Unquiet ruins | Pittsburgh City Paper | Matthew Newton

If, as a child, I would have told my grandfather—a gregarious, silver-haired man who spent the greater part of the Cold War manning a desk at Mesta Machine Company, in Homestead—that his office would someday be nestled between a giant waterpark (Sandcastle) and steroid-fed strip mall (The Waterfront), he would have probably just chuckled at the notion. However, in 21st-century, postindustrial Pittsburgh, such bizarre economic shifts have become commonplace. With the steel industry rusted out a quarter century ago, many of Pittsburgh’s city neighborhoods—regardless of their ethnic make-up, rich cultural past or small-town charm—have struggled to survive in an increasingly harsh social and economic climate.

Endangered Identity, a new exhibition of acrylic paintings on plywood by artist and East Liberty native Mike Green, tells a stark visual tale of the blight and dilapidation faced by many of Pittsburgh’s oldest neighborhoods (a condition often cited as the unpleasant side effect of an ambitious 1950s urban-renewal program). Focusing his eye on once-bustling establishments—restaurants, drug stores, bars and hotels—Green offers viewers a detailed look at the shuttered and forgotten buildings of urban America.

“The concept for the show started some years ago, during my childhood,” says Green. “I was very curious about street art and started looking for materials to paint on. This forced me to really extend my territory and go out and explore local neighborhoods.”

Green’s late-night excursions took him to the Hill District, the North Side, Homewood, Garfield, Highland Park and East Liberty—each represented in his paintings—where he discovered his strange attraction to the deteriorating ruin around him.

“It’s funny, during my teenage years, when [most] kids are going to the mall, I was in these old decrepit buildings,” he says. “I remember one of the first buildings I went into was the [old] Garfield Shopping Center. I fell in love with the smell and natural deterioration.”

Green’s affection for these crumbling structures is evident in Endangered Identity. The exhibition—at Humble Beginnings Art Gallery, a newer space in Bloomfield run by retired commercial artist Ralph Johns—showcases more than two dozen of Green’s paintings. And while his choice of subject matter might have been inspired by a youthful sense of wonder, what continues to push him forward is curiosity.

“The [building] that stood out to me the most was August Wilson’s old house,” Green says. “I [was] staring at it when an old man came up to me and said, ‘You know whose house that is? That’s August’s old house. It’s a shame that it got to that state.’ I was amazed it wasn’t a historic landmark. If it was in any other area [besides the Hill District], it would have been restored a long time ago.”