Who hasn't envisioned a wintery landscape to seek relief from the recent heat wave? Thea Augustina Eck goes one better in her exhibition "Inisiaqpunga and the waking," which evokes the cool remove of the Arctic in both temperature and the spirit of a lost expedition.

This is not easy to pull off, particularly when the means are conceptual, the location a gallery at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

The specific inspiration for the piece was the 1845 Sir John Franklin expedition, which sought a Northwest Passage to the Pacific but ended in the deaths of all 133 crew members. Ms. Eck also draws upon her research on 19th-century Arctic and Antarctic exploratory history done in archives in England, Norway and Denmark.

A sled in the first room is mounded with biscuits -- reflecting the probable British provisions -- in place of the driver, and is attached to six motley speakers in place of sled dogs. If that vision is somewhat absurd, the emotion shifts when elegiac music pours from the speakers.

On the walls are digital prints of a snow-covered landscape bordering on a blue-gray sea. In each, a figure intrudes. The photographs are spare, clear, unframed behind a pane of glass, unbounded, expansive. Upon examination, they are also a mite surreal, with a pinch of Matthew Barney. A gray-suited figure, for example, stands upon snow-covered rocks and looks across an expanse of water through a gramophone speaker.

In the second room, Ms. Eck balances a suspended globe, bisected by suitcases and topped with a compass, with a grouping of nautical flags that, in contrast to those in the digital images, are as black as a polar winter night.

In this thoughtful work, the artist raises questions about the romanticism of travel and exploration vs. the reality -- whether on 19th-century seas or in 21st-century space; about how we define heroism; about mankind's fragility against nature's forces; and more.

One can almost picture the frost slowly forming across the body of a fallen expedition member, gradually defining and encasing his form as it eventually disappears under layers of snow and ice. Is it glory or folly?

Also at the Center for the Arts are colorful abstractions by Elizabeth Mooney, in "Shifting Panoramas," and Elin Lennox, in "Pastoral Deluxe."

Through her verdant paintings, Ms. Mooney challenges "traditional ideologies of the picturesque," updating landscape for a population that views it through a window while in motion. Ms. Lennox's engaging organic arrangements comprise imagery that she conceives and photographs, playing expectation and recognition against fantasy.

In contrast, James R. Southard's digital prints of "The Inherent Pull," are based on the somber aesthetic of film noir. Dimly lit and tense, the work invites the viewer to complete a narration suggested by an airplane entering clouds, a singular door in a tomb-like building. Most successful is an image with only a glint of light, a glimpse of a turn in an industrial staircase and the potential for anything.

Finally, occupying the permanent video room, laudably established after the merger of the center and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, is the three-channel video installation "Recall" by Ben Hernstrom and Frank Ferraro. This fine work employs a subdued palette and images of the seasons to create a mood of contemplation and imply the passage of time, inviting each viewer to reflect upon an event or person past.

Adam Welch, center and Pittsburgh Filmmakers Galleries curator, continues to bring smart, accomplished artists to the center, establishing it as the place to go for art lovers who want to experience thoughtful contemporary expression, but also for collectors eager to learn, develop an eye and acquire.

The exhibitions continue through June 13 at 6300 Fifth Ave., Shadyside. Ms. Mooney and Mr. Southard will give artist talks at 1 p.m. Sunday. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, and until 7 p.m. Thursday. Admission: suggested $5 donation. Information: 412-361-0873 or www.pittsburgharts.org.

We have, at the PG, been reflecting upon the life of former editor John Craig while mourning his untimely May 26 death. What I most enjoyed was his curiosity and his openness to trying something new. These qualities made him a natural fit within the art world, and I'd frequently see him at openings at venues like the Mattress Factory and Carnegie Museum of Art. John had a respect for the institution of art, knew the significance of its role within the broader culture, and was conversant in its language.

All of these came into play when Madeleine Grynsztejn, curator of the 1999-2000 Carnegie International, approached him about the possibility of using the pages of the Post-Gazette as a site for a conceptual Carnegie International artwork. John accepted and on Nov. 2, 1999, the first of eight drawings of "Rythm Mastr: A Tale of History, Vengeance and Redemption," by noted Chicago artist Kerry James Marshall, appeared in the Magazine section. The important thing to note is that this was not a reproduction of an artwork or an illustration referencing an exhibition. This was the artwork itself, Mr. Marshall's words and imagery deconstructing news media -- cartooning, reporting, cultural appropriation and more -- and using the object of the artist's examination as the medium itself, the media as the medium. It was unique. It required chutzpah to allow it to happen. And it wouldn't have happened without John Craig.

Artist Robert Brust, the voice of the widely read Penn Hills Art Association newsletter for 20 years and committed friend of local arts, died in his home over Mother's Day weekend. He was 64. Friends are discussing a memorial service.

"The Art of the Steal," the titillating 2009 documentary about the breakup of the Barnes Collection in suburban Philadelphia, screens free as a part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival at 4 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Harris Theater, 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown.

Andy Warhol's "The Giant Panda," an original serigraph from his "Endangered Species Portfolio," sold at auction at Concept Art Gallery, Regent Square, for $27,000 on May 22.

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