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Scene Seen: Artscape’s Alternative Art Fair

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According to Art F City’s Corinna Kirsch, Baltimore’s first Alt Art Fair was “alright.” She described the work shown like “NADA’s spray-painted, squiggly abstract paintings, but fewer of them; mostly you’d see fluffy, DIY objects on the walls, more zines, and photography.”

Housed in the Charles Street Parking Garage during Artscape and founded by Margo Malter, Nick Peelor, and Marian Glebes, the Alternative Art Fair featured more than 15 non-profit exhibition spaces, pop-up venues, artist-run galleries and artist collectives. Lots of the work was cheaper than dirt, but hey – this is a bonus! It’s a Baltimore parking garage full of contemporary art! Work ranged from traditional paintings and sculpture to temporary installations and performance.

Although she didn’t say it outright, I think Kirsch was impressed by the Alt Art Fair, at least enough to say: “I don’t know if we’ll see a second edition of Baltimore’s Alternative Art Fair, but I hope so. There was so much unrefined energy — Little Berlin put on a performance of “trash yoga” where performers writhed around on cardboard boxes in a makeshift subway-station booth. And coming from New York, where almost every painting seems pre-branded, pre-packaged for sale on the market, a little bit of the unrefined goes a long way. For a moment, I thought I’d been transported back to art school in Chicago, when art actually seemed exciting.” – Cara Ober

Exhibitors: Adds Donna (Chicago, IL), Bicycle Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Booklyn Art Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Current Space (Baltimore, MD), Furthermore (Washington, D.C.), Lease Agreement (Baltimore, MD) & Trunk Show (Chicago, IL), Lil’ Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Little Berlin (Philadelphia, PA), Make Studio (Baltimore, MD), Open Space (Baltimore, MD), Present Company (Brooklyn, NY), Process Collective & Penthouse Gallery (Baltimore, MD), Rastel (Baltimore, MD), Sediment (Richmond, VA), Springsteen (Baltimore, MD), Transformer (Washington, D.C.)

More info here.

Curators: Margo Benson Malter, Nick Peelor, and Marian April Glebes

*Photos by Alex Ebstein and Lu Zhang

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IMG_0138Jessie and Katey running the ring toss at Scott Pennington and Adam Francino’s Super Games

IMG_0134Margo and Nick, two of the organizers of the Alternative Art Fair

IMG_0135Current Gallery’s booth

IMG_0136Works by Elena Johnson and Justin Lucas in Current Gallery’s booth

IMG_0129Open Space’s booth at Alternative Art Fair

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Open Space’s booth

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Open Space’s Booth

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Open Space’s Booth at Alternative Art Fair

IMG_0128Open Space

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IMG_0126Open Space

IMG_0124Embroidery at Lil Gallery’s project “All the Homies”

IMG_0123Evan Price at All the Homies

IMG_0122Lil Gallery

IMG_0119Lisa Iglesias at Present Company

IMG_0118Furthermore

IMG_0117Brooklyn Art Gallery

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IMG_0115John Bocksel at Brooklyn Art Gallery

IMG_0113Trunk Show

IMG_0108Ryan Nord Kitchen at Ratsel

IMG_0106Benjamin Edmiston at Ratsel

IMG_0101Sediment gallery’s booth

IMG_0100Jon Duff at Sediment

IMG_0099Jon Duff at Sediment

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IMG_0097Bicycle Gallery

IMG_0096Process Collective

IMG_0094Process Collective

IMG_0093Springsteen Gallery

IMG_0092Mark Wehberg, Peggy Chiang and James Bouche at Springsteen

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IMG_0090Mark Wehberg and Peggy Chiang

IMG_0089Mark Wehberg and Peggy Chiang

IMG_0144Peggy Chiang and James Bouche

IMG_0087Adds Donna

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Current

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Kimi Hanauer & Process Collective

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