Current Exhibitions
Exhibition In the George A. and Herbert T. Wolf Gallery
The Implications of the Camera
December 18, 2020 – February 13, 2021
The newest exhibition at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art opened on December 18th. This exhibition spans three galleries and dives into the history of photography, contemporary artists experimentations with it, and the influence and success of artwork reproducibility in the late 1900s. With installations, historic photographs, and masterpieces, this exhibition has something for any 1900s art enthusiast.
Pictorialism - The Wolf Gallery will host late 1800s / early 1900s photographs from our permanent collection. Artists such as Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Weston, Margaret Bourke White, Edward Curtis, and Edward Steichen. These giants of photography all were, at one time or another, working toward the goals of a popular artistic movement called Pictorialism. When photography was invented, it was considered a tool to capture reality, not an tool for artistic expression. These Pictorialists pushed photography away from documenting reality in a straightforward manner, and instead, they created a movement embracing styles and techniques popularized in painting in their photography.
Exhibition In the Shirley and Fred A. Pechter Gallery and
Paul I. Detwiler Education Center
The Implications of the Camera
December 18, 2020 – February 27, 2021
The newest exhibition at Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art opened on December 18th. This exhibition spans three galleries and dives into the history of photography, contemporary artists experimentations with it, and the influence and success of artwork reproducibility in the late 1900s. With installations, historic photographs, and masterpieces, this exhibition has something for any 1900s art enthusiast.
A New Era - The Pechter Gallery will exhibit contemporary artists who use photography as an element of their artistic practice. Some artists use sculpture, fiber art, 3-D rendering software and installation while also using photographic techniques such as darkroom printing, digital manipulation, and scanning. It's an exploration of the contemporary art world’s loose definitions of photography. In the Pechter Gallery, guests will question the definitions of photography today while also seeing how the ideas from the Pictorialists have blossomed in this new era. Artists include April Friges, Chris McGinnis, Heather Brand, Patty Kennedy-Zafred, Eric D. Charlton, Huang Guaier and Wang Runzhong, Laura Krasnow, Lori Hepner, and Zeshan Ahmed.
Replications - The Detwiler Gallery will tie into the other two shows by considering replication. The reproducibility of artwork became fuel for artists such as Josef Albers, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenburg, who all benefitted from fast and accurate methods of printing. This gallery embraces the replication processes by showcasing artworks from the museum's permanent collection from the artists listed above and others.
Exhibition In the Titelman Galleries
Major Works from the Permanent Collection and Old Master Prints
January 23, 2021 – March 27, 2021
Major Works from the Permanent Collection and Old Master Prints blend in a beautiful arrangement in the Titelman Galleries. SAMA Bedford is excited to announce that the walls will be adorned with some of the World’s most renowned and sought-after artisans. Artists spanning centuries are brought together in an eclectic mix of the Masters. Superior skill is on display for everyone to appreciate.
Exhibition in the Paula and Dean Lemley Gallery
Major Works from the Permanent Collection and Old Master Prints
January 23, 2021 – May 1, 2021
Major Works from the Permanent Collection and Old Master Prints blend in a beautiful arrangement in the Titelman Galleries. SAMA Bedford is excited to announce that the walls will be adorned with some of the World’s most renowned and sought-after artisans. Artists spanning centuries are brought together in an eclectic mix of the Masters. Superior skill is on display for everyone to appreciate.
Exhibition In the Donald M. Robinson Gallery
Bodies of Water by Donald M. Robinson
January 23, 2021 – March 27, 2021
Exhibition In the Ashe Gallery and Regional Galleries
Looking for That Moment by Robert Bowden
February 6, 2021 – May 1, 2021
Robert Bowden’s exhibition displays a compendium of paintings that reveals his amazing talent. A long fixture in the Pittsburgh arts scene, Bowden is noted for his beautiful works. As a painter of urban subjects, his style is to capture the city-scape with intimacy. Bowden is attracted to a subject’s color, shape, light effect and compositional potential. Bowden’s illustrious career as a graphic designer interwoven with his early interest in abstraction has evolved into a successful evolution of realism using the challenging and unforgiving media of watercolor. Urban landscapes painted en plein air is the major theme in his paintings. He has also written four books and three exhibition catalogs of his work. Bowden has paintings in four museum permanent collections as well as in numerous corporate and private collections.
