Lahary Pittman is a visual artist working in photography, acrylic & pastel paintings plus film/video. In addition he is a published writer. His photographic body of work and films have been screened and exhibited worldwide including the Netherlands, Britain, France, Australia and New York.
Lahary was born in Kansas City and began his artistic pursuits at age 5 in the performing arts, first touring with Gospel choirs throughout the Midwest while performing in classical piano recitals & cantata’s, and shortly thereafter singing back-up for a major recording label in a Rhythm & Blues group nightclub act while still a minor. He later studied screenwriting in Chicago and relocated to New York whereupon he won a stipend from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which led to his becoming an independent filmmaker.
Recent curatorial selections in photographic art include a 2014 groupshow, “StreetWise” at the Verum Ultimum gallery of Portland, Oregon and the Liz Afif gallery of Philadelphia for their summer 2013 show “America the Beautiful”. In October 2012 his writing & a photo-essay were published in an anthology by London’s Myrdle Court Press entitled Critical Cities: Ideas, Knowledge & Agitation from Emerging Urbanists; Volume 3. An invitation to the Attleboro Arts Museum 20th Benefit Fall Auction, resulted in his drawing “Fantasy Farm” being acquired -plus- a selection by the Chief Curator at Boston University for a nationally juried exhibition at the Attleboro Art Museum’s show “Green” in Massachusetts, along with a 3 month exhibition entitled “Water, Water Anywhere” curated by the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ where he presented silver gelatin prints depicting IceFalls and gaseous mists of the Catskill mountains.
Works from his Shifting Boundaries series from Manhattan’s Lower East Side were curated for an exhibition at London’s Festival of The Cities in October 2010. In the summer of 2010 the artist presented a minimalist single channel video entitled Battle of The Bees in the Virion video festival in Brisbane, Australia and in September of 2010 he was announced as winner of the 2010 Exposé Commission for the purpose of photographing the 14th century medieval city of Bruges, Belgium.
In 2008 Lahary was honored by the Delaware Art Museum as a multiple category winner in their ‘Gordon Parks Arts Competition’. He won the jury prize for ‘Best In Show’ in the film category for his film Rhythm and Pain and was also a jury winner in the photography category for his gelatin silver print Succos on the Bowery. In 2007-2008 he was selected as the Artist-In-Residence for black & white darkroom photography at New York’s Henry Street Settlement / Abron’s Art Center.
His residency series, entitled “The Shifting Boundaries and Culture of Manhattan’s Lower East Side”, has received numerous awards including an Abron’s Art Center grant made possible by the Andy Warhol Foundation, as well as a grant made possible with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund via the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and support by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
He served as a co-director for the international short “Julie 9”, which screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and subsequently produced, shot and edited the documentary film “Rhythm and Pain” concerning a cross-cultural drummer and the American healthcare dilemma. He is a published photographer with works at auction, in public & private collections..has been listed on ArtNet and is ranked internationally in the ArtFact.com auction database.
Two of his video-works are in the permanent collection of MONA, (Museum of New Art) Pontiac, Michigan and his large format and still life photographs are in the collection of the Sullivan County Museum in New York.
