This is the second year that the Three Rivers Arts Festival is presenting "Best of Pittsburgh," a survey exhibition with a title that's a little hard to swallow if you are an artist living in Pittsburgh or the surrounding 16 counties and not part of the show. "It does come across as a little arrogant," the exhibition's curator, Katherine Talcott, says about the title. "I mean, there's a lot of good artists in Pittsburgh, but we gave the show that title in an effort to try to differentiate it from all of the annuals, biennials and everything else." Talcott, whose full-time job as curator of the festival was officially axed earlier this year due to budgetary restrictions, was asked to follow through with organizing this exhibition and has done, yet again, a bang-up job. It's no doubt fueled by her enthusiasm for the artists in the region. "I continue to be amazed at the depth and the span of the Pittsburgh arts community," she says. Since 2004, Talcott has been in charge of this survey exhibition, which in its first two years was called the "Annual Exhibition." And this year, as in the past, she has chosen three regional artists to aid her in deciding whose work among artists from Pittsburgh and the surrounding 16 counties will be included. Talcott chose Jesse Jamaica McLean, Paul Bowden and Joshua Tonies because they "represent a range of voices across media and generations." As in the past, these artists also have pieces in the exhibition, which this year is located at PPG Place, primarily in Wintergarden but also spilling out to both entrances and even in the windows along Fourth Avenue opposite. Altogether, the group chose 40 artists, whose works had to be created in the past year but not yet shown to the public. McLean is new to the exhibition, having never exhibited his work in it before. His sculptural video installation "Ebb and Floe," which looks like a set of islands or icebergs with eyes that are in fact video monitors, is spooky and funny at the same time. McLean's piece is mixed media, like many of the works in the show. Another newcomer, Madelyn Roehrig, displays another piece that combines video and sculpture. But in "Darksides: Terror Through TV," the video is in the form of a tiny TV set that plays in the living room of a doll house filled with doll furniture and silhouetted photographs of real people. The same video-sculpture combination is utilized yet again in Thad Kellstadt's "animal/quest/mountain/dirt/sun/4ever," which juxtaposes three videos of musicians playing loudly amid one of the Wintergarden's garden boxes. "Bug or Slug" by Gordon Nelson is another video-sculpture piece, in which two small TVs are arranged back-to-back to look like an ant, thanks to the antennae and a set of legs the artist added. Matt Eskuche's "Tastes Like Applebee's" also has TVs in it, but here they are combined with a mannequin that stands next to a clothesline holding clear drinking glasses the artist has created himself that appear as if they are dripping off of the line. And video is represented yet again outside, along Fourth Avenue, where Andrew Johnson's "Stalemate" and Andres Tapia-Urzua's "Ventana Este," videos of dueling cigarettes and trees in a storm, respectively, can be seen between Gavin Benjamin's larger-than-life portraits of Harris Ferris, executive director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, titled "Peeping Toms." A well-established Pittsburgh sculptor, the aforementioned Bowden was represented in last year's exhibition as well. This year, his sculpture "Red Alert," which is comprised of a small yet very lifelike male figure that stands in a pool of red paint spilled from a nearby can, is sure to attract attention. Bowden no doubt represents the older, more mature artists who are included in this exhibition that claims to serve "as a unique opportunity for emerging and established artists from a range of backgrounds and media to exhibit alongside one another to a large and diverse audience," according to the press release. And to this reviewer's surprise, there are a few artists who fall into Bowden's category who have not been included before and whose works are sure to stop viewers in their tracks. Two examples are Michael Johnsen's "Passive Telephone Modulator Network," which combines three old black telephones that, when activated altogether, create garbled conversation; and tattoo artist Nick Bubash's quirky untitled owl cage made of discarded tattoo needles. Johnsen and Bubash are mature artists who have been part of the Pittsburgh art scene for quite some time. Other works worth mentioning for their humorous element include a larger-than-life lawn chair with a light bulb hanging from it by Drew Pavelchak titled "Light-Lure"; Paul Schifino's "Deflated Ego," which is a sculpture made of deflated balloons made of silver-gray tarpaulin that spells out the word "ego"; Rise Nagin's sculpture installation "gizmos," which look like Paul Klee's "Twittering Machines" come to life; and Adam Shreckhise's "storyteller," a robot-like sound machine that also has a Klee-like quality and has the ability to draw attention merely through the odd squawks and screeches that emanate from it. But most impressive among the whimsical works is Chris Lisowski's "Tip of the Iceberg (species in solidarity against climate change)," an interactive puppet robot in the form of a polar bear and a pair of penguins that adults and children can enter and pilot via internal controls. While inside, participants can speak for the polar bears and penguins, move their heads and wings, and creatively engage their audience on the issue of climate change, which also is addressed in a neat little storybook by the artist that features the polar bear and penguin characters, and is located in front of a park bench the artist has set up for viewing. Although, as mentioned above, most of the work is mixed media, which continues to be a popular mode of expression among Pittsburgh-area artists, there are a few excellent examples of good old-fashioned painting on display. The aforementioned Tonies serves up a kiosk filled with "news" about natural disasters in the form of "The Vestibule," a hexagonal booth filled with drawings and paintings of little landscapes that combine pattern and collage with abstract renderings of storm fronts. Fabrizio Gerbino continues to amaze with "Untitled: #1-2," another in a series of subtle yet sumptuously painted nondescript objects of industrial origin. But the real surprise is the work of Brett Davis, whose five lushly painted semi-abstractions combine brilliant color with brooding imagery, such as a man drowning in a bay and a male figure laying on its stomach. Finally, Adam Welch and Christopher Kardambikis offer a big backdrop to it all with "The War of Ethos: The Battle of Stability," a massive installation located on the Stanwix Street side of the Wintergarden that nearly fills the entire width of the place. A combination of painting and sculpture, it features abstract figures that represent history, myth and memory, according to the artists. But also, by the various forms that are incorporated, it references Christian panel paintings and ancient Greek friezes, giving it a mythological quality. It's perfect for a show of mythological proportions, one of the largest local survey exhibitions on display each year. Additional Information:

'Best of Pittsburgh 2007'

What: Formerly called the Annual Exhibition, this visual arts exhibition of works by 33 regional artists is the showcase exhibition of the 48th annual Three Rivers Arts Festival. When: Through June 17. Hours: noon-8 p.m. daily Where: PPG Wintergarden, Downtown Details: 412-281-8723 or www.artsfestival.net

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