Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

Finally I visited also the Galleries of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. In a very hot day -despite not such a big will, actually- I rode my bike there and made my 5$ donation for the visit. I did all this w/o not even knowing what I was going to see, a part from the names of the group exhibitions. I was just trusting Pittsburgh, as I'm keep doing from 2 months and a half so far. 

I found a very nice building, surrounded by a great garden/park, well structured in terms of spaces and collections. But most of all, I found very interesting pieces of art. Not all were clear or interesting, but I couldn't prevent myself from taking a lot of pictures of the very good ones. 

I started visiting "Recretion/Renewal/Rebirth" by the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors. The theme was as simple as difficult: transformation -of materials or of the soul. The artists expressed their ideas about the life transformed, displaced, modified. Here the most significant transformation, according to my personal taste.

The last pictures refer to the work of Lauren Stahl "395 Thomas Road". Mixed media, but fluffy. 

At the second floor other three exhibits were hosted. The one titled "Tone it up!" had good preambles, but lacked of clarity. There were, anyway, very interesting pieces, well manufactured, pleasant to see.

The best one above all was "Lenses and filters, through the needle's eye". A judge selected the works that best represented the theme of perception. The artist filtered reality through their masterpieces and the result was pretty amazing.Some pieces were definitely hard to prepare, from a technical point of view. 

But what I liked most were the ideas behind certain pieces.

Stefanie Moser "Fall Risk". For bicycle riders: behind the x-ray you can see the small map of dangerous roads.

Seems paint, but it is jeans fabric

"Sweet dreams" by Brent Ruka

The most sponsored exhibit "2012: End of the world" did not interested me so much. I only save this "Half past time to die" by Donnie Tomer.

There were, then, three videos and I hesitated standing on front of the black tent closing the screening room. The risk is to had to watch 45 mins videos about nothing, or about too much. Nothing of this happened. Short videos, very meaningful, technically correct in terms of timing and colors. Very professional. I'm saying this just because I really had bad experiences in terms of video art, in Italy, but here in PIttsburgh this is the second time I'm very lucky. 

The videos have been selected by PF/PCA Members. Andrew Batista, Matthew R. Day and Andrew Kelemen were displayed in the room. My favorite one was the video about a lady, preparing for a theatre play -as an actress- making-up, putting on jewels and a gorgeous dress and reaching the stage. But when the curtains opened, no one was there. The room was completely empty and she was destroyed by this. While the anxiety of the lady, feeling lost, reaches the peak, suddenly the environment changes and the video shows the same lady, in regular clothes, suddenly finding herself in her kitchen, hand-wasting dishes. No more jewels, no more silk gloves, but plastic ones. In few seconds well directed her real life is presented, made of daily pills, an husband in the garden, a smoky living room, grey walls, silly souvenirs all over the house, a total mess l around.

Here the video, by Andrew Kelemen: "when one door closes, a window opens". It lasts 3:36 min, and no one sec is wasted. 

And this is only a small part of the masterpieces there... Check it out! It's definitely worth visiting.