"Static Free" 9.30.05 - 10.24.05

"Static Free" was a contemporary fine art exhibit to showcase international, regional and local Pittsburgh artists whose work has been directly influenced by urban graffiti and street art.

"Static Free" was curated by Seak M.A.C., Michael D. Walsh, Megan Fitzgerald and Edgar Um Bucholtz.

Organizational support was provided by Pat Clark and Tracy Jackson.

Installation support by Sharmila Venkatasubban and Lauri Mancuso.

Initial funding came from a Seed Award Grant from Pittsburgh's The Sprout Fund. Corporate funding support came from Scion, American Eagle Outfitters and Red Bull.

International and U.S. artists were exhibited at SPACE in downtown Pittsburgh:

Calma (Stephan Doitschinoff of Brazil)
Maya Hayuk (of NYC)
Jerry "Joker" Inscoe
Tim Kaulen (of Pittsburgh)
Ryan MacKeen
Other
Stephen "ESPO" Powers (of NYC)
Seak M.A.C. (of Pittsburgh)
"Delta" Boris Tellegen
Michael D. Walsh (of Pittsburgh)


Regional and local Pittsburgh artists (with a few exceptions) were concurrently exhibited at Future Tenant across the street from SPACE in downtown Pittsburgh:

Sean Barton
Dan Bergeron
Biko
Dallah Cesan
Cameron Clayton
Nicholas Ganz
Kwest
Labrona
Jamie Matthews
Nathan Mould
Danny Paracat
Joe Rudans
Chris Savido
Matt Spahr
Ollie Slaughter
Jude Vachon



Opening night was Friday September 30th 2005. The show ran until October 24th 2005.



installation by Steve "ESPO" Powers




sculpture by Tim Kaulen in the foreground; sculpture by Michael D. Walsh in the background




mural by CALMA




mural by Maya Hayuk




Opening night of Static Free. We hired Miguel's Mariachi Fiesta to perform music during the opening. Over 2000 people attended.




a closer shot of Tim Kaulen's sculpture. This work debuted at "Static Free," but was commissioned and is now permanently exhibited at The Pittsburgh Children's Museum.


Static Free brought renowned NYC DJ and urban culture writer, Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. DJ Cucumberslice, to Pittsburgh to perform for the Static Free opening after-party at "9/9th" in downtown Pittsburgh. Approx. 1000 persons attended.


On the following day, Saturday October 1st, a Static Free symposium was held at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Harris Theater. The symposium was moderated by Henry Chalfant and featured legendary NYC graffiti writer Blade, filmmaker Pablo Arevena and many Static Free exhibiting artists. Pablo Arevena screened a preview of his film "Next: A Primer on Urban Painting."


Also part of Static Free was a City of Pittsburgh-sanctioned mural on the Alisa Furnace Jail Trail representing and painted by Pittsburgh local and regional artists. Megan Fitzgerald, Veks and Evict headed the mural organizing and production team. Lauri Mancuso primed and readied the wall for painting.





Additional sponsors of Static Free included: Pabst Blue Ribbon, College Prowler, Arts Greenhouse Initiative of Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University, A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture, The Multicultural Arts Initiative, Hilton Pittsburgh, The Mattress Factory, Steel Valley Arts Council, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 720 Records, Lumation Design, Blue Archer, Jackson/Clark Partners and Brett Yasko.

Seak M.A.C.'s "Static Free" photo documentation on flickr


kudos from Wooster Collective

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (2004)

"The Air-Conditioned Nightmare" was a group art show organized by Edgar Um Bucholtz in winter 2004. It was installed at Thommy Conroy Works at 3700 Penn Avenue in Pittsburgh with much assistance from Thommy Conroy. The show was themed on a book of the same name by novelist Henry Miller. The book, written in the late 40s, is an often critical travelogue of America. Miller foresees the coming cold, homogenization of mainstream 1950s America, but also celebrates the quirky, individualist American underground. The walls of the gallery were covered with canvas and then collaboratively painted by many of the artists over the course of many days. Additional artworks were then wheat-pasted or hung on top of the canvas.





here is a link to my flickr page with installation shots of the show and a few pics from the opening night:

The Air-Conditioned Nightmare (2004)

all installation and opening night photos by Thommy Conroy

Fox And His Friends: New Millennium Post-Gay Photography 2003

announcement card by Daniel Minskey. image taken from the film "Mahogany" (1975).


"Fox And His Friends: New Millennium Post-Gay Photography" was an art show organized by Edgar Um Bucholtz and installed at Pittsburgh's Garfield Artworks gallery in May/June 2003.

the first part of the title of this show is a reference to a 1975 film of the same name (English translation) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

the artists included in this show were: Bruce LaBruce, Conrad Ventur, Slava Mogutin, AsianPunkBoy (a.k.a. Terrence Koh), Timothy Dowling, Terry Young, J. Fox and Richard Orjis.

(artist Terry Lewis is listed on the announcement card, but his work was not exhibited as it was very unfortunately damaged during shipment.)

I, Edgar Um Bucholtz, was a guest curator of Garfield Artworks for this show. the primary curator of Garfield Artworks at this time was Lauri Mancuso.

below is a series of installation shots. (unfortunately, they are fairly low res.)

thanks to Lauri Mancuso for letting me do this show, helping to install it and taking these installation shots.





installation views




J. Fox "I Dart NY" (detail) 2003




Slava Mogutin



Slava Mogutin




installation view




Conrad Ventur (portraits of Phiiliip and Debbie from Avenue D)




installation view




Terry Young



Terry Young




Richard Orjis




Timothy Dowling



Timothy Dowling



Timothy Dowling




installation view (with Conrad Ventur portraits of Spencer Product and Melissa Burns in foreground)




AsianPunkBoy (a.k.a. Terrence Koh)



AsianPunkBoy (a.k.a. Terrence Koh)



AsianPunkBoy (a.k.a. Terrence Koh)




Bruce LaBruce



Bruce LaBruce



Bruce LaBruce

below are two short video clips relating to this show.

the first video clip was taken during the installation of "Fox And His Friends: New Millennium Post-Gay Photography."

in this video clip are: Terry Young, Jeremiah Brace, Timothy Dowling and Tracy Stewart.



the second video clip contains live footage of the band Ludus Lovestyle performing at Modern Formations gallery as part of a concert organized in conjunction with the opening of "Fox And His Friends." the date of the opening and concert was Friday May 30th, 2003.

headlining the concert was SSION from Kentucky. opening the concert was Ben Greene's experimental project, Cachexia.

this video clip also has footage (shot in "nightvision" after the concert) in the "Fox And His Friends" installation. it is the only video documentation yet found that gives a sense of the finished installation of the show.

appearing in the video clip are: Lesley (of Ludus Lovestyle), Justin (of Ludus Lovestyle), Terry Young, Ben Greene, Edgar Um Bucholtz and Alec Smith. the video camera was operated by Tom Hall.