Casey Droege Cultural Productions has created various exhibitions, residencies, mobile programs and more over the years. We operated two exhibition spaces over the first four years, including CDCP Project Space based in Wilkinsburg and our initial gallery at 937 Liberty with the Cultural Trust. These exhibitions and programs featured artists, curators, and cultural producers based regionally and nationally, while encouraging connections with our audience and economic impact for the artists.
CDCP x WCDC Present: Jasmine Green
On view: December 9th, 2023 - February 24th, 2024
Known for her bold colors and striking portraiture, East of Pittsburgh artist Jasmine Green, aka Black Girl Absolute, uses visual and written works to challenge the limiting perceptions of Black womanhood that leave Black women and girls feeling dehumanized, disempowered, and regulated into the margins. She is self-taught, engaging in an active artist practice for over ten years with a primary focus on acrylic paint and the written word. In her journey curating visions of power, love, and peace alongside capturing the struggle of what it means to be a Black woman in America, Jasmine provides a mirror in which we can all finally recognize that we have always been, and always will be: more than enough, no matter what or who tries to tell us otherwise.
Photos by: Hannah Colen
CDCP x WCDC Present: Megan Adgate
On view: May 6th - June 24th, 2023
Megan Adgate is a textile artist who works with natural fibers, such as wool, cotton, and banana fiber, to create dimensional tapestries. Her process sets out to challenge the very foundation of weaving itself — the grid. Contrary to the traditional up-and-down approach, her frame looms are warped in an unsystematized, scrambled way, creating a canvas that allows for overlapping layers, curvature, and negative space.
After being a hobby weaver for several years, the craft took on a new role for her while transitioning out of an emotionally abusive relationship in 2019. While the basis for her work is control and manipulation, she is also interested in the adaptability of nature and the formation of symbiotic relationships among plant species, such as the coexistence of algae and fungi to form lichen or vines climbing the trunk of a tree.
Photos by: Travis Mitzel
CDCP x WCDC Present: Sense of Self by the Wilkinsburg and Braddock Youth Project and Meshwork Press
On view: Nov. 5th - Jan. 14th 2023
Sense of Self is a group exhibition featuring the artwork of The Wilkinsburg and Braddock Youth Projects: Karma Yasmina, Danny Znidarzich, Devin Northcutt, Josiah Russell, and Aniyah Sanders in partnership with Meshwork Press. Inspired by Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, and Alisha Wormsley, youth artists designed and screen printed self portraits that explore the subject of identity. Through sketchbook exercises, group discussions and presentations about various artists and art movements, they explored the use of symbols, patterns, colors, body language, and text to communicate key parts of their identities. These colorful and striking portraits portray the youth artists’ personal truths and beliefs along with moments of struggle, perseverance, and joy.
CDCP x WCDC present: Rell Rushin
on display April 23, 2022 - June 11, 2022
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
Rell Rushin exhibited a series of paintings depicting her connection to Wilkinsburg.
Photos by Jason Cohen
CDCP x WCDC present:
All Unsaved Changes will be Lost by Centa Schumacher
on display November 6th – January 22nd, 2021
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
Centa Schumacher created lens-based risograph works that represent her relationship to Wilkinsburg.
Photos by Jason Cohen
Extra Fiber
An exhibition featuring Nicole Czapinski and Alex Ebstein
Fall 2020- Winter 2021
Extra Fiber was an exhibition co-curated by Casey Droege and David William, supported by New Sun Rising and the Opportunity Fund.
Nicole Czapinski and Alex Ebstein create compositions by transforming everyday materials. From yoga mats to pipe cleaners, these artists utilize the material meaning of objects to push the viewer beyond a formal experience. The readymade colors and mediums question ideas of purpose and value, while delivering a subtle sense of humor.
Photos by Porter Loves
CCS + CDCP Fellowship Exhibition
Summer 2020
Autumn Randall + Tereneh Idia
Faron Thompson + Matthew Van Asselt
Jami Johnson + Alexandra Lakin
Matthew Carroll + Fran Flaherty
Mick Fisher + Curtis Reaves
William Taylor + atiya jones
Creative Citizen Studios (CCS) works with artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities to make, exhibit, and sell their work. The CCS + CDCP Fellowship paired CCS artists with Pittsburgh-based artists.
