Pittsburgh Art Events: 11/ 6-7/09.

Friday

For some reason, I've been particularly anticipating this month's Unblurred. The last couple of weekends have been dead on the local arts scene, and I'm looking forward to what the various venues will be putting out.

I'm most excited to find out that artist, curator, educator, and former gallery-owner Bob Ziller is opening up a book store! It's located at the old Red Star Ironworks garage at 4810 Penn Ave. Ziller says that he is starting with an inventory of 3400 books, and that everything will be priced at 50% listed price. He's also doing another installment of his Pittsburgh Beautification Project, so stop in and find out what that is all about.

Meanwhile, "Pigeon Pair" is at Modern Formations (4919 Penn Avenue), serving up the work of Christian Breitkreutz & Jason Rosemeyer. I've been keeping an eye on C.B., and I'm eager to track his development.

The building housing the misleadingly-named International Children's Art Gallery (5020) is opening all three of its floors. The second will feature recent stuff by James Maszle, and Richard Rappaport will be up-top.

There will also be music by Brass Chariot, Duane Jones Duo and Al Zavacky at the new Irma Freeman Center for Imagination (5006 Penn), a group show at Garfield Artworks (with Maggie Black from WV), Cory Bonnet & Ryan Dunmeyer at Most Wanted Fine Art (5015 Penn Ave), and creations on glass by Joseph Holtz at Imagebox.

Shadyside offers its monthly dose of openings as well. Gallerie Chiz (5831 Ellsworth Avenue) has a group show called "A Convivial Collection...New Creations" that includes work by Philippe Paulin Derville, Ben Oddi, Joyce Werwie Perry, Carlos Sanchez-Vegas & Randie Snow. It runs from 6-9PM. Patrick Ruane is over at Gallery in the Square (5850 Ellsworth Avenue), and the Mendelson Gallery has Bob and Paul Bowden (6-9PM).


Saturday

Zombo Gallery (4900 Hatfield St.) returns with another one of its idiosyncratic weekend shows. You get the opening on Friday, and if you miss that... the closing on Saturday (6-10 PM, both nights). This time around, it's "Lickity-Split!" with Craig Freeman , supplemented by sculptures by Seth LeDonne. Don't miss the madness of this space.

If you never made your way over to Moxie Dada at the Firehouse in the North Side (1416 Arch Street), this absolutely and without reservation will be your very last chance. The closing for "Dia De Los Muertos Y La Resurreccion: The Existencial Crisis" runs from 6-9PM. If you have been a regular habitue of the space, then I'm sure you'll recognize a lot of the creators represented. While it's sad to see such a stalwart of the local scene pass on, it will be exciting to see what the people behind Moxie Dada do next. Its proprietors have ensured me that they are not giving up, but just moving on to other projects.

Oh, and by the way... the Three Rivers Film Festival opens this weekend, and you can find a list of the events here.