"What happens in Pittsburgh stays in Pittsburgh" An honest post about our isolated visual art scene on Pittsburgh Articulate

Another Pittsburgh native and CMU grad, Cy Gavin may be on his way to art world glory.

A writer on Pittsburgh Articulate has noticed how his history here has been erased from his NYC gallery bio to make it seem they were the first ones to ever show his work.

"Why would Sargent’s Daughters make a claim that is so clearly false? Could it be an honest mistake? Unlikely. For an older, better-known artist these types of “firsts” tend to slide into obscurity, but for a young artist like Gavin with a short exhibition history, a glance at his CV should have revealed the truth.

Maybe the artist himself hoped to re-write his CV to have his debut sparkle with the light of New York City. If so, that would be dishonest and rude. But either way, writing press releases is not the artist’s job. Gallery press officers are responsible for doing the research and getting it right. 

This latest episode with Cy Gavin seems to reaffirm the sad fact that what happens in Pittsburgh, however awesome, stays in Pittsburgh. Revision Space is just too small and too far to see from New York City."

  The post also mentions the disappearance of Pittsburgh's pioneering, Outlines Gallery from the conventional narrative. 

I left a few thoughts in the comment section. Glad that some people see this isolation as a problem. 

The author hits on a huge point, so depressing, I try not to dwell on it. 

A show of Keith Haring sketchbooks from 1979 @ Barbara Gladstone Gallery made no mention of his time here- in spite of sketch titles, like drawing at The Carnegie,;drawing on Atwood St & Steel City drawing. Who knows his first solo was at the Pittsburgh Center For The Arts? His “real life” began in NYC. 

Likewise, Teenie Harris still draws blank stares among far too many outside our city.

But, what role does Pittsburgh itself play in this? If most galleries, foundations and media only support local artists why should anyone outside the city take notice or care. Artists sooner or later are left with the choice of accepting the joy of life in a bubble or leaving. 

Would the Mattress Factory be a nationally known venue if it refused to show a range of national and international artists? 

This website, of for and about art in Pittsburgh and only Pittsburgh is a good example of the problem. However awesome, its probably of little interest to anyone outside a 100 mile radius.

A further comment by me

Pittsburgh galleries, foundations and art centers help create this isolation.
How often, do local galleries show artists from Cleveland, Columbus, D.C., Baltimore or anywhere outside a very small local area? One of the main ways to gain regional and national press or collectors is to mix local and national artists. 

Almost nobody I know in NYC, has heard of The Pittsburgh Center For The Arts, because it rarely shows non local artists. FE Gallery did that and got reviews in national publications. Spaces like Bunker Projects are inviting artists from outside the city. 

Sites like ArtHopper and Belt Magazine that link stories and reviews across a wider region tend to get a broader audience..Both are centered in Cleveland. 

Someone from Revision Space pointed out that they do regularly show both local and national artists and... they will be included in a major Art Fair!

My final thought:

This goes back to talks I had with one of the early creators of this site.

I told them, what Pittsburgh needed above all, was a website that reviewed across a wider region, like the Texas art site, Glasstire. I also pointed out that an image rich site w\as critical to since many may never see these shows in person.

This site is awesome, but why would anyone outside the area be interested in a site without lots of images, that only covered Pittsburgh art?

This is not brain surgery.

Pittsburgh needs- more galleries that link local and national artists.

More art sites like Arthopper that connect art in a wider region  

More local critics and writers on Arthopper and national sites like Hyperallergic

More residency programs open to artists from outside of Pittsburgh

More juried shows and events open to artists outside the region

Projects that create collaborations between local and global artists

Programs that invite national curators into the city

Inclusion of local galleries in national and global art fairs.

More symposiums that include national and local artists.

Projects that bring national critics and art bloggers to tour the city.

Please share your thoughts on here or in the Articulate comment thread. I'm sure I just scratched the surface- In a high tech connected world, interaction is not hard to create if its really a goal.

the mobile high craft vending machines have arrived

Glad I walked to work a little early this morning. Shadyside hosts the sea of small tents this weekend. People were setting up just before 8. I walked to the end of Walnut street and back to get a peek.

Many overheard vendo-craftspeople discussed the down economy. A man screwing in table legs talking about what sales were like in Texas. A small fleet of birds carved from posts. Deep white canvas closets filled with paintings each styled closely to the next, some a bit oversaturated, some with the straight-from-the-tube pigments, each booth filled with multiples of the same painting.

