Buffalo Rising Online

Local artist Jan Nagle, who is well known in Buffalo for her accomplishments in photography, film, and music, is a true Renaissance woman. She’s also an excellent cook, and makes quirky cool jewelry. For the most part most of her jewelry sales in recent years have been through jewelry parties (think Tupperware) and social networks. This fall she went worldwide with an account on Etsy.

Etsy.com is a website that allows artists in almost any genre to sell their wares online. Artists may easily change their products and mark them as sold out. I learned about the site a year ago from Martha Stewart, and went online to buy a cute handbag with a moth hand sewn on it for my entomologist sister.

Nagle is not the only local artist on the site. You may also find the designs from

For the first time ever, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center will present a members exhibition, opening this evening with a reception from 6 to 9 pm. The Artists Among Us is a thank you, on the part of the institution, to the artists whom have played such an important role in keeping it vibrant. This will be the final exhibition in the Burchfield-Penney’s “old space.” A spirited send off and gathering of well wishes from the artists of Western New York (current and past) to the gallery that is devoted to the presentation of their work.

In an email from Kathleen Heyworth at the Burchfield-Penney, “In celebration and thanks to the artists of Western New York for their support of the Burchfield-Penney and for their contribution to our community, the museum is very pleased that the final exhibition in its Rockwell Hall …

The Hallwalls installation created by California artist, Julio César Morales will remain on view for an extra week, through December 22. The Year of the Diamond Dogs offers up the aura of a contemporary disco party tainted with despair.

The Year of the Diamond Dogs is composed largely of shiny, reflective surfaces. Most notably a large ramp that nearly runs right out of the gallery into the foyer of the building, covered with broken beer bottles. The ambient light is largely created through the neon red lights on the floor that write out the words, “There's gonna be sorrow” bouncing around the room. Two large sections of mirrors on opposing walls keep the light moving and suggest an ideal location for a voyeuristic rave.

The dance party feeling is enhanced by music that escapes from a second space to the left as you enter the space. In this space, Mor…

Holiday Art Exhibits

This evening, Buffalo Arts Studio opens the first of a string of holiday exhibits featuring the work of regional artists, with the "Annual Artist Exhibit and Sale 07." The work available in this area is not only exceptional in quality, but also incredibly reasonably priced.

Living with a painting or sculpture made with the hands of someone living here in Western New York is truly rewarding. You are not only supporting a creative individual’s career, but bringing something into your home that will give back when you look at it for decades.

It is hard to imagine how they’ve done it, but Buffalo Arts Studio had crammed a ton of artists’ works into their space, so it will be a great place to start if you are looking to purchase a piece of art for a loved one this holiday season. Included artists: Dennis Bertram, Dave Buck, William Y. Cooper, James Co…

A few years ago, a friend and I took a “Business of Art” two day seminar offered by the New York Foundation for the Arts. It was pretty great, we met in New York University classrooms, and we met a lot of cool people. We learned to set goals, how to market our work, take slides, approach galleries, and more. It was good to meet artists from across the state, and learn methods to making it real.

Well, now NYFA is offering a six month seminar, NYFA MARK, for visual artists, meeting once per month here in Buffalo at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Avenue. The experience culminates with a trip to New York City, for a two-day seminar, to meet with folks who participated in the same program down state. The cost is only $150 for the six months, and they provide a place to stay in Manhattan for th…

A recycled dollhouse and four films are the basis for Dorothea Braemer’s piece at UB Center for the Arts Gallery. This idealized symbol of a home is fraught with conflict as the four films capture the complex family dynamics that evolve over the selling of Braemer’s childhood home and her mother’s move to an assisted living facility. The tiny projections and screens inside the windows of the dollhouse make for an intimate melancholy, a metaphor for psychology.

Passive main characters inspire Braemer’s work; she uses documentary footage and fiction, where she casts people to create characters, and makes the most of mixing formats. Her video, also about her mother, will be screened as a part of the Beyond/In Western New York exhibit at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center on Saturday, November 3 at 8:00pm.

