February 4 – May 23, 2019

The presentation of this exhibition is supported by an arts program grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from the Libby Kuhn Endowment Fund, as well as individual contributions.

August 29 – December 19, 2018

Depth of Field presents approximately one-hundred images acquired over the last ten years by UMBC’s Photography Collections through generous gifts from donors and artists. The photographs on view highlight the breadth and depth of the collection and illustrate the range of forms, technology, and artists that historically shaped the medium and are presently impacting its ongoing evolution.

Artists included:

Laurie Brown, Kristin Capp, Clarence Carvell, William Eggleston, Donna Ferrato, Robert Fichter, Todd Forsgren, Peggy Fox, Sally Gall, Ralph Gibson, Penny Harris, Sam Holden, Irina Ionesco, Walter Ioos, N. Jay Jaffee, Brian Jones, Nate Larson, Alen MacWeeney, Mary Ellen Mark, Dorothy Norman, David Seltzer, David Seymour, Steve Szabo, Barbara Traub, Peter Turnley, Robert Von Sternberg.

Installation Views

April 2 – May 25, 2018

The end of war does not mean peace. It is simply the end of death and destruction. Every story of war includes a chapter that almost always goes untold – the story of the aftermath, which day by day becomes the prologue to the future.

This exhibition presents images by over fifty photographers and is a ten-year retrospective of the work of the groundbreaking program The Aftermath Project, founded to help change the way media covers conflict.

Public Program

4:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 19, 2018

War Is Only Half the Story:

Sara Terry, photojournalist & founder of The Aftermath Project

Free & open to the public

Support for the presentation of this exhibition at UMBC is provided by the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Friends of the Library & Gallery, the Libby Kuhn Endowment, and individual contributors.

War Is Only Half the Story is originated by The Aftermath Project, Los Angeles, and toured by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.

January 29 – March 18, 2018

Opportunities to view indigenous peoples through the eyes of indigenous photographers are rare and recent. This photographic exhibition features the work of indigenous artists from North America, Peru, Iraq, and New Zealand. Distinctive in its historical reach, the exhibition includes newly discovered 19th-century trailblazers, members of the next generation of emerging photographers, and well established contemporary practitioners.

Our People, Our Land, Our Images has been carefully constructed as a first person, indigenous account. Reflecting contemporary trends, the photographers and their subjects vary in style, from straightforward documentary accounts to aesthetically altered images combining overlays and collage. The variety found in the exhibition conveys the plurality of the indigenous voices and their concerns. The photographs are united, however, in how they convey their makers’ connections to the land, community, and traditions.

Ultimately, the multiplicity of perspectives represented by the exhibition and its texts sustains an open-ended experience that will actively engage audiences as they analyze how “the camera, in the hands of indigenous visionaries, becomes a tool or weapon that possesses the power to confront and deconstruct stereotypes, politics, and histories.” Our People, Our Land, Our Images provides insight into the variations in and history of bicultural identity. Further, the exhibition demonstrates the longevity and continuing vitality of native traditions of photography and answers the overdue and continuing need to expand the knowledge of indigenous self-presentation in photography.

Public Program

Niro, who received her MFA from the University of Western Ontario, is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist and member of the Six Nations Reserve, Turtle Clan, Bay of Quinte Mohawk.

Installation views

April 10 –May 16, 2017

Truly a vision of the fantastic, this exhibition is an amazing exploration of both illustrative art and the evolution of the visual landscape of science fiction and fantasy literature. Featuring work by both American and European artists and spanning more than a century, these vivid illustrations bring to life adventures, beings, and worlds conjured in novels such as Don Quixote, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Tarzan, and pulp magazines including Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Fantastic Adventures, and Wonder Stories. Accomplishing far more than simply guiding readers in their explorations of new and sometimes bizarre realms, the range and impact of these illustrations are far-reaching. The exhibition will also include books, pulp magazines, and other items drawn from UMBC’s Rosenfeld Collection, revealing how the illustrations in the Korshak Collection were meant to appear when encountered as artifacts of material culture.

Public Program

Artist’sTalk: Donato Giancola

5:00 p.m.Thursday, May 4, 2017

Award-winning illustrator Donato Giancola, best known for his endlessly creative and exquisitely rendered science fiction and fantasy illustrations, will discuss his broad range of illustrative work. Giancola’s diverse clients include DC Comics; Sci-Fi Channel; Wizards of the Coast (Magic: The Gathering); Tor Books; National Geographic, Milton Bradley; Microsoft; Penguin; Random House; Hasbro; Scholastic; Simon & Schuster; The Village Voice; CNN; United Nations; U.S. Postal Service.

Donato Giancola’s website: www.donatoart.com

About the Collection

The illustrations featured in this exhibition are treasured pieces of the Korshak Collection, owned by Stephen Korshak. The love of both literature and art of the science fiction and fantasy genres is a passion Stephen Korshak shared with his father Erle Korshak, a founder of the imprint Shasta Publishers, which specialized in science fiction books. Shasta played a key role in ushering in the transition that saw important science fiction literature move from the pages of magazines printed on cheap pulp paper to hardcover, library-quality books. Much of the illustration art for Shasta publications hung in the Korshak family home and the company office where, as young man, Stephen Korshak encountered it–a fact the now collector cites as inspiring in him a sense of wonder, and a passion for the illustrations of the genre.

