© Raven Editions, 2023; Pyramid Atlantic

Baltimore’s thriving art scene is home to world-class institutions, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore Print Studios, and The Contemporary, as well as numerous local galleries and exhibition spaces. Serving as a catalyst for promoting the vitality of Maryland’s arts communities, the second annual Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair (BFAPF) brought together artists from all over the nation to showcase diverse and relevant contemporary work.

© Raven Editions, 2023; Aspinwall Editions

Hosted at the Baltimore Innovation Center in the Pigtown neighborhood, the reconceptualized fair specializes in contemporary printmaking but emphasizes interactions between collector and creator. Twenty booths were in attendance to offer contemporary prints, portfolios, and artist books ranging from $100 to $25,000, with featured presentations from publishers, galleries, and artists, both emerging and established.

Ann Shafer, the former curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), has been instrumental in the fair’s revival by partnering with Fine Arts Baltimore LLC and Vonderburg Investments in Art LLC to promote the fair’s regional influence. Shafer has made it a priority to bring in top-notch vendors, highlighting printers, presses, and publishers and providing attendees with the opportunity to engage with those who make the works. Additionally, featured artists are encouraged to visit in person to discuss their work with attendees. These efforts target a large audience with an influential purchasing power but attract both seasoned collectors and new buyers alike with a digestible showcase of contemporary art. The affordability of prints offers a point of entry into the sphere of collecting that is less expensive than its counterparts, like paintings or sculptures. Additionally, the fair acts as a hub for students, artists, art critics, and historians with programming and scholarship on the latest in contemporary printmaking.

© *A Monkey Mountain Kronikle,* 2023; Evil Prints

One of the highlighted exhibitors, Tom Hück lives and works in Park Hills, Missouri, where he runs his own press, Evil Prints. Hück is known for his large-scale satirical woodcuts that “skewer rural life in the American Midwest in all its unabashed weirdness and glory”. (Source) His work was presented by Outlaw Printmakers, a collective of printmakers who create work that reflects non-academic attitudes toward printmaking. Hück’s latest masterpiece, A Monkey Mountain Kronikle, featured a two-sided, 4ft. by 8ft. print that took five years to create. The devotional, double-sided triptych is a rumination on American gluttony that opens and closes like a traditional altarpiece. In the artist's words, the work addresses the downfall of society, operating as part of a larger series of triptychs that depict the Seven Deadly Sins. This modern version of the Medieval triptych uses eight jam-packed scenes to comment on our society’s obsession with food and racist ideologies.

© Raven Editions, 2023, Katie Commodore; Overpass Projects

Displayed on a large-scale, erratically charged wallpaper, Katie Commodore’s work presented an exploration of the constant flux of sexuality through expression. Commodore’s work juxtaposed individual expression, body modifications, kinks, and sexual preferences, with expressions of the collective self, decorative patterns of bright colors, vibrant patterns, and clean lines. The intricate detail in the bold figures of these surreal fantasies captures an erotic celebration of personal power. These portraits depict rich, intimate moments of Commodore’s friends, photographed in private photo sessions with the artist and used as reference points. The patterned wallpaper draws the viewer in with even smaller portraits. In its repetitive, sex-positive pattern, Commodore obscures historically gendered notions about pattern-making and the decorative arts.

Joan Hall, a Childs Gallery artist, and Caryn Martin, a Catalyst Contemporary artist, both presented creative installations in the project spaces of the Print Fair. Hall and Martin use paper to create print-based, three-dimensional installations that break from the confines of the wall to examine our relationship with the land and oceanscapes around us. These fragile, atmospheric paper installations are driven by duality, finding inspiration in contrasting weather patterns and rising water levels across the United States. In their artist talk, both artists spoke about their sculptures as metaphors for the shifting nature of human emotion and the tenuous state of the environment. The layered, organic works conceptualize our relationship with each and our responsibility to combat climate change and safeguard our planet.

© Caryn Martin, 2023, Catalyst Contemporary

Participating Exhibitors Included:

Dispatch: Raven Edition attends the Baltimore Fine Art Print Fair at the Baltimore Innovation Center