BALTIMORE--MICA's Exhibition Development Seminar and the Contemporary Museum present Bearing Witness, a mid-career survey of work by artists Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry to be shown at the Contemporary Museum, 100 W. Centre St., and various host venues throughout Baltimore, Thursday, May 6-Saturday, July 31.

This exhibition will premiere McCallum and Tarry's new Projection Series--a painting-based installation rooted in the language of film stills and stage photographs that investigate the intersection of race and popular culture-as well as feature selections from earlier site-specific projects.

A collaborative artist team since 1998, McCallum and Tarry have worked and exhibited globally, seeking to surface and discuss issues revolving around marginalized members of society. Their work, which takes many forms, including large-scale public projects, performance, sculpture, painting, photography, video and self-portraiture, challenges audiences to face issues of race and social justice in family, community and history.

The Contemporary Museum will be the primary exhibition site for Bearing Witness, while MICA and various museum and gallery venues throughout Baltimore have been invited to serve as temporary homes for works by McCallum and Tarry that relate directly to those institutions' collections and missions. Key to this project are the relationships created between older works and new sites as well as the network of connections and consequential movement between host venues.

McCallum and Tarry's recent exhibitions include Prospect.1, New Orleans, 2008; Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery, The New-York Historical Society, 2006; and Witness: Perspectives on Police Violence, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, N.Y., 2000. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at galleries like Caren Golden Fine Art, New York; Kinkead Contemporary, Los Angeles; and Kiang Gallery, Atlanta. In addition, McCallum and Tarry have been commissioned to realize large-scale civic and public works; most recently, they were awarded a commission to create a Malcolm X memorial at the intersection of Central Park and Malcolm X Boulevard in New York City.

Under the guidance of MICA faculty member Jennie Hirsh, the College's Exhibition Development Seminar (EDS) 2009/2010, a group of student curators, educators and designers, is partnering with the Contemporary Museum and featured artists McCallum and Tarry. Each seminar offers a unique opportunity for students to curate a professional exhibition. Students are responsible for every aspect of the project, including curatorial and site research, design and production of print- and Web-based materials, and educational programming. The goal of EDS is to explore new ways to engage artists, students, museums, galleries and the Baltimore community.

Bearing Witness is part of the Contemporary Museum's Project 20, a year-long series of exhibitions, performances and site-specific projects celebrating the museum's 20th anniversary. The series will feature 20 international artists, each selected by one of 20 guest curators who played a significant role in shaping the Contemporary Museum's 20-year history, including artists, directors and curators. George Ciscle, MICA's curator-in-residence and founder of the Contemporary Museum, is one of Project 20's guest curators. With the selection of EDS as an artistic endeavor for Project 20, he brings together two unprecedented projects, pushing the boundaries of traditional curatorial paradigms.

Bearing Witness is made possible partially through generous support from the Friends of the Exhibition Development Seminar and the National Endowment for the Arts. MICA's exhibitions and public programs receive generous support from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Special Programs Endowment, Amalie Rothschild '34 Residency Programs Endowment, The Rouse Company Endowment, Richard Kalter Endowment, Maryland State Arts Council and the generous contributors to MICA's Annual Fund.

The Contemporary Museum is located at 100 W. Centre Street, in Baltimore's Mt. Vernon Cultural District. Museum hours are noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more visitor information, visit the museum's Web site.

For more information about the exhibition or the Exhibition Development Seminar, call MICA's communications office at 410.225.2300 or Himmelrich PR at 410.528.5400.

 

Image caption: Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry, Reward for Victory (after Drum, 1976; from the Projection Series), oil on linen, toner on silk, 2009.

 

Founded in 1826, MICA is among the top visual arts colleges in the nation. It enrolls 1,714 undergraduate and 218 graduate students from 48 states and 52 foreign countries, offering programs of study leading to the bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.), master of arts (M.A.), and master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degrees. It also offers post-baccalaureate certificate programs and a full slate of credit and noncredit courses for adults, college-bound students, and children. MICA is recognized as an important cultural resource for the Baltimore/Washington region, sponsoring many public and community-outreach programs-including more than 100 exhibitions by students, faculty, and nationally and internationally known artists annually-as well as artists' residencies, film series, lectures, readings, and performances.