Alloy Pittsburgh is a unique visual and performing arts project co-founded by Pittsburgh artists Sean Derry and Chris McGinnis. The project was developed in collaboration with the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and the Kipp Gallery at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Alloy Pittsburgh offers 15 artists from the greater Pittsburgh region the opportunity to develop temporary site-based artworks for the Carrie Furnace National Historic Landmark.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

2015 Participating Artists: Dan Ivec & Nick G. Liadis



The final artists on our 2015 line-up have joined forces and talents. Read here about Dan Ivek and Nick Liadis' joint practice, as well as information on their individual careers below! 

An architect and instructor by profession (Liadis) and a published novelist and visual artist (Ivec),we come from unique arts backgrounds and share an interest in drawing, music, and a diversity of forms. Realizing a mutual interest in the fantastic and in the imagining of landscape, we began meeting and elaborating exquisite corpse drawings of buildings and cities. Our practice has expanded and now involves a horde of exercises with which we brainstorm architecture and then imagine the mental life and society of the occupants. For example, we improvise and narrate scenarios which the other artist must then sketch concurrently. 


Dan Ivek, Conceptual Sketch, 2015


Name:
Dan Ivek

Hometown: Cleveland OH, and Chicago IL
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Bloomfield
Influential or Favorite Regional Artists: Hatch Arts Collective 

Artist Statement: 
I rely upon many mediums - writing, illustration, and voice - in an attempt to make and explain new worlds in which I can challenge myself and my own contemporary environment. I have promoted this vision via traditional writing and have also used images to support text or to inspire an improvised, oral telling of a fable.


Name: Nick G Liadis
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Lawrenceville
Influential or Favorite Regional Artist: Carlos Scarpa, Lebbeus Woods, Gordon Matta-Clark, Alfred Schnittke, Cornelis Cardew, Bernhard Leitner

Artist Statement:
Nick G Liadis is an Architectural Designer and Artist living in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, though also has strong connections to Detroit, MI. He has balanced practicing and teaching architecture with his own art making and consulting work. The time split between professional, academic, and studio environments has been quite illuminating. That successful combination affords tremendous perspective of the architecture discipline, continually prodding the relationship between architecture and art.
Much of Nick's work is made through a variety of media including architecture, space, and music. Drawing, design, and installation art extend that work as well. For Nick, having artistic skills in architecture challenges traditional modes of space making. This provides Nick with the questions and ideas that make architecture a multi-sensory experience through the presence of art. Some of Nick's most recent work involves music to highlight dimensions of space, applying aspects of notation, resonance, balance, noise, and echo.
Cross-disciplinary inquiry is the foundation to Nick's artistic skills. It is what constitutes the connections between, for example, music and architecture. Approaching architecture in this way means not just knowing about music, but being the musician as you do the architecture. That simple distinction allows for a more robust cross-disciplinary investigation, where each subject profoundly affects the other.  Nick is excited by moments where an idea can be both musical and architectural, crossing seemingly distinct art disciplines.
Through education, exceptional practice, and interdisciplinary art collaboration, Nick has worked in Pittsburgh at Desmone Architects, Springboard Design, Studio for Spatial Practice, Carnegie Mellon University, The Andy Warhol Museum, Mattress Factory Museum, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and Hatch Arts Collective. He is also a founding principal of Arscott + Liadis Collaborative LLC, a design and art making studio in the Polish Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He has his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy.

Website: nickgliadis.com and arscottliadis.com

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

2015: Participating Artist: John Tronsor


Name: John Tronsor
Hometown: Ephrata, PA
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Pittsburgh/ Lawrenceville

Influential or Favorite Regional Artist: Delanie Jenkins is just wonderful


Artist Statement:
I am an artist who has been interested in ideas concerning representation, processes of cognition and models of ontology. My work finds itself expressed in a variety of media but is typically realized three dimensionally, in video or both. Recently I have been occupied attempting to encapsulate the following three aspects of my practice into coherent wholes: i) the attention and priority of material as directing and providing the foundation for the sense of the work (rather than necessarily functioning as ancillary to the piece, but being integrated into it as base); ii) the construction or staging of a process so that its material production and/or its sense folds back on itself; iii) as an investigation into the relation between interiority and exteriority as expressed at the site of an interstice or membrane. 


