Spark 6: Refractions features the work of UMBC and Towson faculty, recent graduates, and current students in the historic galleries of The Peale in Baltimore City, sponsored by PNC. Refraction is the change in direction of a wave as it passes from one transparent substance into another — a phenomenon most commonly observed when light waves pass through lenses, magnifying glasses, and prisms. Each of the artists in this exhibition serves as an apparatus of refraction: focusing, magnifying, or redirecting our attention and experience of our world.

In conjunction with the exhibition States of Becoming, curated by Fitsum Shebeshe and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents a conversation with the curator and Jessica Bell Brown, curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art. The discussion, moderated by Rhea Beckett, founding director at Black Artist Research Space, will focus on curatorial approaches to African diasporic experience and migration.

Amy Eva Raehse, executive director and partner at Goya Contemporary Gallery and writer, educator, and independent curator, will give us a behind the scenes view of her career and will answer questions about gallery practices, representation, and sustaining a contemporary art gallery in Baltimore.

As part of the exhibition SPARK 6: Refractions, Anna Kroll and Chloë Engel present Inside the Room, featuring “The Space is a Body and You Are In It,” a collaborative world-building (and world-falling apart) game. Developed during the early days of the pandemic when dancing together only became possible through speech, the game engages bodily awareness, the (im)possibility of a shared imagination, and coping with inevitable disaster. In this intimate performance, audience members are invited to watch Kroll and Engel play the game, building an imaginary space and watching it fall apart.

Join artist Stephen Bradley for Imaging the Peale's Biomes, as part of the exhibition SPARK 6: Refractions. Participants will explore the environment through BioBuggy, a mobile art and science laboratory on wheels designed and envisioned by media artist Stephen Bradley and scientist Eric Schott.

A special addition to the SPARK 6: Refractions exhibition — Wavefront — features the work of Towson University and UMBC students and alumni Allanis Silva, Audrey Le Ballentine, Audrey Mba, Ayanna Phillips, Gabrielle Moore, Kellan Marriot, Kristen Landsman, Michael Elias Rubinstein, Susie Park, and more artists to be announced.