”

Last year, in partnership with market developer Seawall Development, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, and the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore City, Lexington Market chose four teams of local artists to decorate its new digs, which, after two years of construction, are slated to open this month between Paca and Eutaw streets near Fayette.

Created with the help of food historian and High on the Hog author Jessica B. Harris, Wallace’s collage, pictured behind the artist above, will serve as a sort of centerpiece for the new space. At 31 by 14 feet, it will be printed on fabric and installed above a sprawling central staircase, featuring images from both her Golden Time of the Hour and The Avenue series, both of which depict Black life in Baltimore with spirit and care.

“This is my offering to Lexington Market and to the people of Baltimore,” says Wallace of her work, which has yet to be named, noting that its creation required many visits to the market. “Because this is a piece that will be hanging for a really long time, and because of the pressure I put on myself, I didn’t want to [omit any aspects] of the market.”

 

“I’m hoping that this art helps us remember the old market of our lifetime.”

 

Other art will include murals envisioned by Ernest Shaw, sculptures by both of the mother-son duo Oletha DeVane and Christopher Kojzar, and metal artists Reed Bmore and Nick Ireys. For each, the mission was clear: to bridge the gap between the old Lexington and the new.

A painter and educator, Shaw was commissioned to curate four 16-foot murals on the market exterior, which, like Wallace’s installation, celebrate the Black Baltimoreans who frequented the market and the Black culture that proliferated there. He enlisted the help of his mentor, Morgan State University art professor Guy Jones, and fellow painter Christopher Batten.

“Sometimes, new facilities and new things change the ethos of a treasure—I hope that doesn’t happen here,” says Shaw. “Lexington Market is a full, complete, authentic depiction of Baltimore City. I want people to look at my work and feel that they’re a part of this shiny new building.”

At 53 years old, the West Baltimore native remembers childhood visits with his father and brother to Lexington Market, where they would purchase pound cake, Utz potato chips, and Polish sausages.

“When I was only three or four years old, I would walk with my dad from our apartment on Division Street to Lexington, downtown,” says Shaw, noting that it was also an afternoon hangout after high school with classmates. “As young adults, some of those same friends became jazz musicians and they would perform there.”

As for Wallace, she hopes her installation will help preserve the magic of that market of so many Baltimoreans’ memories.

“I’m hoping that this art helps us remember the old market of our lifetime—remember the people who made this market good, remember the old days, and celebrate them,” she says.

Inspired by pre-Abrahamic religious traditions from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, local multidisciplinary artist Oletha DeVane repurposes found objects to construct monumental spiritual sites. Her new exhibit Traces of Spirit, currently on view in the Spring House at the Baltimore Museum of Art, includes old and newer sculptural assemblages that have been reworked to establish an immersive spirit house—which is loosely inspired by Thai constructions believed to contain the spirits of protective entities.

DeVane’s spirit house serves as a homage to anticolonial liberation efforts, Juneetenth, the legacy of her father, and humanity’s tireless existentialism.

“In terms of looking at religion itself, it’s about how we as human beings are on this incredible search,” DeVane said during a recent studio visit. “It doesn’t mean that any one practice is wrong, it just means that we are all, as a world community, on different paths of searching for that ultimate spiritual essence.”

Traces of Spirit is an etheric exhibition that attempts to embody some of the metaphysical resonance that DeVane initially encountered while traveling to sacred sites around the world. The proximity of the installation to the viewers within the small house creates a deeply intimate and contemplative environment. Out of context, the installation could be interpreted as a meaningless experiment in ornamentalism. But DeVane’s work relies on contextualization beyond Western philosophies, and an openness to appreciate humanity’s attempts to comprehend and encompass the immensity of god.

The signature work, Saint for my City (2007-2010), an onyx black figurative sculpture reminiscent of Catholic statues of sainted martyrs, is situated in the center of the installation. The black saint sits on the apex of a decoratively embellished pillar laden with the names of immortalized African diasporic deities including Isis, Osiris, Horus, Ogun, and Dembala. There is a large snake that coils from the base to the top where the saint stands. The black saint is beautiful. Her crown of floating spheres evokes orbiting planets or stars. She is draped with a long cape that appears to float in mid-air.

There is something hopeful about the presentation of an astral-black holy figure. Imagine the impact such a figuration could have if it were installed around Baltimore City. Stories about the sacredness of the city and its inhabitants are often overlooked. (Most recently, our greatness has been reduced to rat infestation, poverty, and crime.) But those who live here and opt to stay here know that the city is more than its traumas. Baltimore is vibrant unbridled brilliance—charged invention and adaptation. DeVane channels that spirit of the city, its energy, and humanity through the black saint whose outstretched arms reach towards the doorway of the small house as if beckoning saint and sinner alike to find solace in her embrace.

Saint for my City is surrounded by four other smaller sculptural works, including Woman Who Married a Snake (2017), Spring (2018), Two Daughters (2007), and Health (Pilgrimage) (2018). Bottles, mosaics, masks, insects, and a host of other recognizable—and unrecognizable—objects recur throughout the pillar like sculptures. Each work holds layered narratives that include both global and hyper-local musings about the universal, ethereal, and distressing instances of everyday life. Many of the motifs are founded in Haitian and West African spiritual traditions, origin myths, and folktales.

