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Cristóbal Martínez and Raven Chacon salvage rusted steel at the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin. | Photo: Bryan Conley

Reconstructing History

Reflecting a world in transition, artists use their stage to wrestle with the past and confront contemporary issues of borders, boundaries, and labor.

Under a hazy blue sky on a hot and sticky June morning, Raven Chacon and Cristóbal Martínez circle the scrap heaps scattered along the grounds of the Carrie Furnaces in Rankin, just east of Pittsburgh. Over the next several hours, bare-handed and determined, the artists dig in, salvaging material to use in a monumental site-specific installation in Carnegie Museum of Art’s Hall of Sculpture.

­Accumulating in their “take pile” are pipes of all sizes, I-beams, tangled cables, hefty stacks of rectangular plates, what appears to be a locker, and a 9-foot ladder—all rusted steel vestiges of the now idle, hulking blast furnaces. Much of their harvest, some 11 tons in all, are remnants of the top of a towering hot-stove stack that, for safety reasons, was painstakingly disassembled last summer.

By Julie Hannon

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Painting’s Broad Brush

Painting’s Broad Brush

Whether using canvas, ceramics, or textiles, today’s contemporary artists are rethinking what else a painting can be.

By Barbara Klein

Where Tears Turn to Crystals

Where Tears Turn to Crystals

In a rewriting of history, Devan Shimoyama constructs his own magic, reclaiming moments of sorrow and fear as beauty for queer black men.

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Why Birds Matter

Why Birds Matter

One hundred years ago this past July, not long after the last of the once-plentiful passenger pigeons vanished from the skies, a cornerstone wildlife protection law passed in the U.S., the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In addition to explicitly protecting more than 1,000 species, it has also provided a critical incentive for industries to take … Continued

A Life in Lego

A Life in Lego

How a corporate lawyer-turned-artist transformed a favorite childhood toy into sought-after artwork, inspiring countless kids to rethink what is art and who can make it.

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Mel Bochner is creating new work for the museum and city that introduced him to art.

Mel Bochner is creating new work for the museum and city that introduced him to art.

At age 8, Mel Bochner spent Saturday mornings boarding the trolley near his East End home, handing the conductor 8 cents and then traveling alone to Carnegie Museum of Art. It was 1949, and Bochner was headed to his weekly Tam O’Shanter art class. There he met creative kids from all over Allegheny County, and … Continued

By Cristina Rouvalis

Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin want you to leave the museum with an original artwork.

Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin want you to leave the museum with an original artwork.

During the first 35 years of the Carnegie International, from 1896 to 1931, the museum tracked every submission to what was then an annual painting show. Exactly 10,632 artworks were rejected. Drawn to this “complete list of absence in the museum,” Pittsburgh-based artists Lenka Clayton and Jon Rubin, with the help of a small team, … Continued

By Julie Hannon

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Living in a Bug’s World

Living in a Bug’s World

In a time of unprecedented environmental change, a small and determined brigade of Carnegie Museum bug scientists is redefining the power and urgency of museum collections. Now, as the team’s intrepid leader prepares for retirement, the hunt goes on.

By Julie Hannon

Thinking in the Round

Thinking in the Round

For decades, Pittsburgh sculptor Thaddeus Mosley has been circling the wood to find the art within. And this year, a dream of sorts comes true as he joins the ranks of artists he’s always admired as part of the 2018 Carnegie International.

By Julie Hannon

Photo: Pam Curtin

Big Picture

Summer campers explore the natural world and conservation science at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s environmental research center in the Laurel Highlands, about 55 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

Face Time

Nia Arrington

Nia Arrington

Nia Arrington has never been one to stay silent in the face of injustice. In the fourth grade, she learned about the devastating earthquake ravaging an already suffering Haiti and organized a coin drive that raised nearly $1,000. In her junior year at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School (CAPA), she led a walkout over the nomination of Betsy DeVos as the nation’s education secretary, and this past school year she helped organize a local youth-led march against gun violence as part of the Never Again movement.

Nicole Heller

Nicole Heller
Ingrid Schaffner

Ingrid Schaffner
Abigail DeVille

Abigail DeVille

Photo Joshua Franzos

Inside the Museums

Study skins of butterfly bats (Glauconycteris variegata) from Carnegie Museum of Natural History's research collection.