Urbanic- sightlines and microcosms" group show at Moxie Dada
Runs July 5-26, 2008
Public reception on Saturday, July 12, 2008 from 7-10 PM
moxie DaDA will be having its first guest curator featuring artists from around the country and abroad who are redefining the complex relationship and dialogue between artist and city. Kyle Ethan Fischer has been asked to develop a show encasing artists' reactions to the changing face of the city, responding to the shifts in population from urban to suburban or suburban to urban, and artists which work resonates independently to the city. The term "urbanic" was coined by Grant Bobitski, one of the artists on exhibition during "URBANIC: sightlines and microcosms". Normally the curator for moxie DaDA, Bobitski used "URBANIC" to describe his own work in a studio visit with Fischer which began the development of the show. After several intense conversations, a theme emerged; artists are developing a genre which affronted the changing climate of metropolitan ....America......
Bobitski's work comprises of remnants of scientific text books and painterly diagrams of buildings and rooms. Both expressionistic and analytical, his work is less about decay than construction. ....
Following suit with strong two-dimensional elements, the work of Adam Grossi, Amy Casey and Deanna Mance will also be featured. Grossi, a graduate from CMU who has been pursuing an MFA in Chicago, addresses a diagrammatical yet painterly approach looking at suburbia and sprawl with ironic nostalgia. His depictions of billboards and the many signifiers that bombard the public are critical; his approach is Hoffman in sensibility but reminiscent of the language that Richard Diebenkorn developed. Amy Casey, hailing from ..Cleveland.. but also with ....Chicago.... affiliations, contrasts the biomorphic with the urbane and depicts strip malls with plant growth playing with the viewers' perspective. She creates scale changes with a palette that is harmonious and vibrant. Deanna Mance, a local artist gone abroad and showing successfully in ....London...., will also be represented. Mance, known for her intricate paintings and drawings, depicts magical almost aerial views that remind Fischer of the topography of a city. Her almost outsider renderings allow the viewer to escape the city with a distance alluding to the much broader position that the city has a place in the universe. While Grossi and Casey approach their depictions with an affront claustrophobically, Mance approaches her subjects as if she controls them. Bobitski, Grossi, Casey and Mance all work to develop site-lines which affect the viewer...
The work of Jaison Vespucci, Kaley Finegan and Matthew Indovina summon more introspective viewpoints. Vespucci's work is both humorous and commentary on our nations interdependence on the automobile. Vespucci, a ceramic artist and teacher who works with local youth, constructs biomorphic vessels with simian heads. The vessels are then outfitted so that they may move with wheels and car model parts. It is as if a hybrid model has been created that would solve our "monkeying" around the issues that we do as a society. Kaley Finegan was elected after Fischer saw her work in the Glass Show at the ....Pittsburgh.. ..Center.... for the Arts. Her pas de Terre pieces are about microcosms. The blown glass showcasing intricate copper laced together. There is a need in Finegan's work for shelter and a process to take place. Indovina, another moxie DaDA figure head, was also selected for the show. In an ongoing salvage project he has been working on, Indovina is repurposing both urban detritus and sound. An installation in the adjoining garden to the firehouse, Indovina will reconfigure old radios encapsulated in plexi-glass with sound bytes from the city. The garden recently rediscovered will be the backdrop for an urban mix of city life sounds of city life.
In Fischer's curatorial note, he states "that urban decay is giving way to transformation. As with much of the change of the beginning the 20th century, the 21st century has a new pluralism and a concentration on locality with both a depletion of natural resources and an expansions of information in global proportions. The selected artists have unique viewpoints. Whether mircrocosmic, ironic commentary or suburban surrounding, visionary, samplings of city life or distortions of the sight lines that impact our vision, the viewer will be given a glimpse of what is coming to be - urbanic." ....
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We invite you for a free & open to the public reception on Saturday, July 12, 2008 from 7-10 PM. Fischer will also be giving a curatorial discussion, Saturday, July 19 at 4 PM.....
moxie DaDA 1416 Arch St Pittsburgh PA 15212
check out
http://www.PghGalleries.com
sponsored by:
pittsburgh galleries is a project from
pittsburgh photographer rick byerly, http://www.uniquetake.com
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