Ryan Legassicke, MFA 2009, has installed a site specific project in Philadelphia at the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. The show opens Friday May 11 and runs through Nov. 2012.

The artist depicts the cross sections of five real security barricades or boarder fences. He states, “The fall of the Berlin Wall was an event that is widely regarded as the ultimate victory for democracy and free society. How is it then that we find so many new walls being built around the world?”

The May 2012 issue of Azure Magazine (Toronto) features an image of a recent chair Legassicke designed. The chair is from a project called Home of the Moment that he began working on while living in Detroit last spring, and was recently shown at MADE’s offsite exhibition Radiant Dark during Toronto design week. In a set of six one separate part from each chair is replaced with clear acrylic. Chairs can be assembled and disassembled knock-down style for easy storage and shipping.

In October 2011 Legassicke gave a talk at TEDx Bermuda about an art project called Separation Wall Global Park: A Proposal. This project was inspired by the way Toronto, Canada was changed during the June 2010 G20 Summit.  It was developed in Berlin, Germany, later that fall.

Ryan Legassicke is a contemporary Canadian artist born in 1979. His current work examines contemporary urban spaces and makes connections between our shared aesthetic experience and the idea that we are becoming progressively more disconnected from ourselves, each other, and the places that we inhabit. If our built environment, the stuff that we surround ourselves with, is a refection of our vales as a culture, can we conclude that this same environment, created both individually and as a society, influences the way we experience and feel about the world?  And furthermore, with the rise of globalization, does this happen on a larger scale? Do the ways that other cultures choose to live, or are forced to live reflect and influence us?”

Wednesday, April 25, 4:30pm, B13 Center for the Arts

Juliette Yuan’s research centers on curatorial practice in China, with a cross-disciplinary focus on art, science and technology. Influenced by the combination of a rapidly expanding Chinese economy and Western concepts and artistic currents, Chinese curators develop their practice within an unusual and complex social context where a market economy is led by “capitalism characterized by governmental policies,” and within which art and culture are simultaneously tools for political propaganda and evolutionary stimulus for creative industries. Under this kind of political environment and economic system, living within a society administrated by autocracy, curators working in Chinese contemporary art must endeavor to pursue their research and survive professionally on their own.

Juliette Yuan received a Master’s Degree in General and Comparative Literature from Paris III University (La Sorbonne Nouvelle) in 2002, and is currently a PhD candidate in the Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth (UK). She has been curating new media art and organizing related conferences since 2004. Curated exhibitions include “PLAY(S) International Digital and Multimedia Arts,” Changzhou, and “Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition,” Beijing. Conferences have included “Digital Art & Architecture,” Shanghai Jiaotong University, and “Transcultural Tendencies/Transmedial Transactions International Research Conference on Media Arts,” Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts, Fudan University/University of Plymouth. Juliette Yuan has published articles on new media in journals throughout China and in the U.S., Italy, and the Netherlands.

Monday, April 30, 2012
11:30am –1pm, Screening Room, 112 Center For the Arts
Co-sponsored by the Department of Architecture, Department of Media Study and the Visual Studies/Media Study Emerging Practices Graduate Program

Marnix de Nijs is a Dutch installation artist. He focused his early career on sculpture, public space and architecture. Since the mid 1990s, he has been a pioneer in researching the experimental use of media and technologies in art. Impelled by the idea that technology acts as a driving force behind cultural change and is therefore capable of generating new experiences where societal habits and communication are rethought, his work thrives on the creative possibilities offered by new media, while critically examining their impact on contemporary society and human perception.

