SPARK: Industrial Afterglow

SPARK VII: Industrial Afterglow, a collaboration between UMBC and Towson University, brings together over twenty artists working across sculpture, installation, sound, photography, video, textiles, and ecological documentation to explore what lingers in the wake of industrial and technological systems.

From bioplastic light sculptures and cyanotype archives to rewilded cityscapes and AI-coded sea monsters, the exhibition casts light — literal and symbolic — on the residues of industry, the reconfigurations of ecosystems, and the speculative futures already blooming in the present.

As a former industrial port city undergoing rapid urban transformation, Baltimore provides a vital lens through which to consider the aftermath of extractive systems and the possibilities of repair. Industrial Afterglow asks: What remains after infrastructures collapse? How do ecologies adapt and resist? What does it mean to imagine otherwise? By attending to what still glows, hums, or grows through the ruins, this exhibition transforms light from metaphor into method — revealing the unseen, mourning the obsolete, and illuminating paths toward speculative futures.

Participating artists include Chelsey Barrera, Sue Borchardt, Lynn Cazabon, Cathy Cook, McCoy Chance, Danielle d’Amico, Alexandra Garove, Eunice Hong, Gracie Horne, Jinyoung Koh, Dara Lorenzo, Jenee Mateer, Leah Clare Michaels, Eric Millikin, Timothy Nohe, Edgar Reyes, Sarah G. Sharp, Alexi Scheiber, Samantha Sethi, Jena Burchick, Mariia Usova, and Tara Youngborg.

Spark VII: Industrial Afterglow is curated by Liz Faust.

An Opening Reception will be held on Thursday, November 6, from 5 to 8 p.m.

Admission is free.

Exhibition hours:
Thursday and Friday: 3 p.m.  – 7  p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Monday – Wednesday: closed

The Peale is located at 225 Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. For information, please visit here.