“Many of the pieces are made with materials that I have gathered and things that really speak to me,” DeVane says. “For me, it’s really gleaning—trying to understand my religious experience and what it means to look at nature and those gods with respect.”

DeVane’s inclusion of those narratives stands as a miraculous reminder that despite slavery, and centuries of colonial violence, many of the traditions persist in modern African American communities. “I wanted something that really evolved out of my history and my understanding of what it meant to create.”

Two similarly elaborate large sculptural assemblages, Epiphany (2018) and Dumballa (2018), are installed on the wall behind the altars. A long string of translucent blue and highly reflective beads cascade down the wall between the two panels. Coupled with a meditative soundscape of gently flowing water and a shimmering projection that simulates soft waves, the installation triggers troubling and transformative histories about the volatile and life-sustaining nature of water.

“As a people, we traversed the waters and oceans, either because we were enslaved, or when we were moving around this world, because Africans are on every continent in every country,” DeVane says. “The water is a major conduit for movement and our ability to be everywhere. I look at water as a spiritual element. It’s the lifeforce of the planet and something that we need to take care of.”

Visual Art

Voices: Joyce J. Scott, Oletha DeVane, Christopher Bedford
Don’t miss your chance to hear from two of the guiding voices of the Baltimore art scene, jewelry maker and sculptor Joyce J. Scott (who was recently named the 2019 Smithsonian Visionary Artist) and multimedia artist Oletha DeVane. In this conversation moderated by BMA director Christopher Bedford, the pair will discuss their works, their inspirations, and the city they both call home. 7-8 p.m. April 10. Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St.

TAPROOT
Two artists with varying backgrounds but shared experiences meet in this exhibition examining colonialism, consumption, and how they work their ways into the other parts of life. Working from their distinct perspectives “one of assimilation and one of frequent migration between continents,” Catherine Khammouane and Samiha Alam will present sculptural pieces that express their view that “what is manmade is natural.” Artist talk 5-7 p.m. April 6; on view through May 4. Waller Gallery, 2420 N. Calvert St.

Pile of Craft
Head to Space 2640 to peruse more than 50 vendors’ wares at this 13th annual craft fest hosted by Charm City Craft Mafia. Past favorites such as Annie Howe Papercuts and Tiny Dog Press will be on hand, and several new vendors will be hawking everything from rosé jelly to 3d paper and watercolor plants for those whose thumbs aren’t quite green. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 27. Space 2640, 2640 Saint Paul St.

Music

Abdu Ali Album Release Show
Abdu Ali has one of the most powerful voices in Baltimore music right now, and this launch of their debut album, FIYAH!!!, is going to be one heck of a party. Catch Ali’s blend of punk, rap, and Baltimore Club from the Ottobar’s intimate stage before this New York Times-lauded artist really blows up. Doors at 8 p.m., show at 9 p.m. April 26. Ottobar, 2549 N. Howard St.

Theater

Come From Away
When planes were unexpectedly forced to land following 9/11, some 7,000 people found themselves stranded in the small town of Gander in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. What began with tragedy grew into a week of friendship and humanity among travelers in unfamiliar territory and the town that took them in. This award-winning musical based on their true story is not to be missed. April 23-28. The Hippodrome Theatre, 12 N. Eutaw St.

Pink Milk
Single Carrot is leaving its Remington home behind soon, but first they have another story to tell. This Technicolor reimagining of codebreaker Alan Turing’s life story from Chicago-based playwright Ariel Zetina explores Turing beyond his history-making work. Zetina is also working with Single Carrot to update the text and score for the first time since writing the piece in 2013. Gala opening April 27, runs through May 16. Single Carrot Theatre, 2600 N. Howard St.

Film

Making Cinema Matter: Masterclass with Sandi Tan
Singaporean filmmaker, zine publisher, and writer Sandi Tan returns to her cult roots for this workshop and screening of 2018’s Shirkers, which premiered and earned the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award at Sundance in 2018. Tan and her cohorts made what could have been a cult hit in 1992, when they were just teens, but their film was stolen by an American collaborator. Shirkers follows Tan back to Singapore to revisit the film, the American who stole it, and what both of them did for her dreams. Free screening at 7 p.m. April 5, masterclass April 6, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The SNF Parkway, 5 W. North Ave.

Literature

CityLit Festival
CityLit is known for bringing great authors and events to bibliophiles of all stripes at their annual fest, and this year is no different. During this day-long celebration of all things literature, visitors can attend more than a dozen session and check out the Literary Marketplace to pick up a few more additions to their nightstand stacks. Stick around for keynote speaker Dani Shapiro, whose memoir, Inheritance, delves into what happens when family secrets find their way to the surface. 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. April 27. University of Baltimore William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, 11 W. Mount Royal Ave.

Hilton Carter’s Wild at Home Book Signing
Local plant expert Hilton Carter’s Baltimore home is filled with more than 300 ferns, cacti, and other green friends. His lush designs on have earned him national attention, but he’s sticking close to home for this celebration of his first book, Wild at Home. Grab some friends and head to Trohv on Earth Day for a book signing, Q&A, and cocktails with the Instagram plant guru himself. 7-9:30 p.m. April 22. Trohv, 921 W. 36th St.