Out & About: Everything old is new again in Jeannette gallery exhibition

After 20 years of making art from salvaged and scavenged materials, Patrick Truman Kawka finally found the perfect venue for his first gallery show.

The Edgewood resident has three pieces in “These Faded Walls: An Exhibition of Artistic Reclamation,” an exhibition of works by regional artists made primarily of recycled materials that opened Saturday at You Are Here in Jeannette.

Kawka works mainly with old metal and glass objects mounted on painted particle board. The backing boards for the pieces at You Are Here came out of a dumpster in Shadyside.

“I love digging up old objects and giving them new life,” he said. “The older, the better.”

Kawka, whose day job is delivering orthopedic equipment to area hospitals, said he is particularly drawn to items from the Victorian Era.

Though he hasn’t shown in a gallery before, he has been selling his work at an annual yard sale at his home and at the The Steel Goat Marketplace in Penn Hills.

“These Faded Walls” includes a second show that opens Aug. 13 at American Architectural Salvage in Mt. Pleasant. Works will remain on view through Aug. 27 at both locations.

In keeping with the recycle/reclaim/reuse theme of the exhibition, visitors to You Are Here are invited to take part in an art project called “What’s in Your Pocket?”

Donations of random items small enough to fit in a pocket are being accepted until Oct. 1, to be incorporated into an art piece that will go on permanent display at American Architectural Salvage. Updates on the project will be posted at You Are Here 406 on Facebook.

Guests at the You Are Here reception enjoyed music by Aaron and Julia Gray of Practice Makes Perfect Music Studio in Greensburg and an appetizer buffet provided by exhibiting artist Mary Ellen Raneri and her husband Phil.

Seen: Exhibition curator Natalie Condrac, gallery co-founders Mary Briggs and Jen Costello, AAS manager Christine Marquis and her husband Dobie, Catharine Fichtner, Matt Sheets, Trevor Condrac, Marcia Gilbert, Larry and Patty Brandstetter, Jim Mikula, Dawn Wallhausen, Brian and Jessica Coulter, Steve Parsons, Charles and Martha Oliver and Phyllis, Atreyu and Scythe Ho.