Exhibitions

Current

Polly Apfelbaum: Sampling a Sampler Sampling

January 20–April 21, 2024

A critique of judgment is at the core of New York-based artist Polly Apfelbaum’s work, which comprises textiles, and, as of late, ceramics. At /m, she is creating a new installation of unaltered, commercially produced fabrics laid out in a grid on the floor.

The installation is an evolution of her well-known “fallen paintings,” which are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Experiencing “Sampling a Sampler Sampling,” we are forced to look down, literally, on artwork that encompasses design, craft, and traditional women’s work. Any superiority one feels, however, is quickly undermined when we realize that the single artwork, light as it is, asserts a claim to the entire gallery while we, the viewers, stand with our backs against the wall. The installation poses several questions, among them, “What is order?” “What is originality?” “What are the bases of our judgments?” and “What do we look down on?”

Upcoming

Books by Artists: Louise Bourgeois and Fischli & Weiss

April 11–September 8, 2024

Lillian Vanous Nutt Room, Greenfield Library, St. John's College.

On view from April 11th, 2024 through September 8, 2024, this exhibition contrasts Les Fleurs, a visually sumptuous artist book of watercolors by the late French artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) with Order and Cleanliness, a book of diagrams by Swiss artist duo Fischl (b. 1952) & Weiss (1946–2012).

Multiple spreads from each book are on display, asking us to think about the relationship between the natural and the mechanical, the organic and the artificial, and how orderly or chaotic we think beauty is.

Some Light Reading (A Summer Exhibition)

May 4–July 7, 2024

This exhibition—presenting artworks about light alongside poetic texts by four female writers—reminds us of the magical, life-making qualities of this ever-evasive phenomena. Of particular interest is the complicating idea that both art and literature can be sources of illumination in and of themselves. Texts by Emily Dickinson, Audre Lorde, Eileen Myles, and Virginia Woolf will share the gallery with works by Rockne Krebs, Virgil Marti, Eileen Neff, and Bahar Yurukoglu.

Ongoing

Librería Donceles: A Project by Pablo Helguera

“Can art be bound?” This is one of the questions raised by this exhibition, which takes the form of a used bookstore, crammed with a world’s worth of Spanish-language titles. Artist Pablo Helguera created Librería Donceles in Brooklyn 10 years ago to serve the growing Hispanic and Latinx communities in New York. Since then, the bookstore has traveled to more than a dozen cities, becoming a vibrant hub of activity in each.

On December 8-9, 2023, /m brought together the founding artist, arts educators, and musicians for a 10th-anniversary celebration. The weekend included two workshops, a panel discussion, a performance, and a traditional Mexican Posada.

Artist travel supported, in part, by the Mexican Cultural Institute, Washington, DC. Presented in partnership with OHLA (Organization of Hispanics/Latin Americans of Anne-Arundel County).

Recent

Image credit: Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

The Speed of Time: Film/Video Art in the U.S., 1965–80

October 14–December 10, 2023

Including art by Vito Acconci, Eleanor Antin, Barbara Hammer, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Nam June Paik

In the 1960s, happenings, minimalism, and performance art introduced the concept of time into contemporary art. But it wasn’t until artists started experimenting with technology, using such tools as computers, Kodak Super 8 cameras, and Sony Portapak video cameras, that time was inscribed as a new dimension in visual art, appearing in lieu of inches on museum labels. This exhibition unites pioneering work by seven artists who experimented with the elastic, symbolic, emotional, and social aspects of this ever-elusive subject, while probing the new art’s changing expectations of the viewer.