Larry Rippel has been photographing Art Olympics since I started the event in 2007. Here are his images from the most recent Art Olympics at the October 25th, 2024 Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gallery Crawl in Downtown Pittsburgh.
The 2024 Art Olympics was supported by The Cultural Trust in partnership with Associated Artist of Pittsburgh. The public art project was part of AAP’s 110th Annual Exhibition. The Carnegie Museum of Art generously donated membership packages to the winning team. Flyspace Productions managed the technical aspects of the show, including sound, stage and lighting.
Over 500 people came through the Art Olympics venue over the three hour event, many taking advantage of the interactive aspects of the show. Twelve professional artists competed in the main event. It was a beautiful evening in Pittsburgh. The sun slowly went down, with daylight shifting into dramatic theatrical lighting and the glow of a city at night.
The Crew: Mike, Tom, Audra and Kristen. The Giant Eagle Backyard at 8th & Penn.Space 1. Each team gets a work area with a random selection of junk. Teams are also allowed to bring in a specified amount of their own materials.Space 2. Space 3.Space Pirates: Kirsten Ervin, Suzanne Werder, Karny & Rankin Tran.Gucci / Boom Concepts: Kuwame Kinsel, DeVaughn Rodgers, D.S. Kinsel, Jacqueline Walker.Office of Interstellar Environmental, Wingdings: Merle Rogers, Lindsey Scherloum, Albert Pantone, Katy DeMent. Mike and Audra leading in the Cheddar Bay Brass Band. Cheddar Bay Brass Band leading the opening ceremonies. Announcing the teams. Lindsey Scherloum delivering a team artist statement. Team leader Suzanne Werder performing the artist statement for Space Pirates. A giant scrolling story, similar to a puppet cranky device. D.S. Kinsel prepares to give his team artist statement. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Make Art! An enthusiastic audience member or maybe a team groupie?Audra Clayton interviewing judge Alison Zapata.Mike interviewing judge Chris Korch. Mike with judge David Montano. DJ Mary Mack pumping up the jams! Tom explaining the rules. Tom showing off the hand-crafted trophy for the winning team.A group of visiting students.The Half-Time Show puppet making contest. Three audience members volunteered to compete in a ten-minute contest to make puppets out of the random contents of small boxes. Each contestant is provided tape, scissors and glue. Kristen judging the puppet making contest. The winner!!!Halftime performance by Cheddar Bay Brass Band. Madeline, director of AAP, posing for the Seventh Inning Sketch. Eight audience members competed to draw Madeline over a ten minute period. Anastasia James, Director of Galleries and Public Art for The Cultural Trust, judged the Seventh Inning Sketch. The winner! Lindsey Scherloum adding some final details. A sustained tableau by Boom Concepts in the final stretch. Suzanne Werder gives some final remarks. And the trophy goes to: Space Pirates!
WHEN? Friday, October 25th 2024, 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
WHERE? The outdoor stage at Giant Eagle Backyard, 8th and Penn in the Cultural District.
WHAT IS IT? Three teams of artists will compete over two hours to build ART out of junk materials. Teams will be judged by a panel of three artists, who will be rating each team in a variety of criteria. Audience members can get up close to cheer teams on. There will be opportunities for audience participation.
Mothman, inspired by the legendary 1960’s sightings of a giant moth-humanoid creature in West Virginia, will be on display in Puppets and Performance (Tom Sarver, 2024).
October has long been puppet season for me. For many years, it was the time of the year when I was organizing the Black Sheep Puppet Festival, an epic national festival of puppetry performance that happened at the Brew House on the South Side of Pittsburgh (1999 through 2008). The festival was always around Halloween. The puppets were often creepy. The cobwebbed Brew House, in need of major repairs at the time, added to the ambiance.
Flash forward to 2024. Early in the year, the crew at You Are Here Gallery in Jeanette, PA contacted me about participating in a community puppet festival in the small town about 45 minutes southeast of Pittsburgh, near Greensburg. I visited You Are Here and saw the first floor gallery and workshop space on the second floor. The organization is a refreshing burst of arts activity on a small town main street. Mary Briggs, Jen Costello and Natalie Condrac talked about a lineup of festive activities that they were planning for October, culminating in the Jeanette Halloween parade. I agreed to conduct a community puppet making workshop and to exhibit in a gallery exhibition of puppets.
