On Display July 8 – August 15, 2026 at Maryland Hall’s EARL Gallery

Closing Reception on August 15 from 5:30 – 7 PM at Maryland Hall’s EARL Gallery

View and Purchase Artwork   Participating Artists    Awards   Watch the Virtual Awards Ceremony    

Introducing Off the Wall

Art has spent centuries hanging politely on walls, waiting to be looked at. Off the Wall is done waiting. We’re calling for sculptures that plant themselves in the room. That commands space. That makes someone walk around it, step back from it, or get uncomfortably close to it. Work that couldn’t exist any other way, in any other form, in any other place. The only question now is whether your work is brave enough to stand alone.

MFA exhibitions are blind juried by professional and credentialed art experts. Entry is open to artists residing in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico. Any original free-standing 3D work that follows our exhibition guidelines will be considered. Selected works will be displayed in this MFA organized exhibition at Maryland Hall’s Earl Gallery in Annapolis, MD from July 8 – August 15, 2026. Exhibition Co-Chairs: Nichole Leavy and Amani Freeman

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Juror: Wilfredo Valladares Lara, Sculpture Professor at AACC and Curator

Wilfredo Valladares is an award-winning, internationally recognized artist, educator, and curator. He is the founder of Arte Studio 28 and Perspectivas Latinas, initiatives dedicated to promoting and fostering Latinx and Caribbean artists, traditions, and cultures. His artwork is held in collections across the U.S., Latin and Central America, South Korea, and Italy.

Valladares is a tenured Full Professor in the Visual Arts Department at Anne Arundel Community College (AACC), where he also coordinates the Sculpture Program. He is the former Visual Arts Academic Chair at AACC. He serves on the Board of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel and is the former Board Co-Chair and Visual Arts Curator of the American Poetry Museum in Washington, DC.

He holds an MFA from the University of Maryland, College Park; a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art; and a Pedagogy Degree from Normal Mixta Matilde Cordova Viuda de Suazo. His international installations include Terzo Millennio (Milan, Italy; 1997) and Near and Far (Daegu, South Korea; 2014). Notable public art commissions include Pétalos Reflejantes (Silver Spring, Maryland; 2009) and Journey: Anacostia (Washington, DC; 2013).

Through his work and leadership, Valladares continues to transcend traditional paradigms of cross-cultural art. His practice bridges boundaries and connects diverse cultures, embedding history, memory, and personal experience into each creation.

Juror’s Statement

Serving as juror for Off the Wall was both an honor and a rewarding challenge. The exhibition attracted 65 strong submissions, each offering a unique exploration of material, form, and concept. The quality and diversity of the work made the selection process difficult, and I congratulate all the artists who submitted. Your creativity, craftsmanship, and commitment to three-dimensional practice made this an inspiring experience.

The final exhibition brings together a dynamic range of works, including ceramics, sculpture, video, portraiture, assemblage, woodworking, mixed media, found objects, and constructivist-inspired approaches. My vision was to create a conversation among these varied practices, highlighting both their differences and their shared concerns.

Off the Wall celebrates sculpture’s ability to transform our perception of space. The selected works explore the intersection of traditional sculptural methods and experimental three-dimensional compositions, demonstrating how contemporary artists continue to expand the possibilities of the medium. Through diverse materials and approaches, the exhibition invites viewers to consider relationships between structure and expression, object and environment, process and meaning.

Together, these works reflect the vitality of contemporary sculpture and the many ways artists engage the three-dimensional plane to challenge, inspire, and connect us to new ways of seeing.

-Wilfredo Valladares

Awards

Best in Show

• Gazelle by Lesa Cook

Juror’s Choice

• Jasper Johns and What’s In a Flashlight by Gene Provenzo
• healthcare #3 reliquary by Rowan McClanahan
• de Chirico with Billboards by Warren Chambers

Honorable Mentions

• When Will It All End! by Andrew Wohl
• Victorian Tea Party by Lisa Scarbath
• Ancestor by Betty Gerich

Awards designated by the juror total $1,000.