Holiday art specials, happening this weekend!

Happy Hour Holiday at BoxHeart

The holiday show at BoxHeart this year features great gifts, sure. But it also features work from all of artists that are represented by BoxHeart. This show is a great way to get acquainted with these artists.

There are two opportunities to do just that this weekend. Tonight is a special holiday happy hour, when you can peruse the exhibit with other art lovers. Tomorrow, BoxHeart and the other shops in Bloomfield will be offering special holiday deals.

Holiday Happy Hour!
Friday, December 13th
6 - 8pm

Bloomfield Shop Walk
Saturday, December 14th
12 - 5pm

Superfriends!

If you're over on the Southside, Superfriends might be a really nice stop. It's a last-minute, pop-up type of event with several local artists.

Superfirends
December 14, 2-6pm
CWP warehouse
2315 wharton st.
pittsburgh pa 15203

XMittens and Ludmila's Emporium

Love love love XMittens! Amber Coppings is now working out of a studio in Larryville. Over the next two weekends she will be having special open studio/pop-up store events. If you're in the neighborhood, check this out and then visit Salud on Butler St for delicious Cuban fare.

XMittens and Ludmila's Emporium
Xmittens DIY Gift Set Weekend
December 14, 12-5 and December 15, 1-5
December 21-22, 12pm-5pm
Solstice Sale
5252 Butler St, 2nd floor
Pittsburgh PA 10201

Of course this isn't a complete list of all of the really cool holiday art events popping up all over Pittsburgh. If you want to share something that you are doing, you can email me the information at susanconstanse at gmail.com, or leave your information in the comments form. Wishing all of you a lustrous season!

Box Heart Gallery's Art Inter/National

Kuzana Ogg Tulsi

In an exhibit of exceptional works, there are always a few that really stand out. Frankly, this is more a matter of personal preference than it is an objective opinion. Since I am a painter myself, I am drawn towards this media.

The Art Inter/National at Box Heart has several very good painters represented on the gallery walls. I was particularly struck by Kuzana Ogg's work (pictured above) and I am thrilled that she was selected for a focus exhibit in February for Box Heart's Artist of the Year. Both of the paintings have a beautiful surface appeal, with glazes of color superimposed over a base of uniform marks. The final work seems highly polished, with a subtle gleam. The works seem to play on the themes of uniformity and randomness, reconciling their duality by exploring their complex relationship. I very much look forward to seeing the presentation of her exhibit in February.

Mehrdad Khataei
Lost at the Pigsty no. 3

Heather Kanazawa
Reflect

The exhibit is nicely balanced between nonobjective abstractions and representational works. For instance, Mehrdad Khataei (above, left) has two drawings that are at the other end of the spectrum from Ms. Ogg's work. The works are bold, expressive, and have an incredible energy. I have a love of confident marks, I think that's why I find this work so very engaging.

As I have said, I am drawn to painting. I found Heather Kanazawa's work (above, right) rather interesting, for its color as well as its hand. The contrast of value plays very well against the orchestration of muted color that dominates the small work. There's a lot of information packed into such a small work. But the marks are completely in proportion to the scale of the work.

These are just a few highlights from an exceptional show that includes ceramics, video, drawing, painting and encaustic works. The selections come from around the globe, and around the US. Make a point to get there over the next week, before the show comes down. I am sure you'll find something to love as much as I did.

The 12th Annual Art Inter/National Exhibition... here and abroad
Box Heart Gallery
January 8 - February 2, 2013
View artwork

Urbane - Paintings by Box Heart's 2013 Artist of the Year
KUZANA OGG
February 5 - March 2, 2013
Public Reception: Saturday, February 9th: 5-8pm

Minimally Charged | Drawings and Paintings by Jackie Hoysted

Jackie Hoysted at Box Heart Gallery

I stopped in BoxHeart Gallery last week to see their recent exhibit Minimally Charged: Drawings and Paintings by Jackie Hoysted. It is a striking show of contemporary portraiture. The works are invariably of figures on fields of solid color, and the majority are works on paper.

An intense portrait, Lucretia (pictured below), is hung prominently in the front of the gallery. It is one of the larger paintings in the exhibit. The background is a rich red, with the figure and the ground interplay throughout. The work is stark, combining gestural line, brushstroke and a flat expanse of ground. Minimally charged, indeed. Although it is somewhat a misnomer since in fact there is a considerable amount of intensity within this portrait as well as the others.

Definitely not a restful exhibit, the works have a frenetic quality in the figure that is discordant. The simplicity of the grounds really showcase this in a way that a traditional drawing on white paper does not, increasing the tension in the works.