de Nijs’ work has been widely exhibited at international art institutes, museums and festivals such as the Maison des Arts de Créteil (Paris 2011), National Art Museum of China (Beijing 2008 & 2011), Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina (Firenze 2008 & 2010), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid 2010), ARoS, Aarhus Kunstmuseum (Aarhus 2009), Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Barcelona 2008 & 2011), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam 2008), MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Arts (Taipei 2007), DAF Festival (Tokyo 2006), 6th Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai 2006), Itau Cultural (Sao Paulo 2002), Ars Electronica (Linz 2001, 2004 & 2005), DEAF Festival (Rotterdam 2000, 2004 & 2007). His work won the Art Future Award (Taipei 2000) and received honorable mentions at the Transmediale Award (Berlin 2000), the Vida 5.0 Award (Madrid 2002), and Prix Ars Electronica (Linz 2001 & 2005). In 2005, he collected the prestigious Dutch Witteveen & Bos Art and Technology Prize for his entire oeuvre.

On April 28, 2012 the UB Visual Studies Department Presents:

H U N G R Y, The Senior Thesis Exhibition Led by Ben Van Dyke & Beth Gemperlein. H U N G R Y features 29 Graduating Artists & Designers including: Steven Ardo, Matt Brigante, Nick Butlak, Anthony Carmeci III, April Chmurzynski, Kat Delfosse, Dara Gildner, Dan Gruskin, Yingri Guan, Beth Huber, Carolyn Kaltenbach, Sara Kazmierczak, Alex Kral, Erin Kuhn, Desire Link, Anne Marie Leahey, Caitlin McLeod, Mai-Linh Notaro, Anthony Prisamov, Shane Race, Mark Ribaudo, Dylan Shear, Haven Smart, Maria Taczak, DS Tren, Genevieve Van Dussen, Bonnie Wan, Valerie Zaprzal, and Andrea Zlotowitz.

The opening of H U N G R Y will be from 6-10 pm on April 28, 2012 located on the 4th floor at Hi-Temp Fabrication, 79 Perry St. Buffalo NY, 14203.

April 28, 2012 // 6-10PM
HI-TEMP FABRICATION // 4TH FLOOR
79 Perry Street Buffalo NY, 14203

UB Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 5pm. For information, please call 716-645-6912. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on view in the second floor gallery through April 28, 2012.

The exhibition features the artwork of Alexander Derwick, Anthony DiMezza, Luke Dougherty, David Leighty, Ruby Merritt, Byron Rich and Gary Sczerbaniewicz.  This dynamic exhibition will include a variety of mediums and styles including performance, printmaking, painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography.

Alexander Derwick’s drawings and prints visually evoke mysterious fairytale narratives related to a group of children and young teens growing up on their own in a forest where they face crucial lessons about consumption and mortality with a sense of ill-informed debauchery. Derwick was raised in Olean, New York and graduated with a BFA in Printmaking from SUNY Purchase. He has been a member of the print-based collective Tomahawks since 2008.

In conjunction with The 155th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment and The Union Volunteers Fife and Drum Corp, Anthony DiMezza will be directing a performance entitled Fág an Bealac!. DiMezza received his BFA in Sculpture from the State University of New York at New Paltz. His work explores the relationships between conflicting systems with an emphasis on varying forms of warfare.

Luke Dougherty experiments and looks for ways to make paintings, drawings and etchings that are psychological, emotional, and critical. A realist painter working primarily in figuration, he has trained at the Water Street Atelier, The Art Students League, State University of New York at Oneanta.

David Leighty was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and received a BFA in printmaking from The Ohio State University. Before moving to Buffalo, he had been living and working within the DIY community in and around Columbus, Ohio. David has won multiple awards and grants including the first place prize at the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, and the Aida Cannaras Snow Fund Scholarship.

Scientific practices do not merely express Ruby Merritt’s work they forge and constitute it. The materials she experiments with range from liquid solutions to pigments found from the earth. By allowing the chemistry of materials to do as they please, she explores natural phenomena of matter such as erosion, evaporation, solubility, and the forces of gravity. Merritt hails from Western New York and received her BFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Byron Rich earned a BFA from the University of Calgary where he researched multimedia art production. In his practice, he focuses upon environmentally based concepts, particularly the separation between our societal collective identity, and our biological reality.