Whenever someone refers to something like this as an arts festival, I throw up in my mouth a little. Strong words, I know. But. This is high craft.

Please remember: high craft objects should be celebrated for the skill and labor with which they are produced.

I do not have the will to replicate items so similar to each other as to create my "brand" and market it in this particular way. I am an artist. Meaning is sewn into the decisions used to make manifest the concepts underlying the art object.

I am so going there, I am already there. Artists trade in meaning. They make useless objects (if they make objects at all), things or not-things or experiences that serve primarily to inspire thought.

If an object fits into that label "decorative art", it is high craft. "Decorative art" has, by definition, a function other than being a repository for meaning. It is adornment for your house, jewelry for your interiors. It is like buying books to display because they make you look smart. "Decorative art high craft" makes you look tasteful.

The best art you can't buy, because it exists in the gift economy. The gift economy: the work of art provides an experience that at best cannot be priced, for it transforms (or offers the perceiver the entry point to transforming) the mind of the perceiver. This change or experience cannot be priced.

While artists do concern themselves with finances, and market issues, we do so not in the "art fair" way. The high craft painter shows fifteen paintings of poppies. They are tastefully sized, each slightly oversaturated, each with the same line quality, hung inside the hut. When a booth visitor asks the high craft painter to make one 'custom' that will fit into the window-niche on the second floor, this artisan makes the painting. The high craft painter is a craftsman.

Hey, there's a place for both of us. But would you please keep your high craft hands off my job title please? For the sake of clarity? The decorative arts are incredibly important in our culture. But to spackle the same label ~ artist ~ on the guy cutting and assembling metal into beautiful flowers ~ as Sol Lewitt, whose art exists in the ephemera of directions ~ ~ ~

Comparing automobiles and french doors. Two totally different classes of activities for two totally different areas of life. No, these activities are not in a hierarchical relationship. Why call a bottle of Champagne Pinot Noir?

If you are headed into Shadyside this weekend, forget about parking anywhere close. Also bring an umbrella. It's been raining all day.

FIMP Books Go To Scope Basel

So all you Gagosian types have pointed their private jets towards Art Basel. If you stop by the ADA Gallery booth at SCOPE Basel, you can pick up some of Marc Snyder's awesome FIMP books.

These books are approved for all buyers and might set you back $5 0r so, he is white and male but somehow looks Jewish to me. Once the blood tests are in, he's headed for Gagosian. SCOPE Basel is a non degenerate art fair.

Art Fair Orgy : Diva Containers

A lot of people seem to have found the Diva Fair a drag. I missed it, but I am grateful for the few cargo containers that I ran into. Except at the Red Dot and Fountain, where I found a number of people a bit too happy to see anyone; there was a minimal interest in interacting with the city. Diva at least played that role even if they were just trying to get blogger pawns like me to buzz about them. I saw exactly two containers so my opinion about the work has no value.

Art Fair Orgy : Scope

I didn't spend anywhere near the time that Scope deserved. The expectation from it's previous appearances was to expect an uneven, sloppy madhouse of ill thought out grad school work and stunt art. Instead it was capital P, professional all the way. Almost all the edge this fair had has been polished away or at least you had to look for it.




I didn't find this Gabe Martinez work as compelling as a lot of other people partly because it's location in front of a "cutting edge" art fair robbed it of suprise value. But, I did like it. Another blogger caught the changing of the guard of the real human beings that kept the work going through the fair.

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery had a great booth with a lot of new media work like this minimalist copmosition of shifting light by Jim Cambell made from electronic circuit boards. There were also several good Alan Rath works.



Marborough Chelsea had several great works by Chakaia Booker and an intense woven paint work by Steven Charles.



Sorry, that's about all the shots I have.

Art Fair Orgy : The Armory Show

There is no way to talk about the Armory Show without showing the line.

The good thing was that the organisers were limiting the number of people inside to a reasonable level so when I got in it was ok.

Galerie Eigen + Art did Germany proud with it's booth but my poor shots are a disgrace.



Pierogi was a standout with a fun display of their program but the booth was far to small to browse the files. The large Graham Gillmore and the Kate Gilmore video capped off a strong booth.

