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fĂźnf

five year retrospective

Re-envision Office Space as Gallery

Turn office visitors into art patrons by showcasing the work of local artists In October 2010, the inaugural Art on the Walls exhibit launched with David Montano’s work. Since then, Art on the Walls has successfully grown and expanded to more offices and organizations in Pittsburgh, exhibited over 30 local artists and resulted in $44,000 in sales. The quality visual art of established and emerging Pittsburgh artists has graced the walls of Accenture, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Art on the Walls promotes emerging, mid-career, and established artists who work in two dimensional formats including printmaking, photography, fiber, painting, drawing, in addition to lightweight sculptures and video.

This exhibition program emerged from GPAC’s strategic goals to increase visibility of and support for the arts and to create an environment and opportunities that are supportive of individual artists.

Art on the Walls: • Supports local artists • Creates a pleasant work environment • Reflects distinct office cultures with customized exhibitions • Recognizes the role that arts and culture plays in Pittsburgh • Demonstrates civic pride

Previous Art on the Walls Exhibits Reflective Locations curated group exhibit by d.s.kinsel January 2014 - July 2014 d.s.kinsel Norman Brown Grits Capone Darnell Chambers Natiq Jalil Terry Mitchum Ken Neely Ricardo Robinson Naeem Martinez White

Ivette Spradlin April 2013 - September 2013 Fran Gialamas September 2012 - March 2013 Gwyn Rohrer April 2012 - September 2012 Seth Clark October 2011 - March 2012 Brian Sesack April 2011 - September 2011 David Montano October 2010 - March 2011

fünf: Celebrating Five Years of Art on the Walls fünf translates to “five” in German. Five is a prime number, part of the Fibonacci sequence, and is considered “untouchable”. While Aristotle lectured on five elements: water, earth, air, fire, and ether, the Japanese described a different set of five elements: water, earth, fire, wood and metal. We see the number five in music with the perfect fifth and the five lines of a musical staff. Five is a number of action, dynamism and versatility.

After five years of providing exhibition opportunities for artists through the Art on the Walls program, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has seen a natural fruition of our original goals. New locations, diverse artists and bigger sales prove the dynamic ability of art to transform our work environments and the lives of artists in our communities. In celebration of these accomplishments, fünf features many of the artists that were selected for solo or group shows since 2009. fünf deepens GPAC’s relationship with these individual artists and showcases their growth alongside the maturation of GPAC’s strategic initiatives for individual artists.

The work was exhibited at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council from July to December 2014.

Contents 4

Thomas Bigatel

6

Norman Brown

8

Carolyn Carson

10

Darnell Chambers

12

Seth Clark

14

Susan Constanse

16

John Dorinsky

18

Deborah Hosking

20

Richard McWherter

22

Kenneth Neely

24

Jane Ogren

26

Brian Sesack

28

Ivette Spradlin

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Thomas Bigatel Thomas Bigatel has always known he was an artist. Even during years when very little work was created, the desire was always there, quietly screaming to emerge. Over the past 15-20 years he has discovered his own unique voice through an intrinsic evolution of experimentation and tenacity. He is an artist who creates vibrant abstract paintings which invite the audience to explore the complex nature and seemingly endless flow of color. An artist must find meaning in the process, and Bigatel’s unorthodox, inventive approach to the process of painting results in compelling and convincing works of art. In his most recent body of work which began to evolve in 2008, Bigatel utilizes an inherent and intimate flow of color and motion. Thomas Bigatel’s commitment to his medium & his vision are evident in the penetratingly endless depth & illuminating intensity embodied in his powerful paintings.

Thomas Bigatel’s paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and universities. His genuine vision using vivid color and form has evolved over the years into an accomplished body of work consisting of over 800 artworks.

Many of his paintings have been purchased for private and corporate collections including prominent collectors in NYC.

Deep Sea Serenade 6

Form Orbital 1

(detail left top) Oil on Canvas // 30” x 24” x 3” $1,400

(detail left bottom) Oil on Jute Linen // 24” x 24” x 2” $1,200

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Norman Brown Norman Brown, born 1949, is the ninth child from a family of ten. He grew up in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in the 1950s and 1960s. He began seriously painting in the fall of 1977 in preparation for his first one man show to be held in the early summer of 1978. He has a Master’s in Special Education and a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education.

He is currently retired from teaching for the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education where he taught and learned from students with multiple disabilities for 25 years. His works are part of many private and corporate collections in Pittsburgh and around the country. He is currently represented by Michael Hertrich Art and Frame Gallery at 2008 E. Carson Street Pittsburgh, PA.