Website: johntronsor.com


John Tronsor
Untitled (Mirrorpane), 2014
Mirrorpane glass, acrylic, strobe lights, drywall, wood, hardware
144" x 154" x 25"


Monday, May 18, 2015

2015 Participating Artist: Sarika Goulatia


Name: Sarika Goulatia
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Squirrel Hill
Influential or Favorite Regional Artist: Tara Donovan, Louise Bourgeois, Mona Hatoum, Ann Hamilton

Artist Statement:  
I am a visual artist. I create large-scale sculptures and installations. My work assesses and investigates current concerns, conflicts and social issues. My practice is diverse in media- the theme, material, process and approach vary but are united conceptually and tactically reflecting a particular idea. The process to begin with is personal and intuitive, however, it becomes premeditated and directed towards a specific outcome based on how the materials transform and transition. Playing with materials is a part of my ongoing investigation.
My works attempt at transforming the context of diverse commonplace materials and imbues it with new meaning. The installations don’t intend to proclaim a particular position, however, they create opportunities for heightened perception to confront issues of morality, chaos and consumerism opening doors for introspection and dialogue.
The concept of community involvement has become an important aspect in developing and evolving my installations. I became sensitized to the “excesses” of consumerism after a life threatening allergic reaction to a prescribed medication. This event was a catalyst in changing the foundation materials for my works. I started using discarded materials to create off-balance sculptures that appear in a state of decay.
The interplay between 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional forms is central to my work. My sculptures are like drawings; they are contained autonomous objects, visualizing one small part of a larger system.
I am invested through my sculptures in studying spaces through castings, drawings, tracing and imprints that capture the traces of past life on scuffed surfaces. The marks, the grime, and the residue that linger on the finished pieces are archetypical and suggest a shared sense of history. My works tell the story of the space through the impressions left of the original object on the plaster cast or the paper. They challenge the viewers to reminiscence identities and the history of the structures.


Sarika Goulatia, Untitled X, 2014
Gesso, acrylic, donated shoe boxes
3 panel installation of 106" x 107" x 24"





Saturday, May 16, 2015

2015 Participating Artist: Alyssa Kail

Alyssa recently moved to Pittsburgh after spending several years in Portland, OR. Find out more about how a changing landscapes inspires her art!


Name: Alyssa Kail
Hometown: Warren, PA
Current location: Braddock, PA

Artist Statement: For the past few years, I have carried with me a large, industrial spool of neon orange polyester thread and employed this thread in various installations, tethering to the built environment to line draw in space. Neon vectors and bifurcations direct the eye and disrupt the known interior and exterior landscape. Exaggerated angles and false horizons force a new perspective and understanding of the body in space and scale. The color of this thread at first appears to be not from nature -- It is cautionary, manufactured, synthetic. Contemplation reveals its connection to the natural world in extreme conditions, sun, fire, and molten minerals. 

Understanding our world through a lens of previous experience and past knowledge, my work seeks to obfuscate prescribed use value of space and materiality, utilizing existing architecture and unconventional materials in site specific installations and sculptures. Embracing resourcefulness, I wish to highlight the potential of that which already exists.


*******

Website: www.alyssakail.com

See some of Alyssa's digital short clips Here! 

Alyssa Kail. String Iterations





Thursday, May 14, 2015

2015 Participating Artist: Ricardo Robinson

Name: Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson
Hometown: Pittsburgh
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Pittsburgh, PA/ Friendship

Influential or Favorite Regional Artist: Sound and Time


Artist Statement:

I am an audio visual artist. My work explores the relationship between sound, image, object and place. I create sound compositions from foley and field recordings. I complement these arrangements with still photography, three-dimensional objects and motion pictures. My art process has led me through city streets and urban parks, abandoned factories and railroad tracks, ambient nights and bustling days. My audiovisual works of art are showcased in theaters, public spaces and galleries. I use an additional element of live performance to share the creative process with audiences, improvise and collaborate with fellow artists.

