Heather Pesanti Becomes Head Of Buffalo's Albright Knox Gallery

People relying on this blog for up to date info on everything should realise that this is a small operation and lots of things fall through the cracks.

"Heather Pesanti, Carnegie Museum of Art assistant curator of contemporary art, will leave the museum in October to become curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., a museum known for its fine collection of modern and contemporary art.

Pesanti joined the Carnegie in 2005 to assist with "Life on Mars," the 2008 Carnegie International, curated by Douglas Fogle, Carnegie curator of contemporary art. She curated "Forum 58: Jonathan Borofsky -- Human Structures" and "Forum 60: Rivane Neuenschwander" at the Carnegie."

The revolving door at the Carnegie has likely just begun to spin. I wonder if Heather might help build alliances between The Albright Knox and the Carnegie. I would imagine both institutions have similar issues in terms of having strong collections and large facilities that reflect their once wealthy heritage.

Heather was the primary Carnegie curator that did studio visits with local artists and played an active role in curating local shows like a Gestures show at the Matress Factory and the recent show at Unsmoke in Braddock.

Gestures @ The Mattress Factory : images 3

Thad Kellstadt
Thad Kellstadt
Jen Lucchino & Fred Croce
Jen Lucchino & Fred Croce
Kate Temple

Here's another batch of shot's from the last Gestures show at the Mattress Factory.

Gestures @ The Mattress Factory : images 2

Jeff Schwarz
Jeff Schwarz
Shawn Watrous
Shawn Watrous
Alexandra Johnson Watrous
Alexandra Johnson Watrous
Alexandra Johnson Watrous

Here's my next batch of images from the last Gestures show. Try to remember that these were instalations and trying to capture anything about them with a few still images doesn't work. For the record, the photo above the fireplace in Alex Watrous's shot is a separate work by Anne Angyal. Also, the Jeff Schwarz work is a video projection with sound. The Mattress factory often posts an image archive of their shows, so stay tuned.

Gestures Have Meaning

I am pretty apprehensive about making this post but I feel strongly that I should. I have a fairly marginal gallery in a small town that I have only been in for a little more than two years so, for a long time I felt afraid to rock the boat here. But, much more importantly I thought I was too uninformed and too much of a newcomer to start making snap judgments and throwing stones. I now think that I can't afford not to. This post is not at all directed specifically at the Mattress Factory, which has likely the best record of respecting and supporting Pittsburgh artists and taking their work seriously. The statement made by the latest Gestures show in the context of Pittsburgh's cultural history is something that should be examined closely for the message it sends.

The Gestures shows are an ongoing series of exhibits featuring site specific installations by a variety of artists and also people not generally known as artists, with most exhibits using the Mattress Factory's annex space. People considered for the shows are contacted usually not more than a month before and given limited time to install with the goal of informal, out of the box shows. In theory and to a large extent in practice, the idea is absolutely great. Who wouldn't want to see, famous artists that we see all the time and other people forced to adapt and create within tight constraints? To take people who often have a year or more to work towards shows into this kind of situation is likely to be fascinating.

The problem I have with these shows has to be set into context. One thing that stands out in Pittsburgh’s scene is it’s segmentation; everyone and everything has it’s proper place and it doesn’t take long to see where they are. Wood Street Gallery shows national acts, while Space gallery shows local artists. In institutions like the Society for Contemporary Craft, the bulk of local artist’s are consigned to the craft shop while the Center for the Arts, overwhelmingly shows local artist members of various guilds. For institutions like the Warhol or the Carnegie, the annual AAP show constitutes the bulk of their commitment to local artists or at least living local artists.

To a great extent, The Mattress Factory was the exception to that rule. They seem to work hard at being both at having a place that can be both respected on an international level for the quality of it’s shows while at the same time giving important consideration to local artists. The recent Gestures show demonstrates a scary trend. The list of artist’s in this show is full of people who have paid their dues and are fully deserving of a full Mattress Factory show. The idea of these shows as very low key experimental labs is understood as is the fact that a show scheduled on short notice is most easily done with a local artist but, the degrading and dark history of Pittsburgh’s art history cannot be forgotten and these shows cannot be removed from their context. The real risk is emerging that these shows are evolving into the backdoor ghetto for local artists.