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Material Matters

For Immediate Release: June 23, 2006
Jason Hughes, curator

Exhibition Dates: July 5 to September 9, 2006
Artscape Preview: Saturday July 15, 2006, 2-5pm
Gallery Talk: Friday, July 28, 2006, 6-7pm; Reception, 7pm

Baltimore, MD – Throughout 2006, MAP will continue to celebrate its twenty fifth anniversary, presenting a series of special exhibitions celebrating area artists and members of the regional community while bringing artists and work that otherwise may not be seen in the region.

The curator of MAP’s summer exhibition, Material Matters, is artist and independent curator Jason Hughes, co-founder of the dynamic Gallery Four, honored in 2002 by the Baltimore City Paper as “The Best Proof of Contemporary Art Life in Baltimore.” Hughes selected a diverse group of artists living throughout the United States, Europe, and Central America, practicing a wide variety of media while often creating simultaneously humorous, didactic and politically-oriented works. In the accompanying catalogue essay, Hughes commented that although the works in the exhibition “may be labeled as populist, political, or socially slanted, my overall goal is not to add to the contemporary discourse between artists and institution, liberal and conservative, or activist and conformist. Instead, I seek to shed light on how our individual and collective experiences provide us with powers to transform who we are...”

Featured US artists include Laura Burns, Liz Ensz, Cliff Evans, James Johnson, Joel Kyack, Daniel Rich and Jason Zimmerman as well as international artists Adrian Lohmüller (Berlin), Walterio Iraheta and Simón Vega (San Salvador). The exhibition will be accompanied by a color catalogue, and Material Matters will be open betweenJuly 5 and September 9, 2006. The public is invited to join Hughes and many of the participating artists on Friday, July 28, 2006 for a gallery talk at 6pm, and a reception starting at 7pm. As well, there will be a casual gathering as part of an Artscape preview on Saturday, July 15, from 2-4pm.

About the Curator:  Jason Hughes, an artist and independent curator, was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1978. Shortly after graduating in 1996 from Douglas Anderson School for the Arts, a high school in Jacksonville, FL, Hughes moved to Baltimore, MD and joined a group of other recent graduates in a 10,000 square-foot warehouse/loft located in the downtown area. During the next three years, Hughes and these fellow artists renovated the warehouse to create a number of artists’ live-and-work studios, including the soon-heralded 4,500 square foot exhibition space known as Gallery Four, with an inaugural exhibition in spring 2000, and in 2002. Gallery Four has received awards and honors from the Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Magazine and the Washington Post.

In 2001, Hughes received several merit-based educational scholarships that enabled study at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, as well as a 2003 semester at the New York Studio Program in conjunction with AICAD and the Parsons School of Art and Design in New York, NY. In December 2004, Hughes received his BFA in sculpture, cum laude, from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he was among ten finalists for the prestigious Jacques and Natasha Gelman Travel Award.

Hughes has since exhibited work at the Museum for Contemporary Art in Merida, the Yucatan, Mexico; Vox Populi in Philadelphia, PA; Curator’s Office in Washington, DC; Maryland Art Place in Baltimore, MD; the Scope Art Fair in Miami Beach, FL and New York, NY; as well as Omni Art III in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach 2005, in Miami, FL. Upcoming honors and exhibitions include: Hughes’ first solo exhibition in 2006 at Curator’s Office in Washington, DC; and a fellowship to attend an artist residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, VA. Hughes currently lives and works in downtown Baltimore, MD.

For more information about this exhibition or specific images, please contact Julie Ann Cavnor at jcavnor@mdartplace.org or 410-962-8565

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Maryland Art Place (MAP) is a non-profit center for contemporary art established in 1981 to: develop and maintain a dynamic environment for regional artists to exhibit their work, nurture and promote new ideas and new forms, and facilitate rewarding exchanges between artists and the public through educational leadership. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. There is no admission charge to enter the gallery or to participate in MAP’s regular programming and events.