Contemporary Art
The BMA’s contemporary collection includes an increasingly diverse array of local, national, and internationally acclaimed artists.
The Contemporary Wing reopened on November 14, 2021 featuring a new presentation that asks, “How do we know the world?” Each gallery in the reinstallation explores a different way to answer this question. This major reappraisal of the Contemporary collection builds on the Museum’s ongoing efforts to embrace an expansive range of voices and narratives within its holdings.
The galleries feature objects that focus on the way artists engage with the historic, social, political, and environmental constructs that shape our world, capturing stories of personal and communal relevance. The presentation departs from the focus on chronology and the evolution of style typically found in presentations of museum collections. In this way, the new Contemporary wing offers visitors a more meaningful way to experience and connect with the art on view by emphasizing how artists observe, understand, and respond to our shared everyday circumstances.
Seven exhibitions as part of the BMA’s wide-reaching initiative Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum are currently presented in the Contemporary Wing. The artwork, perspectives, and histories of Native artists, scholars, and community members are at the center of Preoccupied, an expansive project that seeks to begin addressing the historical erasure of Indigenous culture by arts institutions while creating new practices for museums.
Solo exhibitions by Caroline Monnet, Laura Ortman, and Nicholas Galanin are on view in the Contemporary Wing, alongside thematic exhibitions with works by artists such as Jeremy Frey (Passamaquoddy), Duane Linklater (Omaskêko Ininiwak from Moose Cree First Nation), Meryl McMaster (nêhiyaw from Red Pheasant Cree Nation, a member of the Siksika Nation, British and Dutch), and Mark Tayac (Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation), and a film series curated by Sky Hopinka.
How do we know the world? is supported by Transamerica, Michael Sherman and Carrie Tivador, the Suzanne F. Cohen Exhibition Fund, and The Dorman/Mazaroff Contemporary Endowment Fund.
Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, the Estate of Carolyn Lee Smith, The Dorman/Mazaroff Art Exhibition Fund, the Hardiman Family Endowment Fund, the Sigmund M. and Mary B. Hyman Fund for American Art, The Clair Zamoiski Segal and Thomas H. Segal Contemporary Art Endowment Fund, and the Robert Lehman Foundation.
Collection Overview
Since its founding in 1914, the BMA has collected and exhibited the art of its time, resulting in major examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Conceptual art, and Pop art alongside that of emerging talent.
Informed by the BMA’s core values of equity, diversity, and justice adopted in 2018, the Museum has recently acquired an impressive array of contemporary works by artists historically overlooked: works by artists who are Black, women, self-trained, Indigenous, and/or connected to Baltimore.
The BMA’s collection will continue to evolve to represent more fully and deeply the spectrum of individuals that have shaped the trajectory of art.
Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum
The artwork, perspectives, and histories of Native artists, scholars, and community members are at the center of Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum, a major BMA initiative. The wide-reaching project seeks to begin addressing the historical erasure of Indigenous culture by arts institutions while creating new practices for museums.
Now Is The Time: Recent Acquisitions to the Contemporary Collection
In 2018, the BMA sold seven works of art to fund new acquisitions that would address gaps in the contemporary collection. Many of the 28 works on view in Now Is The Time were acquired by the BMA using proceeds from that sale to present a more equitable art history. Data analysis throughout the exhibition reflects on the history of the contemporary collection from different perspectives.
Every Day: Selections from the Collection
In 2019, the BMA presented the first reinstallation of its contemporary collection centered on black artistic imagination. The exhibition featured nearly 50 works of painting, sculpture, video, printmaking, and photography from the BMA's permanent collection, alongside a group of loans primarily from the celebrated Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida Collection.