Paid Sick Days @ Panza Gallery

Paul LeRoy, variously known as Lucky and King of Art, will be opening at Panza Gallery on Saturday.

His quilts, which will appear in abundance for this exhibit, use needle sharp wit along with pop aesthetics and a few patches of irony. This show promises to have a little something for everyone, installation, quilts, drawings, humor and pathos.



PANZA GALLERY
Millvale, 412-821-0959.
Opening Saturday May 10
"Paid Sick Days (the healing process),"
by Mister LeRoy, through May 31. Closed Sun.-Tues.

Scott Alan Fertig

Scott Alan Fertig
April 24, 1967 – May 2, 2008

Many of the residents of Pittsburgh are familiar with Scott Fertig's Chevy mural, located on Penn Avenue in the Strip District. Scott Alan Fertig, 41, an artist best known for his commissioned work as a caricaturist, muralist and illustrator, died peacefully at home on Friday, May 2, 2008 in Arlington, VA surrounded by his wife and family.
Scott was born in Pittsburgh, PA on April 24, 1967

The Washington Post has a lovely article about Scott Fertig that you can read here.

A memorial service will be held at All Saints' Church at 3577 McClure Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA on Saturday, May 10 at 2PM. A wake will follow. Scott wished to thank everyone who gave him their love and support during his battle with cancer.
Donations can be sent in his name to the American Cancer Society or your local community
children’s arts program.

To Scott Fertig's family and friends, I would like to extend my deepest sympathies for your loss. Scott's mural on Penn Avenue and 16th Street is a long-time favorite of mine. I appreciate what his life, love and art brought to my world on an almost daily basis.

Se(x)nsuality

Last Friday was Unblurred on Penn Avenue. It was a lovely night to be out and about the city, with mild weather and a beautiful sky. A lot was happening around the city. Life on Mars opened. Which explains why there weren't a lot of people out and about on Penn Avenue. I opted for Penn because, generally, the only time you can get in to see some of the exhibits is on first Fridays. The downtown galleries have regular hours and Life on Mars will be open through January.

Maybe if there was enough interest, these venues could consider extending their hours. It's always a mixed bag, with a wide range of disciplines and aesthetics You are likely to run into NOISE and poetry readings as you are examples of the plastic arts.

Some of the spaces, like the International Childrens Art Gallery, are difficult to pindown. ICAG is a recently opened venue; I have seen a couple of exhibits there. Neither were of work by children. Go figure.

At any rate, Lauren Toohey was exhibiting work at ICAG this past Friday. The works were blatantly ribald and fun.


The above mural was painted on-site by Lauren expressly for this exhibit. Pretty large undertaking for this exhibit.


There were several paintings like the one above, kind of a modern take on the traditional woman-at-toilet paintings. What I found interesting about these was that Tooey is using contemporary content in this context. Also, and this doesn't come through well in the images, the color in these was amazing.

Actually the night for me was all about color and sensuality. Down the block at Metamorphose, another young artist, Joana Ricou, was exhibiting these gloriously erotic paintings --




If you get a chance, please drop by her site and check out the drawing portfolio. Very nice stuff there. I liked the paintings that I saw on Friday, and the drawings are really fresh.

"Pittsburgh Small Presses" opens Friday, May 2nd

The May exhibition at the "Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery" is "Pittsburgh Small Presses". About a dozen of Pittsburgh's small presses will be represented, with plenty of interesting work available for purchase. The show opens this Friday, May 2nd, with a reading from 6 - 8 pm, and the reception continuing to 10 pm with live music. It should be a lot of fun.

The Most Wanted Fine Art Gallery is located at 5015 Penn Avenue in Garfield.

It's a small, small world

Well, it wasn't the only thing I came away with while doing the research on CI08. But it certainly did strike me as significant. I didn't tally all of the artists in CI08 whose work appeared at the Tate within the last several years but it certainly seemed that a significant number of the artists had. Small world, isn't it?

