Caravan: Paintings by Melissa Kuntz

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Today's date: February 12, 2012

Caravan: Paintings by Melissa Kuntz

March 2, 2012 – April 13, 2012 - 709 Penn Gallery

Since 2004, Melissa Kuntz has been painting and exhibiting representational works based on photographs she has taken of locations of leisure and artifice, including South Beach, Las Vegas, Coney Island, Cozumel, the New Jersey shore, Conneaut Lake, and Niagara Falls, to name a few. Her images have captured a particular aesthetic in the signage and architecture of these well-known vacation spots. Drawn to the tawdry, gaudy, cheapness associated with the decadent lifestyles that allow for vacation time, Kuntz’s new paintings presented in Caravan are an extension of this aesthetic.

“I find the ‘vacation’ home—motor homes, travel trailers and caravans—appealing for the same reasons I am attracted to the other architecture and signage of ‘leisure,’ says Kuntz. “Quirky difference in the graphics, style and design suggest endless possible permutations. I travel 75 miles each way, through the countryside to work, and am struck by the numbers of motor homes and travel trailers that are abandoned, discarded and unused littering the landscape. I particularly enjoy the way the trailers are often adorned in a way that seems uninhibited—it is like there exists a freedom to explore tacky, cheapness that is bizarrely alluring in the land of “vacation” but not in everyday life. The sense of hopefulness that existed when the trailers were acquired—dreams of uninhibited, unending travel and exploration—are halted by the realities of finances and time. And the beautiful, often decaying trailer is a metaphor for the small, however unrealistic, hopes that remain of one day embarking on a great adventure.”


About Melissa Kuntz

Melissa Kuntz holds an MFA and an MA from SUNY Purchase and a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Kuntz has written reviews for Art in America and the Pittsburgh City Paper while also maintaining a studio practice. She is currently Associate Professor and Art Department Chair at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. Recent collections include the Senvest Art Collection (Montréal) and Fidelity Corporate Art Collection. She is represented, in Canada, by Gallery Page and Strange in Halifax, NS. Works can be seen online at www.melissakuntz1.com


GALLERY DETAILS

709 Penn Gallery is located on 709 Penn Ave. / Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District

Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.–5 p.m.

709 Penn Gallery is a Project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s Education & Community Engagement department.

EXHIBIT DETAILS

March 2 – April 13, 2012

Artist reception: March 2, 2012 6:00-8:00 p.m.
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Harish Saluja: Progression Tranforms Simple into Art

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Today's date: September 23, 2011


Harish Saluja: Progression

September 23 - November 13, 2011

707 Penn Gallery



PITTSBURGH, PA: While doodling is generally seen as something anyone can do, local artist Harish Saluja transforms seemingly simple drawings into richly intricate and colorful works of art. Saluja’s latest series Progession can be interpreted as an extension of his passion for Asian-inspired art. The abstract expressionistic drawings found in Progression explore Indian music, Raga paintings and Hindu dieties.

About Progression

The Progression paintings are a representation of the changing style and themes of his work over the years. These include:

Mandalas: Mandala is Sanskrit for circle, polygon, community, and connection. It is a symbol of man or woman in the world, a support for the meditating person. It is often illustrated as a palace with four gates, facing the four corners of the Earth. Before the meditating person arrives at the gates, he/she must pass the four outer circles. Saluja builds on this basic discipline and gives it an abstract flavor.

Raga Series: Based on the Indian classical music, these paintings are abstract representations of the moods and emotions that the various ragas evoke.

Contemporary Miniatures: These tiny (5x3 inches) images are often the basis of larger paintings but are complete pieces in their own right.

To see the painting images are online, visit: www.facebook.com/harish.saluja

About Harish Saluja

Filmmaker, entrepreneur and art doyen Harish Saluja is best known in the Pittsburgh art scene for his leadership of Silk Screen, which celebrates Asian and Asian American culture through film festivals, art, dance and music. Saluja’s film The Journey won several awards and was shown in more than 30 film festivals and distributed by IFC (Independent Film Channel). In addition to his nationally recognized artwork, Saluja is co-host of Music From India on Essential Public Media 90.5FM, which is the longest running radio program of its kind in the U.S. In addition to his artistic pursuits, Saluja is 33-year veteran in the publishing industry. Through his latest endeavor Silk Screen, an Arts and Culture Organization, he is building bridges to/from Asia.

ARTnews’ Harry Schwalb once described Harish’s artwork style when he said, “Saluja sees the music's endless patterns – which evolve simultaneously in repetitively strummed layers of tone and rhythm – as like colored threads, woven by the performer into a musical carpet." This is because Harish’s paintings are based upon Ragas and jazz, both types of music that involve a building upon and meshing of different beats.

But this quotation not only describes Harish’s paintings, but his personal life as well. Growing up in the Indian state Punjab, Harish loved the exposure he received of the arts from his mother, who was a singer and writer. As a boy, he would ride his bike in any weather to go to the theater. During his early adult years, he made the decision to pursue a more secure future and attended the prestigious IIT, Kharagpur as a mining engineer major. Harish was already adding the first few layers of his life’s painting on the canvas.

In 1971, Harish moved to New York City. He tried to fulfill his dream of being an artist, but soon found out that this does not always pay the bills. He then made the decision to move to Pittsburgh, where he was told that he would be able to find a job with his engineering background. Once he arrived, he found a job with Measurements and Data Corp. Through hard work, Harish became a co-owner of the corporation.

