PIttsburgh Biennial LeRoy at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts through 9/18

John and I are happy to be a part of LeRoy's work in the Pittsburgh Biennial. As you can see, we are a very small part. LeRoy's huge installation of a fabric collage at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is fascinating. So much to look at. To quote Kurt Shaw from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review:

The remaining works on display are quite compelling, if not beautiful. Pittsburgh artist Paul LeRoy Gehres, a.k.a. LeRoy "King of Art" MFA, presents a fabric-collage installation of pop-cultural references in his installation "I'm a Lover not a Fighter." The installation encourages audience participation with FOR TWOS, a wearable garment designed for the interaction of two people at once, originally invented by German contemporary artist Franz Erhard Walther. Visitors are invited to wear the FOR TWOS, have a conversation about the subject matter that Gehres has printed on each, photograph the process, post the photos on his "I'm a Lover not a Fighter" Facebook page and continue the conversation on his blog, lovernotafighter.blogspot.com, making for one of the more engaging works in the exhibit.

There are many terrible ties. And many other images culled from photos of Pittsburghers and others, presented in interesting ways. I was particularly taken by a photo of Phyllis Diller on a PINK khaki background.
BE AWARE that the earlier parts of the Biennial...at the Pgh. Center for the Arts, The Carnegie and the Filmmakers are open only through Sunday!

A Week of Pittsburgh's Art Scene As Seen By Warhol Director, Eric Shiner In Art In America

Eric Shiner gives us an inside look at Pittsburgh's art scene in Art in America. This guy just doesn't sleep and is determined to not allow his new administrative duties as the new Warhol Director get in the way of his very active interest in engaging artists and curating shows, both inside and outside Pittsburgh. Check it out.

Roving Eye: Flying high In Pittsburgh

Photo Safari Of Pittsburgh Light Rail System: March 13

For a small city, we have a lot of chances to boost your art making skills and arts knowledge @ Pittsburgh Filmakers, The Pittsburgh Center For The Arts, Artists Image Resource, The Silver Eye and The Society For Contemporary Craft.

This group outing peaked my interest. Chances are I won't do it for cost reasons.

Saturday, March 13, 10:00 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Members, $30.00; Non-members, $37.00. Group size limited. Reservations required.

Looking forward to spring? Add a photo safari on the local light rail system to your calendar! Shoot while riding the incline, capture the early spring view from Beechview and get a unique shot of the Smithfield Street Bridge. Photography is not permitted on the light rail system, so don't miss this exclusive opportuntity to bring your camera along for the ride.


To register, contact Sylvia Ehler at 412-431-1810 ext 11 or email her at sehler@silvereye.org.

Click here for info on upcoming Silver Eye classes and programs.

Another plug for Cluster on Friday, plus Doc Salon

Taking a moment to plug the Cluster opening at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Ton of excellent new work, some pieces are enormous stretches for the artists - Connie Cantor will be unveiling a 14-foot behemoth of a painting made with layered veils of tiny marks, for example. Additionally it will be interesting to consider the breadth of media in the show, and whether or not it comes together cohesively.

Also on Friday night, the quiet gathering of Pittsburgh documentary filmmakers and viewers happens again. Documentary Salon will be meeting at Pittsburgh Filmmakers in the mini-Melwood screening room on the second floor at 6:30. The group will be screening a 50-minute segment of Rebecca Einhorn's Mythopoeic Times. If past conversations are any indication of the future, considered discussion will follow, moderated by documentary filmmaker and teacher Will Zavala.

Exhibition Opportunity: Inspired By Books

I found out about this show on the Pittsburgh Filmakers website. The deadline is very soon.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers students, PF/PCA members and staff are invited to participate in a group photography show to be held at the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library during the month of November.

The theme and title of the show is "Inspired by Books".

Anyone interested in participating should bring one print framed and ready to hang to Sue Abramson by Monday October 26th.

Any questions contact Sue at 412-681-5449 ext. 216 or sueabe[at]pghfilmmakers.org

Tim Kaulen Artist Of The Year Opening Tonight @ PCA

Finally, Tim Kaulen has been named the PCA's artist of the year. Tim has really made himself the city's defacto king of outdoor sculpture in spite of almost never receiving official commissions. Obviously, a lot of his work deals with and plays with the materials, history and scrap from the region's industrial past. He and other members of The Industrial Arts Co-Op have been placing temporary and often not exactly legal exhibitions of large scale sculpture in abandoned industrial sites in places like Akron, Ohio, Pittsburgh and even Fort Wayne, Indiana.