Puppets by Tom Sarver that will be on display at You Are Here gallery, starting October 5th (created 2009 through 2024).
This Saturday October 5th from 6 PM to 8 PM is the opening of the You Are Here exhibition Puppets and Performance. I will be showing an assortment of small puppets. Other exhibitors include D.T. Burns, Sasha Schwartz, Sherri Roberts, Joann Kielar, Maddie Macek, Ayne Terceira and Lindsay Goranson. The show is curated by Natalie Condrac. The show runs through Saturday, November 16th.
Kristen Sarver, Tom Sarver, Joann Kielar and Albert Pantone, with Joann’s Traditional Wife puppet at the Puppets and Performance opening reception. Exhibiting artist and puppeteer Sherri Roberts, performing at the opening reception of Puppets and Performance.
I’ll be conducting a two-day workshop in puppet making, Monster Under Your Bed – Community Puppet Making Workshop, on Saturday October 12th at You Are Here Gallery (1 PM to 4 PM) and on Saturday October 19th at Jeanette Library (1 to 4 PM). The workshop is for adults and families with children ten years old and up. Anyone under 16 must be accompanied by an adult guardian. The workshop is free but preregistration is required. More information about the workshop can be found here.
Tom Sarver creating Mothman in his workshop.
On Friday, October 25th, You Are Here will be holding Puppet Open Mic Night, with hosts D.T. Burns and Natalie Condrac. Puppet making workshop participants are encouraged to come and perform with their puppets at this event. More information here.
On Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, the Jeanette Halloween Parade takes place, starting at 7 PM on Clay Avenue. I’ve heard this is a wild event and another great opportunity to show off a puppet!
Exploring puppetry is a great way to tell stories, meet new people and get creative. You don’t need special skills to get started. Everyone is invited to check out the activities.
And if you are in Jeanette Wednesday through Sunday before 2pm, I would recommend stopping by Peinetti’s Bakery and coffee shop!
Way back in 2006, while I was a resident artist at the Mattress Factory (working on my Tom Museum project), I began thinking up ideas for a theatrical art competition. I was watching the Iron Chef cooking show on Sundays, and thinking about a similar show for artists. I was also thinking about holiday contests that my relatives would hold, wacky homemade games of skill and chance. Everyone in the family participated, from the toddlers to grandma. We wrote everyone’s scores on a big chart.
I was inspired by reality TV, but I didn’t want a televised show. I wanted something where the audience could get up close, be in the midst of the action, and even be involved in the show. I wanted people to see the spontaneous invention of artists, as they try to figure out how to turn random junk materials into ART while the crowd watched. Initially, I called the project Art Olympic Theater, as the theatrics of the show was a key element that the judges were considering in selecting a winner. Eventually it was shortened to Art Olympics.
The Mattress Factory was eager to host my first run at the event, letting me use the lobby of the museum and helping with staffing, promotion, etc. Artists cut holes in walls, walls, floors and ceilings for every installation show at the museum, so the staff didn’t mind if things got a little banged up. I spent a lot of time finding sponsors for the event. I wanted to make the show into a big art party. There were donations of food, beer, live music, and materials. Friends from my puppetry projects, Mike Cuccaro and Liz Hammond, helped to run the show. Larry Rippel documented the event.
A big part of the event is watching the collaboration that takes place within each team. I chose a leader for each team, who then selects three people to work with them. The leader is generally a visual or theater artist. The leaders are free to select whomever they would like to complete on their team. They may choose a magician, engineer, plumber, etc. Each team is asked to present an artist statement at the beginning of the contest. One of the judging categories involves rating how they adhere to their statement throughout the show. Three teams compete in a contest that lasts two hours.
Each team has a space to work in, a square area of floor covered with a drop cloth. The audience is not permitted to step in the team spaces, unless team members invite them in. In this way, audience members can become collaborators in the show. On one occasion, a team created an art school, moving audience members through their space and letting them be involved in painting and music making.
Each team space has a pile of junk within it at the start of the show. Teams are judged on how creatively they use this junk. Another category for judges is determining how well each team follows the rules. The rules are mostly safety-based, preventing teams from using open flame and other methods that would be dangerous in a crowd.
