Art Scene

Pittsburgh will take you by surprise, bringing contemporary arts into focus with stunning installations in a collection of world-class museums and galleries. Get tickets now!

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  Carnegie Museum of Art

  The Carnegie Museum of Art's 2008 Carnegie International runs through Jan 11, 2009. 17 countries, 40 artists, 204 works of art. The Carnegie International is the most important exhibition of contemporary art in North America and is the second oldest international exhibition in the world, next to the Venice Biennale.

  The theme of this year's exhibition is "Life on Mars", and focuses on the increasingly relevant question of what it means to be human in the world today. Foregoing any universal answers to this question, the artists in the exhibition investigate particular aspects of the human condition, moving along paths that are both introspective and worldly while poetically traversing the dramatic spectrum from tragedy to comedy. The question "is there life on Mars?" is a rhetorical one, posed in the face of a world in which increasingly accelerating global events—political, social, natural, and economic—seem to challenge and threaten to overtake our most basic forms of everyday existence.

   

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  Frick Art & Historical Center

  A Panorama of Pittsburgh: Nineteenth-Century Views

  Through Oct 5, 2008

  From the first known rendering of Pittsburgh made by German-born linguist, surveyor, and businessman Lewis Brantz to depictions of current events as published in the popular periodicals of the late nineteenth century, A Panorama of Pittsburgh provides a comprehensive visual survey of prints, drawings, and related materials illustrating the story of Pittsburgh and the use of prints of cityscapes during the nineteenth century.

  From Michelangelo to Annibale Carracci: A Century of Italian Drawings from the Prado

  Oct 25, 2008 - Jan 4, 2009

  Premiering at the Frick, this exhibition of seventy superb drawings explores the working methods of the most important artists active during a century in which Mannerism moved toward the early Baroque (1520–1620). Beginning with the influential work of Michelangelo, the exhibition also includes work by Guilio Romano, Paolo Veronese, Giorgio Vasari, and Andrea del Sarto, among others. Most of these extraordinary sixteenth-century works are appearing outside the walls of the Prado Museum in Madrid for the first time.

   

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  Mattress Factory

  The Mattress Factory, a museum of contemporary installation art, presents "art you can get into"—room-sized environments, created by in-residence artists.

  Inner And Outer Space

  Through Jan 11, 2009

   

  Predrive: After Technology

  Nov 15, 2008 - March 22, 2009

   

  Permanent Collection

  James Turrell, Yayoi Kusama, Rolf Julius, Winifred Lutz, and more.

   

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  Andy Warhol Museum

  We Are Survival Machines

  Through Nov 16, 2008

  In 2012 zombies invade the city, threatening to destroy the living. Citizens turn to robots to protect them and all that is human. The ensuing war is captured by image and audio. We Are Survival Machines, created by Carl DiSalvo, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and David Holstius, senior research programmer at Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, is an installation documenting this near future battle for humanity between the undead and sentient machines, set in Pittsburgh. Gigapan technology was employed to animate scenes providing viewers with a 3-dimensional video. Gigapan technology created at Carnegie Mellon University, enhances the size of a photograph exceeding one gigapixel, which in turn, creates a panoramic experience. The soundtrack for this piece is by Rick Gribenas.

  This exhibition is part of Pittsburgh's Robot 250 Project.

  Robot 250 is a city-wide community art and technology program designed in conjunction with Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary. Launched by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh with support from several local foundations, the program welcomes participation from the entire community with a wide range of family activities, including hands-on workshops, student and artist exhibits and film presentations.

   

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  Westmoreland Museum of American Art

  Painting in the United States

  Through Oct 19, 2008

  This exhibition creates an overview of the exhibitions of the same title organized by the Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Museum of Art) from 1943 to 1949. These exhibitions of American painting replaced the Institute’s annual Carnegie International exhibition when it was suspended due to World War II. Painting in the United States includes 48 paintings, 42 of which are the actual works selected for the exhibitions over the seven-year period, including paintings by such artists as George Ault, Thomas Hart Benton, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Jack Levine and Max Weber, among others. Many of these artists were already established in their careers and artistic styles during the war years, while emerging artists such as Philip Guston, Robert Gwathmey and Dorothea Tanning were also shown, and are included in this re-creation.

  Scalp Level Revisited

  Nov 9, 2008 - Feb 1, 2009

  Nationally known for researching, collecting, and exhibiting work by artists of southwestern Pennsylvania region, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art features Scalp Level Revisited from November 9 to February 1, 2009. The exhibition's focus is landscape and still life paintings that have come to light in recent years culled from the Museum’s recent purchases and numerous private collections in the area.