Box Heart, an artist run commercial gallery, was first established in 1998. My husband, Joshua Hogan, and I held the simple goal of providing regional artists with the space to exhibit and potentially sell their work.
The development of Box Heart since then has grown beyond our wildest imagination. Since opening our gallery doors, we have held over 150 exhibitions for artists from all around the world; striving to maintain a creative atmosphere with an eclectic mix of art work from emerging and established artists alike. Our continual progression into an international gallery, drives us to carefully select not only the type of art, but also the type of artist we need to build and maintain a successful art community.
Gallery Highlights (selection)
* Nationally exhibiting landscape artist, writer,
and President of Business Affairs at Paramount Pictures
exhibited her paintings, “Country Scapes”
in January 2004. Her paintings have since been
selected by set designer Linda Sutton to
appear in various audiovisual productions.
She also collectively runs Cimero
Entertainment with her husband, Matt Cimber,
through which they offer story consulting, publishing,
and exclusively represent the ancillary rights for
the Harold Robbins Estate.
* Internationally exhibiting Israeli artist Ilana Raviv exhibited her series “Magna Mater” in February 2004. Her paintings, described as synthetic realism, are part of the permanent collection of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel.
* Nationally exhibiting video-sound installation artist, John Henry Blatter, exhibited “Blatter Up” in August 2004. In addition to exhibiting his work at the Columbus Museum of Art, Blatter is now the creator, editor-in-chief and art director of a zine called The Daily Constitutional, which features artists taking back their forum and writing about art themselves. In addition to exhibiting his sound installations at Scope Miami, he also distributes his quarterly issues of The Daily Constitutional.
* Internationally exhibiting African artist Nzuji De Magalahaes exhibited her mixed media and textile series, “Daqui Dai (from here to there)” in October 2005. This series has since been exhibited by the Harlem Studio Museum in New York City as part of “Frequency” an exhibition organized by Thelma Golden and Christine Kim who selected thirty-five of the hottest, emerging, black artists from around the world. This series was purchased for their permanent collection.
* Russian artist Vladimir Zuev exhibited his series of intricate
etchings as “Box Heart’s 2006 Artist of the Year.” His experience in
printing graphic abstract etchings, ex-librises, and woodcuts makes
his works popular all over the world. Using multiple
techniques such as; soft ground, engraving, and aquatint his prints are
masterpieces found in collections such as; the Chebske Museum in the
Czech Republic, the Malbork Castle Museum in Poland, the Museu Civico di
Grafica in Italy, the Rops Museum in Belgium, and the Permanent
Collection of Silpakom University in Thailand.
* Jewelry/Metalsmithing artist Donovan Widmer exhibited “(de) generative alchemy” in 2008 as a method to examine how ideologies evolve. Widmer’s artworks are an assemblage of appropriated images and materials that are deconstructed and combined with fabricated elements constructed through traditional metalsmithing processes. His work has been exhibited in international, national, regional, and local University and College galleries, as well as, commercial galleries.
* In 2008 Norwegian artist Reinhardt Sobye exhibited “The Angel and the Last Child on Earth,” a collection of large-scale portraits shown for the first time in the United States. Described by Pittsburgh art critic Kurt Shaw as “an artist of undeniable talent and remarkable tuition, the kind that rivals anyone getting attention on an international scale,” Sobye’s artwork combines photographed elements into scenes of surpassing strangeness that beckon the viewer into the vast, false structures that act as mirrors held up to civilization.
* Local multi-media artist Frank Ferraro and local composer Steve Pellegrino presented a live performance of the opera “Gravity and Grace” at Box Heart Gallery in 2009. A stage-based work that contained dance, original musical score, video, and performance, “Gravity and Grace” received a grant from the Heinz Endowments and was later premiered at the Shadyside Academy in Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania.
* 2011 marked the anniversary of Box Heart Gallery’s “11th Annual Art Inter/National Exhibition.” This invitational group exhibition explores space, how the immediate environment impacts the artistic process and influences what each artist creates. The exhibition has featured artists from countries such as: Norway, France, Brazil, Russia, Columbia, Vietnam, Peru, Iran, India, Switzerland, China, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Canada, Germany, Philippines, United States, and Chile. Inspired by the prestigious Carnegie International, we are thrilled to offer the Pittsburgh community an intimate yearly alternative.
