BmoreArt’s Picks: December 17-23This Week: Stephanie Mercedes at Silber Gallery, BmoreArt Holiday Open House at Connect + Collect, a memorial exhibition for Bonnie Schupp at Zeke’s, The Chicory Project’s Existence Beyond Code opening reception at MCHC, The Peale’s AAA apprentice program exhibition opening, Brumation opening reception at School 33, and Holidays at the Lewis — PLUS applications due for Baltimore Screenwriters Competition and more featured opportunities!BmoreArt’s Picks presents the best weekly art openings, events, and performances happening in Baltimore and surrounding areas. For a more comprehensive perspective, check the BmoreArt Calendar page, which includes ongoing exhibits and performances, and is updated on a daily basis.To submit your calendar event, email us at [email protected]!Stephanie Mercedes: I hold you closeOngoing through January 30@ Silber GalleryBy appointment only. Please contact [email protected] to schedule an appointment.Stephanie Mercedes’ I hold you close unfolds as a haunting exploration of queer identity, resilience, and the embodied experience of vulnerability in a society that often views difference with suspicion, if not hostility. Constructed from melted weapons reformed into steel forms, these works are lit with stark floodlights and animated by sound and motorized elements, immersing viewers in a charged atmosphere that mirrors the intensity of queer existence within a violent world.Mercedes transforms tools of harm into symbols of strength, drawing from a personal archive of queer love, loss, and the precarious beauty that emerges from standing one’s ground in the face of adversity. Vulnerability, in this context, is reimagined not as a fragile state but as an active stance—a weapon in itself. By inviting viewers into a space that holds vulnerability and resilience in equal measure, I hold you close pushes against binary notions of power and softness, showcasing the courage inherent in being seen and the strength required to love openly.This installation serves as both a memorial and a celebration of queer resilience, challenging the viewer to reflect on the ways society measures strength and the transformative potential of embracing vulnerability as a radical, defiant act.BmoreArt Holiday Open HouseTuesday, December 17 :: 5-8pm@ Connect + Collect GalleryJoin us for our Holiday Open House on Tuesday, December 17, from 5-8 pm at the BmoreArt Connect+Collect Gallery (2519 N. Charles Street) to view our exhibition City of Artists III, featuring works by Jackie Milad, Edgar Reyes, and René Treviño. We will also have BmoreArt books, print journals, and T-shirts available at 10% off at this event only! Give the gift of BmoreArt, and finish up your holiday shopping!City of Artists III is the last of the series of exhibitions that serve as a visual extension to BmoreArt’s first full-length book City of Artists, featuring 220 pages of personal reflections from leading writers alongside visual artworks from some of our city’s most celebrated visual artists.Bonnie Schupp – Memorial Exhibition | Opening ReceptionWednesday, December 18 :: 4-6pm@ Zeke’s CoffeeMaryland Art Place (MAP) in partnership with Zekes’ Coffee Shop is excited to announce a solo exhibition featuring artwork by the late Bonnie Schupp curated in her loving memory by her surviving husband, David Ettlin.Bio: BONNIE SCHUPP was raised in northeast Baltimore’s Four-by-Four neighborhood off Belair Road, and was a February 1963 graduate of old Eastern High School. She earned her undergraduate degree at Frostburg, a master’s at Johns Hopkins and her doctorate in communications design – at age 60 – from the University of Baltimore.Bonnie began taking pictures at age 7, with an aunt’s gift of a little Kodak camera. Over a span of seven decades, she never stopped – although her cameras became ever more sophisticated and expensive. She was a junior high/middle school teacher in the city from 1967 to about 1974, and in Anne Arundel County from 1988 to 2003. In between, she owned a camera store in Severna Park and for six years wrote a weekly column on photography for the Baltimore Evening Sun, Prescott (Ariz.) Courier and South Bend (Ind.) Tribune. She also managed to raise two daughters.Her awards over the years included $4,000 for second place in the Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Awards (KINSA) in 1970, and honorable mentions in contests by Women in Photography International – one of them for a photograph taken as she was giving birth to her daughter in 1980.Bonnie self-published six books, most of them combining her writing and photography. Notable among them are Dog Tag Poetry (2012, Blurb),  and 365 Gifts (2016, Amazon). A memoir, Curious Possibilities, which Bonnie completed writing three weeks before her death from pancreatic cancer in 2021, was edited and published through Amazon by her husband, retired journalist David Ettlin.Join us on Wednesday, December 18 from 4 PM to 6 PM for the opening reception and birthday celebration of Bonnie Schupp. The exhibition will run November 27 – January 30, 2025 and will be on view at Zeke’s Coffee located at 4719 Harford Rd. Please see Zeke’s website for hours of operation to view the exhibition.Read more of this week’s picks at BmoreArt.