The Artist Talks, Panel Discussions and Special Events are now online. Explore the documentation of the exhibition programs at the Center for the Arts at the new Artist Talks page, featuring an archive of talks, discussions and insight into what is happening in the galleries, and throughout the shadyside campus of the PF/PCA.
Tina Williams Brewer
Lifetime Achivement Recipient, Panel Discussion
From Carol O' Sullivan's Press Release:
Renowned artist Tina Williams Brewer has been named just the second-ever recipient of the Pittsburgh Center for the Art’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Her achievement is being highlighted by a special show that will be at the Center through June 21st.
A highly renowned story quilter, Brewer is best known for her artistic exploration of African American history and her personal experiences associated with it. Using symbolism to create colorful and ornate quilts, she draws inspiration from spiritual and family-focused issues.
The show honoring her Lifetime Achievement Award, Tina Williams Brewer: Guided by the Ancestors, is a retrospective of her fiber works created during her 30-year career, but also includes a new body of work consisting of 10 quilts reflecting the 100 year history of the Pittsburgh Courier. The quilts use photo images and historical references from each decade to create powerful visual images of the impact of African American history both locally and nationally.
“Tina is the epitome of our programming,” explains Laura Domencic, director of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. “She is a nationally recognized artist and one of our first and most active resident artists. Her work exemplifies the standard of excellence we look for in presenting this prestigious award.”
Brewer’s work has been celebrated and displayed in locations as geographically distant and diverse as the United States Embassy in Ghana, and the American Craft Museum in New York City. She says that her “hope is to bring a new vision to an ancient story and I work as a conduit for the ancestors in the form of creating story quilts.”
Shot and Edited by Joel Lambeth
ZOO.Logic+
Patricia Bellan-Gillen
The large-scale paintings in this show feature vast planes of vivid color and masterfully drafted animal imagery. Bellan-Gillen’s new works continue a balancing act of realism and abstraction, serious and silly, natural and cultural. Her paintings often incorporate a narrative with symbolic elements that are layered with meaning. A native of Western PA, she’s currently a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University.
Credits: Edited and Shot by Joel Lambeth
Video Retrospective 1990 – 2009
Andres Tapia-Urzua
February 7 – April 19:
Video Retrospective 1990 – 2009, Andres Tapia-Urzua
Launching PCA’s new Video Room is Pittsburgh-based electronic media artist, Andres Tapia-Urzua. Fusing aesthetic, theoretical and political issues, featured artist Tapia-Urzua offers a fascinating look at cultural identity – where social alienation, high-tech environments and the poetics of globalization are represented in sharp and accessible ways. His work is also available in the media section of the PCA Shop.
Dr. Patricia Ulbrich “Pittsburgh was the birthplace of influential leaders of the women’s movement and was home to several pioneering feminist organizations during the later part of the twentieth century,” says PF/PCA Artist Member Patricia Ulbrich.
In Sisterhood: The Women’s Movement in
Pittsburgh is a multimedia exhibit directed by Ulbrich.
The show features a portrait gallery of legendary figures from the movement, including Alma Speed Fox, Barbara Hafer, Molly Rush, Eleanor Smeal, and a dozen other leading feminists; video of oral histories about the struggle for equal rights in Southwestern PA; and memorabilia from private collections.
“The project is designed to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of this inspiring aspect of the region’s history and to highlight how progress was achieved through the hard work and determination of a diverse group of local activists,” Ulbrich explains. “Our collection of digitally recorded interviews,” she continues, “provides a new source of data for scholars studying social movements.”
Patricia Ulbrich, Ph.D, is currently a visiting scholar in women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh. For more than three decades, Dr. Ulbrich’s research has focused on women’s studies and women’s issues, including how race, class and gender shape life chances. In addition she co-founded The Women and Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania.
As an Artist Member Ulbrich was able to utilize PF/PCA’s conduiting program for the In Sisterhood project. PF/PCA acts as a fiscal agent – a conduit – that accepts and is
responsible for grant money on the artist’s behalf.
Credits: Shot and Edited by Joel Lambeth
The Forest Inside: Sue Abramson & Jonathan Shapiro
The Forest Inside is a site-specific installation and the third collaboration between Pittsburgh artists Sue Abramson and Jonathan Shapiro. Abramson's photograms and digital prints of Elephant Ear leaves cover the walls of the exhibition space. Shapiro's sculptures, formed from walnut and cherry trees, were created specifically for this exhibit and placed within the interior space. Inspired by organic elements the artists recreate a forest that explores and informs their connection to the natural world.
Credits: Shot and Edited by Joel Lambeth
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts Fiber Arts Guild Guild: Making Connection
Making Connections, presented by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, explores the traditional and non-traditional ways we make connections. Fiber artists have used a variety of techniques for binding, strapping, wrapping, lacing, weaving, sewing, knotting, and zipping. In this group show, artists use uncommon materials such as human hair, safety pins, staples, twist ties, and telephone wire, to name a few, to examine ways we make connections in the modern world.
For more information go to: fiberartspgh.org
Credits: Shot and Edited by Joel Lambeth
