709 Penn Gallery Presents Terry Boyd's NEVERLANDS, Now thru 2/23

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces the opening of Neverlands by local artist Terry Boyd. The exhibition is on view at 709 Penn Gallery in the Cultural District today, January 17-February 23, 2014. An opening reception is held tonight, January 17 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.

Boyd's present work embodies an individualistic view of life and death. Through a series of mixed media drawings-ink, Mylar, and thread on paper-Boyd examines the imagery in the familiar yet playful skies, seas, grounds, and characters originally described in author J.M. Barrie's stories, such as Peter Pan. His images, characterized by sharp vertical lines, often include silhouettes of familiar objects, like a coffin and a ship in the work and the echoes seemed to cry savagely, titled after a line from Peter Pan.

"Terry is an emerging talent in Pittsburgh. In Neverlands, Terry starts with the narrative of Peter Pan, and finds themes in the landscape of the novel-innocence and war, life and death-and infuses his drawings with those themes," says Sonja Sweterlitsch, Pittsburgh Cultural Trust's Manager of Community Art.

In his recent work, Boyd examines the phenomenon of "Peter Pans" as a metaphorical interpretation of individual distractions of death that parallel nostalgic characters and landscapes. Beginning as a personal exploration of growing up and sympathy for his late father, Boyd's investigation translated into images and objects of muted cross-sections of rock and earth. Boyd hopes these images resonate with members of an emerging adult audience, causing them to question their own permanence and place.

Terry Boyd earned a bachelor of fine arts in electronic time-based media, painting, and contextual practice from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a master of arts management from the same institution. An award-winning artist, Boyd has exhibited in both solo and group shows throughout Pittsburgh, PA, in addition to a group show in both Buffalo, NY, and Chicago, IL.

About 709 Penn Gallery
709 Penn Gallery is a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. The gallery is located at 709 Penn Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Gallery Hours: Wed. & Thurs. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun.11 a.m.-5 p.m. The gallery is free and open to the public. For more information about all gallery exhibitions featured in the Cultural District, please visit www.TrustArts.org.

About The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has overseen one of Pittsburgh's most historic transformations: turning a seedy red-light district into a magnet destination for arts lovers, residents, visitors, and business owners. Founded in 1984, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is the cultural and economic revitalization of a 14-block arts and entertainment/residential neighborhood called the Cultural District. The District is one of the country's largest land masses "curated" by a single nonprofit arts organization. A major catalytic force in the city, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a unique model of how public-private partnerships can reinvent a city with authenticity, innovation and creativity. Using the arts as an economic catalyst, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has holistically created a world-renowned Cultural District that is revitalizing the city, improving the regional economy and enhancing Pittsburgh's quality of life. Thanks to the support of foundations, corporations, government agencies and thousands of private citizens, the Cultural Trust stands as a national model of urban redevelopment through the arts.