In March of 2020 six artist pairs met virtually to begin their partnerships. Adapting to the constraints of the global pandemic artists exchanged drawings, worked independently and traded pieces back and forth, and finally met in person to further develop their collaborative projects. Using a variety of mediums including painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and photography, the pieces in this exhibition show a culmination of many hours of collaborative creative exchange.
Photos by Porter Loves
Still Good
Winter 2020
Featuring:
Jerome “Chu” Charles
“Just because you’re trash doesn’t mean you can’t do great things. It’s called garbage can, not garbage cannot.”
- Unknown
In “Still Good”, Chu puts the animate in inanimate; staying on brand, his art practice relays a deeper connection to the discarded, and finds the potential in the “damaged” or “no longer useful” through whimsical yet stern optimism.
About the artist:
Jerome “Chu” Charles’s work largely maintains the theme of using his graffiti character and pop culture references to convey ideas and emotions, drawing influence from fellow queer graffiti legend Keith Haring. Chu continues to grow as a person, an illustrator, a painter, a lettering enthusiast and muralist.
Photos by Casey Droege
Fringe Benefits
Fall 2019
Curated by Casey Lee Droege
Featuring:
Nicole Czapinski
Eriko Hattori
Corrine Jasmin
Candace Opper
Fringe Benefits showcases artwork made by CDCP staff, curated by Casey Lee Droege.
WILD THINGS
Summer 2019
Curated by Carolyn Pierotti
Featuring: Aimee Bungard, Amber Epps, Ann Rosenthal, Brian Willingham-McClain, Centa Schumacher, Derek Peel, Ellen Chisdes Neuberg, Faron Thompson, Grace Magyar, Jami Johnson, Jessica Heberle, Karen Antonelli, Karen Kaighin, Karen Lue, Katie Stone, Larry Brandstetter, Maria Mangano, Matthew Carroll, Meghan Boyd, Michael McGeary, Mick Fisher, Molly Mykich, Nathan Shaulis, Rachel Rearick, Robyn McKee, Sam Thorp, Sarah Jacobs, Shelby Solomon, William Taylor, and Zoe Welsh
From the depths of the oceans to the skies above, we are surrounded by the wonders of nature. Our relationship with the environment is a complex and intimate one which has connected us since the beginning of time. She gives us the gift of water, air, plant life, and the animals around us.
We, the human race, have admired nature, cultivated its resources, created unnatural spaces to enclose it, worshipped it, and unfortunately in some cases destroyed it. The relationship that our civilization has with nature is a turbulent one, to say the least. This exhibition is not just a literal interpretation but an extraordinary study of the way thirty artists celebrate, deconstruct, embellish, and challenge how we interact with nature on a daily basis. Wild Things combines the work of Creative Citizen Studios along with artists from our region.
KI TOURS
Fall 2018
Including:
Braddock Community Oven and Braddock Carnegie Library
#BTS representing: VIA & girlFx collective
Silver Eye Center for Photography
Strawberry Way Mural “Who Gets The Most?”
Contemporary Craft’s Transformation 10: Contemporary Works in Found Materials
As a part of the Keyword: International initiative, Miller ICA is created a map of participating artist-run spaces, curatorial ventures, and projects. CDCP offered one-day-only tours of these spaces on shiny yellow school buses.
The goal for the map is to bring greater visibility to the independent arts activators who contribute to shaping the character of Pittsburgh’s arts community, but are less visible than the larger institutions.
KEYWORD: INTERNATIONAL is a collaborative initiative between the Kelly Strayhorn Theater and the Carnegie Museum of Art to creatively define Pittsburgh as an international city at this moment in time. The initiative launched in January 2018 with a community forum, introducing the vision for the program and its interrelated activities: research, a public symposium, and a publication.
