Pittsburgh Art Events: 12/ 11-12/09.

Friday

Space Gallery (812 Liberty Avenue, downtown) has a group show of creators who have somehow affiliated themselves with the monolithic complex of institutional arts organizations throughout the area. "Behind Our Scenes" includes 34 artists who work in a variety of mediums, and is curated by Laura Mustio & Nicole Rosato. The opening runs from 6-10PM.

You can see a variety of student productions at the Melwood Screening Room in North Oakland (477 Melwood Avenue) this evening by attending an event unveiling thesis screenings. Not only will you have no idea what you might see, but you can also avail yourself of a free reception to follow (7PM).

Saturday

Artists Image Resource (518 Foreland Street on the North Side) is opening its doors for a preview of "Pittsburgh 250 Portfolio, 2009 Projects Portfolio", from 7 until 9:30PM. Along with the output of its 2009 Resident Artists, there will be work from Pittsburgh 250 Portfolio artists (Delanie jenkins, John Ritter, Glenn Kaino, Nick Bubash, Hiroki Otsuka and Shepard Fairey) . If you don't know about the services that AIR offers, or what the organization has done for the past 13 years, this is a good chance to find out.

Things to Do This Weekend. (6/20-22/08)

It's a bit odd to find so much to do in the middle of the month in Pittsburgh, especially in the arts scene. But for some reason this weekend has a few things you might want to consider attending. That should be good news to those of you without travel plans. Now you can tell all the naysayers- "Y'see... the 'Burgh is just as exciting as anywhere else during the summer. Mild climate... lots to do... who could want anything more?" Or you could stay at home basking in the cool of your A/C unit, and cry in your beer while daydreaming about the seashore.

Friday night features an opening for the Group A artists collective at the Fe Gallery in Lawrenceville. I'm happy to report that I am now receiving snail mail hot-cards from Jill and Co. alerting me of events at this spot. This particular group show promises to address political promises (presumedly of the unfulfilled variety). Come see what this shadowy little cabal is up to. The reception runs from 7-9PM. Expect the gallery staff to be a bit distracted as they are laboring to put together the catalog for "In the Making: 250 Years/250 Artists"- an exhibition that will be in place by September. But as far as I am aware, this is the main art attraction tomorrow night.

On the other hand, Saturday is going to demand a bit of prioritization. If you get an early start, you should probably make Artists Image Resource (AIR) your very first destination. They are throwing down with their Annual Summer Bash. From noon until midnight there will be art, music, performances, and refreshments. All you have to do is pay a one-time $10 entrance fee, and you can come-and-go as you please. You can watch local superstar poster-boy Mike Budai do his thing live and in person... Or take a chance on the Artist-Made T-shirt Raffle. The Burndowns and Power Pill Fist will be playing for the hipsters, and I'm told there will be cupcakes and beer from East End Brewery!

Later in the evening you might want to make your way to Market Square for the last (?) Art Olympic Theater. Of course it will be hosted by its creator Tom Sarver (late of the Tom Museum). If you haven't seen any of this series of events, you have to grab the opportunity while you can. Sarver is off to Yonkers (or France?) in the Fall. Come see local and regional artists stumble all over themselves competing to make a sculpture out of random materials in the space of two hours. The contest is to be decided by Jeffry Inscho (Mattress factory), Kurt Shaw (Tribune Review), Al Hoff (City Paper), and Laura Domencic (PCA). Get there at 6PM to see local jazz favorites OPEK open for the event. It's all free and Penn Brewery is providing the suds.

Before you give in to the bars for the night, you should stop by the Wizard of Oddities (4314 Butler Street) in Lawrenceville. This is a relatively new gallery opened by some newly transplanted farmers. The owners are gracious on their occasional forays back into the city, and feature an eclectic mix of local and national artists. Saturday night's opening (@ 7PM) features the watercolors and collage of Bill Ireland and Chris Ingham. Just look for the neon naked-lady silhouette in the front window. If you stayed at AIR all day instead, head a few blocks over to Moxie Dada (1416 Arch Street) for the first installment of their new Summer Music Series (featuring the jazz fusion of "So Say We").

