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Tuesday 11am - 6pm Wednesday 11am - 6pm Thursday 11am - 6pm Friday 11am - 6pm Saturday 11am - 5pm

Silver Eye Center for Photography

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Pittsburgh, PA
Silver Eye Center for Photography

Pittsburgh's only non-profit dedicated exclusively to presenting contemporary photography.

09/03/2026

Our next online course with artist Ariel C. Wilson (.c.wilson) invites participants into a meditation on light, time, and perception.

Light is a fundamental component of photography, but it can also be a subject and material to explore. Ariel will lead participants in expanding their awareness to light as a material to be worked with both within and beyond the dimensions of photography, exploring cameraless light recordings and using their cameras to visualize light’s inextricable connection to time and space. Participants will learn about ancestral and contemporary Light & Space artists, make observations, discuss readings, and apply a broadened understanding of the importance of light to their own personal creative projects.

📅 Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm ET
📍Online, October 21-November 18, 2026
🔵Five week course registration: $300
🔗 Register here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/lightandtime/

Image 1: Ariel C. Wilson and Matt Kowal, from where the sun is, to wherever you are. Courtesy of the artist.
Image 2: Ariel C. Wilson and Matt Kowal, from where the sun is, to wherever you are, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist.

09/02/2026

Thank you for joining us for the opening of Tears, Blood, Sweat! We are grateful to have the community come out to celebrate with us and share in conversation around the work.

We were also honored to have artist Ryan Frigillana (.frigillana) in attendance to speak about his process and themes behind this powerful exhibition.

In Tears, Blood, Sweat, Frigillana draws on his experience as a first-generation Filipino American to explore histories of migration, labor, and faith. Frigillana employs multiple visual strategies including still-life compositions and collages, reworked biblical illustrations, appropriated news imagery, and intimate observations of family and place.

If you missed the opening, the exhibition remains on view through November 7, 2026. And don’t forget, we’re open late every First Friday for the Unblurred Penn Ave Art Crawl.

📍Gallery hours: Weds–Fri 11–6, Sat 11–5

Image credit:

08/20/2026

Join us for the opening night of Tears, Blood, Sweat on Thursday, August 27 from 6-8pm at Silver Eye!

In this new exhibition, artist Ryan Frigillana (.frigillana) reconsiders the American Dream through intertwined histories of land, labor, and citizenship.

Frigillana’s work includes contemporary photographs that incorporate still-life compositions and collages, reworked biblical illustrations, appropriated news imagery, and intimate observations of family and place.

Together, these approaches challenge fixed narratives of migration, showing how histories, memories, and evolving ideas of faith and country shape belonging amid changing political realities.

Doors open at 6:00pm for refreshments and a first look at the exhibition. At 6:30pm, enjoy welcome remarks and an artist introduction to the work on view. Celebrate with the artist and community members until 8:00pm. We can’t wait to share the exhibition with you soon.

Visit https://secure.qgiv.com/for/cvnec5/event/tears-blood-sweat-opening-reception/ to register and learn more!

Silver Eye Center for Photography is free + open to the public ✨

Image 1: Ryan Frigillana, The House They Built, 2022. Courtesy of the artist.
Image 2: Ryan Frigillana, Fruits of Our Labor, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
Image 3: Ryan Frigillana, Silence, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.

08/11/2026

Have you ever wanted to make a photobook but didn't know where to start?

Join artist Brent Nakamoto of Almost Perfect Press for a hands-on workshop that guides participants through creating a photobook from concept to completion, leaving with a designed and handbound chapbook.

Participants will create simple chapbooks that require no specialized equipment or expensive printing. Rather than striving for perfection, the focus is on making a finished book and using the process as an opportunity to play, experiment, and move ideas forward.

No bookbinding experience is necessary. Learn more and register at the link in our bio!

An Introduction to DIY Photobook Binding with Brent Nakamoto
📅 September 19 + 26, 2026, 11am-2pm
📍In-Person, The Lab @ Silver Eye
🔵Two-Day Workshop Registration + Materials Fee: $150
🔗 Register here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/almostperfect/

08/06/2026

Turn a Polaroid photo into a one-of-a-kind artwork with artist Lisa Toboz!

How can the unpredictable quality of instant film inspire creativity? In this two-part workshop, Lisa Toboz invites us to rethink our expectations of realism in photography. Participants will make a self-portrait using Polaroid film and apply mixed-media techniques using personal or found objects to create a tactile art piece, learning to harness the unknown with confidence.

This course is best suited for adults and young adults 16+ with basic photography knowledge and an interest in experimental image-making.

Learn more and register: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/flawedgems

Flawed Gems: A Visceral Approach to Self-Portraiture through Polaroid and Collage with Lisa Toboz
📅 August 22-23, 2026, 1-4pm
📍In-Person, The Lab @ Silver Eye
🔵Two-Day Workshop Registration + Materials Fee: $135
🔗 Register here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/flawedgems

Image credit: Lisa Toboz, Sacred Geometry, 2025. Saint medal on expired Polaroid 600 film. Courtesy of the artist.

Image 2: Lisa Toboz, Trompe L’oeil, 2023. Acrylic and ephemera on expired Polaroid SX70 film. Courtesy of the artist.