I make art both to share personal experiences and to address social problems. My inspirations include everything from childhood memories to today’s popular headlines, the slant of light cast on a bridge to the sounds of gunfire. I share this blend of contrasting sounds and images to draw new lines of connection for audiences.  
My art is an invitation to a communal space where multiple perspectives and interpretations are in dialogue. Ultimately, I want my art to reconsider the past, recognize the present and remember the future.



Additional Links:


directed by: ricardo iamuuri

music composed and performed by: ricardo iamuuri


music composed by: ricardo iamuuri robinson

music composed and foley recordings by: ricaro iamuuri robinson

Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

2015 Participating Artist: Rose Clancy

You may recognize Rose Clancy from seeing GardenLab@516 on the North Side (2010 - 2012). If you are unfamiliar, take some time now to learn about Rose's site specific works!

Name: Rose Clancy
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Ingram


Influential or Favorite Regional Artist: There are too many regional artists who’s work I respect to list one as a favorite. I am drawn to individual and collaborative efforts that use a variety of mediums and genres, outside-the-box thinking, and the element of community engagement in their work.


Artist Statement:I am an interdisciplinary artist working on site-specific installations, found object sculptures, community engaged projects, and process-based performances that comment on the abuses human beings inflict upon one another and on the the natural environment they live in. My current body of work is focused on the relationship between neglect and nurturing, and explores internal and external transformations that occur within the process of healing and recovery. 

As a site-specific installation artist, I am drawn to environments that hold an energy of active transformation – where my first response to the site, is to an awareness of the heartbeat lying beneath the surface of the site’s brokenness and decay. My work is informed by the site’s history, its present condition, and the potential for its transformed future. I am committed to the practice of creative re-use and prefer to use materials of little or no value to others. I am often physically present in my work to give the public audience an opportunity to become involved in the work on a personal level, and to create a sense of connectedness with the community around the site.

Website: www.kingclancy.blogspot.com

Rose Clancy, GardenLab@516, site specific installation
22'w x 90'd, 2010-2012




Sunday, May 10, 2015

2015 Participating Artist: Patrick Camut

Name: Patrick Camut
Hometown: Charleroi, PA
Current Location/ Neighborhood: Charleroi, PA

Influential Regional Artists: My Dad Theo Camut, Chad Whitaker, Jim Nestor Sr., Jim Nestor Jr., Trenton Doyle Hancock,  Blake Anthony, Kyle Milne, Sandy Boyles and the talented 2010 - 2012 IUP Sculpture crew.


Artist Statement: As an artist I document the moments in life that have the power of unexpectedly altering the planned future. These moments can be as simple as a kiss or as complex as selecting a career, but share that special ability to change ones life. After taking note of these moments, I recreate them using an artistic language that has been developing with me since a very young age. This artistic language uses the kinetic actions of machines to create metaphors and building techniques learned from childhood toys.


Growing up in a post-industrial world inspires the foundation to my work. My post-industrial world is found outside of Pittsburgh in the town of Charleroi, PA. This small town is full of decaying machinery, architecture, and industry, left behind from the great mills that once supported it. With family heritage connecting me to the steel mills of Pittsburgh, I have always felt passionate when working with the same tools, processes, and materials as past generations once did.
Creating sculptural machines by repurposing materials, techniques, and tools from past generations forms a contemporary aesthetic. This communicates interpersonal moments through human interaction and is the intent for each sculpture I create.

Website: www.patrickcamut.com

Patrick Camut, Post-Perpetual Revolution,  2013.
Metal, Rubber, Motor, Boots, Motion Senor
48" x 16" x 54"