Sean P. Morrissey and Lenore Thomas: un/familiar space

BlankSpace (Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) will present un/familiar spaces by artists Sean P. Morrissey and Lenore Thomas, and will open on November 6, 2022 with an opening reception from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at 843 Holland Ave, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15221.

This two-person exhibition is situated within a slowly renovated house and uses the visual language of “the home” to look at how it can be a site of complex and contradictory emotions, histories, and futures. The artists’ work will engage with the building itself to present different ways of exploring how people create and structure the concepts of home. The house creates a layered understanding of functions and significances while also drawing attention to how one might process or reconcile feeling at home.

The artists are using questions to drive their understanding of the work and the exhibition, including: What does it mean to feel at home in a structure, and how does this intersect with one’s ideas of family and community? How has the idea of a home, romanticized or not, shaped our sense of self, our aspirations, and what it means to belong? And maybe, most importantly, what does “home” mean to us now and in our futures?

Morrissey is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Studio Arts at the University of Pittsburgh and Thomas is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Studio Arts at the University of Pittsburgh.

The exhibition will conclude with a closing reception on November 25, 2022 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Please contact the artists to view the exhibition outside of the opening and closing receptions.