Image 3: Lisa Toboz Inheritance, 2026. Expired Polaroid SX70 film, mulberry paper. Courtesy of the artist.

07/31/2026

How do memory, images, and systems of belief shape lived experience and a sense of belonging?

In the new exhibition Tears, Blood, Sweat, Ryan Frigillana (.frigillana) reconsiders the American Dream through intertwined histories of land, labor, and citizenship. Drawing on his experience as a first-generation Filipino American, he explores how family histories, memory, and evolving ideas of faith and country shape belonging amid changing political realities.

Join us for the opening night on Thursday, August 27, and meet the artist!

Doors open at 6:00pm for refreshments and a first look at the exhibition. At 6:30pm, enjoy welcome remarks and an artist introduction to the work on view. Celebrate with the artist and community members until 8:00pm. We can’t wait to share the exhibition with you soon.

Visit https://silvereye.org/exhibitions/tears-blood-sweat to register and learn more!

Silver Eye Center for Photography is free + open to the public ✨

Image credit: Ryan Frigillana, Kung Ano Ang Nagpapakain Sa Iyo (What Feeds You), 2024. Courtesy of the artist.

07/22/2026

Do you find yourself holding on to photographs, documents, or keepsakes? Everyone has an archive, and these materials symbolize the people and experiences that shape our histories. This summer, explore the textures of your personal archive in Intuitive Collage Workshop: Intergenerational Trauma and the Archive. Led by grace (ge) gilbert, poet, writer, collage artist, and author of Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), this hands-on, two-hour workshop invites participants to transform personal artifacts into multimedia collages that examine ruptures and absences in our personal and familial histories.

Intuitive Collage Workshop: Intergenerational Trauma and the Archive is presented in collaboration with meTamorphosis, a local q***r & trans led event series committed to uplifting emerging LGBTQ+ writers by curating inclusive community readings and collaborative events in Pittsburgh.

📅 Saturday, August 1, 10am–12pm
📍4808 Penn Avenue
🔵 Free and open to all

Register here, https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/intuitivecollage/

Images from Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), courtesy of the artist.

07/11/2026

Curious about the environmental histories, impacts, and futures of photography? Join our upcoming discussion and practice group, Forecast, facilitated by Dani Lamorte to explore how photography impacts the environment, and how the environment shapes the practice and technology of photography.

Michelle Henning’s A Dirty History of Photography will serve as a shared text that guides discussions, but participants are encouraged to develop their own lines of inquiry and art making. The book is available for purchase at Silver Eye, or browse a copy in the Reading Room!

Photographers, filmmakers, photography writers, ecologists, environmental activists, and the photo- and eco-curious are all welcome to join this group.

Schedule
Forecast will meet once a month at the Silver Eye Education Center on Wednesday’s August 12, September 16, October 14, and November 11 from 6–7pm and participants will also work informally between sessions to share ideas and creative work on these topics.

Facilitator
Forecast is facilitated by Dani Lamorte, a Pittsburgh-based artist who writes, performs, and makes photographic images. His work has appeared in Observer, Cleveland Review of Books, Pittsburgh City Paper, 100 Days in Appalachia, among other publications. Lamorte’s first book, Nobody’s Psychic was published by the University Press of Kentucky in fall 2025.

Visit the link to register, https://secure.qgiv.com/for/educatio/event/forecast2026/

Image credit: Untitled, 2025. Courtesy of Dani Lamorte

07/10/2026

Join Jamie Ho and Robert Contreras II as they discuss their practices and themes in Fellowship 26 on Thursday, August 6, at 6pm ET online via Zoom!

In Fellowship 26, Jamie Ho and Robert Contreras II each create immersive experiences that foreground how memory and cultures are reshaped across generations.

Working across GIFs, staged altars, and repetitive visual systems, Ho draws on personal and cultural histories to reexamine cross-cultural exchange and challenge Western conventions of representation. Contreras's work explores family and migration, considering home as a feeling rather than a fixed place. Through photography, performance, and installations, he transforms cultural gaps into sites of connection.

Visit the link to register, https://silvereye-bloom.kindful.com/e/fellowship-26-conversations-jamie-ho-robert-contreras-ii

is free + open to the public ✨

Image credit: Tara Geyer

07/09/2026

Join Javier Griffey and Jacquelyn Johnson online on Thursday, July 30, at 6pm ET as they discuss their work and the themes explored in Fellowship 26.

Javier Griffey and Jacquelyn Johnson both explore how personal narratives are constructed, shared, and understood.

Griffey brings together photographs from his mother's archive, a recent portrait of his father, and his own photography and writing to examine shifting relationships between self, family, and belonging. Drawing from a loved one’s religious testimony, Johnson combines photographs and text-based works to examine faith and attention as acts of devotion, while reflecting on the possibilities and limitations of storytelling.

Visit the link to register, https://silvereye.org/events/fellowship-26-conversations-jacquelyn-johnson-javier-griffey

Silver Eye Center for Photography is free + open to the public ✨

Image credit: Tara Geyer

Address

4808 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
15224

Opening Hours

Tuesday	11am - 6pm
Wednesday	11am - 6pm
Thursday	11am - 6pm
Friday	11am - 6pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+14124311810

Website

http://www.silvereye.org/, https://linktr.ee/silvereyecenter

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