Out & About: Old friends gather for Jeannette gallery reception

Shirley McMarlin
Monday, May 6, 2019 1:30 a.m. | Monday, May 6, 2019 1:30 a.m.

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Jackie Sobel of New Stanton, representing the event beverage guest, Sobel’s Obscure Brewery, joins Dan Overdorff of Greensburg, the gallery’s creative maestro, for a photo during the opening reception for “Trance,” artwork by Larry Beaver, held May 4 at the You Are Here Gallery in Jeannette.

Jessica Higo Walbridge and her husband, Curtis Walbridge, both of Greensburg, pose for a photo May 4 during the opening reception for “Trance,” artwork by Larry Beaver, held at the You Are Here Gallery in Jeannette.

Becky Benson-Beaver of Jeannette joins her husband, exhibiting artist Larry Beaver (work shown back) for a photo May 4 during the opening reception for “Trance,” artwork by Larry Beaver, held at the You Are Here Gallery in Jeannette.

From left: Maddie Jaynes of Pittsburgh, a You Are Here Gallery board member, Jen Costello of Penn Township, gallery co-founder, and Phoebe Walczak of Cranberry Township, the gallery intern and show curator, gather for a photo May 4 during the opening reception for “Trance,” artwork by Larry Beaver, held at the You Are Here Gallery in Jeannette.

It was like old home week in Jeannette’s You Are Here Gallery during the May 4 opening reception for “Trances,” a solo retrospective exhibition by local artist Larry Beaver.

Mike Zvara of Jeannette said he and the artist were in the same Boy Scout troop back in the early 1960s. His wife, Chris Zvara, said she is the longtime owner of a Beaver rendering of “a beautiful naked lady with a beautiful smile on her face.”

Bob and Kathie Tanyer, Jeannette neighbors of the artist and his wife, Becky Benson-Beaver, showed cellphone video of their restored 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, with a Beaver painting of a group of cavemen surrounding a volcano on its trunk.

“We all have this weird connection in this city,” Kathie Tanyer said.

Running through June 9, the exhibition features mostly pastels and some works in other mediums dating from 1978 to the present. Curator is gallery intern Phoebe Walczak.

The gallery website describes the depictions of figures and faces as “intuitive and impulsive … both haunting and electrifying.”

They were there: Jen Costello, Maddie Jaynes, Dan Overdorff, Bob and Cindy Regina, Jill Sorrells, Ray Hursh and Gloria Gonzalez.