Sidewall: a mural project

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Sidewall: a mural project

sidewall is an outdoor arts venue, exhibiting new work on a bi-monthly basis.
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sidewall is a public mural exhibition space hosted on the side wall of a private residence, dedicated to showing works by artists both local and abroad, creative collaborations, etc., with murals rotating the first Friday of every month. this is done in hopes of increasing the opportunity for artists to publicly exhibit work, as well as inspire verbal and visual dialogue around current issues.

05/17/2024

This month, sidewall welcomes Centa Schumacher and her work of dazzle and depth, I Can Make a Black Hole Whenever I Want.
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I Can Make a Black Hole Whenever I Want is a celebratory piece. Recently I had a dream where I was told that the origin of my selfhood was within a black hole, a vast and terrible devouring entity. This initially frightened me, but then I realized that the force powering black holes, gravity, enables the function of everything else in the universe. Our sun, planet, atmosphere, even our own bodies, could not exist without gravity. How impossible, how improbable, what a thing to take joy from: due to massive forces beyond our control, we get to exist. Somehow I have the great luck to be able to conjure that up any time I point my camera to the sky. So when I show you this I am showing you myself and my origin–not fearfully but joyfully–so that you can see yours too.

Centa Schumacher is a lens-based artist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She works with a homemade tool assembled from vintage camera elements, creating work that distorts light and perspective. Schumacher has had solo exhibitions at the 707 Gallery, Silver Eye Center for Photography, and Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh, PA. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Paradice Palase in Brooklyn, NY, Aggregate Space in Oakland, CA, and Art Ark Gallery in San Jose, CA. She has recently completed a two-person exhibition with collaborator Nicole Czapinski at the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh gallery in Fall 2023. Schumacher was the director and co-founder of the art gallery Phosphor Project Space from 2018-2021. She received her MFA from San Francisco State University.

For more on Schumacher's process, please visit: https://sidewallproject.wordpress.com/on-exhibit/

03/05/2024

March 2024
Oreen Cohen
Sunset

03/05/2024

This March, sidewall project welcomes Oreen Cohen's work Sunset.
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Voraciously drawn or forcefully bent, my approach to sculpture, installation, and drawing is a physical and automatic response to internal and external environments. My body is inextricably a tool used in the process. I scavenge for unconventional materials for assemblage; the immediacy of charcoal becomes hard lines that define mental states, and steel is made sensual, alluring, and deeply effeminate. The physicality and its degradation over time is a desire to articulate, through gesture and matter, the inarticulable extremes of death, rebirth, and transformation. Material sensibilities guide the process that initiates an experiential exchange between myself and the context.

Oreen Cohen is a first-generation American of Israeli-Moroccan descent living and working in Pittsburgh, PA. Cohen works as a sculptor, painter, mother, and cultural programmer. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University (2014) and BFA from the University at Buffalo (2008). Working in sculptural metalwork, drawing, and installation, Oreen has developed large-scale public and private commissions in curious locations. Curatorial projects include: “When Artists Enter the Factory” at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, FIGMENT Sculpture Project (Governors Island, NYC), Flint Public Art Project (Flint, MI), and CerCCa Casamarles in Catalonia, Spain. She has received the Investing in Professional Artists grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments and a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant. Cohen has had solo exhibitions at 707 Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Bunker Projects, and Transformer Gallery Washington, DC. Oreen has just completed a residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans in Fall 2023 with new energy in their studio practice to combine drawing, painting glass, and metal fabrication processes. Upcoming residency includes M.A.D.E in San Miguel de Allende, MX (Spring 2024) and a special project with the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives in Fall 2024. Follow the process at www.oreencohen.com or on Instagram .art

01/20/2024

January 2024
Tingting Cheng
From Where We See the World

01/20/2024

Heading face first into 2024, sidewall hosts From Where We See the World by artist Tingting Cheng; an artwork where the audience stands in the presence of the coolly indefinable.
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Animism, deeply rooted in traditional practices that center around enigmatic forces, envisions a cosmos where every entity is infused with vitality, communication, and the potential qualities of a sentient being. However, it's crucial to recognize that animism is intricately interwoven with its societal context. The act of people imitating objects during the animistic era can be seen as an early form of role-playing. In our modern context, the spirit of this role-playing finds expression in the widespread phenomenon of cosplay, which has evolved into a popular hobby and subculture worldwide, particularly in Asia. Numerous events and conferences are dedicated to the immersive practice of donning various personas. The work of Tingting seeks to provoke contemplation on the antagonism and interdependence inherent in the human-animal connection, as well as the collision of the natural and the technological. By blurring the lines between reality and mythology, the artist invites viewers to reflect on the intricate web that binds us to both the tangible and the unseen forces that shape our existence.

