Exhibiting artist Craig Nutt will present a gallery talk, Flying Vegetables, Cornography and Agricraft on Friday, February 5, 2010 at 5:30 pm in conjunction with Cornography, an installation of his work currently on view in the Society for Contemporary Craft's alternative space, EAT: An Art Space About Food. An organic gardener, Nutt has coined the term agricraft to refer both to his work and to the application of a craft-related viewpoint to agriculture. $5 suggested donation.

Once a venerable foodstuff of the Americas, corn has become a symbol of the transformation of farm into factory - and of a system that uses subsidies, promises of higher yields and the threat of bankruptcy to seduce farmers into a life of chemical dependency in order to supply the vast quantity of raw materials to satisfy our lust for cheap, sweet, highly-manufactured foods. For his lecture Nutt will talk about his work, which celebrates the heritage of hyperbole and idealism of farming and gardening while questioning whether the prevailing methods of food production are moral, healthful, or sustainable.

Born in a small town nestled in the cornfields of north central Iowa, Nutt came of age on the cornbread, hominy grits, and corn liquor of the Deep South. The artist creates furniture and sculpture in his studio near Nashville, Tennessee. He employs a wide variety of wood working techniques including turning, carving, traditional joinery, and steam bending as well as oil painting and lacquering techniques on works that often riff on themes drawn from the garden.

Located at 2100 Smallman Street in the Strip District of Pittsburgh; hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 - 5 pm. Exhibitions and informal, hands-on art activities in the Drop-In Studio are always free to the public. For more information, visit www.contemporarycraft.org or call Kati Fishbein at 412.261.7003 x 26.

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