Catch, Release, Activate is an exhibition that highlights the artists’ work both in the moment and dialogue. Catch and Release is a turn of phrase that the curator, Joy Davis, applies to the process of creating and exhibiting art. What makes this exhibition different than the typical “catch and release” style of exhibition is that the artists Jamie Grace Alexander, Walter Cruz, and Bobbi Rush want their art to live and move beyond the creative process and as art objects.
The gallery will be open 5-9PM
Shorty’s BBQ will be offering scrumptious eats for $10 5-8PM
DJ Black Planet will create vibes 7-9PM
Artist Bios
Jamie Grace Alexander is known through her work as Proxy. Proxy is defined as “the authority to represent someone else” & her work considers the distance between the artist herself & the many communities she belongs to. She found graffiti as a medium to oppose trans exclusive messages in women’s bathrooms across Baltimore city in 2018. Her tag allows her to be present through the curled lips, noses, & hair of her proxies. In this series, she brings her practice indoors, turning mirrors into altars & marking both as sites of self-reflection. Her work on these mirrors can shield, tuck, & adjust light, asking questions about lineage, futurity, & belonging. She sees internal discovery as a key strength of her identities & encourages viewers to look for themselves in her work.
Hailing from Washington Heights and The Bronx, Walter Cruz is a creative collaborator exploring the intersections of art, design and architecture to better understand how Black and brown bodies activate and take up space. Cruz has completed residencies and fellowships with The Laundromat Project, NurtureArt Gallery(Brooklyn,NY) amongst others. As well shown work in galleries and museums including The Museum of the City of New York, the Center for Political Graphics in Los Angeles, Syracuse University and Longwood Gallery in The Bronx. Most of all, Walter is dedicated to learning from and being with the people. Cruz serves as the graphic designer for the Black Alliance for Just Immigration(BAJI), he is currently part of the creative collective Axel NYC, which creates interactive art installations nationally and the creative director and co-founder for Zeal; a Black worker-owned company that focuses on creating spaces for Black multidisciplinary artists to thrive. Walter is an MFA candidate at the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Mount Royal School of Art. Ultimately, in a world that is constantly telling Black and brown folks not to be themselves, Cruz’s goal is to create work that inspires and informs those very people.
Bobbi Rush is a multidisciplinary artist from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her work at the age of six. Growing, she traveled with various performing artists as a background
vocalist. Moving forward in her solo space, she’s shared her voice and worked with many touring acts. Bobbi has self-published two books. Her first, “Words (Feeling…Feelings)” which shares the thought of loss, encouragement, and growth. Her second, “PUSSY”, which is a more vocal, understood sense of self through writing. Bobbi is creator and lead of TheBlueFaceProject, a home base for her expanding forms of art expression. Through voice, jewelry design, film, song, and writing, Bobbi’s mission is to simply keep creating.
