BMA Presents Malcolm Peacock: a signal, a sprout

First solo museum exhibition for artist who showed his student work at the BMA while in third grade

BALTIMORE, MD (March 19, 2025)—The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) today announced the opening of Malcolm Peacock: a signal, a sprout as part of its Turn Again to the Earth initiative exploring the relationships between art and the environment across time and geography. This exhibition features a monumental installation by the New York-based artist and long-distance runner, who spent his formative years in Baltimore, Maryland. The 8-foot tall and wide tree-like form is inspired by the giant, ancient redwood trees Peacock encountered while training for marathons in the Pacific Northwest and is covered with thousands of strands of hand-braided synthetic hair—the creation of which was itself an act of endurance and deep care. The exhibition is on view from March 19 through August 2025.

“Malcolm’s installation is a thought-provoking meditation on the emotional, spiritual, and physical power of nature. It also offers a critical pathway to dialogue about who has rights and access to nature as a universal and healing space,” said Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “I’m delighted to share this extraordinary work with our audiences, and to celebrate an artist with both roots in Baltimore and childhood ties to the BMA. We are honored to be able to offer a platform to talented artists who have been shaped, in part, by our city’s cultural fabric.”

Peacock made this work as he reflected on those experiences of immersion in the redwood forest, after he had returned to city life and began to meditate on how “ideas of landscape—the great outdoors—pertain and relate to, or don’t relate to, Black people in the United States.” The artist learned how to braid from his mother and sees a deep connection between braiding hair—an act of care and protection that bonds people together—and the interconnected systems that support life in the forest. In addition to more than 3,000 strands of hand-braided synthetic hair, the work includes pages from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) and A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) that have inspired the artist. An atmospheric audio recording provides sounds of the artist breathing while running and in conversations with family, friends, and teammates. For Peacock, “sites of nature are ones that we can turn to, to remind us that we have intrinsic power.”

The sculpture was created as part of the artist’s residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem and is titled Five of them were hers and she carved shelters with windows into the backs of their skulls (2024). It debuted as part of Pass Carry Hold: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2023–24 at MoMA PS1 in New York from September 26, 2024 to February 10, 2025, before traveling to Baltimore.

This is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition and the second time Peacock’s work has been shown at the BMA. A watercolor painting created while he was a student at Summit Park Elementary School in Baltimore was presented at the BMA in 2003 as part of Art is for Everyone, the annual Baltimore County Public School student exhibition.

The exhibition is co-curated by Kevin Tervala, BMA Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, and Cecilia Wichmann, Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art.

Five of them were hers and she carved shelters with windows into the backs of their skulls. was exhibited as part of Pass Carry Hold: Studio Museum Artists in Residence 2023–24 at MoMA PS1, organized by Yelena Keller, Assistant Curator, Studio Museum, and Jody Graf, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1, with Adria Gunter, Curatorial Assistant, Studio Museum. The work was made possible with studio assistance from Yacine Fall, Godfrey De Silva-Mlotshwa, and JaLeel Marques Porcha and support from Sibyl Gallery, New Orleans. The audio features September Eve Banks, Ainsley Brundage, Wesley Chavis, Taylor Janay Manigoult, and Maliyah Peacock.

Malcolm Peacock

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.