Tingting Cheng is a cross-media artist who works in film, painting, sculpture, sound, and performance. She activates cultural archives in different ways to form contemporary witchcraft connections with the audience, and deploys them as a way of resisting the commodity form by creating a sense of ceremony. Her multidimensional works often mix natural, artificial, and folk materials, and explore consumer images as promotional tools and capitalist advertising strategies. By breaking the official narrative of commodity fetishism, she has mastered how to fictitiously create artifacts of civilization from the animism of all things in a contemporary archaeological way, and explores their contemporary ideology and relational poetics.

12/02/2023

November 2023
Caroline Kern
Someone I Love Has Long Covid

12/02/2023

Sidewall Project welcomes Caroline Kern and her work "Someone I Love Has Long Covid".
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“Someone I Love Has Long Covid,” is part of an ongoing body of work that I have been developing over the past several years as I’ve navigated the world as someone disabled by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).

As the world moves past the deeper part of the pandemic and those of us still feeling the effects of the virus are left behind, it’s become imperative to keep speaking about this condition. If one in ten people who contract Covid have the potential to develop Long Covid, that is an astronomical amount of global suffering, particularly when the risk of complications are higher with each additional infection and the virus is still easily circulating. That is a lot of people in the shadows of health and desperately searching for answers within the medical industrial complex where cash is king and there aren’t enough resources for everyone to be treated properly. These are your friends, family members, neighbors, coworkers, and very likely people that you come across in your daily life that might look and seem to be “ok,” but in reality, are barely getting by due to post viral complications. Disability is a spectrum and can take shape and manifest in many ways that aren’t always evident at first glance, which is also why it’s also so hard to talk about.

The imagery used in this mural is a combination of a video still from a previous body of work, largely titled, UN/SEEN, in combination with electron microscopic images created by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that they post on their Flickr account. The intention with my combination of imagery was to insight questions that potentially open up a larger internal conversation with the people who walk or drive by this mural. I want people to question the message of the mural while also being visually stimulating and mysterious. Questions like: Who has Long Covid? Wait—someone I might know might have Long Covid? What should I know about Long Covid? What is this? And so on. I wanted to take a message that resonates deeply with me and use the Sidewall Mural Project opportunity to make a public service announcement, all the while using the bold colors, pattern, and sensibilities that are found in other parts of my art practice.

We have still yet to see the total fallout of the first part of the pandemic, as a lot of people are now only realizing that they have disturbing new health problems that seemingly came out of nowhere. I feel hopeful with so many researchers working on everything surrounding not only Covid, but other post viral infections, that new treatments and better understandings will emerge and inform different treatment options. I don’t see the larger problem of post viral complications being solved any time soon, which also highlights the need for more advocacy, understanding, and compassion for people living with Long Covid.

For more information on Long Covid + support, please check out these links:
https://www.survivorcorps.com/
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/post-covid-recovery-covid-19/
https://www.wearebodypolitic.com/covid-19

Caroline Kern, aka, Caroline Paquita (born 1980, Miami, FL) is an multidisciplinary artist with Long-Covid that relocated to Pittsburgh, PA after thirteen years in NYC. Caroline is the founder of Pegacorn Press, which is a feminist, q***r, total-art-freaker publishing adventure that utilizes Risograph stencil duplicators to produce limited editions of prints and publications. She is also a co-director of the newly created Pittsburgh Art Book Fair and an active member of the international art book community through speaking engagements and exhibiting at art book fairs. Her work has been collected and shown at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and her publications are in the special collections libraries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, NY Public Library, Harvard University, and many other institutions. Her personal practice centers on illustration, printmaking, creating publications, video, and performance. When she is not in the studio, she spends her time beekeeping, fermenting foods, and navigating the medical industrial complex due to her ongoing health complications with Long-Covid.

10/04/2023

October 2023
DeVaughn Rogers
Radiating in Drip

10/04/2023

As the leaves begin to turn and we face into Fall, sidewall is happy to host DeVaughn Rogers and his latest work, Radiating in Drip.