During the shows, the emcee team interviews audience members to get their reactions. Some audience members compete in a smaller version of the Art Olympics during a half-time show competition.
At the end of the contest, a judging panel consisting of arts professionals announces their final scores and a winning team is selected.
On Friday, October 25th, the 11th Art Olympics show will happen during the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Gallery Crawl. The show will be presented in partnership with the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh 110th Annual Exhibition at SPACE Gallery. More information on this year’s event will be posted soon!
A tour of The Pittsburgh Left exhibition at SPACE Gallery as seen through the lens of photographer and exhibition artist Larry Rippel.
SPACE Gallery from Liberty Avenue sidewalk. Logo by Tom Sarver.
Organized by Pittsburgh-based artist Tom Sarver, The Pittsburgh Left opened at SPACE Gallery on August 26, 2022. The gallery is one of several spaces run by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The show features collections of work and installations by eleven artists. The show runs through October 23rd, 2022. More information on hours and programming can be found HERE.
Installation shot with wall of 50 Pittsburgh pen & ink drawings by Tom Sarver (left), sculpture by Kathleen Zimbicki (middle) and Kathleen Zimbicki large-scale watercolors (right).
Sarver discussed ideas for a Pittsburgh-themed show with the visual arts curator of The Cultural Trust in 2019. He was creating sketches and drawings of Pittsburgh on-location and wanted to assemble a group of artists for a show at SPACE. After a couple years of studio and gallery visits, a lineup was selected.
Look Up by Ramon Riley, Kairotic Painting, 2021, 60″ x 60″, paper, watercolor, oil, graphite, acrylic mounted on canvas.
Kairotic Painting comes from the ancient Greek word kairos, which roughly translates to mean “the right time”. By referring to the works as “Kairotic Paintings”, I am stating my intention to improvise and embrace the presence of intangible forces as part of my creative process. – Ramon Riley
Arrangement of four paintings by Ramon Riley.
The details of the heavenly orbs atop the 16th Street Bridge have always fascinated me. The winged horses, the zodiac and mythological symbols tells us its creators valued aesthetic beauty. I am in awe of both the form and the function of this bridge. Some lives are forever changed because a bridge was built and a bridge was crossed. -Ramon Riley
Filmmaker Chris Ivey is presenting We Are Here- Finding Beauty In The Raw, a multichannel video installation of several interviews wrapped in an immersive environment. Ivey’s history of hands-on, investigative work (East of Liberty documentary series, Grenfell Tower/Arconic engagement works) reveals and confronts racism and injustice both in Pittsburgh and internationally.
Installation by David Montano, 2022.
Conceptual artist David Montano has been collecting Pittsburgh post cards for many years. Montano is interested in the people who hand-wrote messages to their loved ones. He created an installation in the window space alcove of the gallery.
A collection of antique Pittsburgh-themed postcards arranged and pressed between two pieces of plexiglass are viewable from both sides of a window cut into an interior gallery wall.
A hand-painted copy of an antique postcard. David Montano, 2022. An installation by Larry Rippel includes framed photographs and computers from many stages of his career. Each computer plays a slideshow of his creative work. Larry Rippel has worked in the Pittsburgh photographic community for over forty years. He presents a multimedia retrospective installation that highlights his passion for Pittsburgh arts, culture and community.A “print-stallation” of Risograph prints by Mary TremonteMary Tremonte is a Pittsburgh-based DJ, artist and educator. Printmaking is at the core of her practice, as she creates installations, wearable art, banners, zines and more.Deavron “The Urban Explorer” Dailey and gallery visitors checking out his wall of work during the soft opening of the exhibition. An arrangement of ceramic tile wall pieces by Deavron Dailey. Deavron Dailey’s collection of work includes prints, ceramic wall pieces, and wearable art.
Splitting time between Pittsburgh and Detroit, Dailey often reflects on each place from a distance. He draws inspiration from exploration in each and realizes his visions in a wide variety of artistic media including ceramics, printmaking, drawing and painting.
A fibers piece and two cartoon illustrations by Kirsten Ervin. Jerry Saves The Land of Make Believe. Kirsten Ervin, 2022 Gouache paint, ink on arches watercolor paper.
Kirsten Ervin is a Pittsburgh-based fiber artist and illustrator focused on building community and promoting joy.
