Buffalo Arts Studio to present special summer 2018 project: "Connections"
Published July 11, 2018
From our friends at Buffalo Arts Studio:
For Immediate Release: July 11, 2018
Contact: Alma Carrillo, Executive Director
Buffalo Arts Studio 2495 Main Street, Suite 500
Buffalo, New York 14214
(716) 833-4450
BUFFALO, NY – Buffalo Arts Studio is proud to present a special Summer 2018 project titled Connections. The project provides an opportunity to meaningfully link artists with communities to inform the creation of new work, with special emphasis placed on engaging underserved audiences. There will be an opening reception for the concurrent exhibits within Connections ; Lux and Interstitial Castings on Fourth Friday presented by M&T Bank July 27 th , 2018 from 5-8pm, with each artist speaking about their work promptly at 6pm. High-resolution images are available upon request.
Lux will showcase the work of Muhammad Z. Zaman, a Buffalo-based, urban artist, specializing in calligraphy. Using language and text as cultural signifier, Zaman layers English, Bengali, and Arabic into richly textured canvases. As a young Muslim man, Zaman uses the languages that make up his identity: English for his current home, Bengali as the language of his fatherland, and Arabic as the language of his religion. His canvas paintings and wall murals layer powerful messages onto seemingly borderless fields in order to inspire people to learn from each other in harmony and mutual understanding.
Zaman was selected as the annual Open Buffalo Emerging Artist for 2018; an initiative designed to promote social and economic justice by providing meaningful financial, curatorial, and marketing support to underrepresented artists and audiences.
During the exhibition, Zaman will work with People’s Park Summer Art Camp participants and park visitors to design and create a mural series that illustrates what the park site means to the community. The park is outside of Tri-Main Center and within walking distance of Buffalo Arts Studio. Inspired by visitor responses, Zaman will create a mural on three 48 x 90 panels that will be unveiled at the park later that month.
Interstitial Castings by D.C.-based artist Liz Lessner will document the social, physical, and emotional support provided by health and human service organizations in Tri-Main Center. Prior to her exhibition, Lessner was an Artist-In-Residence at Buffalo Arts Studio and worked with health and human service providers including Cantalician/Diversified Labor Solutions and Aspire of WNY, Inc. iXpress to create a series of sculptures through a process of conversation, community building, and collaboration. Her exhibition will raise awareness about the populations these generous individuals and organizations serve and the work being done by those individuals and organizations in order to serve them. The castings capture the negative space between two people engaged in the intimate actions of teaching, caring, and sharing. Each object is a record of three interconnections: client, service provider, and artist.
Lessner is a sculptor and installation artist whose work has been featured in solo shows at Big Orbit Gallery, the University at Buffalo Visual Studies Gallery, and the University of Oregon’s Eric Washburne Gallery. She has exhibited her sculptures and installations nationally and internationally including the Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology in Michoacán, Mexico; A.I.R. gallery in Brooklyn, NY; Hallwalls in Buffalo, NY; and an upcoming exhibition at Everard Read’s Circa Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa. She holds an MFA in Media Study: Emerging Practices from the University at Buffalo and is currently working on an upcoming solo show for the project space at Rhizome in D.C.
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Buffalo Arts Studio is a not-for-profit arts organization whose mission is to provide affordable studio space and regular public exposure for regional, national, and international artists through exhibitions, and to enrich the community with art classes, mural programs, and public art. Buffalo Arts Studio is located at 2495 Main Street, Suite 500, Buffalo, NY 14214. The gallery is open Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Buffalo Arts Studio receives major support from the Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation, City of Buffalo, Erie County Cultural Funding, M&T Bank, the John R. Oishei Foundation, Open Buffalo, Rigidized Metals, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional support is provided by: Ashker's, the Lunch Box, Marketing Tech and individual donors.
Please note that Buffalo Arts Studio will be CLOSED Saturdays May 26 - September 8, 2018.
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