Anastasia James, Director of Galleries & Public Art at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

This exhibition draws from the visual culture of the gay underground and the sonic legacy of Patrick Cowley, a pioneering composer and producer whose work helped define Hi-NRG (pronounced “high energy”)—an accelerated form of disco that emerged in the late 1970s. Before his death from AIDS in 1982, Cowley crafted some of the era’s most innovative electronic music, shaping a soundscape that pulsed through queer nightlife.