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Indepth Arts News:
"Noncommittal: A Prospective Glance"
2008-11-13 until 2009-02-07
UB Art Gallery
Buffalo, NY,
USA United States of America
The UB Art Gallery is proud to present Noncommittal: A Prospective Glance, a group exhibition featuring three recent graduates from the Department of Visual Studies at the University at Buffalo: Chris Bettencourt, Christine Goerss and Colin Griffin. This exhibition, an inaugural collaboration between the UB Art Gallery and the Department of Visual Studies, opens with a public reception in the Second Floor Gallery on Thursday, November 13, 2008 from 5 to 7pm. Formal remarks by Bruce D. McCombe, Dean of UB College of Arts and Sciences at 5:30 pm. The artists will be in attendance. UB Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 AM to 5 PM with extended hours on Thursday until 7 PM. For information, please call 716-645-6912. The installation, which is free and open to the public, will be on view in the Second Floor Gallery through February 7, 2009.
Baby Books: Chris Bettencourt received her BFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2008 with a concentration in Emerging Practices. Her work utilizes a variety of media, and through the frequent use of satire concentrates on personal aspects of wider social issues. As Bettencourt anticipates the birth of her first child, she finds herself overcome with fears. Some of them are rational, some of them are not. For Baby Books, she categorized her fears, keeping only the ones she felt were widely experienced by expectant parents such as abnormalities that are undetectable by prenatal scans and the hazards of a un-baby-proofed house.
Neoplasticisms: Christine Goerss was born and raised in Buffalo, New York where she completed double degrees at the State University of New York at Buffalo in May 2008, receiving a BFA in Visual Studies and a BA in Art History. Goerss's interest in art history is visible in her artwork as she clashes concepts from the past with new materials and meaning. Neoplasticisms refers back to the art movement of the same name while looking ahead to suggest that there is a new plasticity that underlies the structure of our material world. The different types of assemblages Goerss arranges examine the way color and shape as previous essential forms have been trumped by byproducts of consumption. Central to her work is the collection and manipulation of material waste as it represents consequences of the existence that we have built up around us. The artist uses littered boxes, bags, and junk mail to reflect the imaginary concepts of branding, corporate identity, and credit, while her unsecured modular sculptures serve as a reminder that what is built up must eventually come down.
A real if fleeting instance of rapport: Colin Griffin bought his first camera the day after he first set foot in a darkroom, so beguiled was he. It was all so perfect, and so obviously suited to his quiet demeanor and romantic inclinations, that he never looked back. After a while he began experimenting with combining this newfound love with his other passions: storytelling, singing, and playing instruments. He found that he could create moving pictures to tell his stories, and use his own songs to set the mood. This ability to shape an entire world, no matter how brief and idealized it may be, is a powerful one. Griffith is beginning to realize this, is wary of it, but embraces it doggedly. For A real if fleeting instance of rapport, Griffin purchased a Super-8 movie camera. He goes on: “Two, actually. Why not?? I bought the necessary stock and a dozen batteries. I found a lab in Kansas that still processes the type of film I chose. I’ve also written a journal entry that is fictional, though parts of it bear a not insubstantial likeness to journal entries that are nonfictional. I began recording myself playing borrowed instruments with a borrowed microphone, and drew many little drawings that look perhaps like the second of a ten step “how to draw” lesson. I’ve talked to a number of people about this project, without ever really telling them very much about it at all. Each time I do, however, I learn a little bit more about why I do what I do. I’m just not going to tell you….”
The UB Art Gallery is located in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus just north of the I290 on Millersport Highway. Traveling east or west on the I-290 takeexit 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.
Organized by the UB Art Galleries with generous support form the Department of Visual Studies. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Jennifer Griffith, Anna Kuehl and Megan Leight, graduate students in the Department of Visual Studies with art history concentrations.
The UB Art Gallery is funded by the UB College of Arts Sciences, the Visual Arts Building Fund, the Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund, and the Fine Arts Center Endowment.
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