For this piece, I played with remixing elements from previous works in order to create something new and cool to look at. I experimented with custom colors, gold leaf, and rich jewel tones to help draw the eye, aiming for a color dynamic that will beam bright, even as the light fades during the upcoming fall. Born in September, I love the colors of the fall, and how that sweet potato pie orange reminds me of the food and time shared with family during this season. I think of my loved ones, but then I think of this city too, which has statistically been considered to be one of the worst places for black/brown women to live in. I want to make work that elevates and prioritizes those people in my community; work that honors and uplifts, that tells stories of creation, confidence and of eternal energy, unbound by even gold.

I’m a self taught visual artist born and raised in Pittsburgh, I was heavily influenced by my family‘s creativity as well as the deeply rooted arts culture of my hometown. My strengths are in figure drawing and illustration with charcoal and pencil, but with the goal of magnifying my work in scale and color, I began to experiment with different painting mediums and techniques. The outcome of those experiments is the art that I share with the world. I hope that the color combinations and concepts pull in the eye and draw out emotions, conversations, and progressive thoughts. To bring forth new forms of thinking and expression, while also glorifying the people and the energy that helped me get to this point.

As a homegrown Pittsburgh creative, I’m a wearer of many hats, always being called toward art, culture, and people. Having learned early what my passions were, I aligned myself to grow in that light; no matter what role I play, I incorporate art into my work, no matter what I do, I get to create something. I also realized that I not only wanted to show people what I’ve learned in my journey, but also how to do it themselves. While continuing my own artistic practice I began to focus on teaching and giving that creative energy back to my community. Through my art-making and teaching practice, I hope to inspire future generations to create work that expresses personal and communal narratives that liberate them from the blanket narratives forced on them in our current society.

Social Media
Instagram-
Facebook- DeVaughn Rodgers

Donations-
https://www.boomuniverse.co/

07/11/2023

July 2023
Eriko Hattori
Friendly Ghosts

07/11/2023

This July, sidewall welcomes artist Eriko Hattori and their enigmatic, eye-popping work, Friendly Ghosts.

Using Japanese mythology, pop culture, and personal experience as launching points, my work reflects on perceptions of gender, femininity, and q***rness, and the representation and commodification of bodies and cultures. I make dreamscapes and snapshots starring a rotating set of avatars inspired by women-demons from Japanese folklore, j-pop and k-pop idols, shunga prints, city pop, and hyper pop. Bathed in a saturated palette of pastel, neon, and jewel-toned colors, figures are spectating and experiencing moments of love, lust, and pleasure; as well as isolation and pain. Panels act as windows into parallel experiences, depicting scenes of performance, bo***ge, and personal reflection. People live amongst mythological demons and creatures without a sense of fear, despite a lingering foreboding feeling.

"House" by Nobuhiko Obayashi and the story of the Jorogumo have been great sources of inspiration, as they both depict characters experiencing the power and horror of femininity while being targets of desire in unique ways. I'm interested in exploring the spectrum of femininity within my personal heritage, both internally and externally, while witnessing its consumption.

Eriko Hattori (they/them) is an artist based in Pittsburgh, PA. Deeply influenced by their experiences as a q***r and non-binary Japanese American, Hattori’s work reflects on perceptions of Japanese femininity and the commodification of bodies and cultures.

Hattori attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated in 2013. Their work has been exhibited in numerous duo and group shows across the country in cities including New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Occidental, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; and New Orleans, LA; and they recently had their work featured at the Pittsburgh International Airport. They've also been involved in numerous artist-run projects including the Drawing Exchange, GIFC Velvet Ropes, and Paperview Auctions. They were a resident artist at the Brewhouse Association from 2020-2021, and have participated in residency programs at Eureka Mindspace in Kingston, NY and Misfeed Press’s virtual Artist-in-Residence program. Their work is available for purchase or rent at Curina.co.

06/05/2023

May 2023
Zena Ruiz
Love Shows Up

06/05/2023

Sidewall takes heart in this month's exhibition of Love Shows Up, a work by Zena Ruiz.

‘Love Shows Up’ is a phrase that has emerged for Zena in 2020 as a reminder of all the blessings and bounty that persist without question or transaction. It’s a reminder of noticing how love shows up in one’s life and a daily intention for the artist for how to move in the world.

This chalk mural originally chalked outside of Zena’s home in 2020 was inspired by the regular chalkings she and neighborhood kids used to draw. The medium of chalk is playful, nostalgic, and accessible. The temporary quality of chalk requires the artist to revisit, redraw, and serves as a reminder that the artist's work is never done.

