Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! continues to serve up a feast of glass expression, both contemporary and historic. But where does that leave the many local arts organizations that specialize in media other than glass?

Silver Eye Center for Photography found a way to both participate and to challenge members' imaginations.

For the exhibition "the looking glass," photographers were asked to consider what the phrase (from Lewis Carroll's book "Through the Looking-Glass") brought to mind, and to use that as inspiration. All members were eligible to submit one picture and guaranteed a place in the exhibition.

	'Glasses by the Window' by John Fobes is part of "The Looking Glass" exhibit at Silver Eye Center for Photography. Click photo for larger image.

The staff awaited submissions, one would imagine with some apprehension. The resultant exhibition of 109 photographs from 15 states (71 from Pennsylvania), however, is an engaging mix with many high points.

A perfect entry for this themed year, if atypical of his work, came from seminal Pittsburgh photographer Clyde Hare, who captured the qualities of color and light characteristic of glass, and particularly the golden glow of "Light Through Chihuly Glass," in 2006.

At the conceptual end of the range of work represented is Tricia Zigmund's "My Every Midnight," a troubling image combining harshly lit women behind each of five translucent panels that are foregrounded by an expanse of deteriorating orangish material.

Senior artist Aaronel de Roy Gruber's clever "Double Self Portrait" speaks to the heart, both empirical and conceptual, of the looking glass that most of us experience daily.

Two exceptional cityscapes find wonder in the mundane: Leo Mendonca's "Harlem Mirror -- New York City," in which the surrounding street is reflected in a large mirror two men carefully carry across it; and Bob Herbst's "Kapoor Sculpture Abstract," similarly reflecting the surround of Anish Kapoor's marvelous stainless-steel "Cloud Gate" in Chicago's Millennium Park.

"Broken Mirror, Beirut, 2005" by Rania Matar, also from "The Looking Glass" exhibit at Silver Eye. Click photo for larger image.

The PPG building, Downtown, a natural subject for this show, is given original interpretation by Donald Gibbon, who captures a "Glass Tiara" as the sun glints off the building, and by John Warren Davis in his subtly revealed "PPG Skaters."

Also standing out are photographs by John Fobes and Suzette Bross. The former layers sunlight streaming through crocheted curtains onto spectacles lying on a tablecloth over memory and nostalgia in the very fine "Glasses by the Window." Bross humorously and mysteriously introduces a fleshy protrusion into the clinically white public restroom of "Hand Dryer."

But there are many others to puzzle over in this appealing eclectic show.

"Looking" continues through Sept. 15 at 1015 E. Carson Street, South Side. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and until 9 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is free. At 7 p.m. Aug. 16 and Sept. 13, various exhibiting photographers will give gallery talks. For information, call 412-431-1810 or visit www.silvereye.org.

AAP reflects

Another group that has found a creative way to join in the glass festivities while allowing members to use media with which they are comfortable is the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh.

The group's February exhibition, "Vitreous," at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, was among the first in the Pittsburgh Celebrates Glass! calendar. For "Reflections," at Gallery 707, Downtown, artists were instructed to maintain a size limit and to include "glass" or "reflections" as an integral part of the work. Media includes oil, watercolor, ceramics, photography and fiber.

"Reflections" continues through Aug. 18 at 707 Penn Ave. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and noon to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For information, call 412-361-0873.

Chihuly day

Having toured "Chihuly at Phipps: Gardens & Glass" at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens when it opened in May, I was surprised to see how much the plantings had changed last week when I returned with a family member. There were more blossoms, both indoors and in the outdoor gardens, and the evenly spaced foliage had grown and begun to nuzzle up to the vibrant glassworks.

While I know people who have breezed through the show in a little more than an hour, others, photographers in particular, tend to linger. We arrived at 10:30 a.m. on a pleasantly uncrowded weekday, ate lunch in the cafe, took an occasional break on a bench and browsed the general and Chihuly shops -- and didn't leave until 4:15 p.m.

Little discussed is that the 20-foot-high Rose Crystal Tower, in the Outdoor Garden, is made of Polyvitro, a plastic material that is lighter in weight than glass and more weather and breakage resistant. It is the only nonglass work in the show and a material that Chihuly has been experimenting with, most notably in a large installation in Jerusalem in 2000.

Fallingwater interpreted

A full review will run later this month in the Post-Gazette, but I recommend to readers who will be in the Laurel Highlands before then an impressive exhibition, "Fallingwater in Perspective," at The Barn at Fallingwater.

The show comprises 50 paintings of the architectural icon made over the past year by Felix de la Concha, who has also painted Clayton and 365 Views of the Cathedral of Learning, exhibited respectively at The Frick Art & Historical Center and Carnegie Museum of Art.

The barn is on Route 381, between Mill Run and Ohiopyle, one-fourth mile north of the entry to Fallingwater. Hours are 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Admission is free. For information, call 724-329-8501 or visit www.paconserve.org.