The Westmoreland Announces 2019 Exhibitions
GREENSBURG, Pennsylvania (December 27, 2018) – The Westmoreland Museum of American Art has announced the exhibitions set to be featured in the Museum’s Cantilever Gallery throughout 2019.
“2019 provides such an array of exhibitions,” The Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO Anne Kraybill said. “Visitors will have the opportunity to think critically about how artistic depictions of Native Americans fueled cultural stereotypes, how the musical revolution of the 1960s transformed popular culture and how contemporary artists in our region are informing the national arts scene. Programming will also be a feature of the 2019 season with a wide variety of experiences from culinary programs, studio classes, musical performances, films, artist discussions and more.”
Chief Curator Barbara Jones said, “The exhibitions for 2019 were selected to present a variety of experiences for our visitors, offering both historical and contemporary perspectives that retain our commitment to our permanent collection and living artists, both regional and national. Prepare to be wowed.”
The 2019 featured exhibitions are as follows:
Circular Abstractions: Bull’s Eye Quilts
Now-March 10, 2019
Circular Abstractions, a touring exhibition that features some of the best machine-piecing and quilting being done today, displays quilts by 32 artists who were challenged to create works that interpreted the bull’s eye pattern. Artists responded to the invitation by deconstructing and reassembling the bull’s eye into new compositions, resulting in a strikingly complex body of images, with each piece conveying its own distinct voice.
Circular Abstractions: Bull’s Eye Quilts was organized by the Muskegon Museum of Art with Guest Curator, Nancy Crow. Travel is sponsored in part by Bayer Crop Science. This exhibition is made possible by the Hillman Exhibition Fund of The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and through the generosity of our members and donors.
Mingled Visions: The Photographs of Edward S. Curtis and Will Wilson
March 30-June 30, 2019
Mingled Visions offers an intriguing comparison of two photographers capturing Native American life.
Edward S. Curtis spent three decades in the late 19th and early 20th centuries photographing and documenting American Indian life, culminating in more than 40,000 photographic images of over 80 tribes throughout the American West.
Working in a similar historical photographic process, Diné photographer Will Wilson resumes the documentary mission of Curtis from the standpoint of a 21st century indigenous artist. Wilson convenes with and invites indigenous artists, arts professionals and tribal governance to engage in the performative ritual that is the studio portrait, directly challenging the assumption that Native people are frozen in time.
Era of Cool: The Art of John Van Hamersveld
July 20-October 20, 2019
Over the course of his 50-year career, multidisciplinary pop artist John Van Hamersveld has created influential and instantly recognizable graphic design. Early in his career, he created the legendary Endless Summer poster to advertise the 1966 film of the same name. Thus began a career in graphic design that found him immersed in the world of rock and roll as Art Director for Capitol Records. During the 1960s and 1970s he designed such iconic album covers as the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, The Grateful Dead Skeletons in the Closet, the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street, and concert posters for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Bob Dylan and many others.
Era of Cool will include a selection of Van Hamersveld’s album covers, poster designs, drawings, mural designs, photography and paintings.
Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition
November 9, 2019-January 26, 2020
The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) will hold its 107th Annual Exhibition at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art. This juried exhibition of work by AAP member artists will be a remarkable display of some of the most esteemed contemporary art made in our region. Selected artists will be announced in the summer of 2019.
AAP is the oldest continuous-exhibiting artist member organization in the country, and has approximately 550 members who represent a full range of visual arts talent from traditional painting and sculpture to installation and new media. AAP enhances the region’s cultural vitality and promotes visual arts excellence by showcasing artists’ work through contemporary exhibitions, providing community-based education programs and facilitating a broad dialogue to engage artists with one another and the community.
About The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Committed to stimulating imagination and innovation through great experiences with art, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is the only museum dedicated to American art in western Pennsylvania. The Westmoreland’s extraordinary permanent collection, with its strong focus on the art and artists of southwestern Pennsylvania, is complemented by an impressive schedule of temporary exhibitions— both nationally traveling exhibitions and those organized by the Museum—as well as community-oriented programming and special events. More information is available at thewestmoreland.org and on the Museum’s Facebook, Twitter
The Westmoreland receives funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the Marketing to Attract Tourism Grant through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development; and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
###