Michael Hardesty
“Feedback”
June 22 – September 15, 2007
Wood Street Galleries
601 Wood Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 471-5605
Wood Street Galleries, a project of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, has recently commissioned new work by artist Michael Hardesty, titled “Feedback” which will be featured in the new exhibition titled “Echo” opening at Wood Street Galleries, Friday, June 22, through Saturday, September 15, 2007. Also, on exhibit will be two installations by Michael Hardesty: “Offering” and “Was/Is.”
“Michael Hardesty’s environments investigate the mysteries of perception, challenging our sense of our physical selves,” writes curator Murray Horne, who had organized a show of Mr. Hardesty’s installations in 1991 as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. “The technological aspects of his work dissolve into sensual cues which elicit questions of where, what, why, and how, sometimes inducing a meditative reverie. In response to his work, we shift from the material to the metaphysical.”
Michael Hardesty was born in 1952 in Louisville, Kentucky. His early study in art was in the academic forms of drawing and painting, rendering still lifes, figuration. “It taught me the fundamentals…how to ‘see.’ For that, I’m eternally grateful,” he says.
A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, Hardesty has worked in painting, sculpture, ceramics, and printmaking. Hardesty furthered his studies from 1974 – 1975 at London’s Central School of Art and Design, receiving a diploma in printmaking.
“One has to marvel at Hardesty’s ability to grab and hold his audience for optimal effect using any technology within his grasp. Hardesty’s art is always the “What if…,” an open-ended invitation into a universe where anything seems possible,” writes Louis Zona, Executive Director of the Butler Institute of American Art.
The artist will give a public lecture, June 23rd at 1:00 p.m.
Contact: Veronica Corpuz, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
(412) 471-6082 / corpuz@pgharts.org