Little Girl with Painted Face

Equestrian with Hawk

(detail left top) Acrylic on Canvas // 16 3/8” x 13 3/8” $275

(detail left bottom) Acrylic on Drywall // 11” x 13” $250

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Carolyn Carson Carolyn Carson marks the beginning of her art career with a quilting class taken at the local community college over thirty years ago. Almost from the beginning, she realized that she couldn’t conform to the rules of traditional quilting. Designing her own patterns, she created several bed quilts before taking a 15-year hiatus to earn a Ph.D. in History and Policy from Carnegie Mellon University which, incidentally, was inspired by what she had learned about women’s textile traditions. After establishing her academic career at the University of Pittsburgh where she teaches Urban Studies, she again got involved in fiber art, specifically art quilts. Using time honored techniques of hand spinning and quilting, she generally incorporates female imagery into her work, an attempt to convey the strength and power of women over time and space.

Carolyn has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally, including such venues as The Westmoreland Museum of American Art and the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Her work is in the collections of The Beth Israel Center in Pittsburgh, the home of the President of Indiana University of Pennsylvania as well as the Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, PA. Carolyn’s work is included in The Studio Quilt, No.6: The State of the Art, edited by Sandra Sider, 2011.

Grey Dawn (detail left) Cotton Batik, Wool, Acrylic // 42” x 34” $1,600

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Darnell Chambers Born 1988 in San Diego, California, raised in Akron, Oh, and currently residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Darnell Lamar Chambers is setting the detailed standards of expressing environmental influence. Darnell studied Media Arts and Animation at the renowned Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2006. There, he absorbed interest, personalities, and broader knowledge of the act and process of imparting life, spirit and motion to drawing. Recognizing the importance of having a strong online presence, Darnell later changed his major to Web Design and Interactive Media, where he graduated with skill in design, photography, and web development.

Influenced early in childhood by Sunday morning comic strips, like the Boondocks, Garfield, Get Fuzzy, and Zits, Darnell later became fond of artists such as Jean-Michael Basqiuat, CBabi Bayoc, Wangechi Mutu, and Gordan Parks. With self-dominance, Darnell empowers to conjoin the later with his personal influence on social equality, historical remembrance, and pure talent.

To Darnell, images create our reality; therefore holistic relations are necessary between the artist’s work and the viewer, regardless of standpoint.

Ossawa

Angela Davis

(detail left top) Pen on Paper // 11” x 14” $330

(detail left bottom) Pen on Paper // 11” x 14” $275

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Seth Clark Clark grew up in Seekonk, Massachusetts and studied close to home at the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned his BFA in Graphic Design, focusing primarily on print design and alternative typography. During this time he discovered collage. This method of hands-on, spacial development takes a major role in his digital work as well as his physical works on wood and paper.

Collapse Study (detail left) Collage,Charcoal, Pastel, Acrylic, Graphite on Wood // 36” x 36” x 1.5” $4,720

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Susan Constanse Ms. Constanse resides and works in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work has been shown in galleries in Portland OR., New York, NY., Chicago, IL. and London. She has upcoming exhibits at Modern Formations and Box Heart galleries in Pittsburgh PA.

Untitled (copper series)

Untitled (copper series)

(detail left top) Oil on Canvas // 36” x 48” $1,200

(detail left bottom) Oil on Canvas // 24” x 24” $1,000

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John Dorinsky John Dorinsky is a New Kensington resident and art teacher at Taylor Allderdice High School. He has been exhibiting professionally for over twenty years. His paintings, prints and ceramics have been shown in museums and cultural centers throughout the United States. Most notable are the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts and the Fine Arts Institute of San Bernardino County Museum in California. In addition, his works are in numerous private collections. In 2004, he exhibited his dream Rakus in the “Perchance to Dream” show at The Pittsburgh Society for Contemporary Craft. Currently, John is doing Raku firings at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts where he continues to experiment and learn from his spontaneous and exhilarating process.

Inner Eyes

Day to Night

(detail left top) Raku Ceramic // 18” x 29” x 3” $1,500

(detail left bottom) Raku Ceramic // 17” x 31” x 3” $1,200

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Deborah Hosking Deborah Hosking is a media professional and fine artist whose career has crossed continents, disciplines and media. Painter, photographer, video artist and filmmaker, her work has been seen in New York, Hong Kong, Paris, Los Angeles, Prague and, of course, Pittsburgh — including shows at SPACE gallery, the Mattress Factory and Carnegie Museum of Art — and in film festivals around the country. She has awards to her credit in each medium. Deborah served as production designer for the short films The Specials and Lightweight, which she also co-wrote and edited. She holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon and an MFA in Film & Digital Media from Chatham University. www.deborahhosking.com

Christmas, Braddock

Bar, Pittsburgh

(detail left top) Digital Photograph // 18” x 24” $400

(detail left bottom) Digital Photograph // 18” x 24” $400

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Richard McWherter Richard McWherter’s unique inspiration is clearly demonstrated through the images he creates with his camera in the Laurel Highlands and Chestnut Ridge areas near his home in Western Pennsylvania. But his landscapes reveal more than just a record of a particular time or place; they speak to much more universal themes.

