Contemporary Figurative Drawing at Spinning Plate

The exhibit of figurative drawing at Spinning Plate is pretty intense. The artists are well matched, in theme and in medium. The works are consistently produced in dense blacks on white surfaces. Just by dint of the media, the works are imbued with intense impact.

Richard Clraraval

When I stopped in to see the exhibit, I was really taken with these small drawings of Richard Claraval's. These drawings represent his planning process for an upcoming exhibit.

Tim Fabian

I would have liked to get a better image of the above drawing by Tim Fabian. I've been following his posts of his figure drawing for awhile, and it has been interesting watching the permutations of his figurative drawings evolve. I've seen them included in other exhibits, but this is the first time I've seen several assembled in the same place. They have a dynamic action, and a freely expressed gesture, that is open to interpretation.

Marc Snyder

Marc Snyder's drawings for this exhibit are strong, and violent. Decapitated torsos are threatened by elaborate shadows; limbs and skin have been separated from the body. In all, a disquieting presentation that will take some time to read.

Stephen Tuomala

I've seen several of Stephen Tuomala's drawings in previous exhibits. But I loved the way that they are suspended in front of the windows that wall the gallery. The book pages looked like they were on fire, even on the cloudy day that I visited. It brought an entirely different dimension to the large scale drawings. Especially with the pentimenti of the construction casting shadows through the work.

There's a special music and dance performance on Saturday, July 26. It would be the perfect time to catch some good music and cool art. details

Contemporary Figurative Drawing
Spinning Plate Gallery
5821 Baum Blvd, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15206
Tues, Wed, Thurs, 7 to 10 PM. Fri and Sat 4 to 7 PM.

Chris McGinnis at 709

Chris McGinnis The Productive Machine #13

A really stand-out exhibit at the last downtown Gallery Crawl in July was at 709, where Chris McGinnis is showing The Productive Machine.

The presented works are a combination of drawings and paintings, with the subject of manual labor and urban environment. The works themselves seem to herald a romanticized vision of skilled labor, reminiscent of the Social Realism movement. There are some subtle observations about the nearly-defunct manufacturing dichotomy. The works record the current state of Rust Belt environs, showing the abandonment of manufacturing. Social Realism aimed to expose the plight of the underclass; these works continue to record those disparities.

Chris McGinnis
Staccato Rhythm II (After Gilbreath)

Interesting in this show is the exhibit of studies alongside their painted counterparts. And in an exhibit of interesting works I thought The Productive Machine #13 (above) particularly interesting. The study that paired with the piece, Staccato Rhythm II (After Gilbreath) (pictured left), is inset into the corner. The discord was intense, since the inset was an entirely different handling of pigment. The color keeps the superimposed images justified, but the deliberate obliteration of detail in the figure as well as the glowing diagram lines push an aslant dimension into the plane.

I like this pairing too -

Chris McGinnis The Productive Machine #12

Chris McGinnis The Productive Machine #12 (Study)

 The drawing is held very true to form in both of these pairings,as well as with the pairings in the rest of the exhibit. Color gives the work an added dimension, while remaining true to composition and values. Because I am an artist myself, I would love to see the previous steps that led up to the drawing as well as any intervening studies between these very fine drawings and their pigmented counterparts.

Nothing like procrastination; I have been meaning to write about this exhibit for a couple weeks. Unfortunately for you, Dear Reader, there is only this weekend to see it. The Productive Machine closes on Sunday, September 1. Yes, 709 Gallery does have Sunday hours. So, what are you doing this weekend?

Chris McGinnis
The Productive Machine
709 Penn Gallery
July 12-September 1, 2013

George Nama: Fleeting Images: A Survey @ Shepherd W&K Galleries in NY

I know, this is a Pittsburgh art blog mostly but as usual on my last NY trip I came across several shows of local artists or people with strong ties to the city.

George Nama was my favorite teacher at Pratt Institute; I knew he was from Pittsburgh and attended Carnegie Tech. As great as he was as a teacher, the truth is he rarely showed us much of his own personal work, preferring that we find our own paths.

I had to pop in when I saw his name on an uptown, NY gallery not far from The Met. The show turned out to be a mini retrospective tilted towards very early works from his Homestead youth in the 1950's. Even the smallest and earliest works shown seen to have a quiet poetic power and often strangeness. He is very sensitive to nuance, texture and line.

Check out the catalog and if you are in NYC, check out the show which includes several large drawings and watercolors picturing Homestead in the late 1950's.

George Nama: Fleeting Images: A Survey
June 4th
through July 26th, 2013

Shepherd  W & K  Galleries
58 East 79th Street
New York, New York 10075 USA
Tel: (212) 861-4050

Tuesday through Saturday 10 am until 6 pm or by appointment.

Stephen Tuomala: A Permanent Gesture

Stephen Tuomala

Stephen Tuomala is showing a recent series of drawings at Fe Gallery in Lawrenceville. A permanent Gesture is a striking exhibit. The space lends itself to the large-scale work, providing enough room for the works to breathe and to be able to take the work in completely.