Gary Sczerbaniewicz’s art practice explores interior architectural spaces as they relate both personally and culturally to memory, psychology, and history, whether real or imagined. He often designs his works to be experienced on an individual basis, which compels the viewer to adopt atypical modes of body orientation to bring them into direct sensory contact with materials and spaces. Gary Sczerbaniewicz received his BFA from Alfred in 1995. He received the 2012 Big Orbit Gallery Award and will have a solo show there in 2013.

The UB Art Gallery is funded by the UB College of Arts Sciences, the Visual Arts Building Fund, and the Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund.

The UB Art Gallery is located in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus just north of the I-290 on Millersport Highway. Traveling east or west on the I-290 take exit 5B to Millersport Highway North. Turn onto the campus at the Coventry entrance. As you enter the campus, the Center for the Arts is a high gabled white building directly ahead of you.

After 3 PM and on weekends, parking is free and a permit is not required. During all other times, guests must park in metered spaces, visitor parking lots, or obtain a parking permit from UB Art Gallery staff. In order to obtain a parking permit, temporarily park in the circle in front of the Center for the Arts and see a gallery attendant inside.

Tim Scaffidi
Transactions April 7 – 26
Buffalo Arts Studio 2495 Main Street, Suite 500 , Buffalo, NY
Hours: Tuesday – Friday 11–5; Saturday 11–3; (closed Sunday and Monday)
Opening: April 7th, 7pm

Eduardo Velasquez
The Bitten Peach
April 21 – May 25
El Museo Francisco Oller Y Diego Rivera
91 Allen St., Buffalo, NY
Opening: Sat. April 21, 7–10 pm

Bradley Phillips
Virtual Symptom
April 28 – May ?
CEPA Gallery 617 Main Street, Buffalo
Opening: April 28, 7pm

Adrian Fast Bertolone
Now I Wanna Be Your Dog
Hi–Temp Fabrications Building: 79 Perry St, Buffalo, NY
May 4, 5–9pm, May 5, 2–9pm; May 6, 2–9PM
Mindfilm Performances (#1–#3) daily 7–8pm
Opening: May 4, 5–9pm

Chris Fox
Everything Signs
May 9, 6–9pm, May 12, Noon–5pm
Silo City, Buffalo Grain Elevators on the Waterfront
200 Childs Street, Buffalo, NY (look for signage)
Opening: May 9, 6–9pm

Katrina Boemig
Perspective Stories:  Stories at the top of the town
A site specific mapping using stories and paper cuttings. May 9– 24
Hours: 10–3 Every Tuesday, Wednesday (no opening)
Buffalo City Hall, 25th floor Exhibition Space and Handicapped Observation Deck
65 Niagara Sq , Buffalo, NY 14202
Please contact:  katrinab@buffalo.edu for more information

Ripely Whiteside
Introduced Accidental Escapes
May 5–11
Carnegie Art Center
240 Goundry Street
North Tonawanda, NY
Hours: Wednesday through Friday 12–3
Closing: May 10, 6–8pm

Marc Tomko
TIME in SPACE
May 11 – June 1
Hi–Temp Fabrications Building: 79 Perry St, Buffalo, NY
Hours: By appointment – email:mtompko@gmail.com
Opening:  May 11, 6–10, presentation at 7
Closing: June 1, 6–10, presentation at 7

Alice Alexandrescu
Art Fluffer: A mobile, experiential art foreplay taking place on the roads of Buffalo, NY inside and around Alices 1976 Chevy P30 Step–Van.
By appointment only (see dates below)*
Please visit  www.artfuffer.com for details and up to date information.
Closing Reception:  May 14 from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm outside the Albright Knox Art Gallery

* Art Fluffing Dates with Final Destination:

• Friday, April 6 at 6:00 pm (Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum) Saturday, April 7 at 6:00 pm (Buffalo Arts Studio)
• Saturday, April 21 at 6:00 pm (El Museo Francisco Oller Y Diego Rivera)
• Monday, April 28 at 6:00 pm (CEPA Gallery) Friday, May 4 at 5:00 pm (Hi–Temp Fabrication)
• Wednesday, May 9 at 5:00 pm (Silo City, Buffalo Grain Elevators on the Waterfront) Thursday, May 10 at 10:00 am (Buffalo City Hall)
• Thursday, May 10 at 5:00 pm (Carnegie Art Center) Friday, May 11 at 6:00 pm (Hi–Temp Fabrication)

As well, CAE is making its 5th appearance in Artforum this month.

In 2010, the Dept. of Visual Studies at UB embarked on a very exciting academic and cultural exchange with the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. It has now grown into a full collaborative effort between the two institutions, resulting in the opportunity for Visual Studies MFA graduate students to work closely with their Chinese counterparts at CAFA in realizing intensive, productive residencies and high caliber art exhibitions in both countries and, to be published soon, an ambitious project publication.

CAFA is one of the top two premier art academies in China, and one of the most venerable, established and influential (in 2008, it was identified as “China’s top art school” by The New York Times). It excels in both traditional training and cutting edge experimentation in wide-ranging fields from art history and theory to interactive digital design for public space. It boasts an illustrious roster of alumni now successfully circulating in the international art milieu, including Xu Bing, Zhang Huan, and Xing Danwen (the guest critic during the Beijing final critiques). Importantly, CAFA is located in the dynamic, culturally bustling, international hub city of Beijing.

During spring of 2010, the pilot exchange between Visual Studies and CAFA took place: three senior CAFA faculty members, Professors Wang Huaxiang, Li Xiaolin and Gao Rongsheng, came to UB for a one-week residency in the Dept. of Visual Studies; subsequently, three VS faculty members, Profs. Millie Chen, Joan Linder and Stephanie Rothenberg traveled to Beijing with the first group of UB Study Abroad students. Profs. Rothenberg and Linder used CAFA as a base from which to teach graduate and upper level undergraduate students of both UB and CAFA, and explore the cultural environment of Beijing. This first residency culminated in a dynamic UB/CAFA student exhibition at CAFA and, later, at UB.

In March 2011, Profs. Millie Chen, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Ben Van Dyke, and eleven Visual Studies MFA students traveled to CAFA to participate in the second exchange, starting an intensified academic exchange and the generation of research/creative collaborations between Visual Studies MFA graduate students and advanced undergraduate CAFA students. This year’s exchange was developed by Profs. Millie Chen and Li Fan (CAFA) to support the production of new student artwork generated by cross-institutional and cross-cultural collaborations, and to result in a student exhibition of professional caliber for presentation in Fall 2011 at the University at Buffalo Art Galleries and at the Today Art Museum in Beijing in Spring 2012.

Two weeks prior to the opening of the resulting exhibition Buffalo Beijing: Translation at UB Art Gallery (Sept.16-Oct.22, 2011)*, Prof. Li Fan and his seven students arrived in Buffalo; the students continued working with their Visual Studies partners in finishing their projects. Collaborative art making is complex in and of itself. Despite the fact that cultural divides and language barriers were added to this mix, all participating artists rose to the challenge, even surpassing it in many cases. The result is profound cultural exchange, the blossoming of lasting friendships, and a professional exhibition of high caliber.

In early 2012, the Buffalo Beijing: Translation exhibition opened in Beijing for display at the Today Art Museum/Today Print Arts Center (Mar.18-Apr.1, 2012).

The last element in the current exchange project is now underway and slated to be completed this summer: a 400-page publication that charts the challenging and complex process of cross-cultural collaboration, and documents the impressive artworks.

