(AAPNW-PA) – Exhibits by Brian Dean Richmond, 2010 Artist of the Year, Gregory Witt, 2010 Emerging Artist, and the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh go on view Friday, November 19, with a public opening reception from 5:30-8:00 pm at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. In addition, the PCA Annual Holiday Shop opens, featuring art and crafts from over 200 regional artists.
For more than 30 years, artist Richmond, who is from Western Pennsylvania, has worked as a filmmaker, musician and painter. Besides his large-scale abstract paintings, he has made dozens of experimental, non-narrative 16mm films. His most recent work is a group of sequence paintings that involve natural elements, dry pigments, and extended periods of time outdoors.
Richmond has also been an accompanist on stand up bass, trombone, and percussion with rock improv and folk music projects, most notably as a member of the band, “The Working Poor.” He earned his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, studying art and music, and his MFA from Ohio University, where he studied painting. He later studied film at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Pittsburgh-based Witt has created a series of kinetic sculptures. The works “expose unseen realities and ridiculous fantasies of real and made-up natures,” said the emerging artist. He uses processes such as, robotics and electro-mechanics; materials such as, drywall and styrofoam, along with audio and video projections for these sculptures.
Witt, who has studied everything from computer science to philosophy before earning his BFA in sculpture, said “I spent most of his near decade-long undergraduate career at Indiana University building boats and bicycles and digging in the trash.” He recently earned his MFA from Carnegie Mellon University.
The Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh opens with their show, “re.CYCLE.fiber.” Its members were asked to consider either the traditional approach to the theme of recycling textile materials, or to consider the “cycle” portion of the word. Twenty-eight artists and approximately 40 artworks go on display. The juror was Jozef Bajus, assistant professor of Design and Coordinator of the Fiber Design Concentration at Buffalo State University in New York.
Pittsburgh Center for the Arts is located at 6300 Fifth Avenue in Shadyside. For more information, call 412.361.0873 or see www.pittsburgharts.org.