Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Larryville Art Night -- Part II

So, here's Part II of the Art Night in Larryville. There are three galleries on Hatfield Street, two of which had openings on Saturday, at the same time as Digging Pitt's preview event. My first stop was at the Society for Cultural Exchange. The show on the first floor was beautiful. Linda Byrne & Maggie Dubris: The Vanishing Birds Project had visual as well as sound components.


Trinity Gallery was my last stop for the evening. I think the Friday night gallery crawl took its toll. Dan Gaser's phtographs were on display for the show. There were these three small prints, near the door, that I thought were really wonderful and showed and interesting depth of tone.




The crowd scene at Trinity -- the downtown gallery crawl the previous night was really packed. I was really pleased to see so many people out on a frigid night to see art in Larryville.

Other galleries in Larryville and the Penn Avenue corridaor are listed here.

Larryville Art Night - Part I

On Saturday, we had a special presentation of new works by some of Digging Pitt's gallery artists. It was a wonderful evening, lots of great conversations and great art. Below are several images of Marci Gehring's Twelve Gates of the New Heaven and the New Earth. The work will be assembled at Digging Pitt Gallery in April.

These are new calloaborative works by David Gonzalez and Dyer Fieldsa.


From Left: Christiane D, Marci Gehring, David Grim and John Morris. I deep discussion about Christiane D's large-scale drawings.


Christiane D and Marci Gehring


Kyle Pattison and friends


Here's a better shot of Christane D's work. You could check Digging Pitt's online flat file roster to see better images. All of them have been uploaded.

Museum Photo Policies

Heart As Arena has a post on the brilliant photo policy of the Tom Museum.

February Openings @ Digging Pitt and Digging Pitt Too

February events @ Digging Pitt & Digging Pitt Too

Save the Date!!!
February 3, 2007 -- 6-9PM
Closing Reception!
Bright and Shiny --
more information
small works -- more information

February 10, 2007
Opening Reception -- 6-9PM
Lush Life -- Side I


Lush Life is a show of four artists whose work deals with physical temptation and desire.

Paul LeRoy
Todd Pinkham
Jessica Sommer
Katherine Young

more information about Lush Life


Visual Grammar
Five Approaches to Abstraction -- Side II


While pure abstract painting has been around for almost a century now, each of the artists in this exhibition contributes something new to the on-going dialogue of what painting is about. -- Gary Jurysta - Curator

Charles Andresen
Glen Brunken
Joren Dykstra
Gary Jurysta
Patrick Schmidt

more information about Visual Grammar


@Digging Pitt Too
David Grim - Regenesis



David Grim explores abstract imagery with the eye of the camera, developing patterns that reverberate across fields of muted greys. -- more information

February 22, 2007 -- 6PM
Artist Talk with Todd Pinkham
more information

Looking Back on the Keny Marshall Show

Keny Marshall has great artist's talk about his Apophenia show on the Arts in Pittstbugh blog. I was glad that this show got some good attention from both inside and outside Pittsburgh. All three major papers here did something, as well as an impressive array of blogs.

City Paper By Adam Grossi
Post Gazette By Mary Thomas
The Tribune Review By Kurt Shaw
Online Media and blogs
Freakuency I think this guy is in Turkey!
This may have lead to a mention by Wired ??
And this guy on Myspace

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

A Taste Of The Gallery Crawl : Crowds
















This post is to here to prove that there was good art -- I mean good crowds at the crawl downtown.

A Taste Of The Gallery Crawl : 707 Penn Ave.











Here are shots from the Joseph Shepler solo @ 707 Penn Gallery. There are gallery cards for this wonderful show but good luck otherwise finding info on it. The Cultural Trust seems to not consider the 707 / 709 spaces important enough to update on the website. They show local and regional artists and more than occasionally have great little shows. We all wish them luck in hyping their real estate prices so they don't have to bother with this culture stuff.
Joseph Shepler
707 Penn Gallery
1/26-2/24/2007
Gallery Hours
Tuesday - Thursday 11 am -- 6 pm
Friday & Saturday 11am- 8 pm

A Taste Of The Gallery Crawl : Wood Street





















The Saturday gallery crawl was pretty overwhelming both in the quality of work and the crowd chaos so I am just posting little views of the main shows I saw. This is the group show at Wood
Street Gallery. The common theme seemed to be the intersection of craft and technology.

Monday, January 29, 2007

STEEL CITY and FREE FILM, Part Two

Pittsburgh has an impressive film community, and University of Pittsburgh has a top-notch Film Studies Program. Don’t forget to take advantage of some of the city’s film screenings, festivals, and lectures, many of them free and serving complementary drink and nosh. If you can bear to leave your hibernation spot of choice, check out these numerous film events upcoming and ongoing:

FRIDAY NIGHT SCREENINGS: Los Amigos del Cine Latinoamericano’s Latin American Film Festival is going on every Friday through May 25th. Films start at 7:00pm at University of Pittsburgh’s Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland. All films free and open to the public! This Friday, February 2, 2007, will be the Pittsburgh premiere of "Cuestión de Fe" [“A Matter of Faith”] (1995), a road movie
by Bolivian director, Marcos Loayza. In Spanish with English subtitles; discussion will follow.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SCREENINGS: Experimental, Underground, Revolutionary Avant Garde Film Shorts from Germany, Switzerland and Austria continues showing Wednesday nights at 7:30 pm through February 7th. This is on Pitt campus in David Lawrence Hall, Room 205, 3492 Forbes Ave. Free.