The works, regardless of scale, are created on bible pages. For the larger works, this means attaching the individual pages into expansive, wall-sized sheets. The smaller works are made from single interleaves and pages. Is that the correct term? When you disassemble a book, groups of printed pages are folded in half and sewn. So, you are looking at two pages on each sheet. (and aside: I find bookmaking fascinating.) I am not sure which bible edition Mr. Tuomala used for this exhibit, but the paper is beautiful and the volume must have been oversized, but not as large as a quarto volume would be.

Stephen Tuomala

As the name of the exhibit implies, the works are very gestural. The starkness of raw ink is counterbalanced by the texture of the printed word, lending subtle shadings to the deeper ink-covered areas and providing texture in the untouched areas. Mr. Tuomala shows a very expressive hand in these drawings, from the smallest to the largest. It was also intriguing to see the smaller works alongside their large-scale counterparts. Many of the smaller works looked like they could be studies, and gave a hint at the process of developing the figures for the larger works.

Stephen Tuomala

I think I'll leave this here. From the show description:

A Permanent Gesture is focused around Christian ideas of the Rapture. These large scale drawing installations depict juxtapose contemporary imagery as metaphors for the theoretical Rapture events.

From a thematic standpoint, I don't really think I can add anything to this succinct statement. There is a lot of implied violence in the works, and it supports the violence implicit in the biblical cycle of the Rapture.

The exhibit is up through March 3, and luckily the gallery has regular hours. If you really want a chance to find out more about Stephen Tuomala and the works in A Permanent Gesture, Fe is hosting a gallery talk on Thursday, February 21. There's a good chance I'll be there for the artist talk. I do have some questions.

Stephen Tuomala: A Permanent Gesture
February 1 - March 3, 2013
Artist Talk
Thursday, February 21
7-8:30pm
Fe Gallery | 4102 Butler Street, Pittsburgh PA 15201 | art@fegallery.org
Thursday – Friday: 4 – 8 pm Saturday: 12 – 6 pm Sunday: 12 – 4 pm

Unblurrrrred

I admit, I didn't make it to every venue that was open this past First Friday. I usually try a little harder, and welcome the random wanderings that Penn Avenue presents in its warmer weather offerings. February is always a trial, so I just focused on a few spaces and beat a hasty retreat to my warm little house.

Most Wanted Fine Art (5015 Penn) … 6PM TO 11PM
“CONVERGENCE: New works by Donnie Toomer & Andrew Rabb
Month Long Exhibit

Donnie Toomer (left) and Andrew Rabb (right) at MWFA

Oh, now, Donnie Toomer's work was fun to look at. Really, the exhibit of portraits is colorful and active; lots of energy packed into those little frames. It was nice to see some familiar faces on the walls, too. You know, this is the second portrait show I've seen recently. I'm hoping that the interest in portraiture continues to appeal. Human portrayal is very complex, and becomes even more so when you are also looking at the subtext of the artist in his portraits.

By contrast, Andrew Rabb's photography was more quiet and contemplative. The photographs were very clean and crisp, with a nice light quality to them. The image above was my favorite from his small presentation of several works. There are more examples of these ephemeral portraits on his website, which are every bit as good.

All in all, a very nice show at MWFA this month, even if the works are so divergent.

Get to know Andrew Rabb and Donnie Toomer a little bit better.

Modernformations Gallery and Performance Space (4919 Penn)
“Darkness and light: The Artwork of Richard Claraval”
Exhibit runs through Feb 22nd.

Richard Claraval at ModernFormations

Richard Claraval's intentions are very clearly drawn in his exhibit Darkness and light. From the show statement -

The back room of the Gallery, with it’s hues of deep red and purple, will be filled with drawings that explore the destructive forces of the world: greed, nationalism, the great disparity between the haves and have-nots, religion; the “Dark”. While the white cube front room will contain images of the “Light” or positive forces: science, education, independent thinking, tolerance.

The works were larger-scale drawings, treated with a loose and expressive hand. Thematically separated, the works in the front room were more controlled while the ones in the back, designated as depicting darker forces, were treated more chaotically. The large scale of the drawings (about 36" x 36") gave them a lot of impact.

A few notes:
Stuff 'n Such Society, along with its nostalgic miscellania and original artworks, has also begun to carry chapbooks.
LAW OF OFFICE OF RICHARD J. WALTERS and THE DANCE EMPORIUM (5005 Penn Ave)has Tango music, beginning at 9:30PM every first Friday
Catapult Co-Working Space has a Show 'n Tell every First Friday, beginning at 5PM.
Awesome Books is Awesome! Also, show them some love.

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.

Returns @Panza Gallery

David Grim

Millvale is just across the Allegheny River from my home. On a nice day, I can walk over there in less than twenty minutes. But with all of the construction on Route 28, I haven't ventured across on foot for awhile. It's a difficult proposition for us habitual pedestrians, and the new intersections have made it much more daunting.

