MICA students showcase emerging art at Mount Vernon gallery exhibit

The walls at Quid Nunc Art Gallery in Mount Vernon gave Baltimore a look at what Maryland Institute College of Art students are making before graduation. GEMS ran April 16 through April 30 at 1007 North Charles Street, with an opening reception on April 16 and a closing reception on May 3, and gallery owner Nancy Blackwell said the work was strong enough that visitors might not realize the artists were still in school.

The exhibit mattered because it moved student work out of campus studios and into a neighborhood gallery that is built to showcase and sell art. Quid Nunc describes itself as a space for artists to present work through hosted and themed events, and its Wednesday through Sunday hours, noon to 5 p.m., put the show in front of regular foot traffic in Mount Vernon rather than only MICA insiders.

BmoreArt described GEMS as a group exhibition featuring HaeSuh Paik, Ling Sun and Sandman, with work centered on the figure as a site of reflection, where isolation, expression and interconnectedness meet. The show used vivid color, distortion and portraiture to find what the curation called hidden moments in everyday life, giving the exhibit a clear direction: these students are not just practicing technique, they are shaping a visual language that feels ready for a public audience.

That public platform fits into a much larger pipeline at MICA. The school’s Office of Exhibitions says students and faculty present more than 80 exhibitions across 11 campus galleries in an academic year, along with shows in partner spaces, and it supports student-conceived and student-executed exhibitions through community partnerships. GEMS showed how that structure reaches beyond campus walls and into Baltimore’s commercial art district, where a local gallery can help emerging artists move from classroom critique to professional visibility.

For Baltimore, that connection is the story. Mount Vernon has long depended on galleries, small businesses and creative spaces to keep foot traffic moving, and shows like GEMS help introduce new names before commencement season turns them into alumni. Haesuh Paik’s website identifies her as a Korean artist based in Baltimore who is completing a BFA in Painting at MICA in 2026, a reminder that the city’s next wave of artists is already here, building work that can carry from classroom to gallery wall.