Galen Cheney, “Breathing Underwater,” June 23 – July 28, 2023

Buffalo Arts Studio presents Breathing Underwater, an exhibition of new work by Massachusetts artist Galen Cheney. Cheney is completing the artwork during a two week residency at David Fernan’s 321 Residence space in Buffalo. Fernan first saw Cheney’s work on Instagram, and after visiting her studio in North Adams, Massachusetts, invited her to Buffalo for a summer residency at his studio and living space in North Buffalo. Fernan also approached Buffalo Arts Studio about showing Cheney’s work, knowing that the space was well suited for her large canvases and that the free gallery access would allow more Western New Yorkers to experience Cheney’s work in person. 

Galen Cheney is a painter living and working in North Adams, Massachusetts. She was born in Los Angeles but grew up in New England where she has deep roots and feels a strong connection to the land and architecture.  After receiving her undergraduate degree in art and Italian from Mount Holyoke College she lived in New York City and worked as a magazine editor. Realizing she was in the wrong profession, she left New York after a few years to attend graduate school at the Maryland Institute, College of Art.  Thirty-plus years later, she is still painting. Her dynamic, abstract work addresses ideas of expansion and contraction, freedom and constraint, interiority and exteriority, and what is hidden and what is exposed. The works in Breathing Underwater are a blend of collage, painting, and weaving, reflecting today’s fragmented digital world while also nodding toward traditions of weaving and the handmade.

According to Cheney, “making art is a solitary practice, yet the purpose of it is connection.  My art is a means to enlarge my world, meet people, engage, learn and travel. I am excited to get to know the people and culture of Buffalo, a city I have never visited. Hopefully I will forge some long-lasting connections.”

While in Buffalo, Cheney also hopes to experience many of the mid-sized arts organizations as well as the new Buffalo AKG Museum and