Robert Bowden graces his canvases with a deft eye for lifelike color and detail. Through the use of watercolors, he paints exactly the world that he sees. Each composition is a tribute to the beauty that surrounds us every moment of every day. His appreciation for these details is evident and his skill communicates it effortlessly onto canvas.
Exhibition In the Ashe and Regional Galleries
Southwestern Pennsylvania Council for the Arts
25th Annual Regional Juried Art Exhibition
November 13, 2020 - January 31, 2021
This exhibition features work by artists from 19 southwestern counties of Pennsylvania. Featured works will span a variety of media including acrylic, oil, pastel, photography, watercolor, wood, masonry, and many others.
Since its inception, the exhibition has become known for its freshness and energy of emerging young artists and the dazzling presentations of established artists developing a new direction with their art. This installment marks the seventeenth consecutive year SAMA Ligonier Valley will host this amazing exhibition. This year also marks the council’s 25th anniversary.
Serving as this year’s juror is artist and professor, William Mammarella. He is the Chair of Fine Art and Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. Mammarella received an MFA at the University of Delaware and a BA at Rutgers University. He won numerous awards and has exhibited his work extensively in both group and solo shows. Some recent shows include: (2014) “Contemporary Landscape”, City Hall Gallery, Lancaster, PA and (2013) “The Enduring Horizon”, The Gallery at Dogstar, Lancaster, PA.
Exhibition In the Sullivan Gallery
2020 Biennial
October 16, 2020 - January 23, 2021
The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Loretto is pleased to announce the opening of Biennial 2020 Exhibition, the Museum’s juried exhibition occurring every two years that highlights the very best in regional artistic talent. The exhibition opens October 16 with 101 works from more than sixty artists throughout Pennsylvania. SAMA’s Biennial is considered to be one of Pennsylvania’s top exhibitions for contemporary local artists, and this installment features works in photography, watercolor, wood, oil, clay, bronze, pastel, pencil, acrylic, and mixed media, among others. Biennial 2020 will be on view through January 23, 2021. Serving as both selection and award juror was Laura DeFazio.
Laura DeFazio is a Professor of Art at California University of PA, where she’s taught since 1997. Her teaching areas include a wide variety of studio art and art history courses, as well as courses in Islamic art and architecture. She sculpts life-size figures and has created several works of permanent public art. Her media are primarily large-scale carved stone and cast concrete. Imagery that runs through her work include animals, humans, and nature. Ms. DeFazio's landscape designs create interactive spaces for adults and children, with walkways and seating for public use, in addition to sculpture, carved stone drawings, and sometimes fiber elements. Her works can be seen in libraries, parks, or playgrounds throughout Western Pennsylvania. She resides in Pittsburgh with her German Shepherd, Bindi.
Margaret Black of Boswell was awarded Best of Show for her fiber piece, Critter 4. Helen Gorsuch of Altoona was awarded First Place for her Raku sculpture, Samurai’s Cat. William Pfahl of Pittsburgh was awarded Second Place for his oil painting Shoah. Four Third Place awards were given to Ron Donoughe of Pittsburgh for Housebacks, Dave Hammaker of East Freedom for Temple of Sinawava, Anni Mastick of Boalsburg for Welcome In and Elise Philips of Elverson for Beach Day.
Biennial 2020 Sponsors
Best of Show: Barry H. Newborn
First Place: Chantel Ventura
Second Place: Dr. Magdi & Karen Azer
Third Place: Dr. Magdi & Karen Azer, Laura DeFazio, Glenda & Michael Forosisky,
and Marian & Dr. Owen K. Morgan
People’s Choice Award: Ed & Barb O’Brien
Exhibition in the Margery Wolf-Kuhn Balcony Gallery
Political Posters from the Mark DelCostello Collection
October 16, 2020 - January 23, 2021
The Mark del Costello Collection focuses on the American graphic design of the modern era. Numbering nearly 3,123, it includes posters and ephemera related to a wide variety of topics such as music, theater, film, visual arts, product advertising, and political issues. Although most examples in the collection date to the second half of the twentieth century, there are outstanding earlier works by renowned illustrators Howard Chandler Christy and Norman Rockwell. Apart from its artistic significance, the Mark del Costello Collection is also an important source for social history, touching on many of the noteworthy events and movements that have occurred in the United States over the last fifty years.