Albright-Knox: Full Roster of Events

WALL ROCKETS:  Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha

Ongoing - October 25, 2009

This exhibition of approximately one hundred works by more than seventy-five artists pays tribute to Ed Ruscha, one of America's most influential contemporary artists. It was organized by Lisa Dennison, Chairman of Sotheby's North and South America, for the FLAG Art Foundation in New York City. The installation in Buffalo is organized by Albright-Knox Art Gallery Curator Heather Pesanti, who has augmented it with a selection of works from the Gallery's collection by Ruscha and other artists.

Fletcher Benton:  The Alphabet

Ongoing - July 5, 2010

Renowned American sculptor Fletcher Benton is best known for cutting, folding, and realigning two-dimensional sheets of steel into three-dimensional objects that seem to defy gravity.  This exhibition, organized by Albright-Knox Art Gallery Associate Curator Holly E. Hughes, focuses on Benton's "Alphabet" series, which he began in the 1970s.  The seventy works on loan from the collection of James J. Curtis, including paper maquettes and corresponding sculptures, provides an in-depth examination of the artist's creative process.  Scheduled to be on view for a year, this exhibition will also be the focus of a comprehensive educational program for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Ingrid Calame:  Step on a Crack . . .

September 25, 2009 - February 28, 2010

Ingrid Calame is best known for her artworks based on tracings of stains and marks found on city streets and sidewalks that she transposes onto museum walls (see top image).  This, the Albright-Knox's first Artist-In-Residence Program exhibition, features new drawings and paintings created over the past year from tracings executed during Calame's three-week residency in Buffalo in June 2008, when she and her team of tracers worked in the shipping area of a Lackawanna steel production factory, abandoned grain elevators along the Buffalo River, a wading pool in South Buffalo, and the Albright-Knox's parking lot.

In Good Company: Figurative Drawings from the Collection

October 2, 2009 - January 3, 2010

This exhibition features more than fifty seldom-seen works by forty-seven artists from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's extraordinary Permanent Collection.  The exhibition, almost exclusively comprising drawings, explores the depiction of the figure through more than a century with works dating from the late 1800s through the 1980s.  Curatorial Assistant Ilana Chlebowski, who organized the exhibition, comments that it examines "how artists explore human behavior and companionship--these works, bare and pure, help us see ourselves and our interactions with others in new and traditional ways, focusing on 'when we like company and when we don't.'"

In Good Company features often striking images of lone and grouped figures.  Organized visually within a historical context, it will allow the visitor to make connections between artists, time periods, and artistic movements.  The works, mostly monochromatic, are renderings of the human form that can evoke a mood or emotion. 

ROBERT MANGOLD Beyond the Line | Paintings and Project 2000-2008

October 23, 2009 - January 31, 2010

This exhibition honors the outstanding career of Robert Mangold, an artist whose native roots are in Buffalo and who has been a major figure in the investigation of geometric abstraction since the 1960s. Born in North Tonawanda, New York, in 1937, Mangold's earliest visits to an art museum were to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. This nearly ten-year survey explores the development of the artist's paintings and works on paper with his "Curled Figures," "Columns," "Column Structures," and most recently his "Ring Images" series. Mangold's monumental commission for the colored glass windows in Buffalo's new United States Courthouse, scheduled to open in July 2010, will also be featured in the exhibition through architectural models, preliminary sketches, and photographs that document the building and the site. Designed by architect William Pederson, the courthouse will connect Buffalo's illustrious architectural past with its future.

Topographies

November 13, 2009 - February 28, 2010

Topography, the practice of creating detailed maps or charts that define the terrestrial characteristics of a singular locality, was originally conceived by ancient cultures as simply "the study of place." Customarily, topographical mapping and the study of topography result in large-scale, detailed, and carefully calibrated representations of nature's nuances in relief. Topographies is an exhibition that draws its inspiration from the definitive aspects of topographical mapping by shedding light on artists who employ a visual language that oftentimes blurs the boundaries between the natural and man-made, while paying specific attention to detail, surface, and depth of imagery. Culled from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's Permanent Collection, the exhibition will feature works by Polly Apfelbaum, Jane Callister, Tara Donovan, Teresita Fernandez, Mark Fox, Ellen Gallagher, Udomsak Krisanamis, Heather McGill, Jorge Pardo, Emilio Perez, Ara Peterson, Ken Price, Tam Van Tran, Clare Woods, and Carrie Yamaoka.

NEW PROGRAM FOR YOUTH: Family Funday at the Gallery

Sunday Afternoons with Modern and Contemporary Art

Revisit masterworks of our Permanent Collection with this new Sunday afternoon series. The first Sunday of every month, join us for a different activity and experience art in a whole new way!

Members: Free

Non-members: Free with Gallery admission

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Adventures with Animals

Explore the different ways artists sculpt, paint, and draw animals by looking at such works as Milton Avery's Bucolic Landscape, Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom, and Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, then create your own masterpiece of your favorite animals! (All ages) 

Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Seasons of the Year

Throughout the ages, artists have chosen to paint scenes illustrating the four seasons of the year. By examining Frederick Childe Hassam's Church at Old Lyme, Connecticut; Daniel Ridgway Knight's Springtime; Paul Gauguin's The Yellow Christ; and Claude Monet's Tow-Path at Argenteuil, you will see how different artists evoke the seasons, and then create artwork inspired by your favorite season of the year. (All ages)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Looking at Art with Your Kids

Contemporary art can be audacious. Oftentimes adults are uncomfortable with or uncertain about viewing and discussing controversial works of art with children. This special Sunday for art lovers of all ages, facilitated by Curator of Education Mariann Smith and Program Coordinator Anna Jablonski, will address ways to approach and experience different works of art. (All ages)

 

PROGRAMS FOR ADULTS:

Art and Yoga for Fun and Relaxation

October 3 and 10

9 - 10:15 am

$10 per session or $55 for all sessions for Members

$15 per session or $90 for all sessions for non-Members

Experience art, yoga, and the many connections between the two in an hour of yoga and meditative practice for six weekly sessions.

