by Emma Riva
Image of Jesse Best’s Analog Holiday, closing 12/10
Around the holiday season, things seem to slow down a little bit in the art world since most normal people are hanging out with their families. Or people pack up and go to Art Basel Miami, which is understandable because Pittsburgh in November is not known for its great climate. But there’s still happenings in Pittsburgh for all of us art scene ne’er-do-wells sticking around. We got some museum stuff. Some music. Food. Wine.
The Sheila and Milton Fine Foundation just gifted a massive amount of new contemporary art to the Carnegie Museum of Art. Includes some big names like Mark Handforth, Robert Mapplethorpe, Chris Ofili, and Jeff Koons—who, no matter what his contributions to contemporary art might be, I went to high school with his son and thought he was an asshole, so I can never view it objectively. (Sorry, Sean, if you ever see this. You probably were a nice person deep down). But you can see the Milton and Sheila Fine Collection until March 17, and don’t let my personal beef with Jeff Koons keep you from it. It’s a massive acquisition for the museum and includes Mapplethorpe’s portrait of Keith Haring.
We also are basically getting a new museum. Miller ICA of Carnegie Mellon recently announced they’re rebranding to ICA Pittsburgh and expanding into a new building. Read the press release here for some more detail. This is pretty exciting, getting a new building and a whole new space for viewing art and talking about it. Plus new jobs, new opportunities for showing…This is an awesome development and I’m interested to see where it goes.
November is apparently the season for rebranding, since The Mattress Factory also rebranded all of their logos and sent me an email about it? Goodbye to the black and red MF. (I love The Mattress Factory, but I’m sorry, I read that MF as “motherfucker” every time). You can get a free tote bag with the new logo on it on 12/2 and 12/3 if you’re within the first 400 visitors. There’s also going to be an electronic music set by Margaret Cox as part of Lydia Rosenberg’s Do this while I wait on 12/2—I can’t get over it starting at exactly 1:38PM. I will get there at exactly 1:38.
Speaking of free stuff and electronic music, Pittsburgh nightlife name BusCrates is doing a free vinyl set over at the Government Center (715 East St) tonight starting at 9PM. No listed end time.
For a more sit-down experience, tickets are on sale for “Mangia, Mangia,” a spaghetti dinner that Bunker Projects is throwing on 12/11 over at Wilkins Community Center—it’s a fundraiser, but you can go for as little as $20, which is honestly a steal for the amount of food you’re going to get. When I bought a ticket, there were only 10 left at that level, so get ’em while you can.
If you live in Garfield, Friendship, or Bloomfield you have a few days to apply for the Hyper-Local show at Assemble. There’s obviously First Friday coming up, but I haven’t heard of a whole lot of new openings. I have my eye on Pullproof, because they’ve been really on fire recently with work by Jordan Bohannon, Juliet Phillips, and Anna Shepperson and Matthew van Assalt. Everything up over the past few months there has been cool as fuck. But it’s the first winter First Friday, so foot traffic may be less than in the past. We’ll see.
I got a tip from social media that there’s a new space open in Sharpsburg (614 Main Street). Check it out here:
For openings and closings, you can check out the calendar, but at the Cultural Trust Jesse Best’s Analog Holiday is closing December 10th (the show had to move to 819 Penn Ave after water damage at SPACE). Post-thanksgiving, artist E Hyrb is doing some live painting at an event called “Free Whine” at .5 Gallery in Etna this Friday 11/25. Will there be actual free wine? Either way, as a fan of both wine and complaining I’m into it.
Also, new feature, with each of these I want to put an “Overheard” section. Lisa Cunningham originally gave me this idea and I thought it was pretty good, so I want to incorporate it. Hit me up if you heard anything funny, juicy, or especially stupid at an opening recently. Overheard on the art scene 11/3 to 11/22: “If you see something you like on the wall here, but can’t afford it, take a photo and just print it out at home. I won’t tell. I encourage piracy.”
See you next time. Send tips, ideas, or hyper-local art gossip to petrichorpgh@gmail.com.
PETRICHOR 
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