Thou Art… Will Give…

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC KUNSMAN

August 20 - October 31, 2019

A new exhibition of photography by Eric Kunsman will open at Arts & Education at the Hoyt on Tuesday, August 20.  Titled Thou art… Will Give after an inscription on a prison wall. the collection of works captures the history of the Eastern State Penitentiary.  Once the most famous and expensive prison in the entire world.

Shortly after moving back to the Philadelphia area in 2003, Kunsman visited the Eastern State Penitentiary with a group of college students.  While he thought it was an interesting site, there were many such abandoned locations to be explored in the area. That was until he came across the Eastern State Penitentiary’s Warden’s Logbooks.  The Warden’s entries brought the Penitentiary to life for Kunsman, developing a deep emotional connection to the space. Though his writing is detached, the Warden clearly got to know the prisoners more personally than one would think. The logs include details about prisoners’ families, whether they could read or write, whether they felt guilty about their crimes and were penitent.

While Kunsman’s early photographs captured the physical space, the writings fleshed out the functional and human effects of this well-intended but ultimately disastrous Quaker experiment for reforming criminals. Kunsman continued to return over the next twelve years to wonder, reflect and rediscover the Penitentiary through the Warden’s eyes. 

In Thou Art…, Will Give…, Kunsman attempts to capture some of the story, energy, and the sorrows of the jail when it was active. Included are images of the Warden’s 1800s logbooks, conveying the loneliness, hopelessness, and desperate search for redemption that drove so many of prisoners to remain trapped within Eastern State’s walls today.

Yes, many people believe the prison haunted.  As early as 1940, officers and inmates have reported mysterious visions and experiences that typically attract more than 60 paranormal investigations a year. The prison has been featured on the Travel Channel’s Most Haunted Live, Ghost Adventures, and Paranorma Challenge; Fox Television’s World Scariest Places; TLC’s America’s Ghost Hunters; and MTV’s FEAR.

Eric Kunsman will share his experiences building the exhibition with a gallery talk at the public reception on Saturday, August 24, 2:30 pm.  Thou Art…, Will Give… will remain on display in the Hoyt’s Main Galleries through October 31.  Admission is free.

Grit

PAINTINGS BY RABECCA SIGNORIELLO

JUNE 4 - AUGUST 15, 2019

Rabecca Signoriello invites the viewer to explore their relationship with the blue collar worker in her latest body of work called Grit, June 4-August 15. Despite being a classically trained painter,

90# of Serenity

Signoriello works on a road crew and was inspired by onlookers curiosity but reluctance to meet her gaze. “As I look up ... they quickly look away,” Thus many of the paintings have the subject staring at the audience “forcing the visual confrontation of these two separate worlds.”

However, Signoriello wants the viewers to be welcomed into the paintings. “In reality these working scenes are overlooked and avoided because they are filled with noise, chaos, danger, and rigor. In the paintings the viewer is invited to examine the space, because it is safe, ordered, and quiet.”

Rabecca Signoriello was born and raised in Northwestern Pennsylvania. She attended Edinboro University, obtaining BFA in 2004. Upon graduation, she started Signoriello Studios, specializing in murals, while retaining her job with a respected paving company as a laborer. After several years of painting, she was accepted to The New York Academy of Art where she continued her education. During this time she received several merit awards, including the Walter Erlebacher award; in addition to receiving an Artist Residency at Leipzig International Arts Programme in Germany, Rabecca earned her MFA degree in 2011 while studying under several noted contemporary painters including: Vincent Desiderio, Steven Assael, Margaret Bowland and Jenny Saville. Her works are in private collections in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Germany and Monte Carlo Monaco.

Waiting

Hoyt Regional Juried Competition

APRIL 2 - MAY 30, 2019

The annual Hoyt Regional Juried Art Competition will open in the Main Galleries on April 2. More than 447 works were submitted by 147 artists this year. Seventy five works were chosen by juror, Kurt Shaw, a noted Pittsburgh Art Critic.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE FOLLOWING:

1st place: “Koi”, oil by David Warner, Meadeville, PA
2nd place: “Budding Chestnuts”, collage, Maggy Aston, Greensboro, PA
3rd place: “In Defense of Intellectual Luxury”, painted steel, Dylan Collins, Morgantown, WV