Jackie Hoysted

From Box Heart's site:

Artist Jackie Hoysted has a fascination with the form and how to best represent it. She is drawn to the restful starkness and simplicity offered by minimalism, but she finds more self-truth and identity in expressionism. Her artwork aims to marry these two styles by severely limiting the palette, by confining mark-making only to essential form, and by using a high key and garnish palette to suggest mood and contemplation. Read more

The exhibit continues through next week, including the holiday weekend. If you have a chance to stop by between your family celebrations, it is well worth the trip.


October 30 - November 24, 2012
Minimally Charged
Drawings and Paintings by Jackie Hoysted
Box Heart Gallery

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SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY: Saturday, November 24, 2012
As an aside, Box Heart Gallery is participating in Small Business Saturday, offering a $25. on custom framing projects. And there is plenty to choose from in the gallery that you can have framed for your special gifting needs.

Charles Caldemeyer: Structures

Box Heart is hosting a brunch event this Sunday for artist Charles Caldemeyer. It might be worth your while to take an opportunity to drop by and discuss this work with the artist. From Box Heart's site:

Caldemeyer's exhibition, "Structures," has grown out of his interest in the power of imagery to state a personal inner reality in public terms, and to summarize different levels of experience with a pictorial symbolic language. Each painting is arranged in four horizontal panels oriented in opposite directions around a central axis to suggest different levels of cognition and a sense of history and/or archaeology. The inhabitants of the "structures" are quotations from history and art history, as well as Caldemeyer's own invented figures. Read more

I hate to just leave it at this; the exhibit deserves greater scrutiny than what I am offering here. I am interested in seeing this show, and will be making my way to the gallery sometime over the next couple days. The work is highly detailed, and beautifully produced. I am most interested in the blend of materials since it sounds like a challenging mix.

Brunch @ Box Heart
with Artist Charles Caldemeyer
Sunday, April 15th: 1-3pm
Free and open to the public.

Charles Caldemeyer: Structures

April 3-28, 2012

Box Heart

4523 Liberty Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15224

412.687.8858

Gallery Hours:

Tuesdays: 11am - 6pm

Wednesdays - Saturdays: 10am - 6pm

Sundays: 1-5pm

From the Second Story

Gary Duehr

Mr. Duehr makes it easy for the viewer to slip into narrative with this collection. That could be anybody, walking down the street on their way, coming back, or out for a stroll. The variety of narrative is in the gestural attitude; pensive, purposeful, hesitant, cowed. Because the viewpoint is from above, there is a sense of remote observation, and the narrative idles in a fleeting moment.

These are beautiful works. Subtle textures play in the grounds, and the central figures are blurred, creating a sense of collective experience. The color aesthetic is consistent, with saturated pigments played against pale grounds. In most of the collection, the figure is isolated in the field and contexts for space have very few indicators.

Preview the show on Box Heart's slideshow.

From the Second Story
Recent Works by Gary Duehr
October 4, - October 29, 2011
Box Heart
Gallery Hours:
Tuesdays: 11 AM - 6 PM
Wednesdays - Saturday: 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday: 1 PM - 5 PM
4523 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224

Box Heart: 11th Anniversary

Sonja Sweterlitsch

Box Heart has mounted its annual Anniversary Exhibit, showcasing new works by gallery artists. The show is carefully curated, with an eye for contemporary expressions and fine work.

Box Heart represents a very diverse group of artists, whose practices span formal painting through visionary assemblage. Sonja Sweterlitsch (see above) demonstrates fine control in her portraits; the gallery has severl samples of her work. Tate Hudson's work (see below) was particularly compelling. The surface is rich in layered texture, images and mark shifting across the long format.


Tate Hudson

There are some beautiful and compelling works on display. Box Heart, luckily, documents their exhibits very well and has mounted a slideshow that gives a great tour of the gallery. If you would like to see more of the artists represented by the gallery, check the slideshow for Au Courant. The catalog is available on line. Congratulations to Box Heart on bringing eleven years of their extraordinary vision to the Pittsburgh community.