I tried to dig up a few videos that document a few of Tim's projects, the most amazing of which might be the Carrie Furnace deer. See a Gigapan of it here.



The Owl
Temporary Installation - Carrie Furnace
Rankin, Pittsburgh, PA (image from IAC site)

The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, 2009 Artist of the Year Exhibition offers exciting challenges. It is my intention to propose an equally creative solution using elements of sculpture, both organic and architectural, recycled materials and objects, and the play between history and the contemporary world. I am honored to present the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and surrounding communities of Pittsburgh with the opportunity for the public to engage in outdoor sculpture and this historic setting at Mellon Park.

I wish to create a series or family of large-scale public sculptures using classic American wooden and tin toy designs as the central theme. The grounds of Mellon Park are an excellent option for this concept as it flanks environments where play or play-like activity occurs on a daily basis. A final, topiary element will be used to physically blend the structural geometry of the toy theme to the landscape itself, giving the pieces a slow but changing personality.

The relationship this particular site has to the 19th century urban industry lends itself to connecting with mechanical toys of that era in both a whimsical and celebratory manner. There is a natural fit and relationship between the two, the site and the concept, which will further be exemplified through the work itself as it celebrates the glorious past of Pittsburgh, the evolving present, and the exciting future of urban spaces and man-made elements fusing with the natural world.



Sign piece on construction site Penn Ave in Bloomfield 2005.

The 2009 PCA Artist of the Year, Tim Kaulen, and the 2009 Emerging Artist, Dylan Vitone, are the featured exhibits this fall at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (PCA). Both shows are on view from September 25 through November 8. An opening reception will be held on Friday, September 25, from 5:30 – 8:00 pm. The reception is open to the public; a $5 donation is requested; free to members.

Pittsburgh Biennial @Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Several friends have told me that I should make time to go over the the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts to see the Biennial. I confess that I don't get there very often. I don't drive, so when I make excursions out, I generally try to tie several things together. The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is situated in a mostly residential area, even though it is on easy traffic routes. When I go there it is the only place I go: there aren't even any restaurants or coffee shops close by. It entails a significant block of time and only one destination. But I am glad that I took the time to go to the show.

Sun Young Kang





Sun Yang Kang Filtered Memories (Incense burning on paper)


I'm glad I came when the gallery was pretty quiet. This would have been a difficult piece to see with a crowd. I spent quite a bit of time in this room. It was like sitting in a room crowded with another's ghosts. The scrolls, suspended over rods, moved and shifted subtly, tiny movements encouraged by the air currents in the room. Each of the scrolls is insribed with a legend on the bottom edge of the scrol. For instance --

May 28, 1965
Mother seems to have given up struggling with the tragedies in our family.
I cannot help but respect her when I face her calmness.

The legends printed on the scrolls may have some relation to the characters burned into the sheets; no way for me to tell. Somehow, I doubt that it is a direct translation, given the brevity of the english prose and the length of the burned characters. One thing that I would like to note. This work, all of the works that Sun Young Kang presented at the Biennial, are informed by her ethnic heritage. But the work did not strike me as a study in social anthropology, which is a tendency in other artists that work from their heritage. Instead I felt that, even though I could not understand the charcters, I still came away from viewing this work enriched.

Dylan Vitone



Dylan Vitone Ducky Tours

Vitone's panoramic photographs measured about 60" in width. The long format makes it difficult to get a feel for the work in the above image. I have provided a slightly larger image, linked here. I liked Ducky Tours. A lot. Really. How he chose that title, I don't know; there is so much random stuff happening in the above photograph. He could just as easily called it the intersection of Liberty and Smithfield, where the photograph was taken. Dylan Vitone is represented in the exhibit by several of these panoramic photographs.

Bovey Lee



Bovey Lee (Detail of one of her works)

This is a traditional artform, cutting paper. I have seen several examples of this type of work, most recently from a vendor at the Three Rivers Arts Festival. The difference with Lee's work is her use of contemporary themes and images. Several of the works that she presented for the Biennial had this chain link fence motif. I could not get a good image of the works, so I will refer you to her Artists File Online page. Much better images there.

