BmoreArt’s Picks: September 3-9
This Week: Peter Scholleck opening reception at Arting Gallery, OMOB kick-off with Myriam J. A. Chancy, Ernest Shaw artist reception at The Silva DC, Bearing Witness artist talk at Eubie Blake, Dewey Crumpler opening reception at the Driskell Center, Crow’s Nest inaugural show reception, Esther Kläs opening reception at CPM, Unidos En El Arte opening reception at Creative Alliance, TLaloC opening reception at VisArts, “all water has a perfect memory.” opening reception at Current, BmoreArt City of Artists panel at The Walters (free!), and an opening reception for Connie Imboden at Katzen Gallery — PLUS Fellowships at the National Gallery of Art and more featured opportunities!
BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.
To submit your calendar event, email us at events@bmoreart.com!
The Unknown Paintings of Peter Scholleck | Opening Event
Thursday, September 5 :: 5-8pm
@ Arting Gallery
ARTING Gallery is honored to present:
The Unknown Paintings of Peter Scholleck
September 3-29, 2024
Opening Event September 5, 2024, 5:00-8:00 p.m. with refreshments
Remarks at 6:00 p.m. by curator George Ciscle and Eileen Scholleck Koenigsberg, the artist’s daughter.
In addition, join us at any of the salon events listed below.
Please rsvp to info@peterscholleckart.com if you are able to attend. Remarks by George Ciscle and the artist’s daughter begin 30 minutes after the start time of each salon.
Tuesday, September 10, 9:00-10:30 a.m. with breakfast
Monday, September 16, 5:00-6:30 p.m. with light refreshments
Sunday, September 22, 3:00-4:30 p.m. with light refreshments
On view, are 12 paintings by self-taught artist Peter Scholleck from an extraordinary body of 157 works created from 1946 to 1967 that have never been viewed by the public.
Painter Peter Leo Max Scholleck (1923-1969) was born in Munich Germany to Jewish parents. At age 15, in 1938, Scholleck was not allowed to remain at the Episcopal boarding school where he was enrolled because of Hitler’s antisemitic laws. Later that year, the horror of Kristallnacht took place in Munich and his step-father, Wilhelm Nussbaum, was taken to Dachau Concentration Camp. He was released six weeks later but was in ill health from beatings sustained at Dachau. Scholleck’s mother had been resistant to leaving Germany, but after Kristallnacht the family began the process of obtaining documents for emigration to the United States. Just prior to their departure, the Nazi security police came to the family residence to determine if the items and small amount of money they intended to take with them were permitted by the government. Though he rarely spoke of his life in Germany, Scholleck tried to describe to his daughter the fear that he felt with the Nazis present in his home. The family arrived in Baltimore in May 1939 where Nussbaum died just 20 months later.
How the sum of Scholleck’s experiences and those as a soldier stationed in the Pacific during World War II were internalized, cannot be wholly known. Seeking to understand how his personal history informed the works that he ultimately created is perhaps best understood by the tension and urgency in each piece. There is a raw need for expression that is delivered in a rich and methodical process. Scholleck’s execution reveals his deep devotion, passion, and earnestness toward his works. He made art because he had to: prolifically, energetically, experimentally. His daughter, Eileen Scholleck Koenigsberg, recalls that her father was compelled to paint. He had an inner drive to create that he could not ignore.
This exhibition is a first step to introduce the collection to the public; it is not a commercial venture. The intention is to place Scholleck’s works in public spaces or with collectors in order for the work to be seen and enjoyed beyond the walls of his daughter’s home.
Visit www.peterscholleckart.com to learn more about the artist and his work.
Arting Gallery will be open from 3:00-5:00 p.m. on September 10, 15, 17 and 24, and by appointment. To schedule a visit outside of posted hours, email ag@artinggallery.net.
Arting Gallery (www.artinggallery.net) is located at 3500 Parkdale Avenue, Building 1, Suite 212, Baltimore, Maryland 21211.
One Maryland One Book Virtual Kickoff with Myriam J. A. Chancy
Thursday, September 5 :: 6-8pm
presented by Maryland Humanities
Maryland Humanities kicks off the 2024 One Maryland One Book author programming on September 5, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. EST with a virtual panel featuring Myriam J. A. Chancy, author of the 2024 Book Selection What Storm What Thunder. She will be joined in conversation with Haitian writers, scholars, and thinkers. Dr. Mamyrah Prosper of the University of California, Irvine will serve as the moderator followed by an audience Q&A.
Chancy’s novel follows a cast of characters during the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti. The Haitian-Canadian-American author masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster in scenes before, after, and during the earthquake. She artfully weaves together the lives of an NGO architect, an expat and water-bottling executive; Sara, a mother haunted by the ghosts of her children; Leopold, a small-time drug trafficker; Didier, a musician and cab driver who lives in Boston; and many more.
Click here to join us for the wonderful conversation: register here.
Reading What Storm, What Thunder is not a prerequisite for enjoying the event: it welcomes both readers of the book and those interested in learning about Haiti as it explores Haitian culture and literature.
Along with Chancy and Prosper, the panel includes:
- Dr. Ermion Pierre of Essentia Center for Integrative Health, LLC;
- Dr. Marie-José Nzengou-Tayo of University of the West Indies, Mona Campus; and
- Dr. Sabine Lamour of Brown University and Université d’État d’Haïti.
Learn more about Maryland Humanities’ One Maryland One Book program here.
Movement and Memory: Solo Exhibition featuring Ernest Shaw | Artist Reception
Thursday, September 5 :: 6-8pm
@ The Silva DC
Through multi-layered imagery, Shaw’s work uses energetic linework and areas of color blocking to fuse realistic portraits of contemporary young Black males with sketches of historical ethnic tropes. In presenting his subjects in this manner, Shaw reveals an intimate reflection of his personal journey of grief, vulnerability, and healing after the loss of his young son to cancer.
“These works reflect my lived experience as an Afro-Diasporic man born and raised in the U.S. who searched for healing from the trauma of the transcendence of his son. For fifteen years I searched for a therapist to assist with grieving this new reality and the day-to-day struggles that life affords Black men. This body of work exhibit my preparedness to receive therapy and the benefits of finding the correct fit for my needs as a member of the human family.” – Shaw
This exhibition includes new artworks by Shaw, created within the last two years in parallel with his earnest dedication to therapy to process his own grief and healing. The vibrant applications of color, often surfacing black and white photography and charcoal sketches, present a dynamic and intimate insight into each figure. Shaw invites us into each young person’s life to experience the totality, preciousness, and collective memory they each embody.
The exhibition title Movement and Memory corresponds to one conceptual category of the Africana Studies framework created by Black Scholars as an intellectual pursuit contrasting the metamorphosis of African American studies in academia. This aspect of the framework highlights how Afro-Diasporic people move through time and space utilizing memory as the context needed to live in the present, while charting a path to the future that makes space for Afro-Diasporic people to exist in their full humanity with autonomy and authenticity.
Shaw has expanded the honoring of his son, Taj, and processing his own grief by visually centering his relationships with young people and students during a two-decade+ career as an educator in Baltimore City Public Schools. Symbols depicting his memories of his son are collaged into portraits of other young Black males in his immediate community, molding actual and collective memories as one.
“As I was advised by one of my mentors shortly after Taj’s transcendence, there is only one spirit and my son’s spirit will be experienced through my relationships with my students.” – Shaw
Ultimately, the presented collection of artworks calls the viewer to witness the therapeutic markings of healing, and the visual weaving of collective memory.
Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.
