Global Navigators Art Exhibit at Cultural District Galleries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Veronica Corpuz, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
(412) 471-6082 / corpuz@pgharts.org

Global Navigators April 27 – June 17, 2012
Wood Street Galleries / SPACE / 707 Penn Gallery
As part of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Distinctively Dutch Festival

Pittsburgh, PA: “We navigate with ease today with online directions and satellite signaling.  GPS systems guide us along our routes, correcting every wrong turn. Exploration and wayfinding in other ages, however, were fraught with difficulties and conflict,” notes curator Murray Horne in his essay on the exhibition Global Navigators on display through June 17, as part of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Distinctively Dutch Festival, which concludes this weekend.

The 1600s were a golden era for the Dutch, the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer and a relatively tolerant society that distinguished itself as a haven for the oppressed.  It was a prosperous age, with coffers filled by the greatest merchant fleet in the world. Amsterdam became its glittering financial capital, the center of the new Dutch Empire.

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was created to find an all-water route to Asia and occupy unclaimed lands along the way. Twelve years later, the New Netherland Company was formed and received a three-year monopoly from the Dutch government to occupy lands between New France and the English claims in Virginia. The company operated the fur trade profitably, but was unable to entice settlers into the area.

The Dutch needed permanent settlements in order to hold New World possessions against French and English competition. In 1621, the Dutch West India Company was formed to conduct activities in West Africa and the Western Hemisphere. Recipients of a 24-year monopoly, the investors began by establishing a permanent settlement on lands formerly belonging to the New Netherland Company.

In 1624, a shipload of Flemish Walloons sailed to the New World, subsequently spreading themselves throughout the claim along the Delaware, Connecticut and Hudson Rivers.  Outlying ventures were under constant threat of attack by Native Americans and most were abandoned, but New Netherland emerged as areas were settled in the current Mid-Atlantic States of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.  Its provincial capital was New Amsterdam, now Manhattan.

This spring, the Dutch occupy Pittsburgh, a city of three other rivers, throughthe Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Distinctively Dutch Festival, a three-month festival that celebrates the culture and contemporary performing and visual arts from the Netherlands through May 2012.

Global Navigators explores and embodies our continued fascination with global cultures through various media, forms and processes.  The eight exhibiting artists all hold Dutch citizenship or live in Holland, but their imagery crosses geographical, ideological, technical and aesthetic boundaries, spanning Maoist guerrilla group operating in the Philippines to a 747 descending over Hong Kong.  Their works move from the North Pole to more nebulous locations, crafting and critiquing our claims to the earth and the powers that reign over its regions and inhabitants. Together, their efforts embrace and extend the historical context of Dutch exploration, charting a contemporary expedition with new media across emerging globalization.

Global Navigators
Curated by Murray Horne

Wood Street Galleries:
Peter Bogers
Guido van der Werve

SPACE:
Mark Boulos
Gerard Holthuis
Folkert de Jong
Geert Mul
Marnix de Nijs
Karen Sargsyan

707
Guido van der Werve


Gallery Details:
Wood Street Galleries is located at 601 Wood Street above the T-Station in the Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District. SPACE is located at 812 Liberty Avenue, and 707 Penn Gallery is located at 707 Penn Avenue in the Cultural District.Global Navigators is made possible through generous support of the Mondriaan Foundation.

Hours:
Wednesday & Thursday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
For more information, call 412-471-5605 or visit woodstreetgalleries.org

Wood Street Galleries is a Project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and is free and open to the public

ALSO ON VIEW:
Girls’N’Guns
709 Penn Gallery
Photography by Rachel Nieborg and Ine Mulder
Through June 17, 2012

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh