ADDITIONAL TOUR DATE THIS SATURDAY!!

"STAN" Kinetic Sculpture by Alloy PGH 2015 artist Patrick Camut

(photo by Richardo Robinson)

We have added one more opportunity to view the Alloy PGH artworks at Carrie Furnaces before the project closes in November.  Saturday October 31st Alloy Co-counder Chris McGinnis will lead one final walk through the artworks at 10am sharp.  For tickets please visit the Rivers of Steel website.

DONT MISS THIS LAST CHANCE TO SEE THE ARTWORKS!!!

Alloy on Artslant

"Alloy Pittsburgh’s bi-annual exhibition at Carrie Furnaces, just over the city’s border in Homestead, PA, looks to create a symbiosis between Pittsburgh’s heavy rustbelt legacy and the opportunities its rubble leaves"

Read the full article here! 

AN EVENING WITH MARY JANE JACOB

Alloy Pittsburgh in partnership with Radiant Hall Studios and The Mattress factory Museum are proud to present an evening talk with Chicago-based curator Mary Jane Jacob at the Energy Innovation Center on Friday October 16^th 6PM.  Jacob is a curator, writer, and educator who shifted her workplace from the museum to the street to critically engage the discourse around public space. In Mary Jane Jacob’s Culture in Action project (1991-1993) artists worked in partnership with communities to explore the changing nature of public art. Jacob's current curatorial focus is on Chicago social practice. Admission is FREE.

An Evening with Mary Jane Jacob

Energy Innovation Center

1435 Bedford Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Friday October 16, 2015

6pm – 730pm

Free and open to the public

Modern Times at The Mill

Join us for another special event - Modern Times at The Mill! 

October 17, 2015 5:00-9:30pm
Carrie Furnaces National Historic Landmark, Swissvale PA, 15218
$30.00

Alloy PGH and the Rivers of Steel join forces with Treading Art for this exciting event at the Carrie Furnaces.  Guest hosts Rick Sebak, John and Giselle Fetterman and Baron Batch will lead celebrity tours of the Alloy PGH art installations followed by dinner and a movie. Ticket holders will be treated to a unique screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times in a venue that epitomized 20th century industrial progress.

Tickets available at here !

Alloy Pittsburgh Revealed

Thank you to everyone who came out for the opening of Alloy Pittsburgh this year and to the talented team of artists who made it all happen!

Oreen Cohen

Rose Clancy

Alyssa Kail

Lenore Thomas

Sarika Goulatia

John Tronsor

Scott Turri

Patrick Camut

Ricardo Robinson

Dan Ivec & Nick G. Liadis

A final big thank you goes to Kevin Sousa / Superior Motors and East End Brewery for their contributions to the day! 

Alloy Pittsburgh Opening Reception

Join us for the Opening Reception of Alloy Pittsburgh! 

The 2015 Alloy PGH artists reveal their completed site-based artworks in a public reception on September 26th, 2015. All artwork will remain on display through October 31st, 2015. Alloy Pittsburgh’s opening reception is a ticketed event with proceeds benefiting the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area and Alloy Pittsburgh. 

Opening Reception: 

September 26th, 2015 1:00-5:00pm

Carrie Furnaces National Historic Landmark

Swissvale PA, 15218

Get your tickets here! 
(Children and youth under 18 years of age will receive free admission to the project)

Want to bike to the event? Our friends at Bike Pittsburgh have you covered with a suggested bike route to the Carrie Furnaces from Pittsburghs Historic Southside neighborhood.

Alloy PGH on NPR

Listen Here!
Premiered on NPR Thursday (8/27/15) at 5:45 AM 

Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson joins co-founder Chris McGinnis on NPR to discuss his work in the Alloy Pittsburgh project!

Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson's STEELFONICS is an installation that imagines a creative collective of black industrial steel workers whose contribution to the enormous expansion of the American steel industry has been all but invisible.  This exhibit bears witness to their legacy and hidden contribution to Pittsburgh's industrial past.

Moving Targets: An Exhibition of Extinction and Survival

Moving Targets: An Exhibition of Extinction and Survival by artists Steffi Domike and Ann T. Rosenthal with Ruth Fauman-Fichman is returning to Pittsburgh August 29 - October 1, 2015 at Christine Frechard Gallery, 5871 Forbes Ave. PGH, 15217.

After the artists joined Project Passenger Pigeon to commemorate the 2014 centenary of the extinction of the species, they realized that this historical period held particular significance for their own families: The disappearance of the North American passenger pigeon roughly coincided with the arrivals of their forbears to the continent. 

Join the artists and authors for the exhibition opening and catalog release for Moving Targets, on Saturday August 29, 5-9 pm which will include new works drawing on the artists' three-year research and creative process. 

Additional Artists' Talk with Catalog Authors will take place Sunday, September 20, 4-5 pm. 

The Residency: Part Two

INSPIRATION AND INNOVATION

Artists returned to the furnaces on July 24 - 25 to further explore how they will connect with the environment and to gain insight from innovators who have done so already. Addy Smith-Reiman and Anna Johnson visited with Alloy PGH artists to discuss the ecology of the carrie furnaces. Addy is an artist and project manager for Riverlife with a focus on place-based projects that celebrate local identity, shared histories and future use. Anna is a post-doctoral candidate at Pitt whose research focuses on the ecology of urban vacant lands and the application of sustainable urban landscapes. 

Addy Smith-Reiman and Anna Johnson

Anna Johnson speaks in the Iron Garden Walk

Artists RIcardo Robinson, Sarika Goulatia, and Oreen Cohen continued to experiment with process and material studies on site at Carrie Furnace.

