Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Multimedia Exhibit Holdup in the Hood Explores Self Identification through Race, Class, Gender

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts:
Shaunda Miles, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
(412) 471-1578, Miles@TrustArts.org
Diana Roth, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
(412) 471-8717, Roth@TrustArts.org
Images available: http://TrustArts.org/press
Search Name: 707 Penn Gallery


MULTIMEDIA EXHIBITION EXPLORES SELF IDENTIFICATION
THROUGH RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER
 
Pittsburgh, PA—The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the opening of artist Francis Crisafio’s multimedia exhibition HOLDUP in the HOOD at 707 Penn Gallery on Friday, September 13, 2013. The exhibition incorporates drawings, recycled photographs, and print media as well as body gesture to explore issues of race, class, and gender. The exhibition is open to the public Friday, September 13, through Sunday, November 3, 2013.

“HOLDUP in the HOOD is both a personal and communal exploration of self,” Crisafio says. “It concerns the identity of self that comes with the realization of making one’s mark.”


Together with his teaching partner Meda Rago, Crisafio co-authors and teaches an after-school, inner-city arts collaboration in the Manchester section of Pittsburgh, PA. The images included in this exhibition are culled from a larger body of work that documents the after-school, collaborative arts curriculum rooted in self-portraiture. The program and subsequent documentation have run continuously for 11 years.

HOLDUP in the HOOD has been extensively exhibited in 2013, in both national and international venues, including the Filter Photo Festival, Chicago, IL.; Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR.; Photo Center NW, Seattle, WA.; Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, MA.; Flash Forward Festival/Magenta Foundation, Brooklyn, NY., and Boston, MA.; and Onward 13/Project Basho, Philadelphia, PA.


The exhibition has also received numerous awards, including first and second prize at Prix de la Photographie, Paris, France; third prize at the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA.; and “best of show” at the Hoyt Museum, Pittsburgh, PA. Additionally, two images will be included in the 2012 Photo Review, the International Journal of Photography, Philadelphia. PA. Two images were selected and one of them was awarded first prize in the Texas Photographic Society international competition, and one image was selected from the series and awarded an honorable mention at the Griffin Museum of Photography.

Self-taught photographer Francis Crisafio studied painting and printmaking at Carnegie-Mellon University. www.franciscrisafio.com

About 707 Penn Gallery
707 Penn Gallery is a project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The gallery is located at 707 Penn Avenue, in downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. Gallery Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.–5 p.m. Free and open to the public. For more information about all gallery exhibits featured in the Cultural District, please visit www.TrustArts.org.

About The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh’s most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country’s largest land masses “curated” by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh’s quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Cultural Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.

Photo Credits:  Francis Crisafio
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