Katherine Nonemaker, Double Construction

September 3 - 24 * exhibit open during all events and by appointment: email info@rhizomedc.org

Opening event Saturday September 10 from 4-6pm

Rhizome is excited to partner with Towson University’s MFA program to present an exhibition of selected works by recent MFA graduates. The show features a range of 2D work, video, and installation. The work clearly springs forth from pandemic times and anxieties while speaking to timeless preoccupations of the ever-searching artist. The selected artists juxtapose personal searches for their particular truths with themes of transformation in natural and built environments, cycles of growth and decay, and the nature of who we are.

Featuring work by:
Zachary Diaz / Erin Barry-Dutro / Claudia Cappelle / David Calkins / Jim Doran / Brianna Doyle / Grace Doyle / Jodi Hoover / Lolo Gem / Katherine Nonemaker / Aral Olgun / Andrew Thorpe / You Wu / Jen Yablonsky / Tara Youngborg

Thanks to Kanchan Balsé for curating the show from the works submitted.

David Calkins, a Maryland-based artist, is currently completing his M.F.A in Studio Art with a focus on printmaking at Towson University. David is also the Assistant Creative Director for the university.

Claudia Cappelle was born in Chicago. She studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Science in Medical Illustration. She is currently in the MFA program at Towson University. She was an artist in residence at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore from 2019-2022. Her work has been exhibited at various galleries and artist venues in the Washington DC metro area and Virginia, and at the PNC Headquarters Art Collection in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the Artist in Embassies program in Manama, Bahrain. Her abstract expressions endeavor to express the lyrical power of nature.

Zachary Antonio Diaz (b. 1991) is a visual artist and graphic designer. His current work explores the multitude of ways in which humans can connect. Using personal reflections of his own, teamed with anonymous reflective letters from the public, his narrative drawings and paintings seek to challenge the viewer's perception of themselves, their surroundings, and each other. Zachary is currently building upon his exploration of human connection while creating narrative scenes within his work.

Jim Doran is an interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of metaphysics, identity, and humor through the mediums of illustration, assemblage, animation, and sound. His body of work consists of tiny, cut paper dioramas in discarded objects (metal boxes, watches, tins, spoons, etc.), large drawings on Tyvek and scrolls of paper, hand drawn stop motion animation, and sound recordings consisting of composed music, tape loops, and musique concrète. Jim makes art in Baltimore City.

Brianna Doyle is an artist living and working in Baltimore. She is recently earned her MFA at Towson University, where she also obtained her BFA in Painting and BS in Art History. There, she won the Basler Foundation scholarship in 2017, the Arrowmont’s Windgate University Fellows Scholarship Endowment in 2019, and the Graduate Student Association Research Award in 2019.

Grace Doyle is a Baltimore, Maryland native. She is an MFA candidate in Towson University's Studio Arts program. She graduated from The University of Baltimore with an MBA in 2019, MICA with a BFA in 2009, and The Baltimore School for the Arts in 2006. Throughout her studies, Doyle has spent several summers painting abroad including in Norway, under contemporary figurative painter Odd Nerdrum. In 2022, Doyle was a Trawick Award Semi-Finalist. In 2022 and 2021, Doyle was a Bethesda Painting Awards Semi-Finalist. In 2021, she was a Boynes Emerging Artist Award Finalist. In 2019, she was a recipient of a MSAC Individual Artist Award for Painting. Doyle has been an Adjunct Professor at Towson University and the Community College of Baltimore County. She serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors at Hamilton Arts Collective, an artist operated cooperative gallery in Northeast Baltimore. 

Erin Barry-Dutro is a printmaker, installation artist, and designer living and working in Baltimore, MD. She received her BFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and a post baccalaureate certificate in Interactive Media and Design from Towson University, where she is now studying for her Studio Art MFA. She is a founding member of the activist art projection group Luminous Intervention, the owner of Shinyfresh Press, and half of the LED-based art installation project Radiance.

Lolo Gem creates playfully absurd and animated work featuring ambiguous implications of familiar figures, playful motion, sentient lines, personified flowers, and inanimate objects. Using an improvisational approach inspired by collage, Gem borrows from vintage animation, comics, and pop culture to explore internal conflicts and untangle covert thoughts.

Jodi Hoover is an artist and librarian working in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work explores storytelling as a (sometimes unreliable) way to explain the dangerous, beautiful world. Familiar and domestic designs, such as quilt patterns, bleed into fairy-tale landscapes created through the use of layered hand-cut collage work. Hoover holds a Master of Fine Art degree from Towson University and a Master of Library Science from University of Maryland, College Park.

Katherine Nonemaker is a third-year MFA candidate at Towson University and lives in Baltimore City.  Her interests include printmaking, the religious experience, and horror movies.

Aral Olgun is an emerging Turkish-American Artist and Illustrator. His work strives to show the power of traditional and digital media to tell narratives, both heavy and whimsical. 

Andrew Thorp is from Tulsa, OK and currently resides in Baltimore MD. Thorp has a BFA from MICA and is currently attending Towson University for their MFA.

You Wu, originally from Shenzhen, is an artist and an educator based in Baltimore, MD. They appropriate languages and aesthetics of advertisement to create satires of the late-capitalist lifestyle–the one that we are unfortunately trapped in. Specifically, the works tie the consumption of products to labor exploitation. Wu received their BFA from the Maryland Insititute College of Art, and their MFA from Towson University. Currently, they are an adjunct faculty at Goucher College and Towson University. Wu's recently presented their works at the American University Katzen Art Center (Washington D.C), Current Space (Baltimore, MD), and Towson University (Towson, MD). In addition, they have been featured in the BmoreArt Magazine and Inertia Studio Visits. 

Jen Yablonsky got her BFA from Carnegie Mellon and her MFA from Towson, with a sizeable chunk of time in-between living and designing in San Francisco. She likes beets, Led Zeppelin, and waterfowl.

Tara Youngborg is a web and installation artist working and living in the DC area, where she manages the Stamp Gallery and Studio A at the University of Maryland. She has previously lived and worked in Maine and Maryland, where she graduated from St Mary’s College of Maryland with a BA. Youngborg is interested in utilizing the Internet as a space where personal stories can become collaborative, as well as using her work to explore the landscape and science of memory, and the analogue of the mind to computer processes, specifically image compression. Youngborg has been published in Please Hold Magazine and Touch.My.Prints., has received a commission from Alastria Press, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the St Mary’s College Artist House. Youngborg has shown her artwork in exhibitions from coast to coast in theUnited States, as well as in Australia, and always online. Visit her work atwww.tarayoungborg.com

Andrew Thorpe, untitled (window)