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THE BMA PRESENTS NEW WORK BY BALTIMORE-BORN ARTIST SARA VANDERBEEK IN FRONT ROOM EXHIBITION

ALTIMORE, MD – The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) presents a solo exhibition of photography and sculpture by internationally acclaimed artist Sara VanDerBeek in the latest Front Room exhibition. The Baltimore native’s new works are inspired by Baltimore-based dancers, urban architecture, a salvage yard, and the BMA’s collection. Front Room: Sara VanDerBeek is on view April 12 – September 20, 2015.

Baltimore Museum of ArtNow based in New York City, VanDerBeek returned to Baltimore periodically in 2014 to reflect on her memories of the city, the BMA, and her profound connection to the museum’s collection. The visits resulted in a series of compelling photographs illuminating fragments of Baltimore architecture shot in the city’s neighborhoods and at Second Chance salvage yard. These are paired with elegant images of dance students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
The exhibition also features three sculptures, including one created from the white marble typical of the stairs leading up to Baltimore rowhomes and associated with the neighborly ritual of weekly scrubbings. Both the photographs and sculptures share a graceful, minimalist aesthetic that permeates the artist’s work and links it to the BMA’s collection, including works by American Minimalists Carl Andre and Anne Truitt. VanDerBeek’s visits to Baltimore and resulting works have also inspired a forthcoming artist’s book.

“VanDerBeek focuses on the parallels between artists’ creative processes—embodied in images of dancers in their studio—and the cycles of urban development and decline,” said Kristen Hileman, Curator of Contemporary Art.

VanDerBeek (American, born 1976) has had solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Fondazione Memmo, Rome, among others. Her work has been in group shows at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is an alumnae of the Baltimore School for the Arts.

The exhibition is curated by Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman.

Generously sponsored by Joanne Gold and Andrew Stern, The Hardiman Family Foundation, and an Anonymous Donor.