Join Mattress Factory for 2 wonderful art sites in Troy Hill and Millvale!

First, the group will take a walking tour of Imin Yeh's exhibition with Gallery Closed, accompanied by the artist herself and Jon Rubin, co-curator of the exhibition. Yeh will provide insights into her current work, featured as part of the innovative Exhibition Copy Series. This series, co-curated by Mattress Factory alumni Jon Rubin, Philip Andrew Lewis, and Lenka Clayton, showcases solo shows by seven artists across various intriguing venues along Lowrie Street. Explore unique exhibition spaces, including a former beauty salon, a public notary office, Ron's Pizza, a private home, and an elementary school.

Next, we’ll take a short drive to St. Nicholas Church for a behind-the-scenes look at the stunning restoration of the Maxo Vanka murals. Here, you'll have a rare chance to scale the scaffolding and view the Maxo Vanka murals up close—a perspective last seen by Vanka himself. Learn about the history of the murals and see the ongoing conservation efforts as staff clean, repaint, and restore these incredible works.

We'll wrap the trip with food and drink at St. Nicholas Church!

For any questions, please contact Rachel at rachel@mattress.org or 412-313-5410.

Parking and Directions: 

Gallery Closed is located at 1733 Lowrie St in Troy Hill. Street parking can be found throughout the neighborhood.

Maxo Vanko murals are located at 24 Maryland Ave in Millvale. You are welcome to park in the St. Nicholas Convent parking lot (15 Maryland Ave) across from the church. Accessible parking spaces are clearly marked and available in the church-side parking area with direct access to the accessibility ramp entrance on the east side of St. Nicholas between the Church and the Rectory. Street parking (metered and unmetered) may also be found in Millvale if church lots are full.

***Please note: The first portion of this event will include about 30-45 minutes of standing and walking. We will have folding gallery stools on hand for anyone who may need them. If you would like to skip this portion, feel free to meet us in the second stop.***

About Exhibition Copy

"Exhibition Copy is a rotating series of solo shows by seven artists. Each artist is invited to respond to the idea of the exhibition copy, a term often referring to a duplicate of an artwork fabricated because of a lending artist or institution’s reluctance to put an original work at risk. Exhibition Copy also copies an exhibition space as Gallery Closed is multiplied into adjacent homes and businesses along a half-mile length of Lowrie Street. Each exhibition will take place simultaneously in the public facing windows of six Lowrie Street locations. The venues include; Gallery Closed, a former beauty salon, a public notary office, Ron’s Pizza Palace, a private home and an elementary school. Each artist’s project will be exhibited for two months in all six locations, at the same time. This exhibition series invites seven artists to interrogate ideas of authorship and the original by using the exhibition copy as a means for expanding the experience of a single artwork across multiple sites and contextual shifts. Curated by Jon Rubin, Phillip Andrew Lewis, and Lenka Clayton."

About the Maxo Vanka murals

"Maxo Vanka completed 25 individual murals in two brief but intense periods in 1937 and 1941. He then returned to the Church in 1951 to add the five symbols of Christianity to the choir loft. Vanka’s paint medium was not obvious. It is documented that he tried to make his own from a variety of substances – including mayonnaise – but finally settled on a commercial preparation of casein. Father Zagar lightly prescribed the artist’s subject matter and Vanka maximized his opportunity to pay tribute to faith while expressing his passionate beliefs about social justice, injustice, the horrors of war and helping to preserve and celebrate cultural identity among an immigrant population. The 75-plus year presence of the 25 main murals has been largely unaltered with approximately 4,500 square feet of the original paintings on constant display. Other aspects of Vanka’s work including a detailed textile design that covered almost every other open wall and pillar space were modified in keeping with the needs of the Church. Although not a western Pennsylvania artist, Vanka’s work is reminiscent of the visual storytellers at work during the same time period. Vanka referred to the murals as his “Gift to America.” This collection has been compared to the works of the great Mexican muralist Diego Rivera.

Today, the organization Save Maxo Vanka works  to conserve and protect for permanent public exhibition the nationally recognized Maxo Vanka murals, enabling the immigrant artist’s “gift to America” to serve as an enduring catalyst for community engagement and education, inspire social and cultural dialogue, celebrate diversity, and forge connections through reflections on the extraordinary American experience."