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Local artist's quilt of accolades grows with latest honor
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Pittsburgh artist Tina Williams Brewer, pictured with one of her story quilts, was presented with the 2008 Service to the Arts Award last week by The Guild Council of Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
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Pittsburgh fiber artist Tina Williams Brewer has a new honor to add to her well-deserved long list of local and national accolades. She has been presented with the 2008 Service to the Arts Award by The Guild Council of Pittsburgh Filmmakers/Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.
Brewer was selected, the proclamation reads, in recognition of her "national reputation in the art form of making story quilts of great beauty and meaning, her commitment to the Center and its Guilds, her enduring contribution to African-American art, and her countless creative and eduction endeavors that keep the arts alive."
A member of the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, Women of Visions, Inc., and the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Brewer is represented in the African American Museum, Dallas, and has captured Best of Show and purchase prizes in Art of the State Exhibitions in Harrisburg. Four of Brewer's quilts are on display at the Center.
Since its initiation in 1998, the award has recognized individuals who have played significant roles in the Center's history.
The ceremony Friday evening also celebrated the opening of "In Sisterhood," a Pittsburgh 250 exhibition on the history of the women's movement in Pittsburgh that includes portraits of influential leaders, an oral history video and memorabilia. Organized by Patricia Ulbrich, a feminist sociology professor and visiting scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and a film student, it continues through Jan. 25.
Also ending on Jan. 25 are five other exhibitions, among them "Autumn: Works by Charlee Brodsky and Robert Qualters" (the title work, aside from being the most sensitive image of the oft-represented Qualters I've seen, is a marvelous hybrid portrait/self-portrait); "The Forest Inside: Works by Sue Abramson and Jonathan Shapiro (with Abramson's brilliant green leaves appearing as vibrant as the life force itself and Shapiro's wooden sculpture surfaces reminiscent of that of senior Pittsburgh artist Thaddeus Mosley); and "Making Connections," a group exhibition by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh that illustrates that its local membership is every bit as talented and creative as competitors to their laudable triennial Fiberart International.
For information, call 412-361-0873 or visit pittsburgharts.org.
"Sworn In," an exhibition inspired by the 2009 U.S. Presidential inauguration and comprising work by 10 artists selected by Lauri Mancuso, will open from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday at Future Tenant gallery, 819 Penn Ave. A closing reception will be held from 7 to 11 p.m. Feb. 14.
The evenings, which are free and public, will include live music, DJs, refreshments and projections by local filmmakers (www.futuretenant.org).
Pittsburgh-based tech start-up Deeplocal and artist collective Encyclopedia Destructica are accepting applications through Feb. 15 for a three-month corporate artist residency program, the "Old and New Media Residency."
Residencies begin April 1 and will offer open studio access at Destructica and technology support as well as studio space from Deeplocal. The former publishes hand-bound artist zines; the latter, a spinoff from a 2006 Carnegie Mellon University art and technology research project, works with new media tools such as text messaging and mobile broadcasting.
Information and applications are at deeplocal.com/residency.
Pittsburgher Amber Coppings is among 17 artists selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in the AltCraft section of The American Craft Council Show in Baltimore that will be held Feb. 27 through March 1.
American Craft Council executive director Andrew Glasgow said the chosen "artists and indie designers … illustrate the innovative techniques and materials of the burgeoning new handmade craft movement."
Politics has been weighing heavily on the minds of artists and curators during recent months, much of it having to do with contemporary candidates and issues. The Carnegie Mellon University Libraries offer an opportunity to see work that is just as vital but of another time period.
"Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk," at CMU's Posner Center through March 28, exhibits work by the Polish-born American artist whose World War II era, anti-Axis caricatures and cartoons appeared in publications like Time, Esquire and Collier's.
Included are books Szyk illlustrated, such as the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" and the Haggadah, the latter dubbed by The New York Times as "worthy to be placed among the most beautiful books that the hand of man has ever produced."
The exhibition is open 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and may be viewed online at szyk.org/szykonline.
First Published January 14, 2009 12:00 am
