Pittsburgh Art Events: 3/27-28/09.

Years ago, when Pavement was still together playing vital music, frontman Stephen Malkmus used to wear a shirt that said, "Fuck Art. Let's Dance!". While I certainly understand the sentiment (and there are plenty of options to dance now that Spring is upon us), I'd rather not see y'all get zombified by the pollen clouds. Remember that there's nothing better to get you moving later in the night than looking at original art live in person. And there are some opportunities this weekend. Take advantage of them.

Friday

You could go downtown. Really, you could if you were of such a mind. No, it's not a crawl per se, but there are a couple of openings that seem like they might be worth checking out. With Potato/Tomato: The Cover Project, Future Tenant has organized a show around a potentially interesting concept- they've asked artists to riff on other creators' work. Those folks are always so adorably post-modern, and this presentation might just cause me to venture downtown early Friday evening (6-9PM). Or then again, it might not. If you do think you might be interested, check out their page here...

But perhaps you don't want to do too much driving. Maybe the idea of fighting the Friday Rush Hour snarl is too daunting to penetrate the Golden Triangle. If so, then I got sumptin' for ya. Go to the Zombo Gallery. It's your last chance to see Breitkreutz and Copeland in March- two up-and-comers worth keeping an eye on. Did you go to the opening? Was there too much going on that night (at 6-freakin' PM?!)? Don't just do a drive-by this time. Put your poison on hold and have a look at some paintings. There will be lots of time to go out later.


Saturday

This might just be some sort of freakin' typo... but is LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Exotic Cocktails) really hosting their Annual Women's History Month Closing Party at 7-ever lovin'-AM on Saturday morning? That's hardcore. I wonder what kind of strange rituals they will be perpetrating Friday night. Regardless of when it really happens, it's reported that they will be talking about cosmetics. That's even more appropriate at such an ungodly hour.

If you do get drunk that early in the morning, you might as well schlep your wares over to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts' Simmons Hall for the New Member Screening of the Pittsburgh Society of Artists. Bring three gallery-ready pieces and $35. Meet some ah-tists. Buck the trends.

As far as the night is concerned, I didn't find any gallery openings on Saturday. Of course there's the possibility that some swell space somewhere is having their special people over for drinks and show-and-tell, but I'm not privy to such rarefied society. So I'm considering taking my sass over to Pittsburgh Filmmakers for the Black Maria Film Festival (7:30PM- $7). For years I've made it a habit not to see films in theaters, and I've rarely challenged that resolve. But with this event there should be lots of breaks, which are essential to my viewing pleasure. I don't know what you'll see if you go, but the press release explains:

"Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film & Video Festival, an international juried competition & award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award winning films & videos."

Then again, maybe your tastes run more toward the lowbrow. In that case, I don't think you can afford to miss Tromatic Movie Night at the Obey House (1337 Steuben St.). That's in Crafton Heights. Where the f'n hell is Crafton Heights? It just might be real cannibals and toxic freaks that you encounter out that way. Sound like an adventure? It's $5, it starts at 6PM, and it features "Magic Hat Beer Specials And Troma Vendor". Alrite then...

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.

See Some Art, January 25th.

If you have any interest, there's a full schedule of art to be appreciated this evening in the city. The seasonal downtown gallery crawl is tonight, and many of places will be featuring opening receptions for new work. If you are a regular visitor to these events, then you know that it's important to get down there as close to 6:00PM as possible. Obviously street parking is pretty limited, but things open up quite a bit when the rush hour restrictions expire. Even then it can be frustrating- there are always the garages as a fall-back, and many of them have reduced rates during non-business hours. Sometimes it's worth it to avoid the hassle of driving through the masses of pedestrians, and just spending the extra bucks for convenience. Generally the closer you are to Liberty and Wood Streets, the better off you are.

Anyway, as far as this installment is concerned, the crawl has a few intriguing possibilities. Given the current fashion of encouraging urban living in the "Golden Triangle", it's fitting that Wood Street Galleries would be presenting a show based upon the promise of new alternatives in downtown habitation. Unfortunately, given the lack of information on their website, I have no way of telling you what this entails. They haven't even posted biographical information for the included artists, so I don't know whether the perspectives they present are locally-based or just indicative of broader national trends. On the other hand, there are several decidedly local artists showing their work at the nearby SPACE gallery. Rick Bach, Ed Parrish, Pete Lambert and Tim Kaulen are among the creators who are showing off their facility with "hot metal".

Continuing up the Avenue (at 820 Liberty), you can see Art-iculate's version of fostering an online arts scene. They are giving live demonstrations on how to post and purchase art over the net. I don't have any personal experience with the hosting organization, but they are starting to get some name recognition and traction. 937 Liberty (3rd Floor) has an exhibition of work by the staff of the Mattress Factory. The internationally-recognized museum continuously presents some of the most challenging and timely installation art in the world. It should be interesting to see how those who make it their business process those influences. Over on Penn Avenue, Future Tenant is getting comfortable in their relatively new digs (819 Penn). Robert Raczka has curated a show of found art, entitled "Taste Matters".

I had the opportunity to stop by Future Tenant last week for the opening of this collection of pieces from regional thrift stores. Altogether there are 50 works (mostly paintings) by anonymous and unheralded creators who toiled in obscurity only to have their output housed alongside beta video recorders, used novelty mugs, and bad 80's home furnishings. The selection and quality is much what one might expect it to be- there are dog portraits, amateurish landscapes, and at least one homage to Walt Disney. What makes the show particularly worth attending are the curator-statement cards accompanying each piece. Because of the source of the material, Raczka had free reign to impose his own analysis and conjecture at will. I'm not sure whether he meant for the result to be highly satirical, but that's how I interpreted it. It's definitely worth a look-see.

After you've made the rounds downtown (including more environmental artwork at 937 Liberty 2nd Floor, and Ladyboy at the 707 Penn Gallery), you can conclude your cultural explorations at La Vie Gallery (3609 Butler Street in Lawrenceville). I know I repeat the virtues of this gallery ad nauseum on this blog- but it is truly one of the most exciting art-related sites in the city. Come and get to know the artists that represent the vanguard of visual delight. Have some tasty whiskey punch, and BUY some art. It's affordable and damn good. This months brings us Painting the Roses Red, and includes the visionary ceramic work of Laura Jean McGlaughlin (along with four others). Don't worry if you are running late- the opening lasts until 11PM.