"MARTIN CREED: more and less" to Be Shown Through Nov. 26 at Pitt’s University Art Gallery

Students enrolled in the Museum Studies course within the University of Pittsburgh's Department of History of Art and Architecture have designed and installed a solo exhibition of the work of London artist Martin Creed.

MARTIN CREED: more and less will be on display through Nov. 26 at Pitt’s University Art Gallery in the Frick Fine Arts Building.

Students will give presentations at the gallery about the works of Martin Creed from 6-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

In addition, the gallery will have expanded hours on Saturday, Nov. 23, from noon-5 p.m. The gallery’s regular hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

In the Museum Studies course, offered every fall through Pitt’s Department of History of Art and Architecture, students gain an understanding of successful exhibition planning, design, and implementation. They go on field trips to local museums, participate in class discussions, and make a commitment to team meetings, installation, and de-installation responsibilities.

This year, under the guidance of instructor Nicholas Chambers, the Milton Fine Curator of Art at the Andy Warhol Museum, the students used each of the five rooms of the University Art Gallery to feature one of Creed’s works. They range from the video and sound installations Sick Film and Blowing a raspberry to the simple Planks of wood and Work No. 960, which depicts a row of cacti arranged in descending order. Creed utilizes seemingly mundane objects and explores themes of repetition, order, equality, and isolation to invite viewers to discover the everyday as art.

The Museum Studies course was launched at Pitt in 2009 and is sponsored by the Fine Foundation. Additional support this year came from the Pittsburgh Zoo, Phipps Conservatory, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, Gavin Brown Enterprises, and the Martin Creed Studio.