Grimaldis Gallery

Even after a century of abstract art, the viewer tends to try to find suggestions of representation in abstract work. Jon Isherwood's fine stone sculptures at the C. Grimaldis Gallery serve as a good case in point.The sculptures don't depict anything. The artist leaves some of the sides of his stone slabs in their natural state, smooths and polishes others, makes striation-like cuts, often hollows them out so that one can peer into a vertical interior space but not penetrate it.As worked pieces of stone, they fully satisfy the demands of sculpture.

Engaging, museum-level work fills two venues in Baltimore. Maryland Art Place has assembled a remarkable survey of minimalist painters from different areas and generations, while C. Grimaldis Gallery is offering a collection of pieces by five exceptional artists who produced work locally. The Grimaldis show, "Five Maryland Icons," provides a richly varied experience — and, for those in the market, a fairly expensive one, with most of the pieces priced from $3,500 to $125,000.

It's not often that new paintings by an old man seem so exploratory, but the new landscape paintings that 79-year-old Eugene Leake is showing at the Grimaldis Gallery are alive in their every brushstroke.Although Leake has been an artist for a long time, much of his energy went into his administrative duties as president of the Maryland Institute College of Art from 1961 to 1974. Upon retiring from the school post, he put his full energies into painting again. In a series of increasingly strong exhibits at the Grimaldis Gallery, Leake has liberated his brushstroke and experimented more and more as he goes along.

For some, the sight of a faceless garage or a squat chain store or a long stretch of tract housing barely registers; there's just nothing unusual about such things. For artist Sofia Silva, they mean a lot. And, once framed by her camera lens, they are imbued with provocative power. Nearly a dozen of Silva's photographs form an exhibit, "Meditations on the Landscape of Desire," one of two solo shows on display at C. Grimaldis Gallery (the other show features intriguing sculptural pieces by Lu Zhang)

The works of Mary Page Evans and Tammra Sigler make an interesting combination at C. Grimaldis Gallery, for though they are in some ways quite different there are also comparisons to be drawn.Evans' big abstracted paintings of gardens, flowers and trees have obvious antecedents in the paintings of the impressionists and in the work of Joan Mitchell. Mitchell's work, however, though it has a lyric strain, tends to be more abstract and tougher than Evans' lusher, softer versions of landscape.

Sculptors Ilan Averbuch, Jene Highstein, Ulrich Ruckriem and Wade Saunders may not be cut from the same mold, but their group show at the C. Grimaldis Gallery is still a harmonious gathering. There is a shared respect in their work for stone and wood that have been shaped without losing all sense of rough natural origins.Ulrich Ruckriem, for instance, likes to use dolomite and slate. His untitled column and floor piece are carefully crafted sculptures in which his penchant for geometrical order is expressed through sectioned blocks that leave no doubt as to who is in charge here: the sculptor, not his material.

The C. Grimaldis Gallery, the city's most prominent commercial art gallery and a fixture on Charles Street for nearly a decade and a half, is moving out of its location at 523 N. Charles St. after this month and will consolidate its exhibitions at the 1006 Morton St. location it opened 19 months ago."It no longer makes sense to have two spaces in Baltimore in this economy," said gallery owner Constantine Grimaldis, who has operated his gallery at 523 N. Charles St. for the past five years and at 928 N. Charles St. for nine years before that.

At the opening night party for the "Sublime Structure" exhibit at C. Grimaldis Gallery, featured artist Lu Zhang's creative hand wasn't just apparent in her paintings on the wall. The 26-year-old artist and model designer for Development Design Group makes a statement with her personal style, too. "My style is all over the place. I like to put my own spin on things but not really stand out too much. ... I think it's a combination of going to art school and now [working] in the corporate environment for an architectural firm.

For more than 30 years, painter Raoul Middleman has been one of Baltimore's most prolific and readily identifiable artists. Middleman checks in again this season with a delectable exhibit of landscape paintings at C. Grimaldis Gallery through May 3. Middleman's work is a refreshing break from the by now ubiquitous blue landscapes that have dominated decorative paintings of Maryland and similarly picturesque locales for decades. Instead, Middleman renders these scenes afresh with great warmth and affection through calculated use of reds, oranges and yellows that complement the cool hues of sky, water and greenery.

Grace Hartigan's "Another Hunt," one of the best works in her new show at C. Grimaldis Gallery, takes us on a little trip through the history of modern art while remaining thoroughly Hartigan and thoroughly contemporary.Its horses and riders remind us of Degas, but there's something about the principal rider's black hat and formal air that speaks of Manet. The spattering of yellow paint that seems to hover over the surface can, of course, recall Seurat's pointillism, but the yellow and the brilliant red riders' coats combine to suggest the dazzle of impressionist dabs of brightness.