The day concluded with the Alloy PGH Meet and Greet at Unsmoke Systems. A special thanks goes to Jeb Feldman for hosting the event and Lena Loshonkohl for allowing us to share the space with her exhibition, "Other Books Other Worlds"

Homemade pizzas at the community pizza oven, Unsmoke Systems. 

Artist Rose Clancy speaks about her plans for Alloy PGH 2015. 

Visitors enjoying pizza after artist talks. 

Alloy Abroad: From PGH to LDN

Co-founder of Alloy Pittsburgh, Sean Derry, recently returned to Pittsburgh from an exciting trip to London, UK, where he presented at the Tenth International Conference on the Arts in Society, "The Work of Art in the Age of Networked Society." The Conference ran from July 22-24, 2015 at Imperial College London. Read the abstract from Sean's presentation here, and learn about the impact Alloy Pittsburgh is making on the world beyond the Monongahela shores. 

From Exhibition to Institution: Expanding Regional Vibrancy in Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River Valley

Many leading city planners and economists attest to the power of art as a force for promoting social progress and economic vitality.  When part of a wider initiative, community-driven arts programming can increase local pride, build strong relationships and encourage synergistic partnerships that contribute to meeting community needs.  In 2013 Pittsburgh based artists Sean Derry and Chris McGinnis partnered with the Rivers of Steel Heritage Area to produce Alloy Pittsburgh, a site-based project motivated by a sincere belief in the capacity of art to contribute to the revitalization of Pittsburgh Monongahela River Valley. The success of their inaugural project has enabled Derry and McGinnis to work with the Rivers of Steel Heritage Corporation on the development of a comprehensive arts programming initiative for the entire eight-county Rivers of Steel Heritage Area. Derry and McGinnis formalized their partnership with the Rivers of Steel under the new heading Alloy Arts, and embarked on a multi-faceted effort to build a sustainable arts program. This presentation will chronicle the creation of Alloy Arts  and the institutions experiences transitioning from a single community art project to a multi-faceted arts initiative offering contemporary art experiences throughout the Monongahela River Valley.

Sean Derry presents at Tenth International Conference of the Arts in Society.

7/25 Meet and Greet!

Come join Alloy Pittsburgh at UnSmoke Systems this Saturday from 5:00 - 7:00 pm! 

Take the chance to chat with artists and hear about their ideas and plans for future installations at Carrie Furnace. If thats not enough, we will be cooking up free homemade pizza in the community pizza oven too!!

Join our event on facebook here. Hope to see you there! 

The Residency: Part One

PROCESS

The quest for artistic creation and innovation very rarely traverses a direct path. Exploration exists at the heart of the Alloy Pittsburgh on-site residency at Carrie Furnace and it happens through many varied experiences. During the past month the Alloy artists spent time forging pathways through the rich past and deep history of the built environment that they will adopt as their exhibition space in the months to come. 

 

Documentation is an essential part of process for many artists. The on-site residency provides a unique opportunity for artists to intimately explore the scale and surroundings of the site.

To gain a fuller understanding of historical and environmental context, Alloy artists listened to lectures presented by Edward Muller, professor of history and former director of the Urban Studies program at the University of Pittsburgh, and eco-artist Ann Rosenthal, whose research focuses on the intersection of art, industry and the environment. 

The rich history of the Carrie Furnace can be retold by those who experienced its previous purpose and power first hand. Jim Kapuska and Bill Sharky, former workers at the site, met with artists to resurrect the past sights, sounds, and smells now distant to the vacant grounds. 

Finally, through conversation and shared experience, the residency offers artists a chance to establish relationships and inspire one another. 

*A special thanks to Andrea Petrillo for all the photos! 

Artist Talk with Ann Rosenthal

Join us for a free artist lecture led by Ann T. Rosenthal!

May 29th, 2015. 5:00-7:00pm
Free and Open to the Public

Ann Rosenthal will discuss critical analyses of western culture's disconnect from non-human nature and how environmental art has addressed the nature/culture split historically and in contemporary ecoart.

Ann Rosenthal brings to communities 30 years experience as an artist, educator, and writer. Her art installations address the local manifestation of global concerns, including climate change, food safety, and nuclear waste. Her work has been shown at the Andy Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh; Exit Art and the Hudson River Museum in New York; the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia; and Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren in Germany. For 2014, Ms. Rosenthal and collaborator Steffi Domike exhibited Moving Targets in the eastern U.S. This interdisciplinary art installation linked the artists’ shared cultural heritage and family migrations to the story of the American passenger pigeon for the centenary of the bird’s extinction (1914). Throughout 2014, Ms. Rosenthal led a coalition of environmental and arts institutions in Pittsburgh to promote a series of regional events for this anniversary.

Ms. Rosenthal’s essays and work on eco/community art have been published in several journals and anthologies, most recently in Regenerative Infrastructures (New York: Prestel, 2013); “Atomic Legacy Art” in the Women Environmental Artists Directory Magazine (September 2012) and the online, peer-reviewed Ecopsychology Journal (Winter 2012). 

She teaches foundations, art history, and environmental art courses in the region, and has developed several ecoart college-level courses, including an online graduate course, Introduction to Eco/Community Art, for Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Ms. Rosenthal received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999. She owns an industrial building in Pittsburgh where she directs LOCUS – a creative commons where art, community and ecology meet.

To learn more about Ann Rosenthal's work visit her website here: http://atrart.net/

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.

Website: meeklingpress.com/onthestairs

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

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"