Terracotta CoLab
Spring 2018
Mat Karas, Seth Payne, Tom Schmidt, and Kala Stein
This exhibition is the result of an intensive ceramic studio residency - funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and hosted by the Maryland Institute College of Art - where four artists explore historic architectural terracotta and digital fabrication. MICA- historically a Mechanics Institute- is situated in Bolton Hill, a neighborhood in Baltimore that offers hundreds of inspiring examples of American architectural terracotta from the 19th century. MICA is ideally situated on the edge of this neighborhood, allowing artist residents to have firsthand encounters with historical examples. Exploring the intersection of historical architectural terracotta and digital fabrication, these artists seek to innovate in design and motif through new technologies such as 3D scanning, computer aided design (CAD), and computer numerically controlled milling (CNC).
The exhibition asks how the broader ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement (where the maker is involved in both the design and production of objects) can be realized today, and specifically, how the workshop and contemporary tools (CAD, CAM, 3d printing) facilitate collaboration in small-scale production. Looking at past examples (the Deutscher Werkbund, Vienna workshops, and Bauhaus) how can artists rethink the workshop for contemporaneity in real time and space? The exhibition will include collaborative works from the residency, as well as works from the artist’s individual studio pursuits & research.
Photos by Peter Leeman
Mingle/Mangle
Winter 2018
Art can be one large gesture or it can be made of many, many bits and pieces, a labor of love, an obsessive activity. This exhibit featured artists that assemble pieces to make a whole which is “greater than the sum of its parts.”
Co-Curated by Vicky A. Clark and Casey Droege
Featuring:
Photos by Sean Carroll.
SIX x ATE: Quid Pro Quo
Fall 2017
As a part of our 2017 SIX x ATE dinner and lecture series, CDCP curated an exhibition of four artists at Indiana University's Kipp Gallery. The exhibition featured Rose Clancy, Naomi Chambers, Mark Franchino, and Ashley Jones who also spoke at our Sept. 14th event SIX x ATE event of the same name.
Photos by Casey Droege and Johanna Lasner
CSA PGH Remix
Summer 2017
Casey Droege Cultural Productions launched its new gallery at 937 Liberty Ave., a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust with CSA PGH Remix, showcasing past CSA PGH editioned artwork along with new work from selected alum.
CSA PGH creates “shares” of art to feed the public’s cultural appetite. Each season, we commission local artists to produce editioned work, which we collate into shares available for purchase by the public. We are part of a national artist-driven movement inspired by agricultural CSAs. Learn more at csapgh.com
Featured artists included:
Edith Abeyta, Jeremy Boyle, Alexis Gideon, William Kofmehl, Jenn Meridian, Ed Panar, Jim Rugg, Lizzee Monster-Mash Solomon, Alisha Wormsley, Reiko Yamamoto
Special Event: July 29th 7-10pm, CSA PGH alum David Bernabo and his band Host Skull released their third album on Ongoing Box/Golden Magnet. More info here.
15 Minutes of Shame
Summer 2013
Presented by Gold Standard (Droege and Corey Escoto), 15 Minutes of Shame featured a night of karaoke art works.
Artists Mary Smulland Dave Kyu (Philadelphia), Lizzy De Vita (Pittsburgh/New York), and Brette Gabel (Toronto) presentedparticipatory and performative Karaoke works throughout the night with the help of the gallery crawl audience. DeVita’s Seven Signs, Twelve Signs was a kinetic sculpture comprised od a karaoke setup, “The Sign” by Ace of Base and an unprofessional singer. As time passed, the elements settled in.
Gabel presented one hour of Quiet Karaoke, turning the volume so low, it asked participants to whisper their favorite songs in order to hear the music.
Smull and Kyu’s WORKAOKE: A Karaoke Opera was a participatory performance. Attendees were invited to sing the arc of the artist at work as it is expressed through popular song. From the fantasy of stardom to the daily grind, from the disillusionment inherent in commercialism to the reconnection to work for work's sake - all was explored through the voices of who really matters: the fans.
