For one of the summer’s most highly anticipated exhibitions, the BMA and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts present works by the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize finalists and the winner of the $25,000 fellowship awarded on July 14 to Erick Antonio Benitez.

Erick Antonio Benitez (Baltimore, MD) is a multidisciplinary artist, musician, organizer, and curator whose work explores concepts of identity, culture, mysticism, and the natural world.

2018 Finalists:

• Nakeya Brown(Laurel, MD) is an artist who uses photography to explore the complexities of race, beauty, politics, and gender.
• Sutton Demlong(Baltimore, MD) is a sculptor who utilizes traditional woodworking techniques to explore the possibilities of imbuing personality and presence in abstract sculpture.
• Nate Larson (Baltimore, MD) is a photographer and MICA professor who works with big data, historical research, and community partnerships to create expanded documentary projects.
• Eunice Park (Parkville, MD) is an artist who creates paintings inspired by dreams, memories, and experiences with family and in the workplace.
• Stephen Towns (Baltimore, MD) is a painter and fiber artist whose work explores how American history influences contemporary society.

Organized by Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Cecilia Wichmann along with BOPA Public Art Specialist Kim Domanski. This exhibition is generously sponsored by Patricia and Mark Joseph/The Shelter Foundation.

The Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize exhibition is held in conjunction with Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival, and is produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts.

The 2018 Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize is made possible through the generous support of the Abell Foundation, Baltimore Community Foundation, Brightside Foundation, Brown Advisory Charitable Foundation, Caplan Family Foundation, Charlesmead Foundation, Ellen Sondheim Dankert, France-Merrick Foundation, Greater Baltimore Committee, Hecht-Levi Foundation, Patricia and Mark Joseph/The Shelter Foundation, M&T Bank, Legg Mason, Amy & Chuck Newhall, Rollins-Luetkemeyer Foundation, Henry & Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation, Rosemore, Inc., Rouse Company Foundation, M. Sigmund & Barbara Shapiro Philanthropic Fund, John Sondheim and William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund.

With special thanks to those making contributions to the Sondheim Prize in honor of former BOPA CEO Bill Gilmore: Whiting-Turner Contracting Company, Dr. Frank Marino Foundation, Days Inn Inner Harbor, Suzanne Cohen, Lois and Irving Blum Foundation, Nancy Hackerman, E. Scott Johnson, Kathleen Basham, James Adams, Barbara Bozzuto, Elizabeth Bruen, Elizabeth Freeman, Rosalind Healy, Hopkinson Family Fund, Alyce Myatt, Paula Rome, Kathy Sher, Andrea Vernot & Brent Burkhardt, Laura Burrows, Alexander Baer, Linda Blume, H. Chace Davis, Stanford Gann, Mark Klotzbach, Sarah McCafferty & Andrew Lapayowker, Leslie Helen Shepard, and Janet Marie Smith.