Elise Adibi models a holistic universe in the Frick Greenhouse

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Elise Adibi installed 18 paintings for a six-month stay in the Frick Greenhouse, she expected the experience to differ from that of an exhibition within the white-walled, climate-controlled space of a museum. But some of what happened went beyond what was predicted.

The stylish glasshouse provided flowers and edibles for the Frick family from 1897 through the 1970s and is part of the campus of The Frick Pittsburgh in Point Breeze.

Her site-specific installation, “Elise Adibi: Respiration Paintings,” occupies the two greenhouse wings, mingling abstract paintings with architectural elements designed by Ms. Adibi and flowering plants selected by the artist in collaboration with grounds manager Kim Rothert.

The north wing is a rose garden in which rose as flower, color, scent and idea are blended. Paintings in the south wing surround a central field of potted color that began with spring tulips and closes with fall chrysanthemums.

Floral scents rising from essence-infused paints ripened on hot, humid days, providing an additional sensory component,

While the resultant spaces are pleasurable and calming, they are layered upon a series of investigations Ms. Adibi has mulled in recent years. Two that are central are the experiential notion of change and the philosophic notion of organicism, which views everything in nature as part of an organic whole.

Ms. Adibi, 51, was born in Boston, but grew up and now lives in Squirrel Hill. She is a nationally exhibited artist who has lived and worked on both coasts. She earned degrees from Swathmore College, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University in philosophy, architecture and fine arts, respectively.

As the exhibition nears its Oct. 22 close, the artist reflected upon what she’d learned.

The oxidation paintings, which combine urine and other agents on copper, were expected to react to the climatic exposure, and they did. (These evolved from a feminist response to Andy Warhol’s oxidation paintings, but that’s another story.)

“All of the oxidations changed on the first day,” Ms. Adibi said. “Now all [the paintings] have changed,” and that was a surprise.

“Rose Chord,’ for example, was a