Zena Ruiz lives in North Braddock, PA with roots in Houston, TX. Zena's craft is BEING with others where they are, utilizing skills in gardening, printmaking, questioning, and puzzling. Their Chicane cultural experience, family traditions and rituals appear in their works as rememberings, prayers, and intentions. These are woven together with the currents of happenings and struggles in the Monongahela Valley.

Zena offers gifts as a Teaching Artist throughout Pittsburgh; as a Community Activist with the Mon Valley Coalition Against Violence and serves as a Council Member for North Braddock; as a Community Facilitator, Pollinator and Advocate; and as a member of the collective and Beautiful Constellations.

03/14/2023

March 2023
Fiona Avocado
Peach Blossoms

03/14/2023

This March sidewall welcomes Fiona Avocado's mural "Peach Blossoms." A work bursting forth with life, playful chaos, and much needed optimism for what may come.

PEACH BLOSSOMS is originally part of a series I created in Spring 2021 called DETOUR, inspired by a one mile walk that I used to take to clear my head while in graduate school at Ohio University in Athens Ohio. Using CMYK screenprints of my own photographs with geometric shapes inspired by the Memphis Design Movement of the 1980s, I interject lived experience, identity, and aesthetic interests to inspire others to enjoy and find themselves in their surroundings. I encourage you, the viewer, as spring approaches, to look at the world shifting and changing around you, and to remember that despite the heaviness of the world, the world will keep moving, blooming, and shifting and to not lose sight of that while fighting systems of oppression.

Fiona Avocado (they/them) is a Pittsburgh based visual artist, educator, organizer, and writer. Fiona has been an active working artist since 2010, publishing comics and zines, creating illustrations, making prints, and assembling textile pieces using upcycled materials. Fiona received their BA in Arts and Humanities and Professional Writing from Michigan State University and their MFA in Printmaking from Ohio University. Currently Fiona is a member of Lavender Estero Print Studio, is the co-President of the Pittsburgh Print Group, and is the founder/organizer of the Itty Bitty Print Exchange.

Artist statement: I explore every day lived routines, comforts, and rituals through print media, specifically screenprinting, relief printing, and risography, while also incorporating comic art, zine making, illustration and textile art. My print practice depicts imagery of the natural world, objects and interests that provide comfort, and a range of visual storytelling techniques, such as comic art and hønsestrikk knitting. The core of my studio practice is fueled by the DIY ethic, sharing personal stories, and creating socially engaged art. I seek to inspire others to fight for a more just world and to foster connection during times of uncertainty.

Website: fionaavocado.com
Instagram: fiona_avocado

01/17/2023

January 2023
JADED, AAPI Pittsburgh Collective
Finding Kin

01/17/2023

sidewall begins 2023 with JADED's celebratory show of Pittsburgh's AAPI community in Finding Kin.

Finding Kin was an open call community photoshoot held by the AAPI Pittsburgh collective JADED. Gathering on December 5th, 2022 at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley park, JADED invited everyone in their community that identified as AAPI and lived in Pittsburgh through a post on their Instagram. We asked our community to dress up in something they felt safe and seen in to be photographed as a group. Finding Kin is additionally a showcase of some of the Asian American leaders and organizers in the arts community at Pittsburgh that were active long before JADED. This intergenerational photograph is a symbol honoring AAPI histories past present and future in Pittsburgh. Finding Kin is a display to Pittsburgh that we as AAPI creatives and organizers, we were and are always here.

Photograph Credit: Caroline Yoo

Pictured in no specific order:
Bonnie Fan, Sara Tang, Caroline Yoo, Elina Zhang, Shirley Yee, Bruce Jia-Chi Chan, Brent Nakamoto, Lucy Chen, Hannah Wyman, Ricky Chen, Lauren Akemi, Eriko Hattori, Karen Lue, Paul Peng, Jenna Peng, Natalie Sweet, Julie Lee, Yin Raquino, Wilson Wing Leung, 444everdream, Amy Phan, Ash Guillaume, Nick Hong, Likha Jae, and many more.

JADED Biography:
Led by women and non-binary artists Bonnie Fan, Lena Chen, Sara Tang, Caroline Yoo & Elina Zhang, JADED creates spaces in Pittsburgh for Asian American & Pacific Island (AAPI) representation and empowerment. From large, public celebrations to intimate AAPI-only gatherings, JADED addresses the trauma of racial violence, reveals the hidden history of AAPI migration in the region, and offers mentorship and networking opportunities for our communities.

