January 18, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE through March 12, 2011

Contact: 	Sandra Q. Firmin
	    	Curator
		716-645-0570
		sfirmin@buffalo.edu

UB ART GALLERY, Center for the Arts presents:
Noncommittal: A Prospective Glance 3
(Selections from Department of Visual Studies' Senior Thesis 2010)
February 17 through March 12, 2011


Buffalo, N.Y.—The UB Art Gallery is proud to present Noncommittal: A 
Prospective Glance 3, a group exhibition featuring three recent 
graduates from the Department of Visual Studies at the University at 
Buffalo: Erik Baker, Stephanie Carosa, and Jamie Major. This exhibition, 
a collaboration between the UB Art Galleries and the Department of 
Visual Studies, opens with a public reception in the Second Floor 
Gallery on Thursday, February 17, 2011 from 5 to 7pm. The artists will 
be in attendance.

UB Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 AM to 5 PM. For 
information, please call 716-645-6913. The installation, which is free 
and open to the public, will be on view in the Second Floor Gallery 
through March 12, 2011.

Spending most weekends at his fathers secluded rural home, Erik A. Baker 
would amuse himself by exercising his imagination and construction 
skills.  Tinkering with an erector set, or crafting something from scrap 
parts in his workshop were not uncommon activities. For the exhibition 
at the UB Art Gallery, Baker has constructed Buffalo BrewBot, a fully 
functional, multi-faceted and interactive custom beer-bottling machine. 
Based on user input, this semi-automated structure mixes custom 
home-brewed beer for the operator by adding user-selected ingredients 
and supplements. The machine will operating the night of the opening and 
providing beer for people 21 years or older.  The user is able to see 
the bottling process as empty bottles are transported along a conveyor 
belt to each station of the machine, and delivered directly to the user 
for individual consumption. The Buffalo BrewBot satisfies consumer 
demand  for a custom, personalized beverage, while also providing a 
visually entertaining demonstration of the mechanical, electrical, and 
robotic ingenuity that makes it possible, thus quenching curiosity, 
along with thirst.

Stephanie Carosa’s darkly expressionistic paintings are informed by her 
interest in sociology and human behavior. Fascinated by how the mind 
works, she mines the psychological underpinnings of the irrational 
behavior and paranoia exhibited by individuals swept up in mass 
hysteria. In her humorous portrayal of the recent H1N1 strain of 
influenza (otherwise known as swine flu), for instance, she explores how 
humans react to fear by depicting pig-children gleefully dancing. In 
another painting, Are We Sterile Yet (2010), a man emerges from a 
pitch-black background, desperately clutching a mask to his face in an 
updated take on Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893).

A family of four is seen posing for the camera. A woman walking down the 
street is about to be engulfed by a hulking shadow. Working with 
photographs one might find in an antique shop, Jamie Major distorts 
these prosaic images by blurring the scenes and faces while keeping 
other details in focus. Major scanned these vintage photographs and 
represented them at angles as if they were freefalling into space.  A 
delicately braided rope is attached to each, alluding to the precarious 
grip that people who look at photographs have on their memories. Viewers 
are encouraged to establish a rapport with these anonymous photographs 
either by directly identifying with them or fabricating fictions.

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.

Organized by the UB Art Galleries and the Department of Visual Studies. 
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by 
Roksana Filipowsko, a graduate student in the Department of Visual 
Studies with art history concentration.

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.

High resolution images available on request