Common Canvas: New Deal murals in PA

The art of the Thirties is experiencing a renewed interest, with stunning new exhibitions featuring the art of the decade at The Frick Art & Historical Center and The Westmoreland. Now, a new show presented by the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area is one more to add to your must-see list.

Organized by the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, A Common Canvas: Pennsylvania's New Deal Post Office Murals examines work created under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, which established a unique program that allowed murals and sculptures to be installed in post offices across the country.

The year was 1933, the setting the height of America's Great Depression. Administered by the U.S. Treasury Department via its Section of Fine Arts, Roosevelt's initiative provided artists with substantial work, and in turn, nurtured the creation of original works of art and activated public spaces via depictions of life and labor.

Depicting themes of industry, agriculture and labor, subjects every bit as relevant today as they were six decades ago, the mural program was designed to lift the collective spirits of Americans, celebrate everyday life and create employment for professional artists.

Boasting the country's second largest collection of New Deal post office murals, Pennsylvania received 94 commissions between 1934 and 1943. Featured at The Bost Building in Homestead are reproductions of nine southwestern Pennsylvania murals created by New Deal artists for post offices in Aliquippa, Belle Vernon, Bridgeville, California, Ford City, Jeanette, and Pittsburgh.

A Common Canvas: Pennsylvania's New Deal Post Office Murals remains on view through August 12. The Bost Building is open Monday through Thursday from 11a.m. to 4p.m.

The wats:ON? Festival goes virtual

Ways of seeing: This week, visual art and virtual reality will collide at Carnegie Mellon.

Overwhelmed by the flood of texts, tweets and status updates? Having trouble keeping your Second Life from creeping into your daily routine? Whether you're a World of Warcraft junkie or craving a clean break from cyberspace, you're not going to want to miss this year's wats:ON? Festival at Carnegie Mellon.

From the Moog to the MacBook Pro, artists have simultaneously embraced, rejected and re-imagined the idea of virtual reality in works that span everything from film to fiction. And with Avatar recently topping Hollywood' s highest grossing film list, the festival's theme couldn't be more timely.

Coined just two decades ago, the phrase virtual reality has far-reaching impact on the production, presentation and perception of art. Long the domain of artists, from filmmakers and sci-fi writers to performance artists and musicians, simulation and special effects go hand in hand with artistic representation and the creative process.

Turning its lens to both creators and observers, the festival will highlight a broad spectrum of genres and approaches, from hi-fi digital simulations and surveying technologies to experimental cinema and descriptive geometry. Working with a wide range of digital and analog technologies, featured guests will mine the ways artists play with physical and perceptual space.

Curated by Spike Wolff and Pablo Garcia, the festival kicks off Weds. March 17 with an exhibition and talk by Anthony McCall, whose light pieces blur boundaries between cinema, sculpture and environmental installation. The three-day event will also feature lectures by media scholars, open house receptions, screenings, and discussions.

Meet leading "media archaeology" theorists, discover the development of groundbreaking projection techniques and view rarely seen imagery. On Friday, March 19 don't miss a Machinima (read: machine animation cinema) Film Festival presented via live Skype from Germany.

Ready for hands-on virtual action? Head to Arcade Game Night on Friday, March 19 for some old school meets new age gaming courtesy of Carnegie Mellon's renowned Entertainment Technology Center. Wrap up your virtual journey with a discussion of the influential site-specific art of Gordon Matta-Clark, and a screening of 16mm and digital work by experimental filmmaker Ernie Gehr.

Nothing is Impossible when it comes to art

According to the Mattress Factory (MF), nothing is impossible when it comes to art.

With a world renowned reputation for supporting the creative practice of living artists, the little museum that could has not wavered from
its clear and consistent mission, presenting some of the best in cutting-edge contemporary art for more than three decades and counting.

This Friday, March 19, marks the first effort by guest curators Mark Garry and Georgina Jackson at the museum. Reflecting the MF's unique artistic mission, Garry and Jackson will too work in residence at the Northside museum, with a two-year curatorial focus on presenting new exhibitions and performances. Launched last year, the project is the first curatorial residency of its kind.

On view through August 8, Nothing is Impossible features site-specific installations by contemporary artists Karl Burke, Rhona Byrne, Brian Griffiths, Bea McMahon and Dennis McNulty. Based in both Dublin and London, each artist was been invited to spend two months living and working in Pittsburgh.

In developing new work, the five artists were encouraged to explore the notion that nothing is impossible, a mindset that's informed the artistic, curatorial and organizational underpinnings of the museum itself since its grassroots inception in 1975. Mining concepts of impossibility, the exhibition invites viewers to ponder the potential of a world where anything is indeed possible, where perceptions and actions are not suppressed by the constraints and constructs of contemporary Western thought.

Dublin-based artist, curator and educator Mark Garry has organized numerous large-scale exhibitions with emerging and established Irish artists, including Rem Koolhaas and OMA, Gordon Matta-Clark and The Metropolitan Complex. In November 2009, Garry released his third musical record, a commissioned project called Sending letters to the sea.

