Press Releases

MULTIVENUE EXHIBITION, RESTORATION OF ARCHITECTURAL LANDMARKS REFLECT BUFFALO’S ONGOING CULTURAL AND CIVIC INVESTMENT

Beyond/In Western New York 2007 Highlights Emerging and Established Artists Across the Great Lakes Region Albright-Knox Art Gallery Opens Highlights from the Panza Collection this fall, Other Major Exhibitions at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and Burchfield

BUFFALO, NY, April 3, 2007 – 2007 will feature emerging and established artists from across Western New York and Southern Canada. Twelve local visual arts institutions have joined forces to present the work of fifty artists representing all practices and career levels with a collaborative exhibition that reflects the active and vibrant cultural community throughout the greater Buffalo region. In addition to the biennial, Buffalo’s art venues offer an array of programming this fall, including a presentation of illuminating works from the modernist Panza Collection organized by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center’s exhibition of works by Toronto artist Andrew Reyes.
Following the success of Beyond/In Western New York 2005, curators reviewed nearly 1000 submissions for this year’s presentation, which will showcase fifty artists from the Toronto, Buffalo, and Syracuse areas. The work on view will represent a spectrum of art practices from traditional drawing, prints, painting, sculpture, and photography to video and 16 mm film, performance, and multimedia installations. With venues ranging from such large institutions as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center to smaller venues including the Carnegie Art Center and UB Art Gallery, this collaborative effort reflects Buffalo’s cultural diversity and engagement. The exhibition will premiere at all twelve venues throughout the weekend of September 14, 2007 and will run through December 9, 2007.
In addition to its participation in the upcoming biennial, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery has organized an enlightening show that offers a rare look into the modernist collection of Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo. The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light features more than 75 works of art by 17 artists working in the medium of light, including Dan Flavin, Bruce Nauman, and James Turrell. The exhibition showcases works from the collection of Count Giuseppe Panza, considered a “modernist Medici,” including art that explores the use of light in installations, monochromatic paintings, and sculptures. Highlights of the exhibition include Bruce Nauman’s Triangle Room (1978-80), Joseph Kosuth’s Three Color Sentence (1965), and Dan Flavin’s Untitled (to Anne) 2/5 (1987). This exhibition will be on view at the Albright-Knox November 16, 2007 through February 24, 2008.
Also on view this summer at the Albright-Knox is a major exhibition of paintings by Francis Bacon, one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s, which runs through July 29, 2007, showcases 50 works from the period in which Bacon was at the height of his creative powers. This exhibition offers a profoundly personal look at Bacon’s work during this fertile time in his career when he began to formulate the iconography of his dark and troubled world in paint. The Burchfield-Penney Art Center, located across the street from the Albright-Knox, holds the world’s largest, most comprehensive collection of art by the great Western New York artist Charles E. Burchfield. A group of his recently rediscovered large-scale watercolor works will be featured in the upcoming exhibition Charles E. Burchfield: Ecstatic Light, on view from July 13 through September 23, 2007. In addition to its exhibitions and programming, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center will soon join Buffalo’s distinguished architectural landscape with the debut of its new home designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects. The new, 75,000-square-foot museum will provide additional space for the museum’s exhibition galleries and education and public programs upon completion in spring 2008.
When Buffalo’s Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center opened its exhibition galleries, media arts screening/performance facilities in the renovated Asbury Delaware Church last year, its innovative programs and exhibitions got an ideal backdrop. Housed in the renovated architectural landmark along with Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe record label, Hallwalls provides support for the creation and presentation of local artists. Following its participation in Beyond/In Western New York, Hallwalls will debut an innovative exhibition showcasing work from Toronto-based artist Andrew Reyes this November.
Additionally, Buffalo’s CEPA Gallery offers a variety of notable photography exhibitions, including the first major retrospective of Magnum photographer Ken Heyman’s work. With a special coordinating exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The World of Ken Heyman will be on view June 16 through August 26, 2007.

Buffalo as an Art and Architectural Destination

In addition to its vibrant cultural community, the city of Buffalo boasts one of the strongest architectural histories in the United States, including city landmarks designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (Darwin Martin House), Henry Hobson Richardson (former Buffalo State Hospital), Eliel and Eero Saarinen (Kleinhans Music Hall), Louis Sullivan (Guaranty Building), Stanford White (Williams-Pratt Mansion), and Frederick Law Olmsted (Buffalo Parks and Parkways). This diversity of architects mirrors Buffalo’s unique role in American history as a city of culture and innovation. (See respective destination websites for information on summer tours.)
Buffalo continues to enhance its cultural landscape today, with the extensive reconstruction and restoration of the city’s renowned Frank Lloyd Wright landmarks, including the Darwin D. Martin House and Graycliff Estate. The Martin House recently celebrated the completion of the reconstruction of the buildings in its original complex, which marks the first time in over 40 years that the entire historic grounds of the Martin property can be seen together. Additionally, architect Toshiko Mori has designed a visitor’s center to gracefully complement the revival of the landmark Martin house.
Set on a 70-foot cliff overlooking Lake Erie, the Graycliff Estate remains a notable example of Wright’s “organic” style of architecture, much like Fallingwater. The Graycliff Conservancy, Inc. just announced the receipt of a $325,000 grant from the John R. Oishei Foundation, which will go towards the ongoing restoration of the estate—Wright’s last built commission in the Buffalo area.
In addition to the revival of these structures, Buffalo will soon be home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rowing Boathouse, a design originally included in his Wasmuth Portfolio series of distinctive Prairie Style lithographs. With nearly $5 million raised, the boathouse will open in September 2007 and will be home to the nation’s largest rowing club.
Buffalo will also welcome a grand addition to its cultural landscape this fall with the completion of the Erie Canal Harbor Project—a $49 million public waterfront. The redevelopment of the original 1825 Erie Canal Terminus and Waterway includes the reconstruction and restoration of historic and cultural features of the terminus, a transit plaza, a waterfront esplanade, maritime facilities, access infrastructure, and a new Naval and Serviceman’s Park.
The community has also invested in the ongoing preservation and restoration of the historic Roycroft campus in nearby East Aurora. Founded in 1895 by Elbert Hubbard, the Roycrofters were a community of skilled craftsmen – printers, book designers, furniture-makers – whose work is now highly sought after by Arts and Crafts collectors across the country. Most recently, the Buffalo community helped to renovate the Roycroft Inn that celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.
Buffalo is a city with a longstanding history of innovation, discovery, creativity, production and support for architecture, the arts and culture. From the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, through the invention of the grain elevator, to the harnessing of hydroelectric power at nearby Niagara Falls and the subsequent development of aviation, automobile and steel plants, Buffalo has played a distinguished role in the shaping of the American experience – a history that continues to be made today. For more information on Beyond/In Western New York, please see: www.albrightknox.org/WNY2007.
For more information about Buffalo’s art and architecture, please visit www.wrightnowinbuffalo.

Media Contacts:

Kristen Titus
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5173
ktitus@resnicowschroeder.com

Natalie Hoch
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5170
sfreudenheim@resnicowschroeder.com

Ed Healy
Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
716-852-0511, x236
healy@buffalocvb.org

Doug Sitler
Buffalo Niagara Convention & Visitors Bureau
716-852-0511, x252
sitler@buffalocvb.org