After a couple of busy nights in a row, you probably just want to take it easy with a nice Sunday morning church service. But if you are inclined more toward elitist, black-separatist, Socialist, Muslim, flag-hating, messianic figures (and their villainous associates)- make sure to stop by Zombo Gallery (4900 Hatfield St., Lawrenceville) between noon and 4PM for some baked goods. Sales benefit Barack Obama's campaign and MoveOn.org.

Reflections On Local Art Chaos.

Perhaps it's a mistake to get too excited when a Pittsburgh weekend promises a full schedule of art events. As last Friday approached, my level of anticipation reached a fever pitch. It would have been an understatement to say that I was merely looking forward to seeing what was on offer in our fair city. In retrospect I would have had to see some pretty amazing things to justify my expectations. Sometimes quantity can overshadow, and even obscure quality. It's not that I didn't see anything good... but rather that it all felt rather anticlimactic by Sunday. I had fun and saw lots of people I wanted to see, yet I came away slightly disappointed.

A big part of the letdown started with the choices I made on Friday night. I had received an invitation from the Mattress Factory to attend their opening. I have to say that I was quite impressed to see that venerable institution reach out to the blogosphere for coverage. All I would have had to do to avoid paying the $10 admission fee was R.S.V.P. And yet for some inexplicable reason, I decided to go to the Art Crawl instead. I made that decision despite the fact that I haven't been impressed by the downtown galleries in a couple of years. Part of the problem there is the reliance on the work of artists affiliated with CMU. And another factor is the dehumanizing scale of the spectacle itself. I prefer the intimacy of Unblurred.

Things started somewhat promisingly with a visit to SPACE. Although I didn't know any of the participating artists, the presentation was nice and I enjoyed the look of the freshly painted walls. I was particularly impressed by the sculpture/installation pieces of Steve O Hearn. His background in industrial and set design is clearly apparent in the wild fantasy and whimsical articulation of his work. I was less taken with a series of photos (by Renee Rosensteel) of ultimate fighters in action and repose. Photojournalism is often only as compelling as its subject matter. Still my interest in that show greatly eclipsed my enjoyment of the other venues offering 'art' that night. In the spirit of diplomacy, I'll skip the tiresome details.

Even after my post-Friday disenchantment, things still looked promising through the glare of Saturday morning. However, I had to spend hours getting a large format print of an image to place in Art All Night. I had a ridiculous amount of difficulty getting that done, as Ritz Camera wasted my time on Friday evening with tales of 'corrupted files' and printer breakdown. Finally I found myself working with the girl at Staples to iron out the kinks of a 20 x 30" enlargement of a newer abstract. Even with a cheap frame, I thought it looked pretty good. Its delivery to the former Roomful Express Warehouse went smoother than I thought it might. And the night began on a promising note with Kim Beck's show at AIR. Although sparsely attended, the exhibition served to round out my appreciation of her work.

Finally I was ready to explore the vast expanses of the soon-to-be-demolished warehouse where this year's Art All Night was held. First I tried to locate my piece. I found it along a highly-trafficked corridor, but the abysmal lighting obscured the details of the image. I tried to remind myself that the volunteers that hang this immensely broad show are harried, and have no time to be discriminating. Still I couldn't help letting this particular placement gnaw away at me. I knew right away that it wouldn't sell from that location. So I ended up passing on the few pieces at the show that I was tempted to purchase for myself*. At least this year there was plenty of room to breathe.


* Incidentally, does anyone know a painter named Jim Phillips?

Things to Do This Weekend.

