Pittsburgh Weekend Art Events: 10/15-16/10.

c. David Grim (taken 9/25/10)

Friday

Lawrenceville has made attempts at an art crawl in the past. Years ago, when Digging Pitt was still open, a few of the neighborhood galleries made a half-hearted attempt to coordinate their efforts on Thursday nights, once a month. Unfortunately proper organization was always lacking. After that the businesses west of the 40th Street bridge got their act together, and sponsored what ended up being a fairly successful series of "Final Fridays". Even the retail stores stayed open late, and people began attending these events regularly. Eventually this too fizzled out, but I am at a loss as to why. Now another opportunity for "after-business-hours" fun along Butler is at hand.

Gallerycycle involves nine venues and starts at 6PM. It's part of what Bike PGH is promoting as a "Car-free Fridays" initiative. It looks like Fe Gallery (4102 Butler), with its "Out-of-Whack" multi-artist opening reception, and Wildcard's (4209 Butler) first anniversary group show, "Strangely Familiar: Uncanny Works on Paper" are the highlights of the evening. The latter features work by such local stalwarts as Mary Tremonte, Mike Budai, and Thommy Conroy, as well as relative newcomers like Heidi Tucker and Mario Zucca. That should be massively entertaining, folks!

Check out the schedule HERE.


If instead, you are willing to weather the hassles of the South Side on a weekend night- you must check out "Wicked Bitches" (7-10:30 PM), a group show of female artists at the Elixir Lounge (1500 Carson Street) that benefits the Animal Rescue League of Western PA. Pay your $5 and see the work of Pittsburgh luminaries like Lissa Brennan and Jenn Wertz.


Saturday

Come down to Guardian Storage (2839 Liberty Avenue, 6th floor) in the Strip District for PIX, Pittsburgh's FIRST independent comics expo. The expo runs from 10-5PM on both Saturday and Sunday. This amazing production is presented by the Toonseum, and sponsored by Copacetic Comics Co., The Sprout Fund and The National Cartoonists Society Foundation. There will be tons of local and regional exhibitors and a few heavy hitters like Kevin Huizenga, Ed Piskor, Jim Rugg, AND Frankie Santoro. Good stuff.