Pittsburgh Weekend Arts Events: 6/3-4/11.

Friday

It should be a nice night to stroll along Penn Avenue and take in the sights and sounds of Unblurred. The highlight of this month's event is SURE to be Modern Formations' Retrospective, featuring a selection of work from some of the many outstanding artists that have appeared at the gallery (4919 Penn)over the last ten years. They include Mike Budai, Andy Kehoe, Ben Kehoe, Rick Byerly, and Masha Vereshchenko.

David Matthews appears at Garfield Artworks with an exhibit documenting his performance art project (1995-2002) whereby he posted advertisements in which he claimed to be seeking a girlfriend. Alongside this work are a collection of his drawings called "Profitable Cute Kid".

Erick Brockmeyer and Kuan Ju are at work with low level electronbics at Assemble (5125 Penn), and Brian James Gonnella shows his paintings at ImageBox (4933 Penn). You can also see a decade of drawings by Cameron Clayton at The Shop (4312 Main Street, Bloomfield) from 7-11PM. Gabe Felice opens up the "Blurred Series" (curated by Dean Cercone) at 4810 Penn. Weekly installments follow throughout the summer. And as always, there is plenty of other stuff to discover just by showing up and walking up and down the street.

If you want to venture to another part of town, you can stop by Silver Eye (1015 East Carson Street, South Side) for their first annual Pennsylvania Photography Biennial, Keystone.1. There will be 16 photographers from all over the state participating, and the reception runs from 6:30-8:30PM. And it's FREE.

Also- check out the release (finally) of Black Forest. The Andy Warhol Museum will be officially rolling out the third collection of Unicorn Mountain artists with a bit of fanfare, as a part of their Good Friday series 96-10PM).

Saturday

Gallery 4 (206 S. Highland, Shadyside) is featuring "Wunderball", an exhibition of sculpture and paintings by Anthony Purcell. The opening reception starts at 7PM.

AND don't forget the Three Rivers Arts Festival starts this weekend. I'm not going to point out any highlights... just check out their site HERE for your favorites.

Pittsburgh Weekend Art Events: 12/10-11/10.

c. David Grim (taken 11/21/10)

Friday

The Pittsburgh Glass Center seems to be making the effort to build a bigger profile for its brand. Tonight they are hosting a reception at Future Tenant for a group show of 8 glass artists. It's called "Futilitarian" and starts at 6PM.

The Pretty Things Peepshow is in town, and appearing at the Rex Theater in the South Side. They are a premiere touring burlesque outfit from northern NJ, and several of its members have done time at the justly renowned Coney Island Circus Sideshow (including Heather Holliday and Danny Vomit). That fact alone should compel you to see this! The doors open at 8PM and the show starts at 10PM. Bring $15 to get in.

Saturday

This week's must-see art show is "Big Love" at the Panza Gallery (and that's not just because I'll have work there). Curated by Lawrenceville resident Cleo Zell, it features the work of approximately 40 artists, conveniently priced at $100 or less. Some of the creators involved include Kathleen Lolley, Mascha Vereshchenko, Gabe Felice, Heidi Tucker, Ryder Henry, Mario Zucca, Laura Jean McGlaughlin, Bob Ziller, Sid Kweller, Carley Parrish, Paul Leroy, etc. It runs from 6-9PM, but if you get a late start on the evening and think you have to skip it, stop in anyway. Events at Panza (115 Sedgwick Street, Millvale) invariably run past their scheduled times.

Apparently there's a new gallery space opening in Edgewood. It's called Verde Art Space (113 Edgewood Avenue), and it plans to be fully in business in the Spring. But if you are of the mind to, you can catch a preview today from 11AM-8PM.

And in Homestead, Artspace 105 (105 E. Eighth Ave.) is having a silent auction from 7-9PM. Robert Qualters, George Nama, and Paula Bland are just a few of the participating artists.

