Richard P. Gribenas, a media and sound artist who was admired equally within the museum and punk music worlds, died Tuesday of Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was 31.

A Greensburg native, Mr. Gribenas was a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He performed and exhibited internationally, receiving solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Copenhagen; Salzburg, Austria and Malmo, Sweden. Reviews of his work appeared in prominent art periodicals Artforum and Art in America and in British music magazine The Wire.

"His work always challenged me. He always made me think and he always made me grow. And there aren't that many artists you could say that about," said independent curator Vicky A. Clark, who has featured Mr. Gribenas' artwork in exhibitions including The Pittsburgh Biennial.

"He struggled to make his art. He worked very, very hard. The quality and the integrity and the conceptual aspects really mattered to him. He was so much about the future of art in Pittsburgh, and not about the past," Ms. Clark said.

He was also known for making people feel at ease.

Jeremy Boyle, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, recalled fondly a 2005 collaboration with Mr. Gribenas at the Art Institute Museum in Chicago. "It was quiet and subtle and the sounds were easily lost in the large room and all of the activities -- the audience could choose at any moment to notice there was a performance happening and just as easily engage in social activities. I always feel uncomfortable in performance situations, but there was enough that was just right that evening that I have no memory of awkward self-consciousness, the feelings that usually dominate my memories of performances and openings. I think that if I could return to a moment with Rick, it would be there."

After art school, Mr. Gribenas continued to keep a foot in the punk music and DIY communities, frequently aiding young musicians.

His wife, Charissa Hamilton-Gribenas, said she met him when he helped her and a friend record an album. "He had a great belief in us -- two young women yelling into a microphone making noise. He respected that the music came out of a place and had meaning. He shared his skills and his knowledge to help us make something we were proud of."

"He was known for balancing highly intellectual and highly critically acclaimed art with his roots as sort of a punk rocker," she added.

Mike Q. Roth, one of the Wilkinsburg Mr. Roboto Project founders, said Mr. Gribenas "had a faith and belief in what people in our community were doing. There were things you wanted to give and to share, and he would help you figure out how you could do it.

"His art had a very intellectual air about it and what we did was a harsher, blunter thing. He took a risk to be involved in this kind of project. But the music and ideas we were doing he thought were important, and he thought our friendship was important. And that meant a lot to us," Mr. Roth said.

Mr. Gribenas was honored as the first Emerging Artist of the Year recipient in 2001 at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Most recently, he exhibited at Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and was one of four artists chosen to participate in the Tough Art Project at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh last summer.

Penny Lodge, children's museum director of exhibits, said that two of Mr. Gribenas' works are still installed at the museum and they plan to re-install a third.

When Mr. Gribenas and museum staff completed the largest work, a ceiling of LED lights that respond to visitors' motion, in the passage beyond the lobby, they flipped a switch to turn the lights on. "A little girl standing nearby yelled 'awesome,' " Ms. Lodge said. "Immediate joy and excitement comes through."

In addition to his wife, Mr. Gribenas is survived by his stepson, Jaden Sopko; parents Richard and Linda Gribenas of Greensburg; sister Heather Killmeyer; and grandparents Anna Gribenas-Bell and S. Jessie Komara.

Visitation will be today from 5 to 8 p.m. at John J. Gmiter Funeral Home, 119 South 15th St., South Side. A funeral service will be held there at 11 a.m. Saturday. A benefit for the family and celebration of Mr. Gribenas' life will be held April 11 at Modern Formations Gallery, 4919 Penn Ave., Garfield/Bloomfield.