Merit Awards:
“Aleppo (Syria)”, oil on shaped canvas, Mark Weleski, Natrona Hts, PA
“Redsylvania Series#4”, acrylic, Jane Davis, Erie, PA
“Crazy Elephant”, acrylic, George Kocar, Bay Village, OH
“Untitled #3320”, photograph, Scott Tommaro, New Castle, PA
“Finally”, acrylic & mixed media, Terry Polonsky, Sharon, PA
“Street Corner Gumbo”, ink on paper, Larry Brandstetter, Monroeville, PA

Politics on Paper

For centuries, art has been used as a vehicle to inform the public, to illustrate a point of view, and to incite change. The introduction of printmaking, and later photography, played a significant role in politics due to the ease in which multiples could be produced and distributed to the general public.  The new exhibit, Politics on Paper: Art with an Agenda from the Syracuse University Art Collection, examines the relationship between art and politics over time, using several examples of drawings, prints, and photos to advocate for a social purpose or cause.

Forget the Watergate, Let’s Talk About Daniel Ellsberg, lithograph by Paul Szep

Pioneers of social commentary used the print process to create works on paper that illuminated the atrocities of war and tyranny. Jacques Callot (French, 1592-1635) is one of the earliest and most influential examples of an artist in this role.  Trained as an engraver, Callot became well-known for his vast, multi-plate views of battles and battlefields. His most important work, Les Grandes Miseres de la Guerre (The Miseries of War) from 1633, would influence the artist’s role in society for centuries. Consisting of 18 small etchings, the series depicts the atrocities and warmongering observed firsthand from the Thirty Years War in Europe. The prints were small, portable, sharable, and exposed in realistic detail the day-to-day consequences of military affairs. Their bitter social commentary has inspired antiwar depictions ever since.  Francisco Goya’s Capricios (1799) and Disasters of War (1810-1820) series, Käthe Kollwitz’s depictions of the Peasants’ Revolt in post-World War I Germany, and William Gropper’s stand against McCarthy-era politics are all legacy to Callot’s gripping etchings.

Politicos, lithograph by William Gropper

The 19th century saw the introduction of the industrial press that laid the foundation for the information age. Mass-produced periodicals, rich with illustrated texts, were now printed in the tens of thousands. Artists such as Thomas Nast, Honoré Daumier, and John Pughe found great appeal in social cartooning and utilized the new pictorial press as the soapbox for their political cause. This spirit of social cartooning flourished into the 21st century and is evident in the work of Charles Martin, Paul Szep, and Barry Blitt.

The past hundred years have been fertile ground for artists and satirists making artwork with social purpose. Between the two world wars, the Works Progress Administration championed artists who made work that instilled hope, gave purpose, and delivered a distinct nationalistic propaganda to a suffering nation. The political upheaval and radicalism of the 1960s saw innovation in how artwork was used and created. Photographic techniques mixed with traditional print processes introduced the art of appropriation, re-interpreting readily available images from the media, advertisements, and industry in a new context.  Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Sister Mary Corita Kent are perfect examples.  All used recognizable images from society to state an alternative point of view.

Aufruh (Revolt) etching by Kathe Kollwitz

Civil rights and race equality continue to be central themes to many African American artists, as seen in the work of Calvin Burnett, Elizabeth Catlett, and Kara Walker. Gender issues, economic reform, and war are all represented in the contemporary work of May Stevens, Amos Paul Kennedy Jr. and Enrique Chagoya.

In a modern society where few issues are out of bounds, the art of the print remains one of the most effective instruments in the arsenal of art with motive today. Interested in learning more?  Join Curator, Andrew Saluti, for an informal discussion on February 7, 6-8 pm.  Group tours will also be offered every Friday by appoint between 10 am and 4 pm (last departure at 3 pm).  The galleries are open Tuesdays-Thursdays, 11-8 and Fridays & Saturdays, 11-4.  Admission is free.

FREE MUSEUM EVENTS

Gallery Talk, February 7, 6-8 pm
An insightful discussion of the exhibit with the Curator, Andrew Saluti.
Register

Group Tours, Fridays January - March by appointment
Thought Provoking tours with audience participation. Contact Robert Presnar to make your appointment.

Meet the Candidates, February 21, 6-8 pm
Meet and greet the candidates running for local office!  Arts & Education at the Hoyt is hosting a reception for its latest exhibit, ”Politics on Paper: Art with an Agenda”, on Thursday, February 21, 6-8 pm. We’ve invited those seeking election in 2019 to join us in acknowledging the artist’s role in social commentary.  This event is not a public forum or a debate but an opportunity to view the exhibit while talking one-on-one with those seeking office.  Complimentary food and drink will be provided. RSVP requested.

*If you are running for local office and would like to participate, please contact Executive Director Kimberly Koller-Jones.