commune

8th Apr Fri – 24th Apr Sun, 2022

Opening reception : 8th Apr(fri) 18:00- 20:00.

At gallery commune

We are having an exhibition of Pittsburgh based photographer Jake Reinhart; “Laurel Mountain Laurel” starting on 8th Apr Fri.

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Laurel Mountain Laurel is an imperfect palindrome. It’s an act of interpretation. It’s a body of work inspired by what is lost in translation. It’s informed by a history of erasure and exploitation. It’s an attempt to articulate the significance of place and the life inhabited there. It’s equal parts folk song compassion and doom metal riff. At the heart of all of this, it’s a depiction of the Youghiogheny (Yawk-eh-gain-ee) River Watershed. A place that has deeply personal significance to me.

One surviving translation of the word Youghiogheny (Yawk-uh-GAIN-eee) is four streams. Yough meaning four, henné meaning stream. I’ve been along those four streams, and I’ve seen how they come together; losing their specificity yet retaining what is inherent to each – creating something larger and joining places and people that would otherwise appear disjointed and separate.

Jake Reinhart
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Jake Reinhart is a photographer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a B.A. in Sociology and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh.

His photobook Laurel Mountain Laurel was published by Deadbeat Club Press in November 2021, and has already been recognized as a notable photobook for the year by the likes of Chris McCall (Executive Director of Pier 24), Ed and Deanna Templeton (Artists/Photographers), and Tim Carpenter (Winner of the 2019 Silver Eye Fellowship Award), to name just a few.

Over the past few years Jake’s work has received frequent international attention after receiving a year long commission with Germany’s Die Zeit in 2020; where he published a weekly photo article in ZEITmagazin titled Pittsburgh, 2020 and had a full length feature in their international edition alongside artists, politicians and cultural icons such as: Willem Dafoe, Angela Merkel, Malcolm Gladwell, and Dua Lipa.

His work was exhibited in Ulm, Germany throughout the Autumn of 2021, and will be exhibited during the Silver Eye Center for Photography Fellowship show in May, 2021. Along with this show at Commune, he also has a concurrent solo exhibition at Gradient Project Space in Thomas, West Virginia.

Jake is a 2022 inductee into the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, the oldest continuously exhibiting visual arts organization in America. His photographs and zines are held in institutional collections such as: the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University; Amon Carter Museum of American Art Research Library; West Virginia University Library Special Collection; London College of Communication Special Collection; RISD Fleet Library Special Collection, International Center for Photography Library and PNC Bank Corporate Art Collection.
www.jakereinhart.com
Instagram: @jakereinhart412