This show celebrates the life and work of Pittsburgh native Kevin Osterhout. In recent years, Kevin had displayed some of his work in several coffee shops in the East End of the city.
Kevin drew in fine black marker. Some pieces he kept as pen drawings, but most of his work is vibrantly colored. In older pieces he added color with pencils, while more recently he used markers. In a few recent pieces, Kevin set aside his careful, intricate line drawing for spontaneous, explosive pieces of dramatic energy.
Most of Kevin’s art depicts intertwining, curious relationships, with colorful figures flowing into and out of each other, transforming each other in the process. The unexpected interrupts and upends expectations in renderings of difference and, sometimes, of disorder. In Kevin’s drawings, the playful and the disruptive, the odd and the disturbing unite in fluid design without defined starting or ending points.
In describing his passion for drawing, Kevin once wrote, “I want to help. I want to heal. I want to inspire wonder.” Though Kevin titled some drawings, most pieces are untitled. A standard definition says the adjective phantasmagorical “describes something with a dreamlike, fantastical, unreal, deceptive, or shifting appearance, like an optical illusion.” Kevin’s family has selected the exhibit title Phantasmagoricals, turning this unusual adjective into a noun, as a collective name for Kevin’s drawings.
Curated by Kevin’s family and Pittsburgh photographer Nick Childers, this exhibit is a tribute to Kevin’s beautiful spirit and remarkable achievement in creating more than 150 pieces of intriguing, appealing, colorful art throughout many years of painful struggles with mental health issues and substance use.
After many months of sobriety, Kevin died at age 30 in August 2020 of accidental heroin/fentanyl poisoning.
Kevin had long hoped to sell a variety of products featuring his designs. To fulfill Kevin’s desire, to honor his legacy, to celebrate his achievement and to share his story, Kevin’s family is selling merchandise at the exhibit, including T-shirts Kevin had designed but had not yet been able to have made.
Merchandise sales at this exhibit will launch a non-profit that will continue to sell items featuring Kevin’s many designs through the gracious welcoming of the Irma Freeman Center Gallery Boutique shop as well as through an online presence. All proceeds will be used to support work aligning with Kevin’s desire to inspire wonder through his art, as well as to support groups which affirm, support and celebrate the full humanity and value of all persons living with mental health and substance use challenges.
Phantasmagoricals opens Friday, June 4 and runs through Friday, July 2, 2020. First Friday receptions will be open to the public as well as a special event held on Wednesday, June 9, for Kevin’s birthday, from 6:00-9:00 p.m., featuring music and light refreshments.