School 33 Art Center presents three new exhibitions on view Friday, February 15 through Saturday, April 27, 2019.
THE MOTHER OF INVENTION (Main Gallery) 
By artists Kelley Bell, Albert Birney, Sara Dittrich, Noa Heyne, Marnie Ellen Hertzler & Beth Hoeckel, Chelsea M. Rowe, Aidan Spann, Justin Stafford, Jennie Thwing
A group exhibition of projected experimental video shorts, THE MOTHER OF INVENTION features several artists who incorporate new media in the form of collage, stop motion animation, DIY digital and analog image manipulation, as well as hand-made and found objects in their work. Often eschewing linear narrative, and utilizing music, noise, and homemade sound effects as a priority over dialogue, these works employ a wide range of media in their creation— becoming versatile vehicles for both visual and performance art.
Modern Language (Members Gallery)
“Modern Language” is a solo exhibition of works by Amy Helminiak, a native Baltimore artist, featuring emoji-inspired collages that explore communication in the age of texting and social media. Printed on metal and incorporating symbols collected via Google images, such as Bernie Sanders heads, haircuts and pink elephants, the featured works focus on the artist’s experiences and surroundings. Political observations, humor and personal histories are transmitted collectively, while at the same time embodying a sense of ambiguity that exists within the conversations of today’s culture.
Amy Helminiak received a master of art in photography and design from ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering, and a bachelor of fine arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been included in national and international exhibitions including the TIM Future Centre, Venice, Italy; The Print Center, Philadelphia; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan; Cosmos, Arles, France; Can Framis Museum, Barcelona, Spain.
soft obstacle (Project Space) 
Ben Piwowar’s studio practice combines drawing, painting and sculptural strategies, deploying an abstract visual vocabulary to evoke states of vulnerability and flux. With “soft obstacle,” Piwowar populates School 33 Art Center’s Project Space with works on paper and a series of cast abstract forms. The dialogue between objects and drawings sets the stage for a new, improvised installation that will undergo subtle mutations over the course of the exhibition. To develop his work, the artist draws on a trove of salvaged material: studio ephemera, cast-offs from construction sites and things found while walking around the city. He repurposes these fragments through paint application, light carpentry and strategic placement—taking care to preserve, and often underscore, their quirks and subtle irregularities. Piwowar explores the ways that modest interventions can activate and realign a viewer’s experience of a space. Here, the gallery becomes a provisional ecosystem where displaced organisms learn to stand alone, then together, through a made-up logic.