Buffalo Rising is taking …

Chris Barr’s Bureau of Workplace Interruptions doesn’t look like a traditional art exhibit. In fact it has a lot more in common with the aesthetics of the DMV than the typical installation at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, where it is currently installed as a part of the Beyond/In Western New York exhibit through October 28. While you may experience this piece online, you really should visit the gallery to visit his institution within an institution, and check out the rest of the show while it remains on view. Featuring 50 artists in 12 venues, Beyond/ In Western New York is a thorough look at the art of our extended region.

Because Barr’s work is uniquely non-visual in nature, but more idea and experience based, we share his project with you via pod cast, rather than a slideshow. Thi…

Two local businesses are celebrating a new venture tonight. 20th Century Finest founder Dean Brownrout will be working with Michael Donnelly and Tony Rogers, owners of Michael Donnelly Interior Design. The joint venture will have 20th Century Finest regularly rotating selections of Western New York art through the Michael Donnelly show room at 1534 Hertel Avenue. The new collaboration will be marked with a cocktail party in the space this evening from 5:30-9:00 pm.

Dean Brownrout began selling the work of regional artists and their estates after discovering the work of Martha Vissert Hooft and the rich history of art in Western New York. Brownrout has, “A passion to preserve this history,” and to “make sure it is kept alive.” Some of the artists he represents are well…

Using the body in art is nothing new, but media, politics, war, poverty, wealth, sex, religion, fashion, violence, our parents, technology, design, and well basically everything that surrounds us every day are constantly redefining the way the body is being used. Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center will screen 20 short videos that incorporate the use of the human body in their content tomorrow night. The total running time is 88 minutes, so these really are short videos (perfect for our 21st century short attention spans).

Raw Tactics Of The Subversive Body was organized by Andres Tapia-Urzua of Pittsburgh, and includes works by international artists, as well as Buffalo’s own, Caroline Koebel. The screening investigates – in video – our bodies as we see and u…

The Beyond/In Western New York exhibit is unfolding this weekend. Hallwalls Curator, John Massier explains the admirable process the arts venues went through in creating this exhibit that includes 50 artists in 12 venues, on his blog.

In this video, we visit Jacqueline Welch’s light filled home studio in South Buffalo. Welch’s paintings of animals, mostly dogs, as patron saints are odd and beautiful, painted with reverence for the Italian Renaissance. Painted with finesse, and accuracy these paintings are really nice to look at. She finds a lot of her sources online, noting Pet Finder.com as a source for imagery. The show opens tonight with several other Beyond/In venues, with a reception from 4…

Beyond/In Western New York opens this weekend in 12 galleries across Buffalo Niagara, featuring the work of fifty artists who live and work within the Great Lakes region. Here we visit with Roberley Bell as she is installing her work at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. The reception at Hallwalls is this Friday, and Visual Arts Curator, John Massier, has put together a rocking mix of artists, that truly bring the space to life with delightful invention.

Roberley Bell has installed “Becoming Blurred,” a grouping of works made of colorful fiberglass original forms (she calls flower blobs) and molds of found objects, and colorful plastic decorative items, along with preserved butterflies. Bell’s recent work is primarily executed outside in site spec…

In preparation for the Beyond/In Western New York exhibition we are introduciong you to the Buffalo artists who will be showing their work. Beyond/In is an event that brings twelve Buffalo Niagara region art spaces together to show the work of fifty artists who live and work within the Great Lakes region. We are visiting Buffalo artist’s studios to learn about their working process, their art, their studios, and how they live and work in Buffalo.

This time we visit Adam Weekley at his studio in his home on Buffalo’s west side. Weekley is putting the final touches on the individual pieces that will make up an installation at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in The Church at 341 Delaware Avenue. He talks about the process of creating this fairy tale like installation, which includes blue bear costume, a grouping of bee-hives, drawings of bees, golden colored birds, and…

Buffalo Rising is taking the opportunity of the Beyond/In Western New York exhibition, an event that brings twelve Buffalo Niagara region art spaces together to show the work of fifty artists who live and work within the Great Lakes region, to showcase Buffalo artists. We are visiting artist’s studios to learn about their working process, their art, their studios, and how they live and work in Buffalo.

In this episode, we visit the studio of A.J Fries and Ani Hoover in the Seneca Building, in South Buffalo, around the corner from the Larkin Building. This massive structure is the home to a number of artists’ studios, nestled between various small factories. The two artists moved into this studio a year ago, but have known each other for about five years. When interviewing them together, I was struck by their thoughtful considerat…