Georgina Jackson is a curator and writer who worked as Exhibitions Curator at Dublin City Gallery from 2005 to 2008, where she co-organized numerous contemporary art exhibitions, retrospectives and symposia. A research scholar at Dublin's Graduate School of Creative Arts and Media, Jackson is a member of the International Association of Art Critics.

Hindi goes hip-hop: When January Feels Like Summer

With the double whammy of blizzards that Pittsburgh was slammed with this winter, we can think of no better way to ring in spring than with a play called When January Feels Like Summer.
 
What happens when Hindi goes hip-hop, homeboys become heroes, a garbage man rescues a shopkeeper, and a boy named Ishan becomes a girl called Indira, all with the sassy swish of a lipstick? Find out at City Theatre, where the world premiere of promising new play When January Feels Like Summer is set to hit the South Side stage this week.

This spring, heat up as African American, Indian American, and transgender cultures coalesce in a multi-culti comedy bursting with unexpected love and whirlwind moments. Developed in 2008 at City Theatre's Momentum Festival and at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, the whimsical world premiere runs on City Theatre's Main Stage from March 20 through April 11.
 
The ensemble cast features several local talents, including Joshua Elijah Reese and current CAPA high school student, Carter Redwood.
Penned by New York CIty-based playwright and actress Cori Thomas, When January Feels Like Summer is directed by Chuck Patterson. The multicultural cast also features Gita Reddy, Debargo Sanyal and John Marshall Jones. The production's design team includes Anne Mundell (scenic), Ange Vesco (costume), Allen Hahn (lighting), and Rob Kalpowitz (sound).
 
Marking City Theatre's 35th season, the special production is supported in part by the Edgerton Foundation Fund for New American Plays.

For tickets, call 412.431.2489 or go here.

Call Her Madam: a salute to Perle Mesta

Ever wanted to sip champagne in a cemetery? This Sunday, March 21, cocktails, culture and cinema will provide your perfect spring mixer at historic Homewood Cemetery.

Mark the first weekend of spring by celebrating Women's History Month with the nation's premiere chapter of LUPEC (read: Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails).

Displaying their signature knack for combining subversively thirst quenching cocktails with a salute to pioneering women who have changed the world, LUPEC will honor the occasion with a fitting tribute to American socialite, political hostess, and U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, Perle Mesta. And what better place to toast the "Hostess with the Mostess" than at the very site of her final resting place?

The lively event will feature the U.S. premiere of the documentary Call Her Madam, by Luxembourg professor/filmmaker, Paul Lesch. In pure Perle fashion, the screening will be followed by a reception featuring Mesta's fave beverage—champagne—along with desserts she famously served at her lavish parties.

Any invitation to a Perle Mesta party was a sign that one had reached the inner circle of Washington, D.C.'s political high society. Known for hosting buzz-worthy soirees that brought together rising stars of national politics—including top-level senators, congressmen and cabinet secretaries—with glamorous artists and entertainers of the day, Mesta graced the cover of Time Magazine in 1949.

Born in Michigan the daughter of a wealthy Oklahoma oilman and hotelier, Mesta maintained a house in Homestead, where her late husband owned a steel machining plant. Active in the National Woman's Party and an early ERA supporter, Mesta was appointed ambassador to Luxembourg by Harry S. Truman in 1949.

Art noise: Magik Markers live

Free-range rock: Fans of underground music's noisier counterparts should plan to start off next week with Monday night's Magik Markers concert.

For those seeking out the screech, the drone and the distortion-drenched, Magik Markers will have you hooked on trippy numbers like
"Risperdal" and "Taste," and transfixed by its chaotic on-stage energy. But don't just trust us, or Sonic Youth front man Thurston Moore, who hand-picked the group for his Ecstatic Peace label back in 2005. Trust your ears, as the duo unleashes its blend of gritty noise improv at Garfield Artworks.

First formed as a three-piece out of Hartford, CT, Magik Markers have morphed into a stable duo headed up by Elisa Ambrogio and Pete Nolan, and have shared the stage with everyone from Dinosaur Jr. to Sunburned Hand of the Man.

A stint opening for Sonic Youth in 2004 helped the band get out of the basement, into the limelight and on the way to a string of releases on indie labels. Further solidifying their connection to noise pioneers Sonic Youth, Magik Markers went on to work with the band's legendary guitarist Lee Ranaldo, who produced the group's 2007 full-length, Boss.

The duo also releases limited edition CD-R and cassette recordings on Nolan's own Arbitrary Signs label and via Gucci Rapidshare Downloads online. In 2008, Magik Markers took their spontaneous sounds to Scotland, Austria, Latvia, and London, including a live performance at London's Abbey Road.

Beyond Magik Markers, Nolan has played drums with Jandek, while Ambrogio has toured with Six Organs of Admittance. The duo is now hitting the road to support its latest LP, Balf Quarry, released in 2009 on underground music tastemaker Drag City Records. Be sure to get there to catch an opening set by local psych-noise group, Tusk Lord.