Commence
October 6 – November 17, 2023
Tomayko Foundation
5173 Liberty Ave Pittsburgh, PA
“The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.” --Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History
How do we process time? Progress? Histories? Futures? Commence asks us to consider this question through examining beginnings and, more broadly, what occurs between a beginning and an ending. Process, transitions and change mark our individual and collective journey from a starting point, creating the history that comes to define us as individuals. Nostalgia and memory, familial and personal histories, and rethinking history through elemental forms reveal themselves as agents of history and transition. Each artist in Commence, works within these three themes to illuminate how a starting point can be disguised as a progression and continuum.
Returning to the beginning from a new vantage point, reusing materials and ideas, or addressing elemental concepts expands notions of how we think about starting points. Situating individual consciousness and bodies within the environment, ecosystem, or epoch, Czapinski, Julo, Lorenz, Martin, Ryan, McClure, and Steiner break down history to its bare bones, revealing the elemental forms that shape what we think we know.
How do our personal narratives and familial histories converge into the now? Looking back through generational lineages, traditions, and traumas builds bridges to understanding individual journeys through the spatial and the temporal. Baxter, Buncher, Goins and Hepner use narratives surrounding family history and personal growth to illustrate the never-ending continuum of transition and becoming.
Our memories are often distorted or misremembered, but so frequently leave us with a strong feeling of a time and place. The nebulousness of memory can bring about a melancholic longing for a past that can’t ever be relived. Gerbino, Randall, and Tronsor use memory and nostalgia in concept and form to probe existential wonderings, process lived experiences, and explore unconscious desires.
Nina Friedman
Director
Tomayko Foundation
Participating artists: Saige Baxter, Robert Buncher, Nicole Czapinski, Fabrizio Gerbino, Lori Hepner, Andy Julo, Stephanie Martin, Christine Lorenz, Peggy McClure, Catherine Ryan, Devina Goins, Michele Randall, Blaine Steiner, John Tronsor
Juror: Nina Friedman
Nina Friedman is the Director of the Tomayko Foundation. Before this role, she has held positions at the Andy Warhol Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Mattress Factory. She has been a board member of Bunker Projects since 2018, where she is currently the Board President. Nina has her Masters of Arts Administration & Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Vermont.
About the tomayko foundation
The Tomayko Foundation fosters individual creativity through education and the arts. Started in 2015 by John R. Tomayko, the Foundation has since made a significant impact in these fields throughout the Pittsburgh region by supporting individuals pursuing higher education in the fields of engineering and fine art, students of dance, emerging artists, and organizations who support the work of living artists. Jack has been an art collector for 30 years.
In 2022 The Foundation purchased its current building at 5173 Liberty Ave in Pittsburgh, PA. The Foundation holds public exhibitions, art events, and art auctions. The Tomayko Foundation seeks to present a representation of the best regional art in Pittsburgh. Over the past 30 years, Jack Tomayko has built a wide reaching collection of contemporary art that includes painting, photography, and sculpture from artists in and around the Pittsburgh region.
Photos by Chris Uhren