Founded by Anny Chen, Lena Chen, and Caroline Yoo, JADED has been featured in the Pittsburgh City Paper, 90.5 WESA, and The Pitt News. Our work has been supported by Carnegie Museum of Art, Office for Public Art, Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) Pittsburgh, S*x Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Pittsburgh, the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and The Opportunity Fund. JADED was awarded Pittsburgh’s People of the Year in the Visual Arts Category at the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2022.

11/12/2022

November 2022
Kemuel Benyehudah
Black Athena

11/12/2022

Seeing sidewall project through the rest of 2022 is artist Kemuel Benyehudah with his work, Black Athena.

For this piece, my work is interested in contesting exclusivity around whiteness in the Ancient Greek classics. Borrowing from the work of radical Greek scholars such as Padilla Peralta & Martin Bernal, my work offers a counter-narrative to the Grand Narrative that Ancient Greece was a homogenous white society. Black Athena responds to the erasure of Black people in the Western canon and art history. Black Athena moves Ancient Greece away from its mythical one-dimensional construction as a white monolithic society and closer towards a multiracial cosmopolitan version. According to the empirical evidence the ancient Greeks did not conceive of themselves as white, nor did they operate within the invented racial logics that white supremacists have since the advent of colonialism in the 15th century. The Ancient Greek Philosopher Herodotus described Ethiopians as being the tallest, most beautiful people he had ever gazed upon. Black Athena is a modern re-telling of the goddess Athena, with the radical intent of making exclusive histories accessible to everyone, especially people of color. My work has broad implications for our contemporary discourses related to Critical Race Theory, the virtues of Humanities Education, including inclusive citizenship in a rightward tilting world.

Artist Bio:
My name is Kemuel, I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and recently moved to Pittsburgh by way of Philadelphia. I am an interdisciplinary culture worker whose work moves across a number of disciplines. My interests intersect the arts, contemporary social issues, and visual activism. The conceptual underpinnings of my work and practice explores and is interested in the activation of ideas and space to bring forward a new, just, cosmopolitan world.

Some of my recent experiences in the arts include working with the Mütter Museum; working on the curatorial team for the Arthur Tress Collection of Japanese Illustrated Books; co-jurying Women of Visions, Progeny of Change exhibition; a recent fellowship with the Visual Arts Coalition for Equity; currently working with the Mattress Factory in the education department. Plus, writing about contemporary issues in the arts as an itinerant writer. The goal of my practice is to invite critical reflection, civic discourse, and problematizing regarding the role of art and visual culture in society.

My virtuoso collaborator Venus Sol is a first generation Cameroonian-American raised in both Braddock, PA and Brooklyn, NY. The Pittsburgh native wears many hats including but not limited to: modeling, singing-songwriting, poetry, acting, and entrepreneurship. Venus understands that art is one of the most influential forces in our society and loves to find new ways to utilize a wide range of mediums to reach and inspire others.

Thank you to the following supporters and accomplices, Venus Sol, Sandra Baachi, Premiere Images, Bianca Black, Radiant Hall and StudioMe. Lastly, thank you to Brick for her generous support and help in executing this project.

08/08/2022

August 2022
Zeal Eva
Of Bees and Butterflies

08/08/2022

This August, sidewall is hosting the work of artist Zeal Eva. Of Bees and Butterflies is an expressive piece, an ecstatic display of brilliant colors and a vivacity that transcends the two-dimensional. The feel of the sun's warmth as it dapples across leaf and vine, and long after passing by, one can hear the buzz, chirp and flutter of Zeal Eva's subjects; a remembrance of nature brought to life.
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Zeal Eva - Of Bees and Butterflies
I am a visual storyteller who celebrates the Black experience through artworks that bring to life a nostalgic feeling of home. Through photography, painting, illustration, and sculpture, I explore the intersections of the natural world and the built environment to highlight shared Black experiences and document the present. My process is deeply impacted by my surroundings including the individuals in the community and the places I work. My creative practice often includes organic forms such as fruits, vegetables, herbs, as well as interior spaces which reveal themes of growth, comfort, and discovery. Traces of my hand are seen in my painterly brushstrokes and warm toned portrait staging to uplift the sentimental.
www.zealeva.wix.com/visuelles

05/31/2022

June 2022
LeFawn Barefoot
Miss Ruth Says

05/31/2022

Currently on exhibit at sidewall is a work by LeFawn Barefoot, titled Miss Ruth Says. Her piece gives voice to a proclamation meant to carry ourselves and loved ones beyond our aching past and through an embattled present. In it lives the beating heart, the profound knowledge and steadfast will to embrace the future, where though we might struggle, we may also rejoice.
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LeFawn Barefoot - Miss Ruth Says
“she says this to me when we’re fighting for our freedom and the people are screaming in the streets. she says this to me when my littlest child went to the ancestors before me and i don’t think i can make it. she says it when she has her own tears but she makes space for mine. today i say to miss ruth: LIFE IS LONG AND WE ARE GOING TO WIN!!!”

