Mt. Lebanon to host pop-up art gallery
Hannah Wu (left), Duncan Chamberlin and Paulina Braverman pose with their artwork before the Pop-Up Gallery in Mt. Lebanon.
Professional artist Andy Mays, who goes by the artistic pen name August Vernon, stands in front of a painting he made for the restaurant Pirata on Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh. He will display some of his artwork at the Pop-Up Gallery in Mt. Lebanon.
When Kelly Brown moved back to Mt. Lebanon after spending 15 years in France, she realized the lack of art displayed in her hometown.
Brown, a Mt. Lebanon alumna, decided to set up a pop-up art gallery, which will be open from June 2-17 at the La Pomponnee building at 659 Washington Road in Uptown Mt. Lebanon.
“The concept of this basically got spurred from the idea that there are not too many pop-up galleries in the South Hills,” Brown said. “We see lots of different pop-up galleries happening in the East End and the North End and the South Side and all over Pittsburgh, but there doesn’t seem to be much happening in this area. And with so many patrons of the arts living in the South Hills, it’s fitting that there should be something here.”
The gallery is in conjunction with Mt. Lebanon’s initial First Friday summer celebration, which includes live music, magicians and other activities in Uptown Mt. Lebanon.
“First Friday attracts thousands of people in Mt. Lebanon” Brown said. “The municipality actually had a space available (for us). We thought it would be great if we could piggyback off one another. The fact that there will thousands of people in uptown Mt. Lebanon walking the streets and we could be advertising the event, First Friday, as well as our pop-up gallery.”
An artist reception will be held at the gallery from 7-10 p.m. June 2 to kick off the next two weeks of the art show.
Brown is one of six artists displaying their work at the gallery, as two are Mt. Lebanon grads, one is a Mt. Lebanon resident and three are current students in Mt. Lebanon High School’s Advanced Placement art department.
In addition to Brown, the artists are Andy Mays and Deborah Holtschlag, as well as Hannah Wu, Paulina Braverman and Duncan Chamberlin from the high school.
Brown said she is mostly known for her paintings of birds that are often seen in Western Pennsylvania, such as the cardinal and the chickadee.
The other main part of her artwork is her blinded art. After she returned from France, her husband, whom she met and had two children with in France, wasn’t able to come to the United States for eight months. Brown then started closing her eyes for her artwork as “active meditation.”
“This was my way of dealing with my emotions of being here alone and setting up life alone in America with my two girls,” Brown said. “This was a representation of the emotions that I was going through at that time.”
Brown has never had any formal art training, as she thinks of herself as “an experiment.”
“When you’re looking at my work, you’re looking at absolutely pure, raw (and) intuitive artwork,” she said.
As the most well-known artist at the gallery, Mays graduated in the same class as Brown from Mt. Lebanon. Brown said he has more than 200 different pieces of artwork in the Pittsburgh area. His paintings can be seen at restaurants like Nola on the Square, Seviche, Parada and Poros.
Known as well for doing large-scale murals, Mays is currently working on a 7,500 square foot rooftop of a hotel in Greenville, S.C.
Along with other artwork, Mays will be showcasing a painting of a woman shown next to a drawing he did of the same woman – the first woman he ever drew – in seventh grade 37 years ago.
“It’s nostalgic,” Mays said. “I think that’s kind of exciting and I’m from Mt. Lebanon, so it’s exciting to display it and show specifically with the students. I’m really more than anything excited what the students are producing.”
Brown said Holtschlag, a professional painter, will present artwork on the “push and pull” of the teenage mind.
“Her work is absolutely brilliant. She works in very large scale also,” Brown said. “The portraiture that you’re going to see are all of Mt. Lebanon kids.”
From the high school, Wu will be showcasing her artwork in several different modalities, but Brown said her most impressive works are her miniatures. Wu drew a miniature about the size of a quarter for each day of a full calendar year. Visitors will be able to use a magnifying glass at the gallery to examine the detail of Wu’s paintings.
“Hannah (Wu) is actually working with almost a single hair brush when she does these miniature paintings,” Brown said. “The scale in itself is pretty amazing but then the detail [is phenomenal].”
The other high school girl, Braverman, traveled to an exhibit of Gustav Klimt’s artwork, which Brown said influenced some of her art.
“Any of the bright textures that come out in her work are very Klimt inspired, and for her those are moods and emotions that are being portrayed in her work,” Brown said.
Lastly, Chamberlin is the only artist that works all in 3-D, using several different mediums, from wood to clay.
“What sets his work apart is he works in very small scale and he is an extremely detail-oriented artist,” Brown said.
Brown said she knows that people can be intimidated by the bourgeois nature of art galleries, but she hopes having the pop-up gallery in Uptown Mt. Lebanon and opening on First Friday will hamper that stigma.
“What I would like to do is to make it feel really welcoming,” Brown said. “So that you can come in with your kids and come in to see an art show, and you don’t have to be a collector to start to buy artwork straight from the artist. I think it’s more enriching to have met the artists. Especially with some of these young artists, you get to be a part of their growth and watch their career blossom.”
The pop-up gallery will be open on June 2-17 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 12-3 p.m. Sundays, while being closed on Mondays. Personal appointments are available at 412-225-2435.