It's completely my loss, though. There's a fabulous gallery over there that I hardly ever get to because I always seem to be able to come up with some excuse for not walking across the bridge. Lucky for me, a very good friend provided transportation to the opening of Returns at Panza Gallery this past weekend. I'm so glad she did, it was a strong show.

Pictured above is some recent work by David Grim. I love the color in these works, as well as the abstracted qualities. More of David Grim's work can be seen in this online portfolio.
 

 

Olga Brindar

One entire side of the gallery was installed with these large works on paper by artist Olga Brindar. The works had a nice vitality to them. Ms. Brindar has a very nice portfolio site, where you can view more of her work.

 

Mia Tarducci Henry

There were a scant handful of paintings by Mia Tarducci Henry, which were really beautiful. The works are very organic and heavily textured. You can get to know Ms. Henry better on her site.

Call For Artists "Pittsburgh By Pittsburgh Artists" Exhibit @ Irma Freeman Center For The Imagination: Deadline Sept. 17

"Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Artists”

We are Seeking Artwork Submissions

for Exhibition & a Published Book


The Irma Freeman Center for Imagination

5006 Penn Avenue, Garfield, Pittsburgh 15224


DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 17TH @ 5 PM

This is a group show where artists are invited to enter up to 3 pieces of found/collected or constructed/created art or artifacts related to Pittsburgh. All forms of media are acceptable, including audio, video, posters, prints, paintings, drawings, installations, state of the art technology, or artifacts. All art or artifacts must be accompanied by a biography of the artist/collector, and an Artist Statement of how the submission(s) relates to the above theme. All documents may be edited as deemed appropriate or necessary by the curator. PLEASE note we would like a unique perspective of Pittsburgh, with a limited number of the beautiful, but often seen, downtown skylines. WE would like to include pieces that contribute to the flavor of Pittsburgh’s diversity, including its history and neighborhoods. Also note Pittsburgh Artists may include relocated artists, either those who are no longer living in Pittsburgh, or people who have moved here from somewhere else. Artwork of by posthumous artists may also be submitted. Please NOTE this is a juried show. There is no guarantee that one or all of your works will be accepted, though emerging as well as established artists are encouraged to enter!

The deadline for this exhibition is Saturday September 17th at 5 pm. The gallery will be accepting proposals and artwork from 2 – 5 pm. For further inquiries please call 412-924-0634 or contact the curator, Sheila Ali, sheiladianeali@gmail.com. Please submit documents through email as well as hardcopies with your submission. The entry fee is $15 per piece. If sold, the IF Center will take a 25 % commission fee. Also see

See full submission and exhibit details here.

A meditation on drawings made by David Grim

A meditation on drawings made by David Grim. His show recently closed at Panza Gallery.



Ink drawings of people, maps of human bodies, made on phone book pages.

Image of the person, the picture made by looking at them, drawing in lines over lines of information about people, lists of numbers that allow us to reach out and make contact with a person.

White pages, lists of people, people with numbers next to their names. Index of human beings reduced to ten digits by which they can be reached. Connectivity.

A portrait of a person drawn over a list of people. An individual as a collection of people.

Knowing a person by seeing them. Knowing a person by reading information about them. Knowing a person through the metadata attached to that person. Phone number as tag.

Knowing some one on sight. Knowing some thing about some one. A piece of information is intimacy. Nudity is intimacy. Hearing a voice on the telephone is intimacy.

Drawings are seen. The numbers are seen. The numbers imply voices. Figures on a ground of numbers. The numbers imply connectivity. The numbers imply communication.

Art as the mediating object between bodies, carrying information in a container more dense than words.

Christine @drink & draw

I know I am late in posting this. The session last week was really stupendous. As always, Christine was a wonderful model. Thanks to everybody that came out! We had a pretty full house, but some folks left before I could get images of their work. Below is a slideshow of some of the drawings done at the session. I usually ask drawers to have the piece they liked best ready to shoot. Funny how it almost always is from the longer poses.



drink & draw is moving to once a month! We will be meeting on the last Tuesday of each month. Sessions will start at 6:30pm. Next session is April 27, our model will be Paul.

Drink and Draw…
is an open studio live model drawing session that meets last Tuesdays on the second floor of brillobox, located at 4104 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, Pa. This session is relaxed, surprising, and inspiring. amazing models dressed in various themes, old timey music, great company, and decor. All mediums, except oils, welcome.

Drink & Draw
Upstairs | 6:30 - 9:30PM | $10
MySpace
brillobox
get on our mailing list. email us at brilloboxdrinkanddraw@yahoo.com
4104 penn ave
412.621.4900

Rise Nagin @ Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery

Don't miss this show either.

Dates: November 10, 2006 - January 13, 2007Opening Reception: November 10, 5:30-7:30pm

Risë Nagin blurs the distinction between fabric, drawing and painting, creating an elegant environment and mixed media pieces in her new solo exhibition. Using Nagin’s personal vocabulary of images, the new work evokes a stillness and lets us contemplate a serenity that is fleeting in our current cultural consciousness of fear and anxiety. Nagin generates abstract images that create an environment or atmosphere that reminds the viewer that beauty is always present, even if we fail to see it.