Image credit: Dave Zak
Thank you to everyone who came and saw CDCP x WCDC Present: Jasmine Green at the Lohr Gallery. To close out this successful show, Jasmine hosted an earring painting workshop where registrants took home a hand-painted pair of earrings that Jasmine fabricated.
Join CDCP and WCDC for our third collaborative show of the season, featuring new work by artist Lizzee Solomon.
I make art that enlivens and captures the imagination. Using a unique blend of mixed media techniques, I create bold portraits of a wide range of subjects, both real and imagined. The vibrant color palette I use is inspired by my experience woodcarving in rural Oaxaca, Mexico. There, I learned how to transform copal tree chunks into alebrijes - brilliantly colored sculptures of wild creatures.
My studio practice is meticulous and tedious at times, fueled by my compulsion to complete visual puzzles, and the desire to work with my hands doing small tasks. I choose to work this way for its unexpected meditative qualities. I am entranced by every nuance of my subjects, creating shapes out of shadows, patterns out of pores, and exaggerating distinctive features.
Each work begins as a drawing, resembling a puzzle. After software processing, I use a CNC laser cutter to fabricate the components using colorful plastic, birch plywood, and adhesive vinyl. After assembling the parts, the whole semi-nightmarish portrait emerges with satisfying textures and juicy colors. Working this way allows me to create artwork for a wider range of collectors. I am a strong believer in art that is accessible, not out-of-reach.
Lizzee Solomon was born in New York, NY, and grew up in suburban Chicago, IL. She earned a BFA in Studio Art and Hispanic Studies at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011. Lizzee is based in Pittsburgh and participates in group and solo exhibitions as an artist and curator in the region. In addition to her studio practice, Lizzee is a commercial artist, working with businesses to elevate their products and brands using a combination of new and traditional techniques. Lizzee also has over fifteen years of professional teaching experience, having taught at the Carnegie Museum of Art, TechShop, and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. She is currently an instructor and Board Member at Protohaven in Wilkinsburg.
WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Video courtesy of WQED Pittsburgh
Pedantic Arts Residency was recently featured on Pittsburgh’s local PBS Channel, WQED. As co-directors of this residency program, we’re thrilled to have Pedantic be spotlighted as a “unique and encouraging space for exploration and creativity.”
Make sure to join us on Friday, February 2 from 6-8pm to say goodbye to the Winter 2024 Cohort of the Pedantic Arts Residency. Click the button below to learn more.
Join us on January 11th to meet the 3 finalists in the public call for artists, learn about their past creative projects, and give inspiration to the finalists as they begin their design proposals for a chance to create the final commissioned artwork.
TASC and Steel City Squash want to hear from members of the community about what art they want to see in the neighborhood. Please join us to deliver your input on this project and help guide the artists towards a vision that celebrates the spirit of Larimer.
Register for this FREE community workshop and share your input on an exciting art project in your neighborhood. To sign up, click the button below.
Steel City Squash - Public Art Community Workshop
January 11, 2024 from 5:30p-7:30p
Kingsley Association
6435 Frankstown Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Join us on Wednesday, January 10, 2024 to welcome our fourth Pedantic cohort. The Pedantic Residents will be giving brief presentations on their backgrounds and their practices.
Pedantic Arts Residency (Pedantic) is a month-long cross-disciplinary program co-hosted by Headwater Media and Casey Droege Cultural Productions. We have invited three residents whose practices span visual art, curating, and writing to explore the city of Pittsburgh and its creative communities.
Image of Visual Art Resident Laura（嘟嘟), courtesy of the artist
Headshot of Curatorial Resident Ulya Soley, courtesy of the artist
Headshot of Writing Resident Alysia Nicole Harris, taken by Melly Wirtes
This winter’s three residents include Laura（嘟嘟）(they/them), an Irvine, CA and New York, NY-based multidisciplinary artist and queer feminist and co-founder of Chinese Artists and Organizers whose art and community organizing reimagine the body, memory, and kinship particularly as it connects with food; Ulya Soley (she/her), a curator based in Istanbul, Turkey and working at Pera Museum whose recent projects explore future scenarios through a queer, feminist lens and delve into the history of queer nightlife and rave culture; and Alysia Nicole Harris (she/her), a performance poet and arts writer based in Corsicana, TX who is interested in the relationship between figuration and abstraction, painting and textiles, and explores themes of spirituality, physicality, beauty and pain.
This is a free event, and RSVP is requested to attend. To RSVP, please fill out the form here.
What: Pedantic Meet and Greet
When: Wednesday, January 10, 6:00-7:30pm
Where: KST Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Black women exist within an unrelenting ecosystem built to convince us that we are insufficient. To persevere, counternarratives that remind us of our humanity are crucial. As a painter and poet, my work exists as a safe harbor for Black women and girls, centering themes such as mental health, systemic oppression, joy, liberatory visions, and power.
I practice mainly in acrylic media but also engage in digital painting, tufting, and laser cutting. What excites me most is ideating new ways to showcase aspects of Black feminine identity outside of the limiting bounds and tropes we often see ourselves defined within; I can depict nudity in ways that are not inherently sexual, beauty in ways not restricted by Eurocentric standards and a deep and emotional personhood that can not be bypassed or erased.
I am most influenced in practice and philosophy by the works of Claudia Rankine, Audre Lorde, Kehinde Wiley, Romare Bearden, Octavia Butler, and Kerry James Marshall. The questions I want to be answered in my work are: what is challenged when Black women are centered unapologetically; and what effect do the societies we live in have on Black women’s capacity for joy, love, peace, and processing trauma?
WCDC's Lohr Gallery
725 Wood St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15221