One way to counter the heat is with a jolt of cool contemporary art, and exhibits at two commercial venues — C. Grimaldis Gallery in Mount Vernon, Jordan Faye Contemporary in Federal Hill — conveniently provide such relief. For good measure, the Jordan Faye gallery is also throwing a block party Saturday afternoon. "That seemed like a great summer thing to do," says founder and owner Jordan Faye Block. This sort of gesture has helped make the gallery a good fit for the neighborhood since opening 11 months ago in a handsome 1880s building that originally housed a branch of the Enoch Pratt Library.

The horizontal, rectangular photograph, stretching 80 inches across a wall of C. Grimaldis Gallery, jolts the viewer with a sea of aluminum siding. In the far left corner, a piece of bold blue sky can be seen behind a jutting, K-style gutter. Welcome to "Wasteland." This image by Sofia Silva, titled "siding," is one of 20 compelling works in an exhibit that casts an eye - at once coolly objective and hotly provocative - on a desensitized world. "It's about wasted time, wasted things, wasted political systems," Grimaldis says of the show, which features six artists, most of them local.

At the opening night party for the "Sublime Structure" exhibit at C. Grimaldis Gallery, featured artist Lu Zhang's creative hand wasn't just apparent in her paintings on the wall. The 26-year-old artist and model designer for Development Design Group makes a statement with her personal style, too. "My style is all over the place. I like to put my own spin on things but not really stand out too much. ... I think it's a combination of going to art school and now [working] in the corporate environment for an architectural firm.

"The Universe and the Side of My Body," a huge study in red oil on wood by Kim Manfredi, is not just an eye-catcher in the new show at C. Grimaldis Gallery. It's deeply provocative. A couple of sagging globs of paint on the upper portion of the four, 96-inch-square panels seem to be on the verge of shifting downward, threatening to invade two circular images formed by the perforation of tiny holes with a drill. Those orbs simultaneously suggest microscopic cells and planets adrift in a blood-dense sky. The piece is representative of the intriguing premise of "Sublime Structure," an exhibit that features several Maryland Institute College of Art alumni.

THEATER 'One-Man Star Wars Trilogy': Being able to recite Star Wars dialogue verbatim is a common affliction of the nerd population. But Canadian actor Charles Ross takes the practice into hyperdrive. In Baltimore for a two-week run, Ross' off-Broadway hit re-creates all the characters, sound effects and even John Williams' score with nothing but some lights and elbow pads. Opens 8 p.m. Tuesday at Center Stage. For more: centerstage.org DVD Heath Ledger: in 'The Dark Knight': Despite what the fanboys say, this Batman flick is not the best movie ever made.

Imagine 99 identical Barbie dolls in green Army fatigues and boots arrayed in parade rank before a crimson backdrop. It's an image of militaristic, monolithic power that pretty much sums up artist Mina Cheon's decidedly dim view of totalitarian rule. Cheon (pronounced CHUN) is a Korean-American artist who teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In previous exhibitions, she's explored the tensions between her native South Korea and its communist neighbor to the north in a variety of media, including video, interactive multimedia installation and complicated, three-dimensional string sculptures.

One way to counter the heat is with a jolt of cool contemporary art, and exhibits at two commercial venues — C. Grimaldis Gallery in Mount Vernon, Jordan Faye Contemporary in Federal Hill — conveniently provide such relief. For good measure, the Jordan Faye gallery is also throwing a block party Saturday afternoon. "That seemed like a great summer thing to do," says founder and owner Jordan Faye Block. This sort of gesture has helped make the gallery a good fit for the neighborhood since opening 11 months ago in a handsome 1880s building that originally housed a branch of the Enoch Pratt Library.

Engaging, museum-level work fills two venues in Baltimore. Maryland Art Place has assembled a remarkable survey of minimalist painters from different areas and generations, while C. Grimaldis Gallery is offering a collection of pieces by five exceptional artists who produced work locally. The Grimaldis show, "Five Maryland Icons," provides a richly varied experience — and, for those in the market, a fairly expensive one, with most of the pieces priced from $3,500 to $125,000.

`Off the Map' The lowdown -- Catch a performance of Off The Map, a quirky comedy that revolves around the main character's reminiscences about her unusual childhood, at Fell's Point Corner Theatre. If you go -- The production runs tomorrow through Feb. 17. The theater is at 251 S. Ann St. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $15-$17. Call 410-466-8341 or go to fpct.org. Handel show The lowdown -- Hear some harpsichord and Handel on Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Chalice Concert Series' presentation of "Handel en Italia."

What do Josephine Baker, Amelie Matisse and Lili Marlene have in common? Aside from their aura of European sophistication and glamour, they're all featured subjects in New Paintings, a lively exhibition of recent work by Baltimore master Grace Hartigan at C. Grimaldis Gallery. Over the years, Hartigan has repeatedly returned for inspiration to famous women from history, legend and the history of art. She was a leading member of the New York School of Abstract-Expressionist painters during the 1950s, and her subsequent work remains an inventive mix of delightful human forms and pure abstraction.