With a means of living, Harish was finally able to purse his other dream of, as he once put, “changing the world through art”. He created beautiful paintings, many of which have been shown in galleries across the United States. He also started his own film company New Ray Films in 1995. His film, “The Journey” featured two famous actors, Roshan Seth and Saeed Jaffrey; who were also in “Gandhi”. The film received acclaim reviews, the Audience Award for Best Film at the Florida Film Festival and the Best Independent Film award at the Cleveland Film Festival.

Harish’s love of cinema has not ended with New Ray Films. It was expanded and is now manifested within his non-profit organization, Silk Screen. Silk Screen celebrates Asian and Asian American culture through film festivals, art, dance, music, and other events. It is located in Pittsburgh, which Harish believes, will allow others to feel a bond with the city, just as he had.


GALLERY DETAILS

707 Penn Gallery is located on 707 Penn Ave. / Downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District

Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.–5 p.m.



707 Penn Gallery is a Project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and is free and open to the public.
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U.S. Debut French Artists at Wood Street Galleries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Kill Date: January 1, 2010
Contact: Veronica Corpuz, (412) 471-6082 / corpuz@pgharts.org
Electronic images available upon request.


MATTER AND MEMORY
The U.S. debut of French installation artist
JULIEN MAIRE
@ WOOD STREET GALLERIES
Exhibition runs through Thursday, December 31, 2009
601 Wood Street, Pittsburgh PA 15222

[PITTSBURGH, PA] Wood Street Galleries, a project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, presents “Matter and Memory,” the U.S. premiere of French installation artist Julien Maire. This special exhibition features four experimental forms of projection, highlighting simultaneously both the simplicity and complexity of matter, vision, and memory. The exhibition closes on New Year’s Eve, Thursday, December 31, 2009, as part of the Cultural Trust’s First Night Pittsburgh celebration.

Julien Maire is a French artist and performer based in Berlin. In his work and performance he deconstructs and re-devises audiovisual techniques. His performances and installations have been shown in several countries, including Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria; Sculpture Space in Shanghai, China; Sonar 07 in Barcelona, Spain; Tesla Media in Berlin, Germany; and the Kibla Multimedia Center in Maribor, Slovenia; as well as the Digital Art Festival in Tokyo, Japan, and Australian Centre for Moving Images in Melbourne, Australia, among others.
Julien Maire won an award at the Ars Electronica festival in Austria in 2004 and in 2007. He also won the first prize at the Liedts-Meesen Fondation in Belgium for his Exploding Camera installation in 2008. Most recently, he was nominated for his collective body of work at "World Technology Awards" in New York.

On view at Wood Street Galleries are four installations. “Demi-Pas” (2002) is a short film which is projected using a ‘reversed camera’ technique. A projector has been converted to house micro-mechanisms that produce animated images using a principle similar to that of cinematography.

Constructed with a television monitor connected to the dissected body of a video camera lying on a table, the piece “Exploding Camera” (2007) is a kind of destroyed medium able to produce live an experimental historical film, reinterpreting the events of the war since 2001.

"Low resolution Cinema" (2005) is a 128 x 64 pixels projection. The piece is based on a high reduction of the resolution and by the other way it tries to "decompress" the image in a three dimensional space. The projection is produced with a special projector using two black and white Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD). Both are in movement inside of the projector. The horizon line, or border, is physically cut on each lcd ( each LCD has been half- destructed in order to display only the upper or the lower side of the image. Abstract landscapes and architecture are moving between dissolution and resolution.

Lastly, “Digit" (2006) is a live performance that is also conceived to be presented as a piece of living Art. A writer sits at a table writing a text. Simply by sliding his finger over a blank piece of paper, printed text appears under his finger. The spectators can come very close to the 'writer' and read the text following the movement of the finger. The writer remains absorbed in his task.

Located at 601 Wood Street above the T-Station in downtown Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, the Galleries are free and open to the public Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. For more information, call Wood Street Galleries at (412) 471-5605 or visit www.woodstreetgalleries.org.

Support for Wood Street Galleries has been provided by the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Additional support provided by the Port Authority of Allegheny County and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.


ALSO ON VIEW

@ SPACE
Transfer Lounge
Through November 21
TRANSFER LOUNGE is a project that involves art professionals from Spain and U.S.A and creates a unique opportunity for artists from different parts of the world to actively exchange their views and ideas around issues of mobility and transition. Co-curated by Carolina Loyola-Garcia (USA) and Ima Pico (Spain).

A project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, SPACE is located at 812 Liberty Avenue, Cultural District, and is free and open to the public Tuesday-Thursday 11:00 am-6:00 pm and Friday-Saturday 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. For more information call (412) 325-7723 or visit www.spacepittsburgh.org.


@707 PENN GALLERY
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh
October 30 - December 31

707 Penn Gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday-Thursday 11:00 am-6:00 pm and Friday-Saturday 11:00 am to 8:00 pm. For more information call (412) 325-7017 or visit pgharts.org.


@709 PENN GALLERY
Nests, Rhizomes, Seeds: Anna Divinsky, JoAnna Commandaros, Karen Page and Holland Williams: A collaboration evolving from a cabinet of curiosities becomes an investigation of body and nature.
November 13 - December 31

The 709 Penn Gallery is FREE and open to the public Tuesday -Thursday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. For more information call (412) 224-4651 or visit pgharts.org.