Out & About: Artists connect through 'Disconnections' gallery show
How do you connect through the term “Disconnections?”
Six artists were given the task for an exhibition of that name, running through April 19 in You Are Here Gallery in Jeannette.
During a March 9 opening reception, curator Dan Overdorff said it’s common for people to feel disconnected in many ways in today’s world. The featured artists, all at different points in their careers, interpreted their visions of the word and the feelings it evokes via works in various media.
Local artists participating in the show are Pati Beachley, Kathleen Dlugos, Samantha Lantz, Carolyn Pierotti and James Schaffer. Also included is Chris Crites of Seattle, who didn’t make the opening but will visit the gallery for an April 6 artist talk.
How did a gallery in Jeannette connect with a West Coast artist? First, You Are Here aims to include an artist from outside of Western Pennsylvania in each exhibition, co-founder Mary Briggs said.
Second, Overdorff said he’d seen images of Crites’s work in a magazine several years ago “and kept that in my back pocket, hoping I’d be able to work with him at some point.”
Crites is known for his “mug shot” paintings, done in acrylics on paper bags.
When approached about the Jeannette show, Crites’s reply, Overdorff said, was, “Heck ya, I’d love to do a show in the Pittsburgh area!”
Also debuting with “Disconnections” was the gallery’s new series of artist trading cards. The first series features gallery employees, and the second features artists in the current show.
A new series will be added for each exhibition this year, Briggs said. Visitors who purchase all cards (by donation) will be entered into a drawing for an original piece of art at the December show.
Seen connecting at the gallery: co-founder Jen Costello, Ken Nicholson and Molly Zindash, Anne Kraybill, Phil and Mary Ellen Raneri, Jill Sorrels, Ray Hursh, Kelli Brisbane and Dashiel Harster, Jeff and Diane Shrader, Pamela Cooper, Gloria Gonzalez, Michael McDevitt, Allison Blair, Christine Kocevar, Larry Beaver and Becky Benson-Beaver, Kim Rentler and Patricia Elliot-Rentler, Adam Shaffer and Sheila Cuellar Shaffer and their son, Max, Ava Beachley, Allie Friel and the curator’s wife Sarah Overdorff and their son, Danny.
Shirley McMarlin is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Shirley by email at smcmarlin@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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