A high percentage of the artists included in CI08 work in multiple disciplines. Not all of them, but such a significant portion that I have to take note of it. It belies the conventional wisdom that says that the way to solidify your career as an artist is to focus on one medium, don't you think?

I found, by far, that I appreciated the work of the seasoned artists. Most exhibited a sense of growth in their discipline as well as in their themes and dialogs. But perhaps, since I am a seasoned artist, I find more personal empathy with the continual learning that manifests itself in a varied body of work. Since CI08 is a group show, I don't expect the curator to exhibit a retrospective of each artist. Too bad.

Modern Art Notes interviewed the curator, Doug Fogle, over two posts. This is probably the clearest explanation about the Life on Mars theme that I have seen to date --

I think the best contemporary art takes us to other worlds. It's not a show about extra terrestrials, it's a metaphor. When I discuss the idea around Pittsburgh I have to be extra-clear because the Carnegie has a science center. I always say that the theme was just an interesting way of hooking on to some ideas that could form a bit of structure for the exhibit.

The banner for CI08's blog reads "Are we alone in the universe? Do aliens exist? Or are we, ourselves,the strangers in our own worlds?" Well, okay. So the artists represent alien thought processes, taking us to uncharted territory, to other worlds. But all of the artists in the exhibit are pedigreed and vetted. In keeping with the theme of other worlds within our own, it would have been refreshing to include the work of some artist working outside of this system. It would certainly remove the dialog of self-reference that has become so prevalent in the art sphere.

Interestingly, the CI08 has adopted a lot of social networking components to extend CI08 beyond the region. The blog, of course, has been noted. CI08 has also mounted a Flikr site, with in progress, installation images. (Thanks, MAN. I didn't realize this was up until I read your posts) It is taking a chance, giving CI08 visitors an immediate and intimate way of discussing the exhibit with the curator and staff at the Carnegie Museum. So, make time in your schedule to see the exhibit.

The 55th Carnegie International
Life on Mars
5.3.08 - 1.11.09
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080
Tel: 412.622.3131

The Carnegie International - Richard Wright + Haegue Yang

The Carnegie International opens in just one week. The Post Gazette and the Tribune Review have both published several articles in anticipation of the exhibit. This link is to Google's news service.



Richard Wright

This is pretty much it, people. It's lovely, isn't it? There are actually several artists, writers and musicians sharing this name. An awful lot of search pages to go through.



Haegue Yang

Yang creates mostly installation art. Decidedly delicate installation art that incorporates light and smell. There is an interview on the Walker Arts blog that is pretty well steeped in artspeak. Great images, though.

It's a wrap. These were the last two artists on the list for the Carnegie International. Next up, what has Susan learned from all of this?

The Carnegie International - Rosemarie Trockel + Apichatpong Weerasethakul + Andro Wekua

Rosemarie Trockel Rugs and related works

I love the fact that so many of the artists in CI08 have a varied body of work. Trockel, however, is the first one that includes fiber works in her range. Trockel is exploring feminist and feminine themes in her work. There's a great article in Time Out Chicago that you should read.



Apichatpong Weerasethakul Blissfully Yours

Filmmaker.

I like to watch what's happening. For instance, I really like watching people pass by and stuff like that and that's why I really like Andy Warhol's films. It's more like watching, kind of observing what's going on, and the audience makes up the narrative themselves. It's more like that. I didn't plan to make a theory or anything except for my interest in observing life... Read the interview

Andro Wekua

Nice post about Wekua --

Andro Wekua’s sculptural figure is like a hybrid mélange between a professional magician that practices the traditional skills of magic and his model, a ritual engagement for him/her self . Read the post

The above image really pulled me in. You want to see some pretty magnificent works, go check out the Flash Art article.

There will be one more post in this series of previews about the Carnegie International. I was getting concerned about having this complete in time for the exhibit, which opens in one week.