Korshak Collection website: www.korshakcollection.com

Installation Views

January 30, 2017 – March 26, 2017

Altered State: Painting Myanmar in a Time of Transition presents paintings by 36 contemporary artists from Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma. Created following the transition period of 2011, when a military-backed civilian government replaced oppressive rule by military junta and the country once famous for its seclusion re-entered the world stage, the paintings illustrate current artistic practice in Myanmar and present a series of creative viewpoints on a rapidly changing society.Paintings included in Altered State: Painting Myanmar in a Time of Transition are from the collection of contemporary Myanmar paintings of Ian Holliday, the Vice President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at the University of Hong Kong. Presentation of the exhibition at UMBC is supported in part by an arts program grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from the Friends of the Library & Gallery, the Libby Kuhn Endowment, and individual contributions.

Public Program

4:00 p.m. Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Myanmar: Perspectives on a Society in Transition

Christina Fink, Professor of Practice of International Affairs, George Washington University

Myanmar has been undergoing profound political, economic, and social change. Throughout this process, the military leadership and political parties have both cooperated and competed in their efforts to impose their vision for the future. Meanwhile, citizens have sought to take advantage of greater freedoms and opportunities, while also re-imagining their country’s identity and place in the world.

Professor Christina Fink is a cultural anthropologist who has combined teaching, research, and development work throughout her career. Her areas of expertise are Burma/Myanmar in particular and Southeast Asia more broadly, equitable development, gender and development, civil society in ethnically diverse states. She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. She has taught at the Elliot School for International Affairs at George Washington University since 2011. She served as a visiting lecturer at the Pacific and Asian Studies Department at the University of Victoria in 1995, and from 2001-2010, she was a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand.

Installation Views

September 15 – December 16, 2016

All of the forces that contributed to making UMBC– from emerging as a need triggered by the post-World War II baby boom to becoming a higher education ideal conceptualized by Chancellor Albin O. Kuhn– converged on September 19, 1966, with the commencement of the first classes. This exhibition tells some of the many stories of the university’s exciting beginning and continuing development through items selected from UMBC’s University Archives including photographs, documents, objects, books and ephemera.

This exhibition tells some of the many stories of the university’s exciting beginning and continuing development through items selected from UMBC’s University Archives including photographs, documents, objects, books and ephemera.

Monday, 3:30 p.m.

September 19, 2016

Exhibition Tour​: Chief Curator Tom Beck & Archivist Lindsey Loeper

April 25 – June 30, 2016

The Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery presents ​The Glass Knife​, curated by artists Stephen Bradley and Kathy Marmor, on display April 25 through June 30. The exhibition reflects on the work of Keith Porter, known as the “father of cell biology,” the title referring to the sharp wedged-shaped glass tool used by Porter to prepare tissue samples. Dr. Keith Porter was the chair of the UMBC Department of Biology from 1984 to 1988, and was one of the first scientists to study whole cells with the electron microscope. At the RockefellerInstitute, he produced the first image of an intact cell, made possible by his development of an innovative slicing technique and specimen preparation for viewing and photographing with the electron microscope. His in-depth experience in experimental embryology and histology, along with his talent to interpret these highly magnified images, enabled him to infer the functional activities of cell organelles such as the endoplasmic reticulum (which he discovered and named)and microtubules. Porter was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1977.

Public Program

4:00 p.m.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Artist’s Talk​: Stephen Bradley and Kathy Marmor

Media artists Bradley and Marmor have structured their installation to illuminate Keith Porter’s life-long relationship with the micro world of cells. ​The Glass Knife​ integrates select elements from Porter’s archive to build a unified series of sculptures that allude to Porter’s workstation that “sees” the cell and its organelles and the potential applications that Porter imagined. With The Glass Knife​, Bradley and Marmor propose a model of imagination that embraces a vision mediated by technology that extends our seeing. The artists as curators offer metaphoric insight into Porter’s scientific inquiry made possible with his ground-breaking use of the electron microscope that changed the world of cellular science. “He had an almost uncanny ability to look at static electron monographs of cells and ‘see’ what the cell was doing, or at least what it was equipped to do.” – Dr. Lee D. Peachey

Audio

Sound composition created from recoding the electromagnetic signals emitted by an operational electron microscope that Keith Porter used while he was at UMBC in the 1980s. Presented as a multi-channel sound installation in the Glass Knife, comprised of 3 DIY parabolic speakers, mp3 players, amplifier.

Installation Views

Audio

Public Program

4:00 p.m. Tuesday

February 16, 2016

Artist’s Talk​: Timothy Nohe

Timothy Nohe​ is an artist and educator engaging traditional and electronic media in daily life and public places. His artwork has been focused on sustainability and place, intermedia works, and sound scores for dance and video. Nohe was the recipient of a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission Fulbright Alumni InitiativeGrant in 2011. Four Maryland State Arts Council awards have supported his work in the area of music Composition, Non-Classical; Media; New Genre, and Installation/Sculpture. Nohe has also been recognized with a Creative Baltimore Award. In 2015 the Warnock Foundation recognized his interdisciplinary work in urban forests with a Social Innovator award. He is the founding director of the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) and a tenured professor of Visual Arts at UMBC. Nohe has strong ties to Australia, where he serves as an adjunct Professor at La Trobe University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; as an artist in Residence at the Centre for Creative Arts at La Trobe University, and on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Unlikely, based in Melbourne.

The presentation of this exhibition at UMBC is supported in part by an arts program grant fromthe Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the NationalEndowment for the Arts. Additional support comes from Friends of the Library & Gallery, theLibby Kuhn Endowment, the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA),the Dresher Center for the Humanities and individual contributors.Support for the ongoing artistic research project ​Sounding Botany Bay​ comes from theAustralian-American Fulbright Commission, and the University of Wollongong.