Yinz Weekly Links

I think I'll try to have a weekly roundup of posts, links and articles I found that might be of interest. Most will relate to the broader Pittsburgh region and art and culture in general.

Will likely be putting up seperate links posts on G-20 buzz.

On Pop City

How Did Net Roots folks like Pittsburgh?

What to do with the Mellon Arena (I'll try to get back to that subject)


On Rust Wire

Rust Belt Road Trip

Carrie Furnace Photo Essay

On Null Space

On The Loss Of Bloomfield Hardware

On A Shiny New Life In The Rustbelt.

On Building A Support System.

On the Rust Belt attitude problem.

In Post Gazette

G20 Cleanup Volunteers

Hill Commissions for California artist

The Toonseum Grows Up

Obama Comming To AFL-CIO Convention in Septempber

In The Tribune Review

City And County fighting about G-20 funding

Pittsburgh Regional Unemployment rate hits 7.7%

More doubts about Pittsburgh's pension hole fix.

Free Admission Day @ some museums

On Pittsburgh Quarterly

Great Allegheny Passage photo essay

Song Of Shadyside

In Pittsburgh City Paper

Food Review of Tamari in Lawrenceville

Review Of Julie & Julia

Bill O'Driscoll interviews(famous) local cartoonist, Ed Piskor

On Edward Winkleman

Tips on DYI Art Shows

On CultureGrrl

Cleveland Museum Violates Donor Intent-----BIG Time!

Detroit Arts On The 50/50 Split

Ann Gordon at Detroit Arts has great post and discussion on her blog about the 50/50 split. she has not only done the insane amount of work on her blog but is now experiencing first hand the amount of work it takes to run a gallery. Very few of the people criticize the "exploitive role of comercial galleries seem to want to try a hand at it themselves with their own time and money.

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.

Shots From The Intrepid Art Collector Book Signing

Bill Gusky and Digging Pitt


Paddy Johnson, Lisa Hunter and Bill Gusky

I am finally, getting around to posting images from Lisa Hunter's book signing at Edward Winkleman and Schroeder Romero a few weeks ago. As I expected, it was sort of an art blogger convention and I can now confirm that Edward Winkleman, Bill Gusky, This Broad and That Broad, Paddy Johnson, Chris Rywalt and Lisa Hunter exist in the retro non digital world too. I was hoping very much that Barry and James would be there but it sounds like they were at the New York Art Book Fair preview.

I read Lisa's book all the way through on the trip from Pittsburgh and I now can fully endorse it. Hopefully this won't hurt sales too much.

Allow me To Vent

Before, I get too caught up with all the local goings on that I started this blog to cover, I want to do this Post. Gratefully, a number of very intellegent bloggers have posted on one of the darkest recent developments in the art world-- The Decision, by a major Art Fair to exclude Print Dealers. Both Ed, and Heart AS Arena have done wonderfull posts on this subject and I think that the comments on thier blogs are facinating. Brent Burket really said it best by simply doing an extended series of posts showing an array of contemporary prints( here, here, here, here ) I think they go a long way in showing that artists working in print media are producing some of the most interesting work out there.

Here is a major quote from Heart As Arena, which leads into his posting an interview with a mega art collector.

"Editor's Note: For best effect, read this post while humming the melody to Napalm Death's classic, "Continuing War On Stupidity"Look. It's pretty simple here at Heart As Arena. I want to see art that moves me. I don't care who made it, what medium it is, where it's shown, or who's showing it. However, the art has to be shown to be seen. When that possibility is limited the teeth of my heart come out. Not because they're angry, but because they're hungry. One increasingly common cause for their hunger is the exclusion of prints at art fairs. These fairs are hated by many, but not by me (See above.). Stupidly expensive ticket prices and some truly horrible people are never enough keep me away. Not from a place where I can see so much art from so many galleries visiting from outside of New York.The Frieze Art Fair's decision to exclude print dealers this year was more than a little disheartening. In Ed Winkelman's spot-on piece regarding this dumbass move, he mentioned that The Armory Show might be next. Oy. Shall I mention that some of the best work I saw at The Armory last year was in the prints section? I guess I just did.Of course, the argument can be made that it's a free market and Frieze can do what they want to bring in the most money. Whatever. Even from that angle it's a short-sighted move. Wait. Don't take my word for it. Let's allow uber collector Martin Z. Margulies to speak for just about every collector on the bloody planet. From the first issue of Whitewall:"

Ed's Post on this subject was also great.I really, don't have much to add on this subject.

Interview With An Art Teacher: Introduction

An incident a few weeks ago in Texas helped to remind me that I now live in the "fly over country" that people on the coast's look down on. To a degree, this is just a comfortable stereo type, but like a lot of those things, there is often a grain of truth beneath it all. My gallery has the work of a number of artist's who work as suburban school teachers or professors in small colleges. Merge has an interview with one that reveals a lot of the issues they face as artist's and educators at work in flyover land.