SOMETHING
WICKED

To kick off the Spring season, Transformer, in collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library, is thrilled to present Something Wicked, an exhibition by Baltimore, MD based artist Alexander D’Agostino aka Glitterwitch.

Something Wicked is a continuation of D’Agostino evolving body of work The Fairy King's Grimoire - a multidisciplinary project originating from an artistic research fellowship D’Agostino had with the Folger Shakespeare Library centered on Folger Shakespeare Library Manuscript V.b26, a 16th century book of magic. The work created through his fellowship considers the role of Oberion, the king of the fairies, as a queer archetype of magic and liberation. Evolving across years of research and practice, D’Agostino’s mixed-media artwork moves between historical scholarship and living ritual — an archive that refuses to stay still.

Something Wicked transforms the space into a chamber of magic and memory, echoing the Transformer spaces own history as a former spiritual healing shop called the Prosperity Shop, and offering a glimpse into a way of seeing magic as a tool for individual and collective justice in dark and troubled times.

"Since his first fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2022, Alexander D’Agostino’s expansive practice—at the intersection of research and creative work—has yielded engaging public programs, mentorship through our Alumni Network, and sustained study of the Folger’s collection. We are proud to collaborate with Transformer DC to advance the newest phase of D’Agostino’s research-based practice, Something Wicked." — Leah Thomas, Public Humanities Program Manager and Manager for the Artistic Research Fellowships program for the Folger Institute, curator Contemporary Art at the Folger

“Following several years of working with Alexander D’Agostino – most significantly through Transformer’s Siren Arts summer residency program in 2022 - I am thrilled to be further advancing this exciting artist’s creative trajectory with the Something Wicked exhibition and special programming, developed & presented via a new collaboration with the Folger Shakespeare Library.” – Victoria Reis, Founder: Executive & Artistic Director, Transformer

Drawing on the history of magic, queerness, and the abject, with Something Wicked D’Agostino considers the witch not as fetish or fantasy, but as a figure of deep ecological, political, and bodily knowledge. To be a witch is to be in relationship — with nature, with history, and with the parts of ourselves that the empire would prefer we forget.

“The cackling murder of crows has always shat on our nice things. The grimoire is still being written.” – Glitterwitch

ABOUT THE ARTIST/

Alexander D'Agostino is an interdisciplinary artist based in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2009 with a BFA in painting. He investigates the queer and otherworldly through visual and performance art. His work has been presented at Vox Populi in Philadelphia, VisArts in Rockville, the Center for Contemporary Art of Afghanistan In Kabul, Chashama's summer performance series in Manhattan, Itinerant Performance Art Festival at the Queens Museum, the Walters Art Museum, Transformer DC, the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, Siren Arts Summer Performance Series,Target Gallery in Alexandria Virgina, the Bromo Artist Tower in Baltimore, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. His work artwork has been published in multiple volumes including Art of the Grimoire, by Owen Davies, Portraits by Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC, Emergency Index: an annual document of performance practice in pandemic times by Ugly Duckling Press, Transformer20 by Transformer DC, Bmore Art, and online as guest writer for the Folger Institute’s research blog Collation. D’Agostino is an Artistic Research Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library and a recipient of the 2025–2026 Ruby Artist Award in Baltimore.