Monthly Archives: July 2014

The Alternative Art Fair featured displays from more than 15 non-profit exhibition spaces, pop-up venues, artist run galleries and artist collectives.  All of the participants embodied a DIY approach in the way they curated, organized and promoted their shows.  The work on display ranged from traditional painting and sculpture to temporary installations built specifically for the fair and new media works.

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.)

Artscape 2014 Curated by Daydreams + Nightmares Aerial Theatre (DNA Theatre), Aerial Arts Arena hosted aerial artists, dancers, and circus acts from around the region high above Charles Street. Performers  showcased diverse styles of movement and dance on aerial cloth, trapeze, hoop, and a number of other apparatuses. Additionally, Aerial Arts Arena housed music from live DJs throughout the weekend, including during Artscape After Hours.

As the sun went down, Charles Street came alive with Artscape After Hours.  People could wander through the illuminated streets, fascinate their senses and experience one or all of the fun activities After Hours had to offer including the Aerial Arts Arena, Field Day,the Art Car Show, Ballroom Dancing in the Garden, Gamescape, a Ferris Wheel and “In the Neighborhood” events.

Artscape 2014 featured many artworks exploring the notion of movement, including sculptures.  Mobiles, Whirligigs, Automata, Rube-Goldbergs & other Kinetic Contraptions was a temporary outdoor artwork exhibition of kinetic sculptures.  This exhibition runs from Artscape through Friday, October 31, 2014.

Artists:
Steven Baker (Baltimore, MD) creates a field of five dancing sculptures made of steel and colored glass.  The sculptures move through wind power.

Jennifer Becker (Baltimore, MD) pays homage to the handmade lawn decorations, community gardens and green spaces in Baltimore by creating a sculpture that transforms recycled material into a large bouquet of spinning flowers.  She utilizes photo transfer techniques on canvas that will then transform into large pinwheel like flowers.

Christian Benefiel (Keedysville, MD) uses sailcloth, aluminum and wire mesh to construct a large cylindrical sculpture that rocks and rotates along a central base pivot point.
Paul Daniel (Baltimore, MD) includes three of his metal and mirror whirligigs into the exhibition: Tattletoo, 2008; Red Eye, 2007 and Argus, 2006.

Steven Jones (Baltimore, MD) creates a motorized merry-go-round like sculpture celebrating five of Marylander’s favorite foods: crabs, corn-on-the-cob, oysters, chicken and Smith Island Cake.

Patrick McDonough (Washington, D.C.) produces 132008-solar powered sculpture, a work that employs a passive solar tracker, a device that utilizes coolant reservoirs to slowly rotate an aluminum armature so the surfaces of the tracker panels stay square with the sun, to control its movement.  The sculpture will also contain high octane glow in the dark paint that will charge during the day and be illuminated at night.