The Pittsburgh Biennial, on the whole was very satisfying. I will mention that I am disinclined to watch video art. Something in my make up does not allow me to sit in a dark room and watch. Please know that several of the artists represented at the Biennial are video artists. The Biennial will be in place for the next two months.

Pittsburgh Biennial
May 3 - August 24, 2008
Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts
6300 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232
412-361-0873

Doug Hill's Cardboard Gears

One of the great aspects of organically curated "Tom Museum" was the exhibitions he staged of little known artists from around the town. One of my favorites is Doug Hill who used the space as a studio from time to time.

"I met East Pittsburgher Doug Hill around 2001 when I was working on Craig Street in Oakland. Back then he was making a lot of colored pencil drawings and watercolors of places that were changing in Oakland. (Views that would no longer exist after new buildings were constructed)

A few years back, Doug started making a wide variety of gears and gadgets out of cardboard. I kept in touch with him as I transitioned into The Tom Museum. Not long after I opened, Doug became a regular at the museum, appearing at least once a month to conduct demonstrations for visitors. Doug’s work has caught the attention of people from around the world."



I found this video on Tom's new Blog.

Pittsburgh Center For The Arts Video

OK, It's kind of hokey, but here's a video that I assume the PCA, put up on You Tube about itself. Not many places have a place like this on this kind of scale or at least very few smaller cities.

Barbara Weissberger: Muscle-Licious

Here's a Pittsburgh artist, I really like who's work really relates to our American culture which manages to be both deeply attractive and deeply disturbing at the same time. I meant to put up this post during her Center For The Arts show.

I had some time on Saturday to visit the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. From their website:

Founded in 1945, PCA is a non-profit community arts campus that offers arts education programs and contemporary art exhibitions, providing services and resources for individual artists throughout Western Pennsylvania. The Center is where the community can create, see, support, and learn about visual arts.

At any one time, the facility can host as many as eight exhibits in its interconnecting galleries. PCA is also the home of Pittsburgh's numerous guilds. All of the shows that I saw this weekend end on March 18, so if you have a chance, stop by.

In the entrance gallery...
Group Picture
Deanne Dunbar
This exhbit was comprised of a half dozen large oil paintings based on group pictures. The artist statement posted with the exhibit states that the artist's intent was to encourage the power of group action. All of the group pictures were very much posed.

Next door and in the hallway was...
Blanket Statement
Shawn Quinlan

I loved the bed. The quilts were more like fabric collage. Figures were cut out and applied with an over-stitching machine quilt technique. More of an applique effect.

Two of the galleries on the second floor are the domain of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. This group is fast approaching its 100th anniversary. On exhibit is...

Vitreous
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh

Marjorie Shipe -- Phantom City. Absolutely beautiful work.
Nathan Nissim -- Soldier from Orion
William Wade -- Reflections, Clarity and Fog. This is a photograph of the sculpture garden of the Carnegie Museum of Art, taken from the atrium of the Scaife Galleries. Absolutely beautiful shot.

The smaller gallery was a project room. From Associated Artists of Pittsburgh website:

As part of "Vitreous," an exhibit within the exhibit, created by a group of AAP board members, and tied to the Year of Glass, will also be presented February 2nd at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. The first in what is hoped to be a series of projects partnering artists with various industries, the pilot project brings a glass-related business together with art. An experimental fiberglass project, this effort combines the advanced glass fiber fabric produced by Butler-based Dielectric Solutions, with how artists might use the materials in their work. The artists visited the Dielectric factory, studied the material and have used it to create pieces for the pilot project.

The artists participating in the "Pilot Program #1" will then take the materials to students throughout the area through the AAP Outreach/Education Program, and work with high school and college students to create the students own art pieces using similar materials, and to illustrate the potential for artists and industry to work in unison. "We are hoping that this cooperative effort is just the first of many similar efforts throughout the region," said Anna Marie Sninsky, AAP outreach advisor.

I found the display of the materials within this gallery a distraction. Every once in a while, there would be this little label that said Raw Materials. It really detracted from some of the beautiful individual works exhibited in the space.

in the three galleries on the second floor...

Funny Business
Pittsburgh Society of Illustrators

Need I say more? pretty cool stuff
Phil Wilson -- Boom Box
Rich Rogowski -- Fake Bird Suits