Although the list doesn't include every artists that is represented by Box Heart, the list is extensive and impressive --

- Kuzana Ogg - Thomas Bigatel - Keith Garubba - David Nelson - Tate Hudson - Gail Beem - Crista Pisano - Robert Bishop - Mark Loebach - Nadim Sabella - Christine Wuenschel - Jackie Hoysted - Shawn Watrous - Lyn Ferlo - Sonja Sweterlitsch - V. Mann - Toby Kreidler - Jason Shorr - Joshua Hogan - Isabelle Garbani - Victoria Goro Rapoport - Kyle Ethan Fischer- Chung Fanky Chak - Sherry Rusinack - Adam Kenney - Seth Clark - George Kollar - Tony Cacalano - Alex Lobus - Sherry Rusinack

May 24 - June 18, 2011
11th Anniversary Exhibition
Group Exhibition and Celebration!
Box Heart Gallery
4523 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Gallery Hours:
Tuesdays: 11 AM - 6 PM
Wednesdays - Saturday: 10 AM - 6 PM
Sunday: 1 PM - 5 PM

Deanna Mance @Box Heart

Deanna Mance brings discipline to her works on paper, creating intricate, large-scale abstract 'scapes. More than anything, the works are reminiscent of maps, cataloging more than streets and implying the sense of activity that one finds in a busy city. In her recent show at Box Heart, The Dead Engineer, Mance exhibits works that span the last seven years. This body of work reflects a dedication to her medium, remaining a consistent presentation. From Box Heart's release:

As Mance looked back over those seven years, she acknowledged the transformation her artwork made in things such as; scale, material, design, color, and overall composition. Although one can certainly acknowledge those differences, the works do share a common thread. They all strive to mimic the lay-outs of improbable objects or the mistranslation of an undiscovered language. Perhaps the location of a secret hiding place or intelligence gathered from deep within the mind. Not a real engineer, Mance perceives her art as blueprints of objects that could never manifest within known physical reality.

It is a dichotomy, to say that a work can be precise as well as intuitive, but the works have that kind of feel to them. Like a jam session, where the musician knows his instrument and its range so well that he can impart incredible impact to his riffs, only Mance is doing it on paper.

The Dead Engineer is on exhibit through March 26 at Box Heart.

March 1 - March 26, 2011
The Dead Engineer:a collection of works by Deanna Mance
Box Heart
4523 Liberty Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
P. 412.687.8858
F. 412.687.6338
Gallery Hours:
Tuesdays: 11am - 6pm
Wednesdays - Saturdays: 10am - 6pm
Sundays: 1pm - 5pm

Final Sale at Vacca's Drycleaners and Tailoring This Weekend

As so well described by Merge in the post below, lots going on in the Burgh this weekend.
Need some interesting clothing to go to all your events? Check out this sale:

Vacca's Drycleaners and Tailoring has been in business (at the current location) for 50 years. Sadly (for me, not for him) Mr Vacca retired several months ago (at age 80). He created a wonderful environment (definitely could have been a set for the show Madmen)in which he did the highest quality work possible, and he was an integral part of the community.
More on Mr. Vacca later , as I have a blog entry I am working on. I will be putting that up later this weekend.
Since his retirement, they have been having having very periodic sales at the store. I had wanted to post about these earlier, but I never knew when they were going to occur.
The final one will be this weekend. Fri- Sunday 10 am to
4pm in conjunction with the Little Italy Days in Bloomfield,
4623 Liberty Ave, bright blue facade.This was NOT a place where they got rid of the drycleaning/tailoring if no one picked it up after 30 days. Actually, there was such an overwhelming amount of clothing for sale that I only really started to look at it last weekend, once it had thinned down a bit. There is a lot of stuff there. I bought some great jeans and a vintage boys white cotton shirt that I love....and a boys black formal jacket. Among other things.
The prices are very low. There are also some other random items left in the store, including buttons, bows, ties, that kind of thing, and maybe they will put more out. There are some amazing vintage wedding dresses.
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50 Years Worth of Unclaimed Dry Cleaning Plus

Mr. Vacca, an Italian Tailor, dry cleaner, and a gentleman of the old school, is retiring. He is 80 years old, and at this location in Bloomfield (4623 Liberty Ave) for 50 years. He and his family are in the process of selling off miscellaneous items in the store , as well as unclaimed dry cleaning. There is a LOT of unclaimed dry cleaning. The prices are great.

I love this place. Mr. Vacca is a master at his craft. His cleaning was actually done on site.I would bring in some particularly dreadfully stained clothing, and he would peer at it with the eye of an expert and conclude "I think it will be all right" And he was true to his word.
The fact that the whole store is frozen in a Madmen era time warp is really charming.

I did a brief interview with him that I will post on the blog soon, but for now, I just want to get out word about his tag sale.


Going Out of Business Sale
Vacca's Tailoring and Dry Cleaning
4623 Liberty Ave
Bloomfield near Pearl St.
Pgh. Pa.
Saturday, June 19th 10 a.m. til at least 2 p.m.
may also be open next week