This May, the Baltimore Museum of Art will open an exhibit that explores the concept of transformation as artistic inspiration.
Shapeshifting: Transformations on Paper will feature 35 prints, drawings, photographs, and artists’ books from the BMA’s collection that touch on ideas of renewal, shifting manifestations of identity, and classical myths.
The exhibition, which draws works from across five centuries, aims to demonstrate how the fluidity of identity is deeply rooted in history.
“The process of transformation is embedded in everyday life and experience,” said Andaleeb Badiee Banta, the museum’s curator of prints, drawings, and photographs, in a statement.
“For this reason, it has provided a fertile lens for artists across centuries to consider and understand its relationship to changing concepts of identity and self-presentation in contemporary culture,” she said.
Shapeshifting features works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Margaret Burroughs, Paula Gately Tillman, Zackary Drucker, Saya Woolfalk, and many others.
The exhibition, the second to be presented in the museum’s new Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, will be open from May 8 through October 2.
