Pittsburgh Biennial Selections

Opening reception Thu., June 25, 5:30-7:30 p.m., free, exhibit through July 22, CFEVA Gallery, 1521 Locust St., 215-546-7775, cfeva.org.

by Brion Shreffler

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

visual art

The Center for Emerging Visual Artists unveils its new Center City gallery space with standouts from the 2008 Pittsburgh Biennial. Photographer Dylan Vitone, in capturing the dreariness of depressed urban landscapes, utilizes ultrachrome prints produced from eight disparate images to render a 360-degree view. In some he leaves the seams exposed as an apparent repudiation of the dreamlike atmosphere he presents. Just as Vitone cheekily extends our vision around corners, mixed-media artist Denise Mahone, in (A) Line (pictured), creates a haze by furling thousands of sewn pages of text together and arranging them in what looks a contour data plot, calling our attention to multiple focal perspectives simultaneously. The minute markings along the tree-like rings prove meaningless, though, without understanding their relation to the greater whole.