Kathleen Zimbicki is a Pittsburgh arts legend. At 88, she is the oldest artist in the show. A selection of her large-scale visionary watercolor paintings were selected to show salon-style on a large gallery wall. The two bottom-central pieces are from 2022. The others were created during various stages of her prolific career. Golden Artemis by Kathleen Zimbicki, Watercolor.Installation of paintings by Kate Lundy.Painter Kate Lundy created an installation anchored by paintings that tell a story of her time in Pittsburgh. Each painting depicts a place important to her experience, and together they map out her journey.Show installation view. A wall of plein air oil paintings by Tyler Gedman. At 22, Tyler is the youngest artist in the show. My work basically boils down to my own personal enjoyment in finding unconventional beauty in overlooked commonplace scenes and the thrill of creating a realistic illusion. I’m also intrigued by the emotional response that the relationship between dramatic light and shadow can evoke in the viewer—something Edward Hopper was known for in his work. -Tyler GedmanPittsburgh Drawings and Sketches, Tom Sarver, 2019-2022. Tom Sarver’s wall of 50 Pittsburgh Drawings and Sketches.
In 2019, I began making drawings and sketches of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. I made the works on site, attempting to capture the people and activity of each place. I wanted to show the gritty places, the overgrown lots, the decay, but also a sense of humanity in representing the variety of places where people live and interact.
In developing The Pittsburgh Left, I’m interested in how other artists think about the city and how it has influenced their work. I chose artists at various stages of their careers. Some I’ve reached out to for the first time, and some I have worked with over the years. Within this mix, I hope for unexpected dialogue. I don’t expect a very harmonious arrangement, but a quirky one that challenges the viewer to look closely at each artist’s point of view.– Tom Sarver
All photographs Copyright, Larry Rippel, 2022. Artwork images are Copyright of exhibition artists. Thank you to The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
Lately I’ve been busy with the fourth season of Virtual Puppetry Residency, but I’ve also been working on getting my puppets back out into the world. I traveled to Athens, Ohio on April second to perform Puppet Talent Show, a new puppet show and demonstration at the Dairy Barn Art Center. The show is ideal for small children, involves lots of audience interaction and features three types of puppets: rod, marionette and glove puppets. Themes of the act include building self-confidence and encouraging others to celebrate their talents. The puppets include a variety of characters that I made over the past twenty years.
My puppet show at the Dairy Barn is part of a larger project, the group juried exhibition Scribble & Play, Art for Children. The exhibition runs March 19th through April 17th. I have two collections of puppets in the exhibition.
Puppets from Joe Magarac Stories
Joe Magarac is an American folk hero from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The myth describes an Eastern European steel worker who could do the work of twenty-nine men. He could work twenty-four hours a day in the steel mill, every day of the year without a break. He could handle and form molten steel with his bare hands. Some even said that he was made of steel!
In my puppet show (created with Pittsburgh artist Mike Cuccaro), Joe arrives in America and meets a young newspaper delivery boy, Newsie Ned, who helps him get acquainted with American life. Joe works in the steel mill with Braddock Bob, who loads bags of manganese during the steelmaking process.Dada Puppets
I created these puppets for a show exploring the Dada art movement and sound poetry. The characters are Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings and Robot. In my fictional spin on the beginnings of Dada (developed with Pittsburgh artist Mike Cuccaro), the characters Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings perform at the historical Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland. Emmy dances erratically and Ball performs sound poetry dressed in an outlandish outfit. The nonsense of these actions reflected the aggravation that the artists felt during World War I. In the puppet show, we imagine that Hugo and Emmy are visited by a time traveling robot. The Robot reveals to them both struggles and hope in the future.
My painting, Puppet Parade, is currently on view in OH+5, Contemporary Art of Our Region at the Dairy Barn Art Center in Athens, Ohio. The show was juried by Quinn Alexandria Hunter, Emily Prentice and Shoji Satake. It includes artists from Ohio and its five bordering states. A wide variety of works representing sculpture, ceramics, fibers, painting, drawing, installation and performance were created by emerging and established artists. It runs through March 13th, 2022. While the show is up, I will have smaller paintings of the characters from Puppet Parade available for purchase in the Dairy Barn Shop.
Here is a Zoom conversation that I participated in with OH+5 artists Lily Erb and Beth Nash, organized by the center’s exhibition director Holly Ittel.
