Counterpressures

The 83rd installment of Carnegie Museum of Art’s Forum series presents a thematic group exhibition that addresses the urgency of climate change. The title, taken from a quotation in Pittsburgh environmentalist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), identifies the show’s focus on the fraught relationship between humans and the environment.

This exhibition features new and existing work by ten Pittsburgh-area artists that acknowledges the transitory state of the environment; the ecological, economic, and public health consequences on the horizon; and how these conditions intersect with their own lived experiences. Through their selections of materials, the use of data and documentation, their surrealist imaginings, or references to urban development and disconnection from nature, these artists grapple with the ecological present and its uncertain future.

Counterpressures has been developed in partnership with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the oldest continuously–exhibiting visual arts organization in the country. Artists include Allison Blair, Paper Buck, Seth Clark, Tara Fay, Christine Holtz, Stephanie Martin, Travis Mitzel, Njaimeh Njie, Su Su, and Ginger Brooks Takahashi.

CMOA’s Forum series is a dynamic program of exhibitions by some of today’s most innovative contemporary artists hosted in a dedicated gallery located just off the museum’s main lobby. Initiated in 1990, the series has presented more than 80 exhibitions, including museum debuts for many artists who have gone on to achieve international renown.

Counterpressures is organized by Hannah Turpin, Curatorial Assistant for Modern and Contemporary Art and Photography, Carnegie Museum of Art.