Photos by Casey Droege
CDCP x WCDC Present: Kelly Lanzendorfer
On view: September 16th - November 18th, 2023
Kelly Lanzendorfer's work was presented in conjunction with CDCP & Hatch Arts Collective's event for Little Amal on September 21, 2023. Both centered themes of home and finding a sense of belonging through the act of exploring our surroundings and cherishing the small delights discovered within our daily experiences.
Photos by: Hannah Colen
CDCP x WCDC Present: BAHIRAH
On view: Feb. 4th - April 1st, 2023
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
BAHIRAH by BAHIRAH exhibited a series of figurative artworks depicting the artist’s relationship to Wilkinsburg.
Photos by: Travis Mitzel
CDCP x WCDC present: Ashanté Josey - Free Mind
on display August 27, 2022 - October 5, 2022
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
Free Mind by Ashanté Josey exhibited a series of portrait artworks depicting her connection to Wilkinsburg.
CDCP x WCDC present: R. Randy Wilson
on display February 12, 2022 - April 2, 2022
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
R. Randy Wilson exhibited a series of photographic artworks depicting his connection to Wilkinsburg.
Photos by Jason Cohen
CDCP X WCDC present:
Works by Kelly Malone
on display August 28th – October 16th, 2021
This exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Wilkinsburg CDC for their Art All Over program.
Kelly Malone created textile based work that represents her relationship to Wilkinsburg.
Photos by Jason Cohen
Graphics from Dutchess & the Queen.
Which Craft
An exhibition featuring atiya jones and Suzanne Stroebe
Winter 2021
Curated by Casey Droege and David William, this project was possible with the support of The Opportunity Fund and New Sun Rising.
atiya jones and Suzanne Stroebe each explore form, color, and mark making. While their personal approaches to their crafts differ, they often share formal concerns and their works exist on two parallel wavelengths. Using ritual and a deeper sense of story, they bring magic to the surface in their practices.
Which Craft brings a selection of their works together in a virtual exhibition format.
Interlude:
A solo exhibition by Darrin Milliner
Fall 2020
Darrin Milliner is simply inspired by his surroundings. He’s very moved by people and social interactions, skateboarding, film, nature, and architecture. His process uses a combination of computer aided design, collage, and illustration to create his work. Each step in the design technique can vary on the type of artwork he is focused on creating. His work revolves around the social aspects of American culture, creating commentary and conversation about dynamics that exist in gender, race, and our relationship with surveillance, security, and technology.
Fun A Day 2020
Spring 2020
Fun A Day is a national event that encourages participants to work on a creative project or series every day for 30 days. CDCP Project Space showcased the work created by Pittsburgh participants.
Resilience
Fall 2019
Featuring:
Jordan Davis
Michaela Jarrett
Josiah Russell
Qiyshan Muqtadir
Casey Droege Cultural Productions and Meshwork Press are pleased to present RESILIENCE, a group exhibition featuring the artwork of The Wilkinsburg Youth Project: Jordan Davis, Michaela Jarrett, Josiah Russell, and Qiyshan Muqtadir. Through self portraiture and the medium of screen printing, the youth artists have created an exhibition that voices their personal truths and offers a glimpse into their thoughts about identity, resilience in the face of hardship, and resisting stereotypes.
Photos by Casey Droege
CSA PGH Release Exhibit
Fall 2019
Featuring:
Alexandra Lakin
Atiya Jones
Darrin Milliner
Jamie Earnest
Matthew Van Asselt
Soren Lundi
Casey Droege Cultural Productions presents a new season of CSA PGH featuring editioned work from 6 artists.
Photos by Peter Leeman
Camouflage
Summer 2018
Curated by Johanna Lasner
Featuring:
Jo-Anne Bates
John Eastman
Ivette Spradlin with Lenore Thomas
Scott Turri
Casey Droege Cultural Productions presents Camouflage, a group exhibit curated by Johanna Lasner for the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
The featured artists use a variety of materials to address the idea of concealment and disguise in a physical, digital, or sometimes cultural form. Join us for a special SIX x ATE dinner and lectureprogram as a part of the exhibit. Taking place on June 7th in the gallery space, tickets and more information can be found at sixxate.com.