Pittsburgh Art Events 12/3/10.

c. David Grim (taken 11/21/10)

Friday

Yes, indeed. it's going to be COLD for this month's Unblurred. But that doesn't give you license to skip it. There is plenty worthwhile to see, and you'd be remiss if you didn't get out there and support some struggling artists. Do some holiday shopping somewhere other than Walmart.

Gabe Felice will be down at the newly-named Penn Avenue Art Studios (4810 Penn), working on a live art project. Appearing with him are Dan Devine, Perry and Danny Angel, and they are all there to support the Kullu Valley Bike Project. Ten bucks will get you into the after party, which includes wine, beer, and DJ's.

You could also do your holiday shopping at the Irma Freeman Center (5006 Penn) where they are hosting "I Made it! Affordable Art & Craft". Apparently City Parks will be there with some light up ornaments. Oh... and there's some bands too.

Seth Clark and Kelly Blevins are at Modern Formations (4919 Penn). The latter is this past year's Spring Salon winner, which means she already has a significant audience waiting to see what she will do. No pressure, Kelly! Meanwhile the ever-prolific Dean Cercone is showing at Most Wanted (5015 Penn Ave.) with someone named "Detrich" (as per the gallery site).

Not that I'd particularly want to go to the South Side on a Friday night, but if I did I'd go to Silver Eye Center for Photography (1015 East Carson St., 6:30PM) to see the work of the winners of their Photography's Fellowship 2010 Competition. Don't worry if you're not up to the mess of transit. You can see the images of Laura Heyman of Syracuse, NY, and Laura Bell of Girard, PA, through January 15th.

And then there's the rare event at James Gallery (413 S. Main Street) in the West End- a group show called "Pulp Friction". Its "Paper: burned, sliced, disguised, reclaimed, reconfigured" can be seen between 5:30-9PM. Good luck finding out who is participating, as the gallery's website seems to demonstrate a deliberate disinterest in providing any significant information. I do know that Tom Sarver is involved, so that's one bright spot.

Pittsburgh Art Events 4/2/10.

c. David Grim (taken 4/5/08)

This weekend we can put our focus on Friday, due to the overwhelming concentration of art-related events happening. I didn't look too hard for things to do on Saturday, but nonetheless I didn't find any.

Friday

Here's an interesting concept- "Rock, Paper, Scissors"- in which three galleries host opening receptions built around one of those three themes. The Space Gallery downtown (8PM-Midnight) has the first, ostensibly focusing on the music aspect of the word. Artist Image Resource on the North Side (6-8PM) is doing the "paper", and I suppose that makes sense. And the Fe Gallery in Lawrenceville (7-9PM) has the "scissors". Just a few of the artists participating are George Davis, Jill Larson, Alexandra Watrous, Adam Welch, Bovey Lee, Randie Snow, Keny Marshal, and Laura Jean McLaughlin. The hours for each have been staggered, so that (should you wish) you can attend all three. Not only that, but Molly's Trolleys will be on hand to provide free transport between venues.

If you need a pick-me-up between destinations, the Crazy Mocha in Bloomfield (4525 Liberty) awaits with a wide variety of caffeinated pleasures, as well as a couple of walls worth of paintings by Greensburg-based artist Gabe Felice. Always a charmer, Gabe consistently puts out some of the most distinctive and interesting work available in Western PA. And this should be a good opportunity to meet him too, as he won't have any excuse (like three feet of snow) not to show up for this opening.

And yes indeedy.. Unblurred is here. The Geek Art/Green Innovators Festival will make its presence felt along Penn Avenue. Specifically, events will be held at the Sprout Fund headquarters (5423 Penn) and at the BCG Center (113 N. Pacific).

