The Millvale murals of Maxo Vanka are an established Pittsburgh treasure. But this year’s incarnation of an annual project to connect contemporary local artists to Vanka’s work will be on display at an unusual location: Frick Park’s Frick Environmental Center.
“Maxo Vanka: Gift to America 2.0: New Voices. New Walls” features the work of four artists or artist teams chosen by the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka. It opens with a free reception Thursday, Dec. 4.
Vanka’s 25 visionary murals on the walls and ceiling of Millvale’s St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church date from 1937 and 1941, and explore themes that include justice, the immigrant experience and motherhood. This year, the society selected a cohort of BIPOC and immigrant artists to create original works reflecting their personal stories and inspired by Vanka’s.
“Where the River Meets the Sea” is Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer’s newly commissioned painting for the show.
The artists include painter Sheila Cuellar-Shaffer, mixed-media artists Fran Flaherty and Juliandra Jones, and filmmakers Ahmed and Lily Raghreb.
The Environmental Center, run by the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, has a year-round gallery typically devoted to nature-themed art. But James A. Brown, the Center’s education director, was intrigued by the prospects of Vanka-related work.
“We just started to imagine how cool it would be to bring their residency program over to the Environmental Center,” Brown said. “We observed there was a lot of nature that popped up in some of his work and in the murals themselves.”
The Gift to America 2.0 program originated in 2021.
Greensburg-based Cuellar-Shaffer was born in Colombia. Her new commissioned work, “Where the River Meets the Sea,” is an acrylic painting depicting a Madonna-and-child-like pair, with the woman in a gold-embossed cloak standing before a landscape featuring the titular bodies of water.
“I’m thinking a lot about migration and how the Latino-American communities are demoralized right now,” she said. “I’m thinking about the dehumanization of some communities, and I’m hoping that people think about other human beings as human beings and not as enemies or someone they want to get rid of.”
Flaherty is a first-generation immigrant mother from the Philippines. Ahmed Ragheb was born in Egypt.
The show also features selections from the Vanka Collection, drawn from more than 130 original works on paper by the artist, who was born in Croatia in 1889 and moved to the U.S. in 1935.
In keeping with the Frick Environmental Center’s mission, environmental themes also echo through the show. Vanka’s murals, which are in the latter stages of a vast restoration project, often feature plants and animals, and natural landscapes.
The exhibit will run until mid-March.