By Erin Comerford
Are
you looking to escape, what we can only hope to be, the last dreary days of
winter? If you need a little light in your life, look no further. The Buffalo
Arts Studio, tucked away in the Tri-Main Center, is sure to brighten your day.
Buffalo
Arts Studio is a not-for-profit arts studio. It houses two gallery spaces where
solo and group exhibitions are presented, surrounded by resident artists’
studios.
According to Curator Cori Wolff, “The studio is committed to the support of working
artists and the art-viewing public.”
When touring the artists’ studios, one is able to see all aspects of work in progress as well as final pieces. There are completed works ready for show, as well as half-drawn sketches and partially painted canvases, to artists at work on on-going projects; the BAS might even inspire you to take a class or
two at the studio.
Relatively new to BAS, Wolff has acted as curator for the past six
months, with an eye for talent as exemplified in the current
exhibition at Buffalo Arts Studio.
The
two solo shows currently being exhibited are those of John Aasp and Kevin Charles Kline.
Kevin
Charles Kline is a Buffalo-based multimedia artist who collects discarded books
and maps. It is the manner in which Kline reshapes the books, so to speak that
makes his gallery exceptional.
As
Wolff states, “He cuts apart and reconstructs [the books] revealing the
subjective and often absurd nature of their arrangements and generating his own
systemization of history based purely upon on aesthetic preference. His work
examines the manner in which government and education shape and control our
views.”
Kline’s
current exhibit is entitled, “DIG: Excavations of Information Visualized.”
The
other gallery offers a multimedia display by John Aasp entitled, “Eternal Now.”
Aasp
is a multimedia artist from Texas. “He utilizes a
chronophotographic sensibility in his videos to bridge the seemingly
contradictory characteristics of cinema and photography: motion and stillness,” Wolff says.
His
current exhibit utilizes this idea by borrowing scenes from old silent films
and modern television. As Wolff notes, the singular result “is a cyclical
narrative that entices the viewer, while simultaneously producing feelings of
uneasiness and longing for closure.”
If
you are looking to escape the ordinary and mundane this winter, these exhibits,
as well as the studios themselves, are just the ticket.
Founded in 1990 by local artist Joanna Angie, Buffalo Arts Studio is located at the Tri-Main Center at 2495 Main Street,
Suite 500. Gallery hours are
Tuesday through Friday 11-5 and Saturday from 11-3. You can find more information online at: www.buffaloartsstudio.org.