JOHN WATERS

The Worst of Waters

WORKS NEVER BEFORE EXHIBITED IN BALTIMORE. THE RUDEST, THE HARDEST TO SELL, THE JUST PLAIN WRONG.

MARCH 10 - APRIL 16, 2022

OPENING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, MARCH 10TH, 6PM - 8PM

BALTIMORE, MD - C. Grimaldis Gallery is pleased to present The Worst of Waters: Works Never Before Exhibited in Baltimore. The Rudest, The Hardest to Sell, The Just Plain Wrong. Featuring twenty-six artworks spanning decades of the artist’s career, The Worst of Waters is an alarming and insightful voyage into the mind of one of Baltimore’s most creative legends.

Through processes of reconstructing film strips and appropriating everyday objects, Waters intentionally directs instances that shift the gaze to raw depictions of queer identity, racial inequality, and class dysphoria. His work examines the distance between fine art, entertainment, and the human experience. Recurring themes of humor and tragedy serve to disrupt our presumptions, becoming self-reflective agents of cock-eyed truths. The bizarre, the absurd, and the poorest of tastes act as entry points to fully unpacking Waters’ perspective.

John Waters empowers the often unseen and overlooked. This exhibition highlights the “worst” as an exclamation point ... a moment to feel untethered, to bare our teeth, and to howl with glee. Cult filmmaker, artist, actor, and writer John Waters lives and works in Baltimore, MD. He has directed numerous unforgettable film projects including Pink Flamingos (1972), Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), and A Dirty Shame (2004). In 2014 the Film Society of Lincoln Center honored Waters with a Film Retrospective, Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take? John Waters’ work in photography and sculpture has been shown in galleries all over the world including the Swiss Institute (New York, NY), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, NY), the Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh, PA), the Baltimore Museum of Art (Baltimore, MD), Laumeier Sculpture Park (St. Louis, MO), the Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH), and the Orange County Museum of Art (Newport Beach, CA).

John Waters is the author of ten books including Shock Value (1981), Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1986), Art: A Sex Book (2003, co-written with Bruce Hainley), Role Models (2010), Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America (2014), Make Trouble (2017), and Mr. Know-It-All, The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder (2019). His first novel, Liarmouth: A Feel Bad Romance will be published in May 2022.