The participating faculty and Chairs, with nods from their Deans, at both UB and CAFA intend to continue this fruitful cross-institutional, cross-cultural academic and artistic collaboration. After a successful pilot exchange in 2009/10 and an exhilaratingly productive and rewarding full-year exchange in 2011-12, what is planned for future development of this exchange program is the continuation of artistic collaboration at the graduate level, resulting professional caliber exhibitions in both cities, and potential faculty exchange.

* The Buffalo chapter of the exhibition was organized as part of the New York Conference on Asian Studies 2011. The 2011 two-part exchange between the Dept. of Visual Studies at UB and CAFA in Beijing, including the Buffalo Beijing: Translation exhibition at UB Art Gallery, was co-sponsored by The Confucius Institute at the University at Buffalo, as well as the Dept. of Visual Studies (UB), Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), and the UB Art Galleries.

“Since arriving at UB this past fall, Jennings, associate professor of visual studies, has impressed students and colleagues alike with a sparkling resume of interests and accomplishments. He is at once a nationally recognized cartoonist, designer and graphic novelist. A researcher intent on explaining and “disrupting” black stereotypes in popular media, Jennings disseminates his insights via books, exhibits and lectures that prod people to think about under-recognized voices in American graphic arts. Laced with humor and satire, these are rich expressions of women, gays and others who may have felt themselves invisible in the larger society, but who nonetheless create powerful images of dissent, or moving depictions of their diverse experiences in America.”

Read more…

Still from The Re'Search (Re'Search Wait'S), 2009-2010, Ryan Trecartin

Ryan Trecartin Movie Screening ANYEVER series

Friday, April 6, 2012, 1pm-6pm

Lecture: Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch

Thursday, April 12, 2012 4-6pm

Both events in the Center for the Arts Screening Room, CFA 112, University at Buffalo North Campus
(View map and directions)

The Visual Studies Department at University at Buffalo and the Leslie-Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City are co-organizing the first Buffalo presentation of Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch’s most recent series of movies entitled, ANY EVER. Trecartin, dubbed one of the most influential young artists in the world, will also speak at UB’s Center for the Arts April 12, 2012 in the Leslie Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art Speaker Series, along with his main collaborator Lizzie Fitch. The ANY EVER films were the subject of the duo’s major exhibition at MoMA’s PS 1 last summer.

Still from The Re'Search (Re'Search Wait'S), 2009-2010, Ryan Trecartin

Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, acclaimed one of the most innovative collaborative teams working with video and installation today, seamlessly meld the overheated immediacy of our internet-linked world with dissident politics–including copious drag and a strong bias against unchecked capitalism.  Trecartin’s wildly fantastical narratives and subversive characterizations launch a thoroughly unique perspective on everything not-yet tomorrow.  His sophisticated digital manipulations, performances, and media located solely on the Internet merge into surreal visions, and he is widely credited as a past master of new media’s electronic techniques. The pair has been working exclusively since 2000 when they met in college at RISD, and have since been collaborating together with an uncanny ensemble of family and friends.

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Lecture Series is dedicated to queer art and artists. The series will showcase the most significant queer artists working today towards understanding the relationship between their sexuality and their art. There are 2-4 annual lectures.

Trecartin and Fitch were both born in 1981. Their work has been seen at MAMA, Rotterdam, Pays-Bas; MoMA PS1, New York, NY; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; New Galerie de France; Cour Carrée du Louvre, Paris-France.

For more information regarding Fitch/Trecartin, please visit New Galerie.

Screening Program

• 1:00pm: The Re’Search (Re’Search Wait’S), 2009-2010 (41min)
• 1:50pm: Roamie View : History Enhancement (Re’Search Wait’S), 2009-2010 (29 min)
• 2:30pm: Ready (Re’Search Wait’S), 2009-2010 (27 min)
• 3:00pm: Temp Stop (Re’Search Wait’S), 2009-2010 (12min)
• 3:20pm: P.opular S.ky (section ish) (44 min)
• 4:10pm: Sibling Topics (section a) (52 min)
• 5:10pm: K-CoreaINC.K (section a) (34 min) (with transcript)