 

PROGRAMS FOR EDUCATORS:

The ABZs of Sculpture

10 am - 1 pm

Education classrooms and galleries

 

Fletcher Benton used a single square of paper to design a sculpture of each letter of the alphabet, which will be on view at the Gallery through July 2010. This workshop will explore connections between the alphabet, writing, and art with a multidisciplinary approach. Through hands-on activities, art teachers and English Language teachers alike will find ways to make connections between language and the visual image.

$20 Members / $25 non-members

Instructor: Nancy Spector, Associate Curator of Education

Pre-registration is required. Please call 716.270.8336 or send a message to jbochynski@albrightknox.org.

  

Step on a Crack . . . in Buffalo, New York

Saturday, December 5, 2009

10 am-1 pm

 

Allow artist Ingrid Calame to teach your students about Buffalo's past, present, and future. In this workshop, educators will learn about the Gallery's first Artist-in-Residence program, see the resulting exhibition, Step on a Crack . . ., discover Calame's unique working process and explore lesson plans about her process that can connect to Buffalo's historical past, current events, and our hopes for the future.

 

Instructor: Nancy Spector, Associate Curator of Education

Pre-registration is required. Please call 716.270.8336 or send a message to jbochynski@albrightknox.org.

 

GUSTO AT THE GALLERY - Free Fridays from 3 to 10 pm - Program Highlights

Art:21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 5 Premiere

Friday, October 2, 2009

Fourteen artists reveal their ideas and perspectives on world events in the only series dedicated exclusively to contemporary art. Join us for this unique screening--part of a nationwide celebration of the season five premiere during the month of October. Episode 1: Compassion features "artists whose works explore the possibility of understanding and reconciling past and present, while exposing injustice and expressing tolerance for others" and includes William Kentridge, Doris Salcedo, and Carrie Mae Weems. Episode 2: Fantasy presents "artists whose works or personal stories transport viewers to imaginary worlds and altered states of consciousness . . . with works that seem at time hallucinatory, irreverent, and sublime," and includes Jeff Koons, Mary Heilmann, Florian Maier-Aichen, and Cao Fei.

Family Night:  Travel the Erie Canal

Friday, October 9

In collaboration with Young Audiences

Featuring theater, museum artifacts, creative writing, visual arts, and music.

Dreaming, Drumming and Dance

Friday, October 16

In collaboration with the C. G. Jung Center

Mask and mandala making, archetypal treasure hunts, theater, and West African dance and drumming.

Beyond the Line: An Evening with Robert Mangold

Friday, October 23

American Minimalist painter Robert Mangold returns to his native Western New York for the opening of ROBERT MANGOLD Beyond the Line: Paintings and Project 2000-2008, a exhibition that grew out of his invitation by the U.S. General Services Administration's Design Excellence Program to design the glass windows for the entry pavilion of the United States Courthouse in downtown Buffalo, to be completed in 2010. This evening's Curator/Artist conversation will expound upon the concise survey of Mangold's works, organized by Albright-Knox Chief Curator Douglas Dreishpoon, from the "Curled Figures," "Column," and "Column Structure" paintings in context with the GSA Commission. A question-and-answer session and book signing will follow. Also this evening, join us for guided architectural walking tours of the Gallery's exterior and a special art activity called "the floating line."

All Hollow's Eve

Friday, October 30

The Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet comes to the Albright-Knox for a unique Halloween-inspired performance. Please join us for Halloween fun and see witches, bats, cats, and more, all dancing to the enchanting music of Saint Saëns, Chadwick, and Mussorgsky. Children (and adults!) are welcome to dress up in their favorite costumes and learn fun Halloween dances. Also this evening, make your own mask and hear Curator of Education Mariann Smith give a lecture about scary art. Eek!

Friday, November 6: TBD    

Family Night: The Big Read celebrates The Great Gatsby/ Exhibition Opening of Topographies

Friday, November 13

In collaboration with the Buffalo and Erie Public Library

Jazz Kids, 1920s costume making, Charleston dance workshop, readings from The Great Gatsby, viewing of the film, and more!

In the Artist's Studio: An Evening with Gregory Crewdson

Friday, November 20, 2009

Join Curator Heather Pesanti for a unique, up-close-and-personal talk with renowned photographer Gregory Crewdson, a contemporary artist known for "constructing and then photographing elaborately devised tableaus of modern-day dreamscapes filled with sexual ambiguity . . . blurring film and photography, reality and fantasy."

The Art of Wine

Friday, November 27, 2009

Wine has a rich history in art. It has been depicted in various media, across all ages, and affected artists and collectors alike. Join Curator of Education Mariann Smith for a unique look at wine's importance and influence in the arts. A wine tasting will follow.

Friday, December 4: TBD

Friday, December 11: TBD    

Music of the Spheres

Friday, December 18

Chamber music, seasonal entertainment, and a talk with Professor Aaron Greicius, Humboldt University Institute of Mathematics, Berlin, on the connection between music and mathematics.