A red hot VIP art event is in the works, co-sponsored by k8 creative and Albrecht Visual Arts Services.

On View: April 1, 2010 – May 1, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 1, 2010 6-9pm

The Carnegie Art Center is pleased present “Feigning” new paintings by Jolene Beckman on view April 1 – May 1, 2010. Jolene Beckman is a UB MFA Thesis candidate and this is her final project exhibition. The exhibit showcases her conceptual vision, painterly talent and artistic skills cultivated during her time in the MFA program. The Carnegie Art Center is dedicated to present contemporary visual and media art exhibitions to the Western New York community.

Artist Statement:

“Feigning” is a body of work that examines aspects of figural painting that lay deeper than the image itself, and beyond the body it represents. With this work I am questioning what it means to put a body on display, and what it means to be looked at—from the perspective of both the viewer and the viewed. I am presenting a series of paintings of my own body, however, this is not an autobiographical or candid account of my self or my physical appearance. The title “feigning” serves to reveal the fluid nature of authenticity, and also explores the idea that sometimes what is concealed is often just as important as what is revealed.

Jolene Beckman

Jolene Beckman is a painter that lives and works in Batavia, NY and will be receiving her MFA from the University at Buffalo this Spring 2010. Jolene has exhibited at several instituations including “I Insist” 2010 Market Street Art Center (Lockport, NY), “Reflections and Confessions” 2009 Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council (Batavia NY), “At Her Mirror” 2009 Rochester Contemporary Gallery (Rochester NY), “More, Please” 2008 Pieces Gallery (Batavia NY), “Women and Forbidden Fruit” 2007 Sibley Centre, Satellite of RoCo (Rochester NY), and “Remnant Echoes Life” 2006 Vagabond Gallery, (Canandaigua, NY). Her works have also been included in group exhibitions in New York, Chicago and Seattle.

http://www.buffalospree.com/Blogs/Talk-about-Arts/Annual-2010/Out-of-the-way-Carnegie-worth-the-trip/

excerpts:

“Of course, what’s an art gallery without art? Curator Lauren Albrecht calls the two exhibitions on display her curatorial début, though she previously facilitated a couple of prefab solo shows. Cloud Corrosion: Photography at the Visual Threshold exhibits digital photography by four young emerging artists. It might be redundant to add the word “digital” to “photography” anymore, so ubiquitous is the medium. But it seems appropriate here because these images of post industrial debris and regional landscapes have each in their way benefited from some degree of digital tweaking. Then too, even saying that might be redundant, since these artists are young enough to never have even held a conventional film camera. To them, image manipulation is just a part of picture taking.”

“…The other exhibition is a solo effort by Esther Neisen titled Smother. The press release describes it as “the first exhibition in the newly reformatted East Gallery ‘Project Space,’” a place for artistic and curatorial experimentation. Presumably this is Albrecht’s idea, and it’s a good one, though Smother would be just as at home in the other part of the gallery. What Neisen does is difficult to explain adequately. She makes collaged insects out of scraps of used film: 35 mm, super 8, slides, even old porno movies. Each is about three inches in size. The spiders, grasshoppers, flies, and other creepy-crawlies are strikingly executed, with the film lending a shimmery quality reminiscent of insect exoskeletons. Neisen makes good use of the value range and patterns of the various film types.”

Smother & Cloud Corrosion Opening Pictures: 2/4/10 at Carnegie Art Center

Thanks to Aimee Buyea, we also have a tumblr website in the works! http://elab.tumblr.com/

And our fabulous in-house marketing guru/graphic designer Kate Wolcott has been generating exceptional collateral for our next networking function!  Come to the ARTworking Event on February 10th @ 464 Gallery, Buffalo, NY 14207 (Thx Marcus Wise for hosting the event)  It’s going to be like ‘speed-dating’ for arts people but less sexual tension and way more productive   Plenty of emerging leaders in the arts socializing will be had by all.

I know that was a lot of thank yous and I’m leaving out a few ‘Core’ members but everyone involved is great, thank you for participating and I’m thrilled this is turning into something bigger and better than I could have ever imagined!