LeFawn Barefoot is a multidisciplinary artist hailing from the Plateau of the Appalachians. Her current body of work is centered around ancestor veneration, snake medicine, mindfulness, and release.
LeFawn’s artwork can be found on IG LeFawn.barefoot

05/31/2022

As guest curator of the sidewall project from February 2020 to May 2022, BOOM Concepts has challenged, delighted, and impressed S. Millvale Avenue with public works by Sakony Burton, Jameelah Platt, Takara Canty, Miles E Saal, James "Yaya" Hough, Rio Acuna Castillo, Danielle Robinson, atiya jones, Quaishawn Whitlock, and Julie Mallis.

As BOOM's tenure at sidewall comes to a close, we give a heartfelt thanks to DS Kinsel and his collaborators at BOOM, and to all of the artists we had the honor and joy to host together. Sharing one's art in public can be challenging, healing, inspiring, transformative. But it can also be an act of love: for oneself, a stranger, a community. For the past two years and into the future, thank you for your work and the love that you give.

09/17/2021

BOOM Concepts x sidewall
Julie Mallis
Inner Workings 2.0

09/17/2021

BOOM Concepts x sidewall
Exhibiting Artist: Julie Mallis
Artwork: Inner Workings 2.0

“Inner Workings 2.0” is a new digital print by artist Julie Mallis. This print is intentionally oversaturated, presenting a full color digital assemblage of 3D sculptures and drawings. Inner workings 2.0 is part of a larger exploration of digital works illustrating physical and spiritual bodily functions – hard at work, processing experiences and receiving signal. It is a creative display of humanesque forms, rods and shapes.

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Julie Mallis is the Executive Director of social justice based service organization, Repair The World Pittsburgh. They are a 40 Under 40 award winner in 2020 by Pittsburgh Magazine and PUMP.

They have been organizing youth programs and creative endeavors for the past 13 years in Pittsburgh. Mallis is a multimedia artist, VJ, DJ and educator working with digital media, paint, installation, performance, sound and audience interaction. Their work focuses on building community, audio-visual experiences, speaking truth, and imagining new landscapes.

Mallis has exhibited, performed and curated work across the United States including at The Andy Warhol Museum, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Coaxial Arts Foundation, PhilaMOCA, MOCA Cleveland, Baby’s All Right, The Silent Barn, Fringe Arts and more. Mallis has a joint degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Electronic Time-Based Media and in Cultural Anthropology from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mallis was the Creative Director of art gallery and creative hub BOOM Concepts, a space prioritizing the advancements of artists and entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds. Within that role, they helped develop and carry out monthly artist exhibitions and regular programming onsite and off-site from 2014-2018.

Mallis was recognized as Creator of the Year by the Pittsburgh Technology Council in 2016, alongside longtime collaborator DS Kinsel under their moniker. In 2018, Mallis was commissioned to paint a 1000+ feet mural on the ground of Strawberry Way in Downtown Pittsburgh. It features colorful imagery interlaced within an interactive game asking bold questions about equity and justice to the audience.

In addition to their work as an artist, they have built up and led the Positive Spin youth cycling program over the last decade, leading to the development of the Positive Spin Toolkit. Across two different organizations in Pittsburgh (Bike Pittsburgh and MGR Youth Empowerment) they worked tirelessly with Pittsburgh public schools and area charter schools to ensure students in grades 4-12 had enriching and engaging after school and summer activities related to bike safety. Engaging with all people about bike safety became central to their work for many years, resulting in them organizing and hosting Bike Pittsburgh’s 6th annual women and non-binary biking forum. This forum sought to add elements of solidarity, community, and understanding amongst women and non-binary people through the lens of biking and transportation accessibility.

These same themes of community, mentorship, solidarity, personal enrichment, and accessibility run through all endeavors Mallis is involved with. Whether at work or in the artist’s studio, their vision is constantly aimed towards how to better the future for themselves and other people, one day at a time.

Follow them at or visit www.juliemallis.com

Address

608 S Millvale Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
15224

Website

http://sidewallproject.wordpress.com/

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