The Carnegie Museum of Art’s Forum gallery, located right of the busy lobby, has an interesting history. (Lynn Zelevansky just wrote one of her “Inside the Museum” letters about the space). As the museum’s main venue for non-Carnegie International contemporary art, it has functioned as a kind of project gallery since the early 1990s, when it was bolstered by generous NEA funds to present an ambitious and oft-changing rotation of shows. The first few shows were organized by Vicky Clark and by Mark Francis.
In 1990, the program was inaugurated with Forum 1: Jeff Wall, followed by Forum 2: Jon Kessler, Forum 3: Georg Herold, Forum 4: Meg Webster, and Forum 5: Ed Eberle, Pittsburgh’s incredible ceramicist. In addition to Clark and Francis, and soon new Contemporary Curator Richard Armstrong, the space was also programmed by Film Curator Bill Judson, who introduced video installations by artists such as Paul Glabicki and Rita Myers. Armstrong organized exhibitions of work by Alexis Rockman, Andrew Lord, and Craigie Horsfield in Forum. Madeleine Grynsztejn organized Forum shows by artists such as Diana Thater and James Welling. The gallery has also hosted small group exhibitions, often drawn from the collection. More recently, former curator Elizabeth Thomas initiated a series called “Mixed Doubles” that paired video works, by combos such as Nam June Paik and Omer Fast, and Anri Sala and Edgar Arceneaux. Thomas also commissioned Christian Jankowski’s excellent Puppet Conference video for the gallery. More on what we’ve been doing in the last few years in another post…
