Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos "The Description of Indescribable Series, 1 of 5," is a silkscreen by Mary Martin. Click photo for larger image.

The high quality of the art is the first thing one notices about the inaugural exhibition "Generations," in the Downtown gallery of the African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh.

Three of the city's finest artists -- Jo-Anne Bates, Tina Brewer and Thaddeus Mosley -- were invited by curator Grace Stanislaus to show their work, and to each select an artist he or she admired and would like to exhibit with.

They chose, respectively, Lonnie Graham, who has exhibited extensively locally, nationally and internationally; Mary Martin, who has not yet received exposure commensurate to her talent; and Anire Mosley, an emerging artist on the rise, and Thaddeus' son.

The exhibition subtitle, "Six African American Artists," and the sponsoring organization, make evident that the artists share racial identity. However, while some of the work in the exhibition specifically addresses components of African-American history or culture, much would be impossible to distinguish from that of other artists of different racial/cultural backgrounds working today.

Included are overtly political pieces, such as fiber artist Brewer's moving "The Harvest," its composition inspired by historic drawings of slave ships and the packed arrangement of their human cargo.

Other works obliquely reference cultural history, such as sculptor and jazz aficionado Thaddeus Mosley's pert "Double Staccato (Tribute to T. Navarro & C. Brown)," the inclination to perceive it as related to a specific music genre provided more by title than by form.

Printmaker Bates' animated monotype "Hip Hop" is as exuberant as her mystic etching "Voodoo" is reserved. Composition is enhanced by cultural contextualization when the viewer moves closer to read title and/or text.

This wall-sized component of Lonnie Graham's "Tribal Nation" project is part of his installation, "Journey Toward a Truer Self," in the African American Cultural Center exhibition "Generations." Graham will speak about his work during a free public panel Friday. Click photo for larger image.

However, the initial response to most of the work exhibited by these three artists is admiration for their contemporary expressiveness, their competence with technique and the individuation each brings to his/her medium.

Thaddeus Mosley is sheer formal elegance integrated within abstract walnut, cherry and mahogany sculptures that exude powerful presence. Brewer's ebullient fiber panels are infused with motion, mystery and depth -- glorious planes of color and design further enlivened with narratives of celebration of life and ancestral homage. The preeminence of Bates' printmaking is represented by a range that includes sterling tailored embossings that are all cool sophistication, to playful and provocative monotypes that breathe vivacity through skillfully developed texture and pattern.

Stanislaus -- who was "project consultant" to the exhibition and left Pittsburgh in March to become executive director of the Romare Bearden Foundation in New York City -- says "the work" was the "first and foremost" consideration for her artist selections.

"I was looking for seasoned artists who had exhibition histories, publications, and for work with a certain variety of style, medium and approach ... rich in content. Not just iconography, but the artist had something very interesting to share through [such things as] the themes in their work, their approach to medium, their approach to technique."

"The commitment over time to the work -- to me, that's what makes a seasoned artist. I like the history that each of them brings. Progress, development, evolution, experimentation, transformation -- I saw that in the three of them. Artists who have worked their craft, have reassessed, have looked at their work and considered it.

	This three-panel homage to members of the seminal rap group Run/D.M.C. was painted by Anire Mosley. He's the son of sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, who also appears in the exhibition "Generations.". Click photo for larger image.

"The three provided a nice range: Very interesting in terms of contrasts and in terms of comparisons," Stanislaus says.

When it came to choosing the remaining three artists, she was consulted but ultimately "it fell to each of [the original artists]. I really had to force myself to step back."

The peripatetic and multi-gifted Graham is represented by an installation comprising portions of four handsome installation/photography projects, one of which involved a collaboration with Thaddeus Mosley for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.

Bates says, "Lonnie is an incredibly sensitive person and is able to capture this in the photographs of his subjects because of the trust and sincerity he builds with them," a quality that is particularly evident in samplings from his "A Conversation With the World."

Martin works in ceramics, printmaking and collage, equally accomplished in each. Notable are a "Round Dream Series" of bowls, and the exceptional five-part silkscreen "The Description of the Indescribable."

Her works are often suffused with symbols from her heritage, as are Brewer's, and that's one of the reasons for her selection. "What I like to do with my art," Brewer says, is "to elevate people's way of seeing. Mary is teaching people too. Basically Mary, for me, is a younger me -- but she does much more than I ever did at her age."

Of Anire, Thaddeus Mosley writes, "This selection is the focus of the requested criteria for this exhibition: Young and talented."

From his homage to well-known Pittsburgh African Americans for the "Graffiti Mural Invitational" at last year's Three Rivers Arts Festival, to paintings of seminal rappers Run/D.M.C. here, Anire Mosley represents youth culture. But he knows his way around art, witness a series of lithographs that plays with Picasso's influence -- and we know that Africa influenced Picasso.

Most promising, though, is his pen, charcoal and chalk "Lynching Series (Part I)" wherein a ³/₄-inch length of rope transforms an otherwise indistinguishable impressionistic and moody scene to one of horror.

While the decision to organize exhibitions around such characteristics as race, gender or ethnicity has, since the 1960s, liberated voice and promoted artists of merit who would otherwise not have penetrated mainstream venues and audiences, there is the Catch 22 that such insularity has the potential to contribute to categorizing and stereotyping. This is particularly true at a time when many feel that elitist prejudices have dissolved, something that is variably true dependent upon factors such as place and experience.

One way "Generations" avoids being problematic is by including only artists who've demonstrated that they are worthy of any competition, or are growing in capacity to so be. At the same time, it showcases the accomplishments of local African American artists, offers a venue for comparison and exchange within the more specific and the greater art communities, and gives all visitors an opportunity to hold a larger conversation. (Exhibitions of contemporary African American art are currently at the Society for Contemporary Craft and coming to the University Gallery, University of Pittsburgh, so the idea is not institutionally outmoded by any means.)

Stanislaus says that the difficult process of winnowing the choices for both sets of artists showed there are "many good artists out there," enough that this could become an ongoing series.

That's good news for the African American Cultural Center, which envisions more exhibitions in this space between now and 2007 when they project the opening of their new building in the Cultural District.

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Several of the artists -- Brewer, Graham, Martin and Thaddeus Mosley -- will participate in "a casual lunchtime chat" at the gallery at noon Friday. The event is free and open to the public.

"Generations" continues through Aug. 20 at 209 Ninth St., Downtown. Gallery hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and until 7 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free, as is a gallery brochure with background on each artist. For information, call 412-281-5484 or visit www.africanaculture.org.