BALTIMORE, MD – With the latest reinstallation of its contemporary collection, now open to the public, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has expanded the number and range of featured works by artists with ties to Baltimore and the region. In fall 2021, the BMA significantly changed its approach to presenting its contemporary holdings by departing from the standard museum focus on chronology and the evolution of style to an emphasis on how artists observe, understand, and respond to our everyday circumstances, whether shared or personal. Rotations of the contemporary collection are presented under the umbrella title, How Do We Know the World?, with approximately half of the works changing every six months. The latest iteration dedicates the front room gallery to specifically highlight the dynamism and experimentation of Baltimore artists for the next 12 months, and incorporates works by many others from the city and region in adjacent galleries.
How Do We Know the World? offers a meaningful way to experience and connect with the art on view, by engaging audiences with topics, ideas, and happenings that are relevant and resonant in their lives. The installation also captures the development of the BMA’s collection over the past several years, as the museum has acquired more works by women and artists of color and deepened scholarship about artists whose contributions have not been articulated in the dominant narratives of art history.
How Do We Know the World? is co-curated by Jessica Bell Brown, BMA Curator of Contemporary Art, and Leila Grothe, BMA Associate Curator of Contemporary Art. They have dedicated the first gallery of the contemporary wing to artists who powerfully represent the creative life force of Baltimore with large-scale paintings, drawings, and mixed-media works by Erin Fostel*, Mary Hambleton*, Grace Hartigan*, Jackie Milad*, Charles Mason III*, and Lavar Munroe*. Nearby, the collective ethos of artists affiliated with the legacy of The Washington Color School is demonstrated by works from Timothy Corkery*, Sam Gilliam*, Alma W. Thomas*, and Anne Truitt*. The central gallery of the contemporary wing explores how artists challenge and reclaim identity through assertions of self-possession, a topic of increasing urgency as the U.S. grapples with issues of identification, belonging, and acceptance. Works by Lindsay Adams*, Mequitta Ahuja*, Amoaka Boafo, Lucy Bull, Sasha Gordon, Shikeith, and Andy Warhol are among the artists featured. A gallery dedicated to worldbuilding—making sense of the world around us or approaching it with fresh eyes—is considered through works by Ernie Barnes*, Hulda Guzmán, Valerie Maynard*, Kenny Rivero, and Monsieur Zohore*.
(* indicates artists with ties to Baltimore or the region.)
More information: https://artbma.org
The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Barry D. Berman, Winston T. Brundige, Ronald E. Creamer, Richard J. Himelfarb, Jack C. Merriman, Marjorie T. Merriman, Howard B. Miller, Samuel J. Miller, and Jan L. Weinberg, BMA 1996.167. © Estate of Grace Hartigan