Robert Miller Gallery handed most of their space to Yayoi Kusama



Lehmann Maupin showed the latest progression of Tony Oursler's work



Nature Morte from New Dehli made it in

Art Fair Orgy : Pulse

To break the suspense, I am ranking Pulse as the best of the fairs I saw. But the fact is that the Armory Show was too big to fully take in. Looking at a few blogs showed me all kinds of stuff I missed. I also didn't give Scope the time it deserved.

Emily Noelle Lambert

Emily Noelle Lambert

Prisca Juschka's booth Included two very strong works by Pittsburgh's Emily Noelle Lambert.
Parkers Box from Brooklyn had a strong booth which included a big Joyce Pensato painting and this projection video work by Samuel Russeau.

Finesilver Gallery had a large and very powerfull piece by Leonardo Drew

Then I ran into a wall of Emilie Clark watercolors and new taxidermy sculpture works at Nathan Larramendy Gallery. The place was too crowded and my camera too poor to capture much.


I liked the Aurora Robson work at the Richard Levy Gallery booth.


Edward Winkleman took the risk of dedicating his whole booth Ivin Ballen.

Art Fair Orgy : Red Dot Fair

I was in NY for the Art Fairs and did the Armory Show, Pulse, Scope and the Red Dot Fair, as well as Fountain before burning out. I have not done the fairs in this way for several years.

Friday, I did the Red Dot Fair, partly because this is the type of fair that I could perhaps realistically participate in. This was the only fair that I can truly say had a lot of very bad work, but it also had a lot of great stuff. The fair included a number of private curators, independent dealers and informal galleries which made it very interesting to me. The hotel format, when done well can also lead to a lot of creative surprises.


Eyewash, A legendary, (or like it should be) independent curatorial program had one of the first rooms which held some Linda Ganjin eye candy.


A little further in was the room of Reppetti Gallery in Long Island City, which was stuffed with a lot of intense paintings like this one by Ben Pritchard.

Another treat was Pentimenti Gallery from Philly where I liked the Margaret Murphy work.

Kenise Barnes Fine Art from Larchmont had a nice booth that seemed to focus on works on paper and paintings. Flat file artist Mary judge had two large drawings there. My shot sucks.

Dillon Gallery, NY won the prize for the best use of space with it's Alexander Kaletski cardboard bed instalation.


Several other galleries like Roy Boyd- Chicago, consultant, M% from Cleveland and Rebecca Ibel from Columbus had great stuff.

Milwaukee International & Bowling

I was checking out the list of galeries in the Milwaukee International and I am pretty blown away. One great new trend that I hope survives is that non profit alternative spaces are now playing a bigger role.

First the blurb from the website about all the other stuff planned.

October 20 and 21 2006
This year, for the first time, Milwaukee will host its own contemporary art fair. Twenty-eight of the world’s finest galleries are coming to share their art. The fair is open to the public and admission is free. Galleries, non-profits and nomadic curators from around the country and world will be participating, showing contemporary art in a genuine, old-school Milwaukee beer hall. Various events around the fair will offer visitors guided bus tours of the city, a performance night, a DJ dance-a-thon, a collage party and a panel discussion. Fair visitors can expect to find an eclectic selection of art spaces side-by-side under one roof, from submerging to emerging galleries, young artist-made product stores next to established non-profits, anonymously curated work and internet-based projects.

Here are some of the participants.

Ghosts Are Everywhere San Francisco
Bas Fisher Invitational Miami
Canada New York
Gavin Brown New York
The Green Gallery Milwaukee
Hermetic Gallery Milwaukee
Little Cakes New York
Jody Monroe Gallery Milwaukee
Hotcakes Gallery Milwaukee
Morgan Lehman Gallery New York
Angstrom Gallery Dallas
Ooga Booga Las Angeles
Locust Projects Miami
Other Gallery Winnipeg
Polvo Chicago
Western Exhibitions Chicago
Mark Muller Zurich
White Columns NY

I Think I'm In The Wrong Drinking Town

Wow, check this story out from Milwaukee. They have rigged up a new art fair in a bar/old polish club. This is the first one but the list of galleries participating is not entirely a joke. Of course, Gavin Brown from NY, is in it ( he had a hipster bar attached to his space) as are a nice array of Millwaukee galleries and alternative spaces from all around. Anyone with a knowledge of the funky origins of many of the giant fairs will take notice. Milwaukee is developing a number of spaces like Hot Cakes, that are getting noticed. From a distance it seems great- organic-Brooklynish, without an extreeme amount of gentrification. The scene there has too feed off it's proximity to Chicago.