If you were to walk by MICA’s Studio Center on North Avenue (close to what I am told is the slowest McDonald’s in the world) during the month of January, then you most likely saw the work of Jowita Wyszomirska through the window of MICA’s Curatorial Studies gallery, The Temporary. Three site-specific installations were featured in her solo show, Tenuous Connection. I met Jowita in her studio that is housed in School 33, an art space in downtown Baltimore. The space itself has wonderful views of the city and a lot of room for her and her husband to share their work space.

Jowita’s recent endeavors take shape in installations (such as the one in her studio) and drawings. Pen, gouache, and tape are all used to create intricate works that are meticulous yet minimal in detail. Citing architecture and maps as inspiration, a recent set of drawings reflect the routes of the Purple Line, a bus line of the Charm City Circulator in Baltimore.

It was nice to see the progression that Jowita’s work has taken. In a relatively short period of time, her work went from three dimensional paintings of buildings, to a focus on the folded forms of those buildings, to the installation on the wall. Always wanting to challenge herself, Jowita told me it was to fueled by the desire to speed up her working process. Tape is faster than paint — more immediate results and exercises ideas quickly.

Below: An example of the boxes Jowita made after painting architecture. Image via website.

Overall, I liked Jowita’s way of working juxtaposed with the result of her work (installations, specfically). Although she tends not to sketch before she starts working, her years of being an exhibition fabricator have made her process-oriented and it seems to have keep her attuned to refining her artistic process. So far, this has been working — her work continues to move on an interesting path of abstracted observations. I’ll be excited to see the work she has coming up for an exhibition in June, and how it is a continuation of where she is working now.

Thanks Jowita!

Since I will miss the reception tomorrow, I took the liberty of viewing Search Engine: Lou Joseph 1998–2012 at the North Ave. Market on my own. I was blown away by amount of work on the walls, also enjoyed navigating through the space with the Search Engine Field Guide (available as a pamphlet upon entering the gallery).

A retrospective of work over the past 14 years, the exhibition (put on by the Institute of Contemporary Art Baltimore) explores the varied work that Lou has produced. Personal history reveals that he has lived many places (Tuscon, Venice, and Philadelphia to name a few) before coming to Baltimore in 2008. The exhibition highlights this fact by layering every available piece made by Lou since 1998.

What was most successful about this exhibition was its sheer volume. Every piece hung on the wall (or on the floor) was apart of Lou’s history, good or bad. Individually, some pieces work better than others, but seeing them all together creates interesting juxtapositions that help to elevate what might be weaker.

In the Search Engine Field Guide, it highlights the themes present in Lou’s work:

Battles and conflicts predominate. Some pieces are cartoonish and bizarre visually — as fights waged between reproductive organs or tentacled breasts– while other allude to situations that are equally bizarre but increasingly common sights culled from the news, like drones, cars on fire and tent cities. There is a steady preoccupation with repitition, not just of line and pattern, but as a way of understanding futility and failure.

The reception for this show will be tomorrow, Friday the 20th, from 6PM-9M at the North Ave. Market. It is located at 16 W. North Avenue in the Station North Arts District. If you are artistically inclined, you wil also walk around the show imagining what all of your work would look like displayed in this way. I know I did.

For more information on Lou Joseph, check out his website. Also take a look at his Tumblr, too.

What she photographs (flowers) often translates into drawing, or some other variation on the natural world.

All images via her Flickr. Check out her website, too!

One element of Jordan’s work is through simplicity, he is able to entrance you to soak in the details of his work. Below, a couple of videos (shot on my cell phone, so sorry for the quality) of his pieces. Check out Nudashank’s Facebook for more detailed (and clear) documentation of his work.

Jordan Bernier, ‘New Waves’ at Nudashank from Sara Barnes on Vimeo.

Jordan Bernier, ‘New Waves’ at Nudashank from Sara Barnes on Vimeo.

All images via Flickr. Ken also has an Etsy store that you can check out.

The stone or shape similar to it is very present in Malin’s work. Sometimes literally, other times merely implied. Either way, it has an organic and pleasing feel to me.

All images via her website.

Rosie is an illustrator whose drawings are of objects, people, and places that have a familiarity to them. Aside from static 2D drawings, Rosie also creates animations, also very drawing centric.

All images via her website. All videos via Vimeo.

Henry calls his each of his works a “Mystical Inquiry,” and are loaded with patterns and symbols, nautical, spiritual, among others. Loving tattoos, I am especially partial to the first image of the tattooed man and lady.

All images via his website. I am only able to present you with 500 pixel images on Brown Paper Bag — I would recommend visiting his website too and clicking the larger versions of these images so you can look at more details.

All images via her Flickr. Check out her website, too!

Allyson often collaborates with her husband, Jeremy. For a show at the Together Gallery (titled So Happy Together, a group show featuring husband and wife art makers), she produced these drawings for it. Below:

All images via her Tumblr.