Mattress Factory, Contemporary art museum in Central Northside, Pittsburgh, US.
The Mattress Factory is an art museum in Central Northside, Pittsburgh, devoted to contemporary installation and spread across several buildings. Artists design entire rooms that transform into experimental art environments, where the work occupies and reshapes every part of the space.
Barbara Luderowski purchased an empty mattress warehouse in 1975 and opened the museum in 1977 as a nonprofit institution for contemporary art. The building then evolved into a place where artists work on-site and exhibit their projects over the long term.
Each room transforms into a walk-in artwork where light, color, and spatial illusion merge into an experience you can only grasp by being there. Visitors move through installations that occupy entire spaces and encounter art not as an object on a wall but as an environment that surrounds them.
The museum opens Wednesday through Sunday, and visitors should allow time to walk through the installations and let the spaces sink in. Guided tours help understand the ideas behind the works, especially if you come here for the first time.
Around twenty installations remain on permanent display, including works by James Turrell and Yayoi Kusama that are rarely seen in other collections. The building also hosts residency programs where artists develop and realize new works directly on-site.
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