Chestnut. #3 January 30th

Please join us at Chestnut. art space as we kick off the new year, a lil late, with new work by Washingtion D.C. artists Michael Dax Iacovone and Billy Friebele, two generations of MICA’s summer MFA program. We look forward to sharing a selection of small video installations by the two artists done while working collaboratively. More on the two artists below. This is the third show in a series of monthly shows highlighting work of artists in Baltimore and the surrounding communities. As always there will be free wine and popcorn provided for those who arrive early. We hope to see you there.

Show dates: January 30th through February 26th.
Opening reception: Saturday, January 30th, 7 – 10 pm.
Alternate hours available by appointment. email for more info.

People tend to experience public space by passing through it on their way to do something; going from home to work, or to the stores they usually shop at.  We are interested in experiencing traveling through public spaces in a more engaged state of mind. We have designed a pathway inspired by the form of a meditation labyrinth, through which visitors walk in one prescribed line as a form of meditation. Applying this idea to the streets of Baltimore is a way of attempting to move through urban space in a trajectory guided by something other than commerce, familiarity, or expedience.The installation as a whole will be a site-specific time-based map of a pathway surrounding the gallery.

Michael Dax Iacovone is a DC based artist, who works in Photography, Video, Installation, and Mapmaking.  He is interested in space, confinement and moving through confined spaces.  He holds an MFA from MICA, an MFA from VCU, and a BS from the State University of New York.  One day he will own a monkey.

Billy Friebele is an artist based in Washington, DC. His work investigates public spaces using sculpture, video and new media. He received an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is currently teaching Digital Art and New Media with the St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Together they have shown their collaborative work at the Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington DC, Flashpoint Gallery in Washington DC, the Decker Gallery at MICA, Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, and at two locations of the Construct show through the Cultural Development Corporation and then NOMA Bid in Washington DC.

Chestnut. #2 November 20th

Well it’s time for our second show at Chestnut. art space. Before we say anything else we would just like to say thank you to everyone who came out for Chestnut. #1. It was an overwhelming success and we are extremely grateful to everyone who came out to support the artists, Andrew Shea and Leah Cooper.

That said … please join us in our home for our second show Chestnut. #2, opening on November 20th. We are pleased to show the work of Baltimore artists, Steve Doolittle and Joshua Smith, two generations of MICA’s Mount Royal School of Art. This is the second show in a series of monthly shows highlighting the work of artists in Baltimore and its surrounding communities. Each show is held in our living room and we hope that by welcoming you into our home you will have a chance to view new and exciting art, talk, sit, and make friends.

Show dates: November 20th through December 20th.
Opening reception: Friday, October 9th, 7 – 10 pm.
Alternate hours available by appointment. email for more info.

Steve Doolittle, Airwolf no.7, Archival Digital Print, 2009

Steve Doolittle is a Baltimore Artist and graduate of MICA’s Mount Royal School of Art. Doolittle makes digital prints  and video works of carefully rendered environments. All of the environments share in common strange and often discomforting light sources that illuminate the visually, and emotively, dark spaces. Doolittle uses light to as a formal device, drawing the viewer into the imagined space of his work to make connections to the densely layered referents buried deep within the spaces. The light sources in Doolittle’s work act as pathways into spaces that in real life one might hesitate to enter.

Joshua Smith, Mount Washington, Sculpture and Performance, 2009

Joshua Smith is a Baltimore artist currently working towards his MFA at MICA’s Mount Royal School of Art. Showing a series of photo based prints and a site-specific sculpture, Smith’s work is a balance of athleticism and absurdity. His interactive sculpture and performances incorporate a fascination with the implied stability of man-made structures and the comic instability of bodies in motion.

Chestnut. #1 October 9th

Please join us in our home for our inaugural show at Chestnut. opening on October 9th exhibiting the work of Baltimore artists, Leah Cooper and Andrew Shea. This is the first in a series of monthly shows highlighting the work of artists in Baltimore and its surrounding communities. Each show is held in our living room and we hope that by welcoming you into our home you will have a chance to view new and exciting art, talk, sit, and make friends.

Show dates: October 9 through the end of the month.
Opening reception: Friday, October 9th, 7 – 10 pm.
Alternate hours available by appointment. email for more info.

Notice: For those with pet sensitive allergies, please be aware that we have a big frumpy labrador retriever named Hades, and one small but sneaky cat named Snarly. If you suffer from allergies and plan to attend an opening please take note and prepare in advance.

Leah Cooper-Iteration 1 (detail), 2009

Leah Cooper is a Baltimore artist and recent MFA graduate from Maryland Institute College of Art. Cooper’s work employs drawing as a strategy to investigate the influence of visual information on a viewer’s subjective perception of object and place. Cooper works outside the traditional notion of drawing as a 2-dimensional representation of the 3-dimensional world; using drawing as a means to iterate rather than illustrate a variable framework of information. In her site-responsive drawings, Cooper brings to attention the ordinary and overlooked, creating drawings that simultaneously represent the space as well as become the space.

Andrew Shea, Neon Yolk, 2009

Andrew Shea is a Baltimore artist and designer working in a variety of mediums including video and film, photography, sound installation as well as graphic design. Growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Shea became inspired by cultural discontinuities, nuanced textures and found artifacts. He is interested in building tension and dialogue between similar and dissimilar subjects, themes and mediums. Andrew is currently towards his MFA in graphic design at Maryland Institute College of Art.