vanessa german, Lifted

vanessa german brings Lifted to Arts Landing starting Wednesday, April 29, 2029. It's a commission from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, and it stays on view through Saturday, June 30.

The exhibition consists of two sculptural benches. They're dedicated to Pittsburgh's elders, specifically the centenarians whose lives and labor helped shape the city's spirit and infrastructure. In 2025, german visited senior care centers across the city and traced the hands of residents who were at or nearing 100 years old. Those tracings were then translated into the sculptural backs of the benches. She describes them as spaces for reflection, rest, and intergenerational reverence, intended to keep the presence of those who built the city at the forefront.

German is a sculptor, performance artist, poet, and activist whose practice is rooted in community and centers on love, healing, and collective care. She's a self-taught artist, born in Milwaukee and raised in Los Angeles and Ohio, and she moved to Pittsburgh in 2000. Since then, her work has become inseparable from the city's social fabric, and Lifted continues that connection by drawing directly from the people who lived here long before she arrived.

You can find the benches at Arts Landing, 803 Penn Ave, in the heart of the Cultural District. Admission is free, and the exhibition runs from April 29 through June 30.