Here we go again. There were a couple of slack weekends in a row with not much happening in the Pittsburgh arts scene... so it's typical to have tons of events packed into two evenings. The most notable is likely the Downtown Gallery Crawl on Friday night- a seasonal get together featuring a look at galleries and other events in the Golden Triangle. Of course it is officially Spring, so there will be tons of folks out and about. Doors start to open for visitors around 5:30PM and usually remain open and busy until 8PM , or so.

I can't say I'm overly excited by anything advertised by this particular crawl. At the 707 and 709 Galleries (Penn avenue) we have the closing of Jazz in Pictures, and the opening of Live Green, View Blue, Paint The Town Red. The latter includes the winning design models of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust International Design Competition. Up the block at Future Tenant (819 Penn Avenue), they are midway through their I am a Heather exhibition. Sure, sometimes it seems like everything has been done before. But who can truly say that they have seen a show of work entirely inspired by girls named "Heather"? Apparently someone within the CMU student curatorial staff has a thing for bad 80's movies.

The Wood Street Galleries has Text/Memory, installations by Jim Campbell & Mark Scheeff. Campbell makes "electronic art", while Scheeff apparently fucks around with robots (more information here). Something tells me I've seen this show before, but that seems impossible since tomorrow is the official opening. Perhaps the powers-that-be down at Wood Street need to diversify their interests a bit. A block down the street at SPACE Gallery (812 Liberty), Murray Horne has put together an exhibition (Pittsburgh Now) including a selection of artists he is evidently excited by. I'm not sure what these creators have in common besides the fact that five of them have (or have had) some ties to Carnegie Mellon University. That's certainly no novelty downtown.

Finally I will be making a point to stop by Artists Upstairs (937 Liberty) to see Dilated Dialogues (sic). It's reportedly "a photographic conversation between Americans who capture images abroad and foreign-born artists working here." There's no way to tell for sure (since I'm unfamiliar with virtually all of the artists at this Crawl), but it seems like this may be my personal highlight of the evening. If not, I can always take my butt down to the Culinary Institute and gorge myself on cheap chef-in-training-made delicacies.

If none of this appeals to your aesthetic sensibilities, the Mattress Factory is having an opening (7-10PM) called Inner and Outer Space, which features nine contemporary artists who promise to offer new perceptions of space by defying two dimensional surfaces. It costs $10 if you aren't a member. Or alternatively you could check out the Fein Art Gallery (519 E. Ohio Street). This North Side Gallery is having a display of then-and-now photos documenting Pittsburgh history. It's a group show, and includes some images from my new friend Rick Byerly. It's called See How It Was, See How It Is, and its opening reception runs from 5-9PM.


Saturday offers a whole new set of diversions for your wandering eye. Artists Image Resource (518 Foreland Street on the North Side) offers an exhibition of the work of 2006 Pittsburgh Center for the Arts "Emerging Artist of the Year", Kim Beck. I couldn't find much information about this specific show (other than the hours of 7-9PM), but I really liked what I saw at the PCA and I'm going to make an effort not to miss this one.

There's also a closing of Sublimation, a collection of pieces by artists involved in the Brew House Distillery Program. Local favorite Brett Davis is one of the eight artists involved, and it's always interesting to see what he comes up with. Your last chance to see this show is at the South Side location of this co-op at 2100 Mary Street, from 3-5PM.

Of all the happenings this weekend, I am most eagerly anticipating Lawrenceville's Eleventh Annual Art All Night. I'll always be sentimental about this event, because it was throughout this series that I first displayed my photography. Just as its title suggests, you can see artwork by hundreds of different local creators, starting at 6PM on Saturday, and extending through the wee hours all the way until Sunday at 2PM. The show is neither juried nor censored so you get a wide variety of work to enjoy. There's also food, drink and live music throughout the night. This year they are advertising the location as their biggest ever- in the former Roomfull Express Warehouse on 57th Street in Lawrenceville. This is a party you (and 7000 other 'burghers) don't want to miss.