This weekend only (Sat & Sun): Touchstone's Galleries will be closed. Please join us at Tissue Farm in Confluence, PA for the opening of Business/Front | Party/Back - an exhibition organized by Touchstone's 2022 Interns. Click for more information
NEW Gallery Hours (beginning next week)* Thurs.-Sat. 10am-4pm. *Closed on Sundays.
Please note: Our Galleries will be closed Sat., Aug. 13 and Sun., Aug. 14. Please join us at Tissue Farm in Confluence, PA for the opening of Business/Front | Party/Back - an exhibition organized by Touchstone's 2022 Interns.
NEW Gallery Hours*
beginning August 18th
Thursday - Saturday 10am – 4pm
or by appointment
*Closed on Sundays
A SHARED VISION:
Celebrating 50 years
JULY 30 - SEPTEMBER 25
Our 50th Anniversary Exhibition, A Shared Vision, features artwork from our permanent collection as well as invited artists. This selection of work reflects Touchstone’s history and the significant artists that have contributed to our growth as an innovative arts organization.
Curated by Stacy Larson and James Mochnsky with special thanks to Victoria Baron.
Participating Artists:
Iron Gate Gallery:
Touchstone is thrilled to be partnering again with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh for two art exhibitions in 2022. Hosted in the Iron Gate Gallery, the exhibitions feature work by Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (AAP) members. AAP is an artist member organization featuring over 500-artist members from the greater Pittsburgh region. Founded in 1910, AAP organizes 5-10 exhibitions a year in various spaces throughout the region including the Carnegie Museum of Art, The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Andy Warhol Museum, and Touchstone!
Running Out of Time
JULY 30 - OCTOBER 1
Featuring Associated Artists of Pittsburgh members: Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer and Sharon Massey
Running out of Time is an exhibition featuring the work of artists Sheila Cuellar–Shaffer and Sharon Massey. Massey's sculptural work explores recollections and collections – specifically how our memories are caught up in souvenirs, talismans, and the assemblages of these objects. Cuellar-Shaffer roots her fantastical paintings in specific visual idioms to convey a sense of urgency and nowness. Together their work asks the viewer to understand how time shapes our shared lived experience and how time is shaped by it.
Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer:
"I use Latin American historical elements, zoo-anthropomorphic figures, and pop culture references to convey ideas of human behavior, the nature of political power and societal structures. The imagery in my work is rooted in actual places and experiences, yet those places and experiences evolve into fantastical landscapes and beings exploring ideas around home and migration, particularly relating to the experiences of female-identifying individuals."
Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer’s Biography
Sharon Massey:
My most recent body of work is inspired by souvenirs, talismans, and collections. The worth of these objects and jewels is tied to our connection to them, and often exceeds their material value. I use scale to emphasize the significance of traditionally small objects of value, such as charms or trinkets. Using welded steel, I create oversized baubles that interact with the body, often weighing down the wearer with the size or weight of the objects. I am interested in exploring the concept of collection, and creating contemporary collections of items we accumulate or fetishize. Anchors are a recurring theme in several of my pieces, and historically they symbolize hope, especially when used as a charm paired with a cross and a heart. In Adrift, a blue anchor hangs from a ring in the shape of ship, portraying the sense of being unmoored, hopeless or lost.
Visit the Bea Campbell Gallery Store for Handmade Items by Touchstone Interns, Staff, Instructors, and Friends. JUNE 1 – OCTOBER 1;
NEW Gallery Hours* Thursday - Saturday 10am - 4pm
*Currently closed on Sundays
Offsite Exhibitions:
Business/Front | Party/Back
at Tissue Farm in Confluence, PA
Address: 446 Latrobe Ave. Confluence, PA 15424
AUGUST 11 - SEPTEMBER 19*
Reception: Saturday, August 13th (3-5pm)
An exhibition featuring emerging artists from Touchstone Center for Crafts. Organized by Touchstone's 2022 Interns.
*Please note: the closing date for this exhibition has changed to September 19, NOT September 26.
Featured artists:
Business/Front | Party/Back is an exhibition that channels the beloved hairstyle we all know as the mullet. This hairstyle has recently been modernized and brought back into mainstream culture yet its legendary descriptor, 'business in the front, party in the back' has held its relevance throughout time. As emerging artists, we are exploring the concept behind the mullet within our varying mediums. We are honoring the traditional or 'business' aspects of our crafts, allowing us to understand the origins of our different mediums and fully appreciate how they came to be, while also presenting our 'party' side to introduce to the viewers our experimental and contemporary works of art. These works all join together to allow us to appreciate where we've come from and how we will move forward into the future of our crafts. As artists working currently out of Touchstone Center for Crafts' studios, we hope to honor and review Touchstone's 50th year anniversary theme, a 'Half-Century of Craft.'
Touchstone: A Half-Century of Craft
in the Speyer Gallery at Fallingwater®
OCTOBER 1 - DECEMBER 31
Participating artists:
Access to the exhibition is included with guided architectural tours and grounds passes.
Previous 2022 Exhibitions
2022 Instructor Exhibition
JUNE 11 - JULY 23
Touchstone invites professional artists from around the country to teach workshops each year. This exhibition showcases a sampling of work by our 2022 workshop instructors.
Participating artists:
Iron Gate Gallery:
Turning the Corner
JUNE 11 - JULY 23
Featuring Associated Artists of Pittsburgh members: Kara Zupancic and Natalie Moffitt
Natalie Moffitt is an artist living and working out of her home studio in Pittsburgh. She is an abstract oil painter who uses color as a tool to create intuitive, emotional paintings. Her work draws from a specific, deeply personal, and ever-growing vocabulary of colors, lines, and methods of mark making that she has been compiling over the past ten years of her practice. She considers her paintings visual streams of consciousness that are heavily influenced by her surroundings, as well as by her day-to-day emotions, experiences, and memories.
Instagram @moffittnatalie
Kara "Zuzu" Zupancic received her BA in Studio Art and Art Education from Saint Vincent College in 2007. She continued her education at Edinboro University and earned her MA in Art Education in 2012. She maintained a professional career as an arts educator while pursuing her work as a professional artist. As a Pittsburgh-based ceramic sculpture artist, Zuzu makes both smaller, functional art (like mugs with hand-sculpted embellishment) as well as large sculptures. Her one-of-a-kind sculptures are inspired by animals, women, and narratives from her lived experience.
Instagram @karazuzuart