All Our Love: Selected Work by Jeannine C. Meiksin

About this event

Explore the work of the talented painter and life-long Pittsburgher, Jeannine C. Meiksin (1930-2021). The show opens on Saturday, Nov. 14th from 3-5pm at the American Jewish Museum, located within the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Community Center (Squirrel Hill). It will run until Dec. 19th.

Most of the works in the show have never been displayed publicly and, per her wishes, there is a good chance they never will be again. Meiksin rarely exhibited despite painting from her childhood until her death at age 91. She asked that, after her death, any work that wasn’t sold should get whitewashed and donated to art students “because canvas is expensive.” In an effort to minimize the number of pieces subject to that fate, her paintings will be auctioned in tandem with the exhibition, with proceeds going to ACTION-Housing, Inc. and the American Jewish Museum (AJM).

Melissa Hiller, director of the American Jewish Museum, said this of the exhibition:

“Discover the work of Jeannine Meiksin (1930–2021), a gifted Pittsburgh artist whose paintings have rarely been seen publicly. All Our Love brings together work from across her lifetime, from portraiture and intimate studies to bold abstractions and geometric compositions, revealing an artist of remarkable range.

The exhibition takes its name from the words Meiksin used to sign cards and letters to her family. Here, those words return to her as a love letter, celebrating the artist she as and inviting others to discover her work.”

Scott Andrew, Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Pittsburgh, co-curated this event, and will facilitate the donation of any remaining paintings to students in the art program. They will visit the exhibition, receive one of their preferred pieces if available, and give then have free reign to respond to Meiksin’s work directly on that canvas however they see fit. That could include altering, erasing, remaking, destroying, adding new media, or gessoing over and painting something else entirely, per the artist’s original suggestion. The emergent work will be exhibited in a show of its own on Pitt’s campus at a TBD date next year.

More information can be found on the American Jewish Museum event page and at jeanninemeiksin.com (a full gallery of paintings available for sale will be posted there on the day of the opening).