Exhibitions showcase the works by award winning and globally renowned contemporary artists─ Jesse T. Best, Akudzwe Elsie Chiwa, Jenson Leonard, Onisha Baid, Zach Brown and public art- The National Museum
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is pleased to announce the fall 2023 exhibitions for visual arts and public art openings at the Trust’s galleries located in the Cultural District. Also, in June of this year, the Trust was very excited to welcome Anastasia James as the new Director of Galleries and Public Art.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Anastasia to the Cultural Trust. Anastasia brings extensive expertise, experience, and vision to the Cultural Trust’s visual arts and public art programs. She also has a commitment to community engagement and ensuring that our galleries and public art are welcoming and accessible to all,” shares Kendra Whitlock Ingram, President and CEO, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
As Director, Ms. James is excited to return to her hometown to share her passion for making contemporary art accessible to diverse populations within the Pittsburgh-region and beyond. “It is both an honor and a privilege to return to Pittsburgh as the Director of Galleries & Public Art, and I am eager to build upon the impressive legacy of the Trust’s dedication to supporting artists from diverse backgrounds. Through exhibitions and public art projects, we aim to offer contemporary artists a platform to engage with our current moment and strengthen our communities.”
About Anastasia James
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Anastasia James is an internationally recognized Curator and Visual Arts leader with expertise in global contemporary art and emerging media. Prior to joining the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, James was Deputy Director of Art & Education at the Bechtler Museum where she oversaw the Curatorial, Collections, Education, Community, and Public Programming initiatives; founding Curator at the Lucas Museum of Art; and Associate Curator at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. She has also held junior curatorial roles at the Queens Museum, New York and the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh. James has curated and managed noteworthy exhibitions featuring a diverse range of emerging, established, and international artists for institutions and galleries and her work has been profiled widely in periodicals including, The New York Times, Art Forum, Art in America, ArtNews, Hyperallergic, Vogue, The New Yorker, and The Los Angeles Times.James holds a MA in Curatorial Studies from The Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard).
Galleries at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Fall 2023 Exhibitions
The Galleries at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust are FREE and open to the public. Gallery hours are Wednesday–Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m. and closed 12–12:30 p.m.
For information, visit Pittsburgh Cultural Trust website: www.TrustArts.org/visualarts or call guest services at 412-456-6666. The Trust’s galleries are wheelchair accessible, unless otherwise noted.
Akudzwe Elsie Chiwa: Divinity/Femininity
August 18–November 19, 2023
937 Gallery
937 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15222
Divinity/Femininity is the first US solo exhibition of the Zimbabwean contemporary artist, Akudzwe Elsie Chiwa whose multidisciplinary practice explores themes of migrant identity, femininity, and Afro-Feminisms. Chiwa’s exhibition reimagines erased histories and explores the question “do we have the right to define the divine?”
Jesse T. Best: Analog Holiday
August 18–November 19, 2023
SPACE Gallery
812 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Jesse Best is a contemporary American artist and designer living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His style reflects a material driven process with a focus on acrylic, spray paint, wood and resin. Analog Holiday features new work created over the past three years and on view for the first time at SPACE Gallery.
Jenson Leonard: Workflow
September 22, 2023-February 11, 2024
Wood Street Galleries
601 Wood Street (above the T-Station), Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Workflow, the first institutional solo exhibition of artist Jenson Leonard, centers on a titular film that explores the velocity and momentum of Blackness as it relates to the philosophical concept of acceleration—the notion that the only way out of capitalism is through its intensification.
Zach Brown: Death of a Lunar Cult
October 6, 2023 –January 7, 2024
707 Gallery
707 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Death of a Lunar Cult presents twelve new paintings which reference the different epochs and shifts from lunar to solar worship throughout history. When making these works, Brown was deeply inspired by a variety of ancient Greek mystery schools and early Gnostic writings. The works in this exhibition explore varied and combined themes and symbols related to the apollonian and Dionysian, the lunar and solar, the cult of Orpheus, the rights of Mithras, the writings of Toth Hermes Trismegistus, and the cult of Serpais.
Anisha Baid
October 13, 2023– February 18, 2024
820 Gallery
820 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Anisha Baid is an artist and writer from Kolkata, India she is currently pursuing her MFA at Carnegie Mellon University. Baid’s practice investigates pervasive technologies through an examination of their design, diversity of use, and their relationship with ideas from science fiction. This exhibition will present a selection of recent work that explores the history of computer interfaces and will feature video, performance installations, and sound works. The works selected for the exhibition are informed by her interest in digital vernaculars – the process by which new tools and metaphors are appropriated by communities (specifically in urban South Asia) to generate hybrid aesthetic functions.
PUBLIC ART
The National Museum
September 22, 2023 –ongoing
604 Wood Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
The National Museum critically and creatively engages with the notion of museum as a malleable medium--an institution where an imagined set of social agreements, stories of the past, and visions of the future are constructed in and with the public. The National Museum is founded and organized by Jon Rubin, an interdisciplinary artist whose public projects create platforms for collaboration, participation, and exchange.
Two artists have been identified for the first two iterations: Pablo Helguera (Mexico City, b. 1971) a New York-based artist working with installation, sculpture, photography, drawing, socially engaged art, and performance. From 2007–2010, Helguera was the Director of Adult and Academic Programs at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC and is currently an Assistant Professor at the New School. He is the author of many books including Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and The Parable Conference (2014). And Alisha B. Wormsley an interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer whose work explores collective memory and the synchronicity of time, specifically through the stories of women of color. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally and was recently awarded the Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University.
