#gallery crawl

[employee052]

CRAWL DONE!

ignore me sharing the gallery again i just had so much fun with this one n getting to show my narrator on the board, like god. look at him. give him attention.

next crawl im probably gonna do a route 23 gallery, but if theres an opportunity to tsp post irl i will take it, gnight

[karmakamellion]

Nights like these //

[employee052]

WENT TO MY UNIS GALLERY CRAWL LOOK AT THESE DOODLES (FEAT MY FRIEND @crassinova N THEIR BLORBO and narry is here too ig)

[letmypeopleshow]

Oh Snap! My @rcembalest Instagram art-gallery crawls are on Snapchat too!

Snaps from yesterday’s Lower East Side gallery crawl, my first to post on Snapchat. Follow along at nibor selur aka RCembalest. 

[treadingart]

India in Focus: DJ Rekha

If you somehow haven’t already heard the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is bestowing our lovely city with a six week festival focused on the South Asian country of India. To kick off India in Focus the Cultural Trust is amping up their quarterly showcase of art and entertainment by closing off parts of Liberty Avenue and Wood Street and throwing a street party. 

DJ Rekha is the special guest in town from Brooklyn for the evening to show us how her Basement Bhangra followers having been getting down for almost two decades. This monthly party, one of the longest running in New York, mixes hip-hop, dancehall and electronic sounds with South Asian bhangra music. The bhangra that DJ Rekha usually plays is produced in the UK but this style of music originally comes from Punjab, an area divided by India and Pakistan.  

Nisha Sondhe photography

It’s hard to imagine a “New York clubland institution” staying alive for 18 years but DJ Rekha’s instinctive and musically inclined nature keeps her, “in touch with the way people participate in dancing and club culture.” Music-fueled dance-seekers expect faster mixes in 2015, which necessitates a music library that is vast enough to maintain a balance between old and new tracks and stimulate a crowd with only snippets of songs. 

Brad Hodge photography

Basement Bhangra originated after Rekha was tired of being told by promoters to, “not play Black music because it would attract an unrefined crowd or Punjabi music which was perceived to attract a lower class Indian crowd.” She was looking to create a space that embraced hip-hop and Bhangra. So she began sampling hip-hop, which at that point was only played on select stations, live and on a night that wouldn’t attract the bridge and tunnel crowd.

 If you’re not familiar with the sounds of Bhangra it’s because you probably didn’t know how to recognize it on the tracks of well-known artists like M.I.A, Missy Elliot or Jay-Z. Or you’re really tuned in and know that; “South Asian sounds have been present outside of South Asia for many years, as early as Ravi Shankar connected with the Beatles.” Tell me you know about this!  

Her regularly anticipated Basement Bhangra party starts with dance lessons welcoming first-timers and dedicated attendees before a live drummer leads everyone to the stage. Word on the street is her Pittsburgh rendezvous will include a dance group, “which is a lesson in itself,” but the set remains a secret because she never play the same one twice. 

Beyond her role as a DJ, Rekha is also an activist, citing #blacklivesmatter as her most important issue, a curator, committed to programing women at events she produces, and a sound designer, for Tony award-winning Broadway Show, Bridge and Tunnel and the off-Broadway show, Rafta Rafta. 

If you still aren’t wowed, in 2009 she was chosen to lead a three-week tour of India as a cultural ambassador to the US Consulate. And a year later President Obama thanked Rekha at a White House Asian Pacific Islander reception for, “spinning a little East Room Bhangra…mixing a hip-hop beat with the sounds of her heritage, making a uniquely American sound that may not have been heard in the White House before.”

Welcome DJ Rekha this Friday, the 25th, during the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s gallery crawl. She will be set up outside at Liberty Ave and 9th, spinning at 9pm. Beforehand at 8pm the CMU Bhangra Dance Group will be teach you some moves and help elevate the energy before the main event.

In Rekha’s mind Bhangra, hip-hop, EDM – they are not separate, just a part of her musical palate. 

Happy dancing! ~CRS

Treading Art is a visual arts media partner for 2015 exhibitions being presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. 

Join Treading Art over the next few weeks as we unveil an insider’s spectacle on the festival through exclusive interviews, photographs and videos. 

Nisha Sondhe photography 

[estoesarteono]

mid- July Gallery Crawl: Aberdeen

Shu Ikeda: Void

Blindspot Gallery

Away

Mur Nomade

Early Works by Yang Jiechang: 100 Layers of Ink

Alisan Fine Arts

[runforevermusic]

An exhibition of paintings and prints by Dianna Settles Pittsburgh’s First Friday Art Crawl at Runaway Studios Located at 4016 Howley St, Pittsburgh, PA 15224 "Hi Lo" Opening Reception Friday, July 3, 2015 at 6 pm with a Special Musical Performance by Run Forever Dianna Settles is an artist from Atlanta, Georgia. Her work springs from the anxieties of both loss and reclamation of identity. This is compounded by an interest in the overlooked and the mundane, giving passing moments and the commonly ignored a place to transcend from unremarkable to enduring.

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Our friend Dianna Settles did all the paintings for our single “Big Vacation” and for our LP! She is an incredibly talented artist with a beautiful perspective. We sent her our record and asked her to just paint whatever came to mind. The imagery she made was perfect. This Friday she will be driving all the way from Atlanta, GA to share her work with us here in Pittsburgh! At 9:30 PM we will play all new songs that inspired some of the paintings she did!

Hope to see you!

[beernomics]

Arts and Crafts for the Beer Drinker

Typically arts and crafts, and beer are not things that seem like they would go together. Then you realize it is Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week and about craft beer, now that we can get behind. This Friday, April 24th from 5:30-10:00PM join the Gallery Crawl in the Cultural District and enjoy all the world class beers throughout the night. So hop from gallery to gallery and enjoy the arts and crafts. If you are still craving some more crafts after the gallery take a look at the list of the surrounding restaurants that are participating in Craft Beer Week.