Previously On View
In 2018, the BMA deaccessioned seven artworks from its contemporary holdings to create an acquisition fund for purchases of works by artists underrepresented in its collection and within broader art historical narratives.
Twenty-two of the 125 works acquired through the fund in the past three years are on view in Now Is The Time. Coupled with several extraordinary gifts the Museum has received, the exhibition offers an insightful snapshot of the BMA’s curatorial effort, led by Asma Naeem, Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, and Katy Siegel, Senior Programming and Research Curator and Thaw Chair of Modern Art at Stony Brook University, to identify artists deserving of greater scholarly research and public attention, placing the highest priority on those artists who are also women, Black, Indigenous, self-trained, and/or have connections to Baltimore.
This includes established figures such as Betye Saar, Valerie Maynard, Benny Andrews, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, and Virginia Jaramillo alongside emerging voices such as Firelei Báez, Laura Ortman, Jerrell Gibbs, and Theresa Chromati, creating dialogues across generations. The exhibition also captures an expansive range of approaches to making, developed through both self-taught and academic training with examples by artists Beverly Buchanan, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Thornton Dial, Fred Eversley, Ficre Ghebreyesus, Lonnie Holley, and Suzanne Jackson, among others.
Visual displays and descriptions presented within the gallery explore the history of collecting at the BMA from different perspectives.
This exhibition is curated by Christopher Bedford, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, Asma Naeem, Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, and Katy Siegel, Senior Programming and Research Curator and Thaw Chair of Modern Art at Stony Brook University.
This exhibition is generously supported by the Suzanne F. Cohen Exhibition Fund, BGE, PNC Foundation, Lorayne and Jim Thornton, Harris Jones & Malone, LLC, and Sheela Murthy/ MurthyNAYAK Foundation.
Gallery Images
Location
Special Exhibition Galleries
Media
Virtual Gallery Walk
Select Artworks in this Exhibition
Mark Bradford
Untitled (Buoy)
2014
Sonya Clark
Unraveling
2015
Tomashi Jackson
Mary Lyons, Yudy Ventura & the Co-op Women (Red Line/Red Scare)
2019
Valerie Maynard
Rufus
1961
Valerie Maynard
Mourning for Maurice
c. 1970
Fred Eversley
Untitled (Black Light)
1974
Ed Clark
Untitled
2004
Firelei Báez
Convex (recalibrating a blind spot)
2019
Ramsess
Sojourner Truth
2006
Thornton Dial
Ground Zero: Nighttime All Over the World
2002
Lonnie B. Holley
The Fifth Child Burning
1994
Get Your Life!
Rainbow Pants
2016