Photos by Johanna Lasner
may you live in interesting times
Fall 2017
Vicky Clark curated "may you live in interesting times," an exhibtion of new work investigating visual thinking in the new world order, featuring Sarika Goulatia, Brenda Roger, and Thomas Waters.
This exhibition included a City of Asylum reading room and special installation from Tuhin Das. Along with special programming in partnership with the Arts and the Law Committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association, ACLU of Pennsylvania, City of Asylum and their writer-in-residence Tuhin Das, and the Executive Women's Council.
Photos by Casey Droege and Sean Carroll
The Residence
Spring 2016 - Spring 2017
The Residence was a program that invited curators, organizers, and cultural producers from around the country to produce an exhibit, lecture, or program connecting Pittsburgh's creative community to a national conversation.
In partnership with Radiant Hall, the following programs were presented:
Aay Preston-Myint and Latham Zearfoss, of Chicago-based collective Chances Dances, visited Pittsburgh to capture the arts community through a series of exchanges of insider/outsider perspectives. Working with local curator Hannah Turpin, Preston-Myint and Zearfoss' visit culminated in a visual documentation that wove together each experience into a vibrant narrative, offering a glimpse of how Pittsburgh art and artists live in our contemporary moment.
Patrick Gantert and Rachel Schmidhofer joined Pittsburgh curator Adam Welch for their residencies. During their overlapping stays, Patrick and Rachel conducted studio visits with artists and participate in a panel discussion with local curators/organizers Jessie Rommelt and Sean Beauford.
During Elena Harvey Collins residence, she met with local artists throughout the city. She produced a series of essays, one of which was featured on the Glassblock, an online arts and culture publication.
Photos by Casey Droege
Idia'Dega
Winter 2016
As the initial trial for CDCP's curatorial residency program, Droege hosted a residency and pop up exhibition featuring Tereneh Mosley's Idia'Dega design work. With housing and space generously provided by Barbara Luderowski, President and Co-Director of the Mattress Factory. Tereneh Mosley was the first in residence with a collaborative pop-up exhibit of her collections in February and March of 2016.
Photos by Casey Droege
COMPROMISED
Fall 2013
Comprised: Life in the Middle presented the evidence of artistic communities finding sustenance in the culturally barren landscape of Middle America. Through the guise of “ethnocuratorialism,” Gold Standard (Droege and Corey Escoto) gathered artifacts and documentation- some real and some creatively fictionalized. This exhibition presented a unique perspective of these cultural economies, providing editorialized “facts” and infographics on the positive side of choosing this lifestyle alongside paraphernalia of real projects across the country.
Extra curricular activities included a “Quilting in the HeARTland” day and closing party featuring Jérémie Buchholtz and Alexis Gideon.
Photos by Casey Droege
Pittsburgh Biennial
In the fall of 2014, Droege curated the CMU Miller Gallery's contribution to the Pittsburgh Biennial. This collaborative city-wide exhibition project was presented by Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in partnership with the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Mattress Factory, Miller Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s SPACE Gallery, Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Glass Center. The Biennial celebrates the region’s most compelling artists as well as our unique visual arts landscape.
This was a cross section of diverse, fresh-faced and multifaceted artists who have close connections to Pittsburgh. Using processes in painting, sculpture, video, and sound, these artists collect and reconfigure the data and debris of today’s world, producing works with a fresh perspective. Throughout the exhibition, a rotating roster of presentations featured innovative experiments in dance, social practice, performance, and more. The exhibition aimed to present the wide range of approaches to art making present in Pittsburgh, provoking viewers beyond a “pedestrian” reality without fully giving way to fantasy, as each artist spoke in their own way to the dynamics between the quotidian and the cosmic, the social and the spectacular, the local and the global.
Artists: Edith Abeyta and Michael Lewis Miller, Gavin Benjamin, David Bernabo, Alexis Gideon, Ulric Joseph, Jessica Langley, Celeste Neuhaus
Featured Presentations: Drew Droege, Janks Archive,
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF TOM LITTLE PHOTOGRAPHY