McWherter is an artist who is continuously interpreting the landscape through new and inventive ways. He has been successful in exploring both traditional chemical and silver-based processes, as well as cutting-edge digital technologies, including using the computer to create expressive embellishments in his work.

His photographs have appeared in many regional exhibitions and publications and have also been reproduced in national magazines for fine art photography.

With a career spanning almost four decades, he has received many awards for his photographic art, as well as for his innovations in teaching.

Parkway

Forbes Forest, Fall

(detail left top) Archival Pigment on Cotton // 24” x 26” $675

(detail left bottom) Archival Pigment on Cotton // 24” x 36” $1,200

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Kenneth Neely Kenneth Neely is a Pittsburgh born artist who specializes in black & white photography and documentary photography. His professional career began as a freelance photographer with The New Pittsburgh Courier in 2003. He quickly became a staff photographer and then, photo editor before making the move to become a full time artist. His work has been featured in art shows, art galleries, newspapers, and magazines. He continues working on documentaries, doing studio work, weddings, and during the school year, spends time teaching in after-school programs. He is passionate about the arts and the future of black artists in our city. He believes the best way to continue with home grown talent is for the established artist to help the next generation in their process of becoming an artist. He continues shooting and creating images of life and making the everyday things seem more than ordinary.

Steelers Nation in Haiti

Unbreakable

(detail left top) Photograph // 20” x 30” x 2” $350

(detail left bottom) Photograph // 20” x 16” x 2” $300

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Jane Ogren Jane Ogren is a native Pennsylvanian. She has lived the last forty years in the Pittsburgh area. Jane graduated from Edinboro University of PA with a B.S. in art education and an M. Ed from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She taught art in several Pittsburgh suburban schools. Her teaching assignments have put her in the drawing, ceramics, jewelry, fiber, and sculpture studios. Jane also taught Advanced Placement Art. In her studio Jane is now concentrating on her fiber art, working in both 2 and 3 dimensions. Her artwork has been shown locally, nationally and internationally. Locally, Jane’s artwork has been exhibited at the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, SAMA at Ligonier Valley, the Erie Museum of Art, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Lancaster Museum of Art, the Hoyt Institute of Fine Art, the Society of Contemporary Craft and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Her artwork has also been included in gallery exhibits in Louisiana, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Internationally her fiber art has been shown in both Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, Birmingham, England, Kherson, Ukraine, and in Xalapa, Mexico. Jane’s artwork has been recently featured in the book 1000 Artisan Textiles and her artwork will soon be published in the book PatternBase.

Spirits on Cloth 514

Spirits on Cloth 523

(detail left top) Cotton and Dupioni Silk // 20” x 14” x 3” $365

(detail left bottom) Embroidery Floss on Dupioni Silk // 12” x 9” $325

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Brian Sesack Brian Sesack (b. 1957) is an American photographer based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

As a self-taught artist, he can’t remember the exact day, but still can remember the feeling that came over him when he recognized the desire to photograph in black and white. Up until that time, he was photographing in color and mostly on vacations and at family events. Then, for reasons that remain unclear, but like other events in his life, he just had to “drop the reins” and experience the journey of discovery.

Brian has learned how to use photography as a vehicle for his creative self-expression and for the transformation from looking to seeing. As a result, he works from the inside out and finds himself moved by concepts that he cannot explain, but that need to be interpreted by documenting textures and tonal qualities. He also attempts to create images that bring the viewer into the subject. Over time, Brian has discovered that not only is it important to produce a beautiful image, it is through the process and the state of being creative that joyfulness comes to him as an artist.

Enantiomer

Enantiomer

(detail left top) Photograph // 16” x 20” $250

(detail left bottom) Photograph // 16” x 20” $250

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Ivette Spradlin Ivette Spradlin is a Cuban-American photographer, video artist, and educator. She received her BFA in Photography from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and her MFA in Photography from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

She focuses on photographing people and their environs, exploring how they adapt to and are transformed by their surroundings. She has shown her work nationally and internationally, and has taught photography and digital imaging at colleges and universities in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In 2013, she was awarded a Flight School Fellowship, which provided her with the wonderful experience of a weekend workshop with Creative Capital. She currently resides in Pittsburgh, PA.

Bria, Performer

Lauren, Visual Artist

(detail left top) Photograph // 19” x 13” x 2” $550

(detail left top) Photograph // 19” x 13” x 2” $550

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Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, the voice of Pittsburgh’s broad arts and cultural community, is a membership organization of over 300 non-profits and artists who comprise the arts and culture sector across Southwestern PA. As the region’s primary advocacy and service organization for the arts, GPAC offers expert programs, resources and research that strengthen and ensure a thriving arts community, including: grants for artists and small arts organizations, pro bono business and legal services, public art technical assistance and education, workshops and networking, free audience development tools, exhibitions and events - all to support a sustainable and collaborative creative industry.

For information about our events and programs, please visit www.pittsburghartscouncil.org.

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