ALTAR: An Experimental Satellite Gallery

In addition to the installations at Mattress Factory’s Monterey Annex, and the SANCTUARY one-day event, SHRINE’s exhibitions also include ALTAR, a free experimental satellite gallery located across 27,000 digital display boards throughout the city of Pittsburgh. These were embedded directly within neighborhoods around the city, throughout June, July and August 2022.

ALTAR engages with the public outside of the formal exhibition space by embedding art directly in your neighborhood. Rather than asking community to come to art, curator Jessica Gaynelle Moss investigates the result of bringing art to community. ALTAR features the work of artists Tara Fay Coleman, Olivia Guterson, Anqwenique Kinsel, Tsedaye Makonnen and janera solomon.

There is no registration required for ALTAR. ALTAR is presented in partnership between Mattress Factory and Sibyls Shrine, an arts collective and residency program rooted in the radical care, rest and support for Black women, womxn, trans women, and femmes who are m/others and identify as artists, creatives, and/or activists.

ALTAR Artist/Piece Info

“Distance”
by Tara Fay Coleman

“Legacy”
by Anqwenique Kinsel

“Learning My Own Name”
by Olivia Guterson
Oil and acrylic on birch

“The Need for Black Refuge feat. Astral Sea IV”
by Tsedaye Makonnen
title inspired by Rahawa Haile
photo by Ebony McKelvey
Commissioned by Artspace New Haven for ‘Dyschronics’ curated by Laurel McLaughlin at the Long Wharf Pier, New Haven, CT

“this too is fertile ground”
written by janera solomon