Artist Louis Fratino and BMA Curators Virginia Anderson and Katy Rothkopf will take the stage for an exciting and unguarded conversation, examining the exhibition Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again, which juxtaposes artworks by both artists to create an intergenerational dialogue, showing the influence of one of the most important painters of the 20^th century on a celebrated contemporary artist.

Learn about the artist’s practice, selecting works for the show, and the curatorial process that shaped the exhibition.

This event will include ASL interpretation and live captioning by Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible and assistive listening devices are available. Please see Accessibility at BMA for additional resources to support your visit. If there are any additional accommodations or resources we can provide to support your attendance, please call 443-573-1701 or email visitorexperience@artbma.org. Advance notice is appreciated but not required.

5:30 p.m. – Doors open

6–7:30 p.m. – Conversation

Brooklyn based artist, Louis Fratino (b. 1993, Annapolis, MD), adapts the visual languages of European and American Modernism to contemplate the beauty and queerness in the gestures and experiences of the everyday—in nature, in the home, and in one’s own self-conception.

Fratino received his BFA in Painting with concentration in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD (2015). He is a recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Painting, Berlin (2015-16) and a Yale Norfolk Painting Fellowship, Norfolk, CT in 2014.

A selection of Fratino’s paintings, drawings, prints, and sketchbooks are currently featured in conversation with works by Matisse from the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art in the exhibition, Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again, on view at the museum through September 6, 2026

In 2024, Fratino’s paintings were featured in the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Stranieri Ovunque—Foreigners Everywhere, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. That same year, his first institutional solo exhibition, Louis Fratino. Satura, was held at the Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, accompanied by a fully illustrated monograph published by Mousse Publishing.

Fratino’s work is included in major institutional collections, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Christien Sveaas Art Foundation, Oslo, Norway; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; RISD Museum, Providence, RI; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others.