Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/23/2024 - 03/30/2024
12:00 am
Location
Buffalo Arts Studio
Categories
Opening Reception, Friday, February 23, 2024, 5:00—8:00 pm
Part of M&T Bank 4th Friday @ Tri-Main Center
Looking Up is an exhibition of four artists who were a part of the Hunt Gallery Residency program. The C. Stuart and Jane H. Hunt Art Gallery provides emerging WNY artists rent-free studio space for four to five months and encourages the selected artists to collaborate and network with one another. This residency allows emerging artists to enter a collaborative environment in partnership with the Buffalo Society of Artists (BSA) where they will have the opportunity to collaborate and exhibit work throughout the duration of their occupancy. Buffalo Arts Studio Curator Shirley Verrico and Hunt Gallery Manager Christina Buscarino will co-curate a collection of work by former Hunt Gallery Artists-in-Residence Kevin Burzynski, DJ Carr, Laura Valkwitch, and Nicholas Wheeler.
Kevin Burzynski
Kevin Burzynski
www.boredonvacation.com
Artist Statement
I want my paintings to have a life of their own with a unique visual language that needs to be experienced in person to be fully understood. The foundation for this practice has been painting on unique surfaces, typically made from sand or concrete, to create a texture that works as a foundation for the imagery. This surface feels permanent and sturdy, not fragile and disposable like many current art practices. I like to make signature motifs and play with source imagery, manipulating it in a way that feels very personal—with recurring color palettes, compositions, structures, and shapes that fit in their own world. I like to make paintings in series to push imagery further and utilize it in multiples.
Biography
Kevin Burzynski is a visual artist from Buffalo, New York. He graduated from SUNY Fredonia with a BA in film. After college, Burzynski worked primarily in the film industry first in New York City and then Los Angeles, California. While in Los Angeles, his focus shifted to painting and he ultimately decided to move back to Buffalo to be closer to friends and family as well as expand his studio practice. His current work consists primarily of semi-abstract paintings, although he has worked in photography and analog collage as well. Burzynski has exhibited his work at The Crucible Art Collective, Birge Mansion, Buffalo Art Movement (BAM), Hallwalls, and The C. Stuart and Jane H. Hunt Art Gallery.
Burzynski was in residence at the Hunt Gallery in the Summer of 2022. After the residency period, Burzynski continued working in his home studio, producing the 18 paintings that were included in his solo show, Periwinkle at Buffalo Art Movement (BAM). After a studio visit with Hallwalls curators John Massier and Kyle Butler, Burzynski was asked to participate in the group show Amid/In in January 2023. Hallwalls also invited Burzynski to participate in their Mid Winter’s Draw, Live Drawing Rally & Silent Online Auction. Burzynski has also secured representation with Brooke Lebouf via Dome Art Advisory.
DJ Carr
DJ Carr
www.djcarrr.com
Artist Statement
I am an artist and photographer who takes pride in my community. For Looking Up, I am focusing on the heartbeat that lives within me as an artist while I try to balance my life and my practice. I want to show the highs and lows that come with reaching towards the greatest version of myself. The work flows from the moment of personal discovery, to displaying the pride and confidence needed to continue on. I want to share my realization that art is all around us, and more importantly deep within our core. The images show my own feelings of being caught between my own expectations and those of society. I find myself feeling like I am on the inside looking out, that I can see the vividness of success, as well as my own ever changing self-image. To truly “look up” you must know the feeling of conquering some of the lowest valleys life offers.
Biography
Derrick Carr is a self-taught artist from Buffalo, New York specializing in portraiture, documentary, and street photography. Carr started shooting digital photography eight years ago and transitioned fully into film photography in 2020. He was inspired by Gordon Parks and his way of documenting and capturing the stories of marginalized people within the inner city. Carr’s focus often falls on those same subjects, capturing the essence of the moment and revealing the truth within. In May of 2021, He was the inaugural solo exhibitor at the new space for The Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art (BICA) highlighting life on the west side of Buffalo. Within that same year, Carr also worked with Time Magazine, WIVB Channel 4 News, Paramount Motion Pictures, and more.
Laura Valkwitch
Laura Valkwitch
www.lauravalkwitch.com
Artist Statement
Overall, my art is a celebration of the immense beauty that surrounds us, and my work is fueled by a lifelong fascination with the transcendent qualities of the natural world. I am deeply inspired by the breathtaking majesty of the lake-effect clouds in Western New York. Looking up has always been a respite for me—a brief escape from the everyday. I am continually amazed by how lucky I am to witness such beauty. Through my ongoing series of cloud paintings, I aim to capture the stunning diversity and spontaneous grace of these ethereal formations.
Biography
Laura Valkwitch is a multidisciplinary artist and instructor from Western New York where she currently resides with her husband and three children. Her primary medium of expression is oil painting with at times added pyrography and wood elements.
Valkwitch studied fine art at Niagara County Community College and is currently finishing her Bachelor of Fine Art degree at Buffalo State University. She teaches drawing and painting classes at Buffalo Art Studio in Buffalo, New York and at Carnegie Art Center in North Tonawanda, New York. She is also an exhibiting artist and board member of the Buffalo Society of Artists.
In 2022, Valkwitch completed a five-month residency at Hunt Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. The artist residency at Hunt Art Gallery was an invaluable experience and propelled her to pursue art-making full-time. Since the residency, Valkwitch has been busy creating new work, teaching both drawing and painting classes, and planning for the next steps in her creative career. After a 20-year “pause,” (and with the support of her amazing family) Valkwitch went back to school to complete her BFA at Buffalo State University.
Nicholas Wheeler
Nicholas Wheeler
www.nick@1338workshop.com
Artist Statement
I believe that craftspeople—artists, designers, tradespeople, etc.— construct relationships with and within their world so that they may find themselves a part of it. Through this process of self-discovery, they push past human needs to create beauty and promote human happiness. Unfortunately, craftspeople are constrained by the mass-production-driven material culture of Western capitalist societies. They are forced to become “professionals” in the over-specialized and segregated disciplines of art, architecture, design, and building trades. These ideological and disciplinary boundaries in our society impede individual development and restrict collective communication, resulting in the devaluing of the craftsperson’s work. Craftspeople cannot achieve quality in work and life without the everyday integration of disciplinary diversity and collective values. Without disciplinary diversity, work and life become mundane; without collective value, work and life lose meaning.
Biography
Nicholas Wheeler is an artist, tradesperson, and designer. He works primarily through woodworking and carpentry and often oscillates between the worlds of art, decorative art, and architecture. Wheeler received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the University at Buffalo, where he studied in the Material Culture research group and completed his thesis on interdisciplinary communities of craftspeople. He is co-founder of 1338 Workshop, where he works as a contractor executing custom design-build projects in the City of Buffalo.
Since completing his 2022 residency at the C. Stuart and Jane H. Hunt Art Gallery, Wheeler has been growing his design-build practice and developing his sculptural work. He is currently working on multiple sculptural furniture commissions and has recently started working with cast glass.
