This week: BmoreArt Magazine Party: Issue 07 Body at the Parkway, A Sculpture Show opens at C. Grimaldis Gallery, BROS’ Welcome to Shakesville at Zion Church, Ethel Ennis Memorial Concert at the Peabody, the BMA’s Art After Hours, John Waters’ Mr. Know-It-All book signing at Atomic Books, Baltimore Drag Awards at the Creative Alliance, and New Work by Ruth Channing opening at Ink Spot Press.
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!
We’ll send you our top stories of the week, selected event listings, and our favorite calls for entry — right to your inbox every Tuesday.
Time to Party !
BmoreArt Magazine Party: Issue 07 Body
Thursday, May 23rd • 7:30-9:30pm
The Parkway Theatre
3 West North Avenue : 21201
Tickets $25-30 / More information here
Join us to celebrate Issue 07: Body, an exploration of Baltimore and DC-based artists who represent the body, who nourish it in their work, who use it as art medium and concept, and offer new patterns of thought around the politics, benefits, ethics, and limitations of having a body in 2019.
This event will be hosted at The Parkway Theatre and is an opportunity to celebrate in one of Baltimore’s architectural gems and to do it in style. Dress code is old school Hollywood glam. Have we mentioned they have best popcorn in Baltimore? Your ticket includes an adult beverage, popcorn, photo booth, and the first opportunity to take home our latest issue.
Check out photos from our last launch party by Jill Fannon!
A Sculpture Show | Opening Reception
Thursday, May 23rd • 6-8pm
C. Grimaldis Gallery
523 North Charles Street : 21201
May 23 – June 22
Madeleine Deitz / David Hayes / Jae Ko / Jane Manus
Karoline Ramersdorfer / John Ruppert / John Van Alstine
C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition dedicated to sculpture. With an emphasis on form and materiality, these works reshape our spatial relationships to objects in a way that investigates abstraction and reality. A Sculpture Show features seven artists and their innovative approach to process and scale.
The artists in this exhibition move fluidly between purely geometric and suggestively figurative work, some referencing the body in form, and some in relation to space.Jae Ko builds tension through tightly coiled paper, while John Ruppert expresses a similar intensity with the force of gravity as a subject.There is a connecting theme of opposition, Madeleine Dietz combining and contrasting steel and earth, and John Van Alstine juxtaposing steel and stone.
Jane Manus, John Ruppert, and David Hayes highlight metal as their medium, showing a range from aluminum and copper, to iron and stainless steel.In an exploration of scale, Karoline Ramersdorfer expands her material use to include also light and layers of constructed space, bringing the viewer more directly into her spiritual interiors.The exhibition as a whole focuses on strength and power, while also commenting on the subtlety and physicality of texture and form.
Welcome to Shakesville
Opens Friday, May 24th – June 15th
Zion Church of the City of Baltimore
400 East Lexington Street : 21202
A groovy love letter to the 60s filled with puppets, magic, and rock n’ roll!
Grab your board, blare your tunes and boogie down to the Baltimore Rock Opera’s Society furriest, feltiest, full-length rock opera yet! Welcome to Shakesville will teleport you back to 1965 and the dawn of psychedelia. Join our unsung heroine, Betty, as she falls down a rabbit hole in search of answers to rock and roll history’s greatest mystery: the disappearance of Jimmy Graves! Pulling from some of pop culture’s swirliest influences, Welcome to Shakesville tips its hat to the citizens of Lidsville, The Muppets, Yellow Submarine, and more. Featuring a wild cast of people and puppets, it’ll have you twisting and shouting all the way home!
Welcome to Shakesville is a hip and trippy journey filled with 1960s-style pop rock that explores the wondrous world of Shakesville; a colorful world where music is magic, but everything is not super groovy. As Betty explores this new world and learns about its troubles, we’ll explore the value of creativity as a means of personal expression and the joys of music.
Ethel Ennis Memorial Concert
Friday, May 24th • 7-9pm
Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall
1 East Mount Vernon Place : 21201
Legendary Baltimore jazz vocalist Ethel Ennis (1932–2019) will be honored by her family and friends at a free, public memorial concert on Friday, May 24 at the Peabody Institute’s Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall.
The special tribute includes rare recordings of and interviews with Ennis; remarks by her husband, Earl Arnett; and live performances by her musical colleagues, including jazz greats Charles Covington, Stef Scaggiari, Mark Russell, Cyrus Chestnut, Marc Copland, and Gene Bertoncini.
Affectionately known as Baltimore’s “First Lady of Jazz,” Ethel Ennis was a jazz musician whose seven-decade career included performances with Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, the Miles David-John Coltrane Sextet, and Wynton Marsalis.
The Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries and Peabody Institute are very proud to co-host this memorial concert for Ethel Ennis with her family and friends. Ennis received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the university in 2008 and designated the Sheridan Libraries as the repository of her archives in 2018.
Art After Hours
Friday, May 24th • 8-11pm
Baltimore Museum of Art
10 Art Museum Drive : 21218
Kick off your Memorial Day weekend with us. Come dressed up or down, sip a signature cocktail, dance, make art, and enjoy pop-up activities throughout the Museum. Start the night with an in-depth artist talk with Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg and stay for a special performance by the artists. Tickets include evening access to Monsters & Myths, selected galleries, entertainment, and a free food or drink ticket. Beer, wine, cocktails, and light bites are available for purchase.
This event is for adults ages 21 and older.
John Waters’ Mr. Know-It-All Signing
Saturday, May 25th • 7-9pm
Atomic Books
3620 Falls Road : 21211
John Waters will be at Atomic Books, signing copies of his new book, Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom Of A Filth Elder!
Studded with cameos of Waters’ stars, from Divine and Mink Stole to Johnny Depp, Kathleen Turner, Patricia Hearst, and Tracey Ullman, illustrated with unseen photos from Waters’ personal collection, Mr. Know-It-All is Waters’ most hypnotically readable, upsetting, revelatory book―another instant Waters classic.
You can reserve/pre-order a signed copy of the book here: https://atomicbooks.com/products/mr-know-it-all-the-tarnished-wisdom-of-a-filth-elder
3rd Annual Baltimore Drag Awards!
Sunday, May 25th • 8pm
Creative Alliance
3134 Eastern Avenue : 21224
Our annual awards show celebrating the Baltimore Drag community!
IT’S BACK! THE 2019 BALTIMORE DRAG AWARDS ARE HERE!
Hosted by two of the city’s powerhouse MCs; Brooklyn Heights and Betty O’Hellno, the event is basically the equivalent of The Academy Awards of Baltimore Drag. The red carpet will be rolled out for guests and awardees to arrive in their glamorous best. In addition to the awards, we will have a cocktail mixer, red carpet arrivals from 8-9pm and performances throughout the night!
Age 18+
SAT MAY 25 | 8PM Mix & Mingle | 9PM Show | $125 VIP table for 4 | $18, $15 MEMBERS (+$3 at the door)
Metamorphoses : New work by Ruth Channing | Opening
Sunday, May 26th • 3-5pm
Ink Spot Press
943 North Calvert Street : 21202
Metamorphoses
New work by Ruth Channing
A series of colorful and provocative monotypes exploring themes of transformation in mythology, philosophy, and society.
Opening May 26, 3-5pm
On view through June 14th.
