Fill your eyes with artistic endeavors of all kinds at these Pittsburgh museums, from Monet, Vermeer and Rembrandt at The Frick to an examination of contemporary landscapes at Carnegie Museum of Art, there’s no end to the beauty and inspiration coming our way.
Exploring Pittsburgh Museums for Summer 2024
Abolitionist Expressions: Let’s Get Free’s Permanent Collection
Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Running until June 8
On display since February, your chance to see this exhibition drawing from the permanent Let’s Get Free collection, which features works from creatives both in and out of prison, will soon come to an end. The Pittsburgh-based organization Let’s Get Free aims to “end perpetual punishment, and shift to a culture of transformative justice.”
Tatiana Bilbao: City of Rooms
Carnegie Museum of Art, September 21-June 15, 2025
The question of domesticity is raised in City of Rooms, an immersive exhibition from Mexico City-based artist Tatiana Bilbao, featuring three residential rooms focused on cooking, bathing, and sleeping.
Untangling Our Roots
Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, Running until June 23
Nature, color, texture, symbolism, and Buddhist teachings drive this two-artist collection from Peggi Habets and Lauren Braun of paintings, collages, and 3D works. Each work serves as a way to address universally felt struggles, grounded with a singular symbolic force.
Make Yourself Comfortable
Contemporary Craft, Running until June 28
Contemporary Craft presents this solo exhibition from its Studio Apprentice, Vicki Branagan. The artist showcases pillows and the comfort, familiarity, and vulnerability that the household object provides.
Vermeer, Monet, Rembrandt
The Frick Pittsburgh, Running until July 14
Never before have the collections of 19th-century industrialist Henry Clay Frick and his daughter, philanthropist Helen Clay Frick come together for one singular viewing experience. This exhibition will not only allow visitors to view works by Titian, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, Whistler, El Greco, Ingres, Vermeer, and more, but it will also explore the impact the Frick’s acquisitions have had on the art world and subsequent museum openings. (Read TABLE’s coverage of this exhibition)
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675), Girl Interrupted at Her Music, ca. 1658-1659. Oil on canvas, 15 ½ x 17 ½ in. The Frick Collection, New York.
Everlasting Plastics
Carnegie Museum of Art, Running until July 21
After an inaugural presentation as the US Pavilion at the 18th Venice Biennale of Architecture last year, Everlasting Plastics, an exhibition featuring five US architects, artists, and designers, made its North American debut here in the Steel City. It looks at human relations with the idea of plasticity and the non-biodegradable material.
Marie Watt: LAND STITCHES WATER SKY
Carnegie Museum of Art, running through September 22
In this newest exhibition by Portland-based artist Marie Watt, materials from Western PA’s historical industrial age—steel and glass—are explored through an Indigenous lens. Watt, a citizen of the Seneca Nation with German-Scot ancestry, showcases sculptures meant to evoke a sense of familiarity while considering the materials’ layered background. (Read TABLE’s coverage of this exhibition)
Treasured Ornament: 10 Centuries of Islamic Art
The Frick Pittsburgh, August 17-October 20
Surround yourself with the beauty of magnificent Middle Eastern treasures like fine glassware, ceramics, metalwork, painting, and weaponry that populated everyday life in the region, giving viewers a glimpse into Islamic history and culture.
Hereafter
Contemporary Craft, Running until August 24
Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, Hereafter shines a light on grieving, the celebration of life across the globe, and the unique rituals and processes that come with these intimate, cultural reflections. (Read TABLE’s coverage of this exhibition)
Hee Joo Yang’s “Candles” from 2024 courtesy of Contemporary Craft
65 Artists, 65 Years: An Anniversary Exhibition
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Running until September 8
This year, 2024 marks 65 years since The Westmoreland Museum first opened. In celebration, they started the year with a new exhibition presenting 65 artists from the museum’s notable collection.
Beate Kuhn: Turn
Carnegie Museum of Art, June 29-December 1
For those unaware of the work of German sculptor Beate Kuhn (1927-2015)—and those wanting to see more of her alluring pieces, crafted to resemble round objects like discs and cones—Beate Kuhn: Turn is an opportunity for U.S. audiences to reveal in Kuhn’s natural, ceramic creations.
Widening the Lens: Photography, Ecology, and the Contemporary Landscape
Carnegie Museum of Art, Running until January 12, 2025
Almost 100 photographs from 19 diverse artists work together in this collection to present viewers with an understanding and appreciation of their relationship to and with our natural landscape while serving as a call to urgent environmental concerns like degradation.
KAWS + Warhol
The Andy Warhol Museum, Running until January 20, 2025
For the first time, the works of pop artists KAWS and Andy Warhol will be available to view side by side, allowing the artworks’ similarities to shine—dark themes juxtaposed with pop culture references and bright, eye-catching colors. KAWS will also be presenting a series of works drawing inspiration from his latest commission with General Mills.
Pittsburgh Satellite Reef
Carnegie Museum of Art, Running until January 26, 2025
Pittsburgh-area artists have come together to contribute to Christine and Margaret Wertheim and the Institute For Figuring’s worldwide Crochet Coral Reef Project—a response to the tragic loss of reef life as a result of ocean acidification and global warming. Here, the local community can converse about a worldwide issue, combining art and science.
George Hetzel and Scalp Level
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Running until November 9, 2025
While he was born in France, 19th-century artist George Hetzel moved with his parents to what is now Pittsburgh’s North Side. Inspired by the area’s outdoor beauty, he founded the Scalp Level School, where he and his students focused on painting and sketching natural scenes. Indulge in a collection that defined an era with works from Hetzel and his students.
Marvin Touré: the blood is the water
The Mattress Factory, Running until March 30, 2025
Using mark making, anthropomorphic objects, and installations, artist Marvin Touré channels memory in an abstract form to touch on family history in nonlinear, fragments—with a touch of Southern gothic air—from the channeling of the Georgia clay of his childhood to landscape motifs.
Catalina Schliebener Muñoz’s “Deep, Deep Woods” on display at The Mattress Factory.
Catalina Schliebener Muñoz: Deep, Deep Woods
The Mattress Factory, Running until March 30, 2025
Jump ropes, colored pencils, mat boards, oh my! No, this isn’t a picture of your childhood, but Catalina Muñoz Schliebener’s collection of drawings, collages, and mixed media are meant to channel childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, even going as far as to frame some of her work from the late ‘90s. mattress.org
Isla Hansen: How to Get to Make Believe
The Mattress Factory, Running until March 30, 2025
Isla Hansen conjures both the adorable and the absurd in her installation on the “make believe.” You might find some familiar characters, as well as Hansen’s own Ratlet puppet. Fun for kids and adults alike at the Mattress Factory’s Monterrey Annex!
Story by Jordan Snowden
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