Shikeith, Hold

Shikeith has a piece on display at Arts Landing in the Cultural District, titled Hold. It's a sculpture of weathering steel and neon that sits at the southern end of the space, and it's Shikeith's first public art commission. The work extends Project Blue Space, his ongoing initiative exploring the spiritual, cultural, and political relationships Black communities have forged with water. The title Hold pulls double duty, gesturing toward the hold of a slave ship and the body as a vessel of memory, feeling, and endurance.

Inside the sculpture glows haint blue, a color rooted in Gullah Geechee traditions of protection, and the light pulses like breath. The steel exterior is designed to deepen and shift with the weather over time, so the piece changes depending on when you see it. Shikeith is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work looks at psychological landscapes and how history persists in the present; he's described himself as "like the Mary J. Blige of contemporary art" because he prioritizes feeling. The commission was funded by the Mellon Foundation's Humanities in Place initiative.

Arts Landing itself is a $31 million public art project by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust that opened on April 17, 2026, and Hold is one of the works that anchors it. You'll find it at 803 Penn Ave in the Cultural District, and it's free to see.