August 19 – September 25, 2022
527 N. Taylor Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15212
here is pleased to present, Stranger Things, a group exhibition featuring twelve artists that explore the eccentric or uncanny in their work. The opening reception will take place Friday, August 19th from 6 to 8pm.
“Making strange is the essence of all art.” - Viktor Shklovsky
In the exhibition’s eponym, the television series, Stranger Things, an ordinary town in an ordinary corner of America is anything but ordinary – the Freudian unconscious, dormant memories, and the uncanny play the leading role. Sigmund Freud describes the uncanny as an experience that reminds us of earlier aspects of our unconscious life, a so-called ‘return of the repressed.’ More broadly, the uncanny is a psychological phenomenon where something is not simply mysterious, but rather unsettling in a strangely familiar way.
In the current exhibition, artists such as Oliver Clegg and Andrea Smith take something familiar, a black cat and a water glass, respectively, and make it strange. There is something undeniably eerie in the unnaturally large smile of the cat in Clegg’s painting, Zelda, or the subtle reflection of Greek Orthodox icons in the water in Smith’s A Sign. In Wade Kramm’s Invisible Traffic Cone and Kim Beck’s Pothole Positives, every-day benign objects and phenomena become fetishized, made precious, but more importantly, make the most mundane strange and unfamiliar.
Exhibiting artists:
Kim Beck (b. 1970) completed her M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. Recent exhibitions include Field Recordings, Rice University, Houston, TX; Don’t Touch My Circles, Catherine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Print in the Post-Print, Art Museum of the National Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China; Another Flock of Signs, Omi International Arts Center & Sculpture Park, Ghent, NY; A Flock of Signs, Printed Matter, New York, NY; Built Futures, Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, PA and The Sky is the Limit, The High Line, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA
Joseph Bolstad (b. 1982) completed his M.F.A at Pennsylvania State University. His work been included in numerous exhibitions including Kondoing, 99 Suffolk, New York, NY; All the Small Things, Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; To Hell in a Handbasket, MINT Gallery, Atlanta, GA and Big Bangs/Small Bucks Redux, Dean Jensen Gallery, Milwaukee, WI. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Oliver Clegg (b. 1980) completed his M.F.A. at the City and Guilds of London Art School. Recent exhibitions include Tongue-tied, Mamoth Contemporary, London; WE CAT, Tennis Elbow, Journal Gallery, New York, NY; Euclid’s Porsche, Rental Gallery, NY; Good Pictures, Dietch Projects, New York, NY; More or Less, Sadie Coles, London and Nightfall, Modem Museum, Hungary. The artist currently lives and works in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.
Devra Fox (b. 1989) completed her M.F.A. at Columbia University, NY. Recent exhibitions include Le Corps-Paysage, Bim Bam Gallery, Paris, FR; Friends and Family, Hashimoto Contemporary, San Francisco, CA; The Entelechians, Ruschman, Chicago, IL; Stem, Hesse Flatow, NY and Imagining Reality, Future Gallery, Berlin, DE. The artist lives and works in San Francisco, CA.
Jessica Goehring (b. 1983) completed her B.F.A. in Photography at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Recent exhibitions include SUPERCOMPOSITION, IDOLWILD, Los Angeles, CA; Cautious Optimism, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles, CA; Velvet Ropes, Gallery Steinsland Berliner, Stockholm, Sweden and Respond, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Wade Kramm (b. 1979) completed his M.F.A. at Rhode Island School of Design. Recent exhibitions include Full Circle, Concept Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; Fourth Street Show, Living Gallery Outpost, New York, NY; Interstitial Illuminations, MIT Museum Studio, Cambridge, MA; Inlight Richmond, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA; Blue in the Face, Protocol Gallery, Gainesville, FL and Wade Kramm: Fragments of Reality, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay. The artist lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
Zhongkai Li (b. 1993) completed his M.F.A. at Yale School of Art, New Haven. Recent exhibitions include Zhongkai Li: Drifting Fragments, Bing-Davis Memorial Gallery, Iowa; Prototype I, IS A GALLERY, Shanghai, China; Finding Patterns in Time and Place: The Poster Design of Zhongkai Li, Maharam, New York, NY and Undocumented events and object performance, Blockchain Certified, Noemata, Norway. The artist currently lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
Jamie Mirabella (b. 1971) completed her M.F.A. at Rutgers University. Recent exhibitions include The Heat Goes On, Good Naked, New York, NY; Fire Sign, Ladies’ Room, Los Angeles, CA; On Site, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Wish You Were Here 16, A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY and Three Cubed, Artists Space, NY. The artist lives and works in New York, NY.
David Muenzer (b. 1987) completed his M.F.A. at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Solo exhibitions include Proxetics at Dracula's Revenge, New York, NY; Sylvan Plug at Jan Weenix, Los Angeles, CA; and Scalar-Daemon at Reserve Ames, Los Angeles, CA. Recent group shows include Heaven Above, Sea Below at Lubov, New York, NY and Delusionarium 5 at Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. The artist lives and works in New York.
Nicholas Sardo (b. 1994) completed his B.F.A. at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Recent exhibitions include Sassy Bastards, Hermann and Audrey Gallery, Chicago, IL; Does it Thrive?, Ellis Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA; Future Voicemail, Bunker Projects, Pittsburgh, PA and Valued Employee, Irma Freeman Gallery, Pittsburgh. PA. The artist lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA.
Andrea Smith (b. 1992) is a New York based painter. Recent exhibitions include The A.M.S. Sun, Of The Cloth, Brooklyn, NY; Apocalypse Now!, Estrella Gallery, New York, NY and For Georgia, 27 Orchard, New York, NY. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Rachel Youn (b. 1994) is a current M.F.A. candidate at the Yale School of Art, New Haven. Recent exhibitions include No Pain No Gain, Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY; Revival, Soy Capitán, Berlin, DE; Underparty, HAIR + Nails, Minneapolis, MN; Water Cooler, LVL3, Chicago, IL and WILD WILD, Monaco Project Gallery, St. Louis, MO. The artist currently lives and works in New Haven, CT.