The Irma Freeman Center for Imagination (5006 Penn) has "Antiquated & Future (or Imaginary) Technology" from 7-10PM. Fast>>Fwd Gallery is opening (5-10PM) the somewhat seasonally-ironical "PLENTY OF SLEEP WHEN WE’RE DEAD", featuring work by Mike Egan, Josh Iddings, Ron Copeland and Christian Breitkreutz. Garfield Artworks (4931 Penn) offers yet more adult-themed paintings by the ubiquitous Lauren Toohey. Tech-geek extraordinaire Jason Bannister has lots of robotic designs at the renamed Space:Collective (4823 Penn). Awesome Books (formerly the Clay Penn at 5111 Penn) will have a reading by Christiane Leach for her book release ("Spinning Standing Still") at 7PM. And Edge Studio (5411 Penn) has "Cunning Stunts:Exquisite Corpse"- 11 women addressing the concept of 'alter ego". Whew!

As if all that were not enough, Modern Formations (4919 Penn) rolls out their Annual Spring Salon exhibition, whereby viewers are asked to choose which artist displayed merits their own solo show at the gallery during the next year.

If you aren't totally exhausted with all the other offerings, stop by Remedy Lounge (10PM-Midnight) in Lawrenceville for an unveiling of the nuanced collage work of Rachel Hallas.

Pittsburgh Art Events: 2/5-6/10.

c. David Grim
(taken 4/12/09)


This Friday is the first Unblurred of 2010.

Lauren Toohey and Sam Thorpe are together at Most Wanted Fine Arts for "Guests Undressed". In January they had an exhibition at ArtForm in Lower Burrell, and featured a "naked buffet". I got there too late for the show-it-all, but I enjoyed the work and the space itself. No doubt they'll keep it just as interesting on Penn.

Another highlight will be "Escape to Eyeball Island" at Modern Formations. Gabe Felice is currently one of my favorite artists, and he's a damned nice guy too. If you haven't been out to DV8 Cafe in Greensburg (where he's gainfully employed), you gotta come out to see him (and his work) now. This one's billed as "a concept show inspired by self sabotage, remote viewing, and prophetic everydayism". Maybe I'll even remember to return his Gary Busey movie to him.

Garfield Artworks has an all-photography show with Radikal Kats, Dennis Warner, Jason Collat, Maura Housley & Lindsay Husk. Jeffrey Schreckengost & Lisa Toboz present their woodwork and photography at the anarchist T-shirt store and gallery called Rebellious Nature (104 N. Graham St.), and "Unstill'd" includes site-specific installation work by artists of the Distillery 4 program. That's located at the mysterious Schmutz Lodge (5405 Broad St,).

Finally you can see 'You're a Cheese Sandwich" down in the 6th Ward at Fast>>frwd (3700 Penn Ave). It's all work by students currently enrolled in the WVU MFA program.

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is unveiling "Cluster", a collection of pieces curated by director Adam Welch. It runs from 5:30-8PM.

Down in Lawrenceville Jason Woolslare rools out "Where's my Huffy", from 6-11PM at the Zombo Gallery (4900 Hatfield Street). I'm a big fan of Jason's colorfully-layered line paintings, so I'll definitely fit it into my schedule. And as a special bonus, Woolslare's colleague Aaron Shafer is filling a wall as well. Meanwhile Liz Reed has a series of photoscans at Coca Cafe (3811 Butler St). It's been awhile since I've visited that venue, but it's a charming little space to grab an espresso. The reception runs from 7-9PM. If bars are your scene, you can check out the drag queen portraits of Donald Rager at Remedy (7PM).

Saturday

If you get some time cleared up during the afternoon, stop by at the Union Project in Highland Park (801 N. Negley Avenue) for the "I Made It! Mine" market, which will have all types of handcrafted items by local artisans just in time for Valentine's Day. It goes from noon until 5PM.

Too often I fail to blog about events in Braddock. But just because it's out of the way (1137 Braddock Ave), doesn't mean it's not worth the transit. Unsmoke Systems is featuring the work of graduates of the Art Institute of Pennsylvania. The opening reception runs from 7-10PM.