FEBRUARY 2nd LECTURE: Carnegie Mellon English Professor, Kathy Newman (author of “Radio Active: Advertising and Consumer Activism, 1935-1947”), will give a lecture on Father Corridan, the real-life "Waterfront Priest" on whom Karl Malden's character in “On the Waterfront” (1954, dir. Elia Kazan) was based. This talk focuses on the progressive, working-class roots of the film and is drawn from Newman's second book project, “Lowbrow: The Forgotten Culture of the 1950s.” Lecture takes place on Friday, February 2 at 3:15 PM on Carnegie Mellon Campus, A53 Baker Hall.

SCREENING and LECTURE: February 8th, visiting videographers Alexandra Halkin (Chiapas Media Project) and Juan José García Ortiz (Ojo de Agua Comunicación Indigena Video Collective) will screen videos and speak on “Indigenous Filmmaking and Political Organizing in Latin America: Case Studies from Chiapas and Oaxaca.” That’s on Pitt campus at Alumni Hall Auditorium, Fifth & Lytton Ave’s. 6:00pm, Free.

FEBRAURY 15th ROUNDTABLE: The Pittsburgh Film Colloquium(held six times a year) presents a Roundtable discussion on “War and Visual Culture” with three Pitt Film Studies PhD students. One subtopic covers “The Martyr Video as Perceptual Warfare.” Free and open to the public. 5:30pm, 12th Floor of Cathedral of Learning, Pitt campus.

SCREENINGS: February 15-17th, The Chinese Film Festival will show three feature length films made in China in the 21st Century. Free on Pitt campus at Alumni Hall. For details see the Film Studies website.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Busy Weekend


Here comes one of those Pittsburgh- art orgasm weekends.

Tonight --- Downtown Gallery Crawl. All the events listed here.

Tomorrow Night --- Lawrenceville Art Night.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Christiane D. @Digging Pitt Too




Here's another artist that will be featured in the new works preview this Saturday.

Christiane D.

New Works Preview
@Digging Pitt Too
45th & Plummer Streets in Lawrenceville
Digging Pitt Too will be previewing new works by several gallery artists. The work above is by one of the newest additions to the Digging Pitt roster; Christiane D. The preview event will take place on January 27 from 7-8:30pm. Stay tuned; work by other artists participating in the New Works preview will be posted soon.

Twelve Gates of the New Heavan and the New Earth

New Works Preview
@Digging Pitt Too
45th & Plummer Streets in Lawrenceville

Digging Pitt Too will be previewing new works by several gallery artists. Marci Gehring will be presenting panels from Twelve Gates of the New Heavan and the New Earth. Marci's work will be presented in a solo exhibit at Digging Pitt Gallery in April. The preview event will take place on January 27 from 7-8:30pm. Stay tuned; work by other artists participating in the New Works preview will be posted soon.



Ceiling, unrolled

Detail of ceiling

Detail of ceiling

This is a short walk-around of the work, in the Digging Pitt Too space

PITTSBURGH: THE LAND OF MILK & FREE FILM

Sorry-- on account of me- John Morris- this posting is a little out of date. Stay tuned for more info on this channel.


Living the good life in Pittsburgh is the art of keeping your ears open for all the *free* events the universities bring here.

This week, University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Germanic Language and Literature hosts its third Wednesday of avant-garde film from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
A “Communist classic” says Professor Randall Halle of 1932’s “Kuhle Wampe” from Germany—showing TONIGHT. The series is Wednesdays (for a few more weeks) at 7:30pm, at David Lawrence Hall Room 205, 3942 Forbes Avenue, Pitt campus.
Germanic_Events

This Friday, January 19th at 7:00 pm, three Spanish-language films from Latin America will be shown also on Pitt campus, at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (behind the Carnegie Main Library). The Pittsburgh premier of “Las Fronteras de la Coca” (2003) from Bolivia will run 60 minutes and two 30-minute shorts will also be shown. Visiting Professor Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui will present—this is part of the AMIGOS DEL CINE LATINOAMERICANO series.
Friends_of_Latin_American_Cinema

February 15-17th there’ll be a Chinese film festival sponsored by the East Asian Languages and Literatures Department at Pitt, held at Alumni Hall, Fifth Avenue in Oakland. Seventh Floor, all shows free. More information - here.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Work With Me @ Future Tenant

Thad Kellstadt + Ben Kinsley + Jeremy Boyle



Morgan Cahn + David Pohl


Here are some shots from the "Work With Me" show @ Future Tenant. The concept of the show is a round robin of collaborations best explained by the gallery card.

1 Jeremy boyle + Marlene Boyle
2 Marlene Boyle + Morgan Cahn
3 Morgan Cahn + David Pohl
4 David Pohl + Thad Kellstadt
5 Thad Kellstadt + Ben Kinsley
6 Ben Kinsley + Jeremy Boyle

Each artist also put in a solo work. For me, the quirky, hand made, film/ puppet performance collaboration stole the show.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Cataclysmic

Cataclysmic in Lawrenceville took place last weekend. It was held at the Stephen Foster Community Center, a beautiful old building that is behind the Lawrenceville branch of the Carnegie Library. The organizers threw open the entire building for the event. There were videos in one room, and on a small monitor. There were three rooms devoted to visual arts. There was a hands-on workspace for creating your own art. And live music. Tons of people came out for this event and it wasn't just the usual suspects, either. If the organizers do this again, make a point of coming. You won't be disappointed.
Margaret Mary Meinzer had this entire corner on the second floor.
Live Music!
These were very beautiful pieces. The artist was S. Armbruster
These paintings were done by some guy named Mike. Really. I asked for his name and that was all he would tell me.