OH+5, 2022 Artist Talks with Tom Sarver, Beth Nash and Lily Erb. Puppet Parade, Tom Sarver, acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 30″, 2021.
Puppet Parade is part of a series of paintings that I began in July of 2021 as I began to reflect on the Black Sheep Puppet Festival, an international festival of puppetry that I was involved in from 1999 through 2008. The event took place at the Brew House, an artist cooperative on the South Side of Pittsburgh. The venue was formerly part of a massive Duquesne Brewery complex. Artists began moving into the vacant facility to live and work starting in the 1980’s. In 1998, I had recently arrived back to Western Pennsylvania after art school and got a job working at the new Utrecht Art Supply that opened a few blocks from the BH. The neighborhood was buzzing with artists, musicians and lots of creative projects. I was immediately drawn to the work of Industrial Arts Co-Op, artists making large-scale metal and found materials sculptures in a large garage space at the BH. They were also curating wild performance events in their shared studio. I arrived just as they were brainstorming ideas for an edgy, experimental puppetry production.
The first two years of Black Sheep were times of raw creative energy and collaboration from a community of artists determined to go big. The BH gallery exhibited puppets. There were workshops, parades, marathon performance events and rooftop parties. Puppeteers arrived from Chicago, Philadelphia, Australia, New Orleans, New York City and Baltimore. Pittsburgh artists and musicians rounded out the events.
Puppet Parade depicts the moment of spontaneous street spectacle erupting next to the BH after a family puppet making workshop in the gallery space. Children, families, festival performers and people in the neighborhood watched as Knee High Puppeteers (Australia), Environmental Encroachment (Chicago) and others celebrated the art of puppetry.
Detail of Puppet Parade. The audience looks up at a massive android puppet performed by Knee High Puppeteers. Detail, Puppet Parade. Detail with Brew House windows. Puppet Parade, 2021. Snake Puppeteer (8″x8″) and other small paintings are available in the Dairy Barn Shop during the show.
A few of the works on view at the Studio Show & Sale, Tom Sarver Studio, Radiant Hall West.
To celebrate my first six months at Radiant Hall West in McKees Rocks, I have transformed my workshop into a gallery. The space is open by appointment. The show will run from December 18, 2021 through January 2, 2022. Works for sale include Pittsburgh drawings, paintings, fish art, and puppets. These works may be purchased (off the wall) or picked up later. An area of works-in-progress is also available for viewing. For more information, please email tomsarver@gmail.com
I’ll be selling my hand-crafted fish this Saturday, December 11th at the Pittsburgh Center for Arts & Media’s Winter Artists Market. The event will feature work from over 25 artists and craftspeople and include ceramics, jewelry, photography painting and more. Vendors will be set up both inside and outside (be prepared for the weather)! The market will be open 10 AM until 5 PM and is located at 1047 Shady Avenue.
I’ll be selling a variety of wooden decorative fish, all inspired by fish species of Pennsylvania. Some are designed for wall display. Some have pedestals for display on a desk, shelf or mantle. I’ll also have some small holiday ornaments.
A few fish that will be available at the sale. Chain pickerel, two creek chubsuckers, two stonecats and a brown bullhead. Acrylic on plywood, Tom Sarver, 2021. Studio shot of small muskellunge assemble line. Tom Sarver 2021.
Fish Kiosk signage for the Winter Artists Market.
Brook trout, the state fish of Pennsylvania. Acrylic on wood. Tom Sarver, 2021.
The past few months have been productive in the studio. I have a new workshop up and running at Radiant Hall Studios in McKees Rocks. More space to work has inspired me to bring back some projects that I had set aside.
One of those is Sarver’s Bait & Tackle. I’ve decided to bring back the project in the form of a retail business to sell painted wooden fish and decorative fishing lures. I’ll be trying out artist markets in the coming year and will have an online shop opening soon.
Black crappie and longnose gar, acrylic on plywood, 202140 inch muskellunge, carved wood painted with artist acrylics, 2021Largemouth bass, acrylic on plywood, 2021December is the time for steelhead fishing on the Lake Erie tributaries in Pennsylvania. Acrylic on plywood, 2021Rustic carved trout, 2009Blue spotted sunfish, pumpkinseed and redear sunfish.
Tom Sarver 