The Katz Gallery in the Forbush Building at Friends School of Baltimore is made possible by The Jay Katz ’45 Art Fund. It is primarily a space for teaching and learning about art and artists. It is our hope that the majority of work in the space will be student work. The Upper School Art Department in collaboration with students and the community will work to present shows that are consistent with these goals. If you are not a member of the Friends School community but would like to visit, please contact our Upper School office to arrange a visitor’s pass and an appointment. 410 649 3252
This is "Tears of Wollega" by Erin Hall on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
A walk through of the Gallery Exhibit put up by Jemal Countess and Sheba Tekeste in the spring of 2023. Countess is a photojournalist and the brother of Lisa Countess, Latin teacher in the Upper School.
Where do we place the line that separates Us from Them? Does the line help or hinder us? What happens if we move the line, change it, eradicate it?
This artwork was begun in June 2020 when we were in the grip of two major crises - the Covid pandemic and a widespread racial reckoning. At first, I thought of these issues as separate and distinct, but increasingly I came to see them as different facets of the same problem, a problem of Us and Them. In the case of Covid, “them” is the virus. Holding the line is imperative to our very existence. In the case of racism, we are crippled by an arbitrary, imaginary, scientifically disproven line.
How many problems can be seen through the lens of Us and Them? Immigration, global warming, cancer...? This body of work explores some of those lines. Of course, the most enlightened among us seek to eliminate entirely the line between Us and Them to "become one with everything".
The virus of racism has raged through the bloodstream of our nation for hundreds of years and continues to spread, reinfecting us over and over. The virus of Covid continues to be harbored within us. How do we draw a line between Us and Them when them is literally a part of us?
Artist Bio:
Dahven White is an artist and writer living in the Baltimore area. She grew up in Nova Scotia and worked as an architect before discovering felt as an artistic medium. She now works primarily in felt, using sheep’s wool and recycled sweaters to create unpredictable three-dimensional organic shapes. Her art and wearables have been featured in many juried exhibitions and art shows, as well as two solo shows. Her daughter, Moxie, is a senior at Friends School of Baltimore.
About Felting:
Felting is considered the oldest textile art, with existing samples dating back to 6500BC. Most people discover felting the hard way – by accidentally putting a wool sweater into a washing machine. These pieces were created by laying out overlapping tufts of long brushed fibers of sheep fleece and embellishing with chunks of recycled sweaters, silk, and other found fibers. The loose wool is then shrunk into fabric with hot water, dish soap, bubble wrap, a pool noodle, and manual friction. A lot of manual friction! A piece may shrink to half its original size and can be pulled and twisted into new shapes along the way.