Pittsburgh’s Avant-Garde: 60 Years Inside the Underground Art Scene features the work of 64 well-established artists with strong ties to the city of Pittsburgh. The story of Pittsburgh’s avant-garde is told through images of artworks, interviews with artists, essays by art critics, and artist and art organization profiles.

The book includes contributions from individual artists, art collectors, and gallery owners, as well as art organizers, organizations, and critics—and is divided into three parts. Part one focuses on artists and art collectives through images as well as essays by writers such as David Bernabo, Bill O’Driscoll, Adrienne Wehr, and Alice Winn; it also includes interviews with artists such as etta cetera, vanessa german, Tim Kaulen, Duane Michals, and Thaddeus Mosley.

Part two features unique vistas of the city of Pittsburgh by artists and photographers such as Chuck Barr, Doug Cooper, Bill Miller, Heather Mull, and Mark Perrott. I wanted to show Pittsburgh’s rich diversity in character through its neighborhoods, urban landscape, industrial heyday, as well as its dirty post industrial grit.

Part 3 focuses on art organizers, organizations, collectors, and galleries through essays about the history of art spaces, including 20 essays and profiles about such places as AIR, Boom Concepts, Digging Pitt, Garfield Artworks, and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, as well as 5 interviews with such notables as Steve Mendelson, Pat McArdle, and Richard Parsakian.

Pittsburgh’s Avant-Garde includes over 600 colorful images. There are only a few existing books on the topic of Pittsburgh artists, one of them being Pittsburgh by Pittsburgh Artists, which I self-published in 2010. I believe that the audience for Pittsburgh’s Avant-Garde will be the people who make up Pittsburgh’s vibrant arts community: artists and art patrons as well as people interested in Pittsburgh’s art history.

This beautiful coffee table book measures 10 x 12 inches and 412 pages! This incredible story will be released in congruence with a group show made up of as many of the 100 participants as possible. Don’t miss it. Save the date: December 6th for the sneak peek. New release date February 7th, 2025! See you there!

Sheila Ali, IFCI, Director & Curator

Additional images of artwork by Jim Brindle, Duane Michals, Doug Cooper, Tom Sarver (Brew House) and Ruth Bedeian.

Included in the Book:

Artists, Collectives, Art Galleries, Art Organizations, Art Organizers &  Collectors

Sue Abramson, Abira Ali, Rick Bach, Chuck Barr, Bill O'Driscoll, Kenneth Batista, Romare Bearden, Ruth Bedeian, Christine Bethea, Emory Biko, Black Sheep Puppet Festival, Mike Bonello, Joan Brindle, Eric Calfo, Cheryl Capezzuti, etta cetera, Dennis Childers, tENTATIVELY, a cONVIENCE, Doug Cooper, Katy DeMent, Jim Dugas, John Eastman, Edward Eberle, Samir Elsabee, Industrial Arts Co-op, Karen Lillis, Irma Freeman, vanessa german, Ryder Henry, Industrial Arts Co-op, Chris Ivey, Ashley A. Jones, William A. Karaffa, Tim Kaulen, Diane Keane, Laverne Kemp, Ruth Klawansky, Evan Knauer, Michael Mangiafico (FIG), Jean McClung, Bekezela Mguni, Laura Jean McLaughlin, Duane Michals, Bill Miller, John Morris, Thaddeous Mosley, Ellen Chisides Neuberg, Ed Parrish, Jr., David Pohl, Robert Qualters, Curtis Reaves, Larry Rippel, Samuel Rosenberg, Tom Sarver, Richard Schnap, James Shipman, Spahr, Spaz, Christina Springer, Subrosa, Andres Tapia-Urzua, Tree, Mary Tremonte, Scott Turri, Edgar Um Bucholtz, Andy Warhol, Women of Visions, Bob Ziller, Anonymous, Karen Antonelli, Jim Brindle, Jaime Bird, John Cleaveland, Cara Gaetano, Chris McGinnis, David Harris, Heather Mull, Mark Perrott, Dan Peindl, Sherry Rusinack, Sandra Streiff, Hong Zhao,  Alice Winn, Artist Image Resource, Boom Concepts, BoxHeart Gallery, Bunker Projects, Concept Art Gallery, Contemporary Craft, Digging Pitt, GalleriE CHIZ, Garfield Artworks (Susan Spier), Adrienne Wehr, Eric Holmes, Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, Lauri Mancuso, Mattress Factory Museum, David Bernabo, Pat McArdle, Steve Mendelson, E. Murray-Finkelstein, Orgone Cinema, Richard Parsakian, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, Brady Lewis, Pittsburgh Glass Center, Jen Saffron, Rivers of Steel, Ron Baraff, Silver Eye Center for Photography & The Turmoil Room