Smother: New Works by Esther Neisen

New project space curated by Lauren Albrecht
On view: February 4, 2010 – March 19, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 4, 2010 6–8pm

Cloud Corrosion
Photography at the Visual Threshold

Featuring works by Phil Cavuoto, False Hope Photos & Jonathan Grassi

Exhibition curated by Lauren Albrecht
On view: February 4, 2010 – March 19, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 4, 2010 6–8pm

Emerging Leaders in the Arts Local Chapter Kick-Off

Leadership Seminar facilitated by Kimberly Billoni, Chief Executive, SPLiCE
Society of Product Licensors Committed to Excellence spliceonline.com

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
7:00pm – 8:00pm
SAMPLE Restaurant
242 Allen Street, Buffalo, NY 14201

To RSVP click ‘Attending’ on the Facebook Event or email Lauren Albrecht at regrantsoffice@gmail.com

Here it is for 2010! I’m organizing a new local Emerging Leaders Network through my position at the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County. The Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Program works to identify and cultivate the next generation of arts leaders in America. It is an ideal way for new leaders to share their interests with others as they continue to develop their skills and their commitment to the arts. The Emerging Leader Program targets professionals who are either new to the arts field, with up to five to ten years of work experience in the arts, or are 35-40 years of age or younger.  Our goal is for this to be a relaxed, interesting and productive meeting that anyone interested is welcome to attend.   We would like to thank SAMPLE, a modern restaurant with an innovative twist, for hosting the first of these networking events. SAMPLE’s distinct portion sizes allow guests the opportunity to try a wide variety of offerings from its contemporary seasonally-inspired menu.

Kimberly Billoni, Chief Executive of SPLiCE, will facilitate a discussion about your personal leadership in the arts, local priorities, what we hope to get out of our local gatherings and identify goals we can work towards in 2010. The goal setting conversation will be in an effort to present Buffalo/Western New York’s first Creative Conversation in October 2010. Creative Conversations are local gatherings of emerging leaders in communities across the country and are part of a grassroots movement to elevate the profile of arts in America during National Arts & Humanities Month each October. This local tool empowers emerging leaders to take a leadership role in their own community by both designing programming and galvanizing their peers to connect professionally.

More Information about the national program:

http://blog.artsusa.org/category/emerging-leaders

Thursday 12/3/09: Deitch Project’s Wynwood Walls & STAGES Livestrong (Lance’s) Party

Friday 12/3/09: Art Basel Miami Beach Art Fair 2009, Miami Convention Center, FL

Saturday 12/5/09: SCOPE Miami, Rubell Collection, PULSE Miami

SCOPE Miami Art Fair 12/5/09

Rubell Family Collection 12/5/09

PULSE Miami Art Fair 12/5/09

Did I mention I had art for sale in Miami? I’m currently promoting three artists near and dear to me that I plan to advance their artistic career via increasing visibility, sales, and exhibition opportunities.

Exhibition Dates: April 26 –May 19, 2007
Opening Reception, Thursday, April 26th 6-8pm
FIT Art Market Graduate Student co-curate contemporary art exhibition
Download Press Release

Impossibly Familiar Artists:
Antenna Design
assume vivid astro focus
Ragna Berlin
Cui Fei
Iván Navarro
Brandon Neubauer
Aurora Robson
Zbig Rybczynski

Location: Art Gotham 547 West 27th Street, Fifth Fl. New York, NY 10001
Gallery Hours: Wednesday-Saturday 11am-6pm

CURATORS: Lauren Albrecht, Christina Bolya, Samuel Kho, Caren Leipsic, Anat Reches, Jie (Lesley) Sheng, and Anna Zaderman

Opening Pictures, 4/26/07:

This was the best graduate school learning experience ever and I am still in love with the three artists I lobbied for inclusion.  AVAF – assume vivid astro focus is always doing cool stuff, think that last time I saw something of theirs was in the windows of MoMA’s restaurant in October ’08. Antenna Design seems to be on the DL ATM but their dealer, Frederieke Taylor is on it, I see her artists everywhere! I just tweeted about Long-Bin Chen making jewelry at the Museum of Chinese in America in NYC yesterday!

My <3 Iván Navarro has an exhibition on view right now (Dec. ’09) at the Paul Kasmin Gallery, NYC where we saw some of his work at Art Basel Miami Beach AND he represented Chile at the 53rd Venice Biennial in June of 2009!!! He’s amazing!

Ivan Navarro's mirror-pitted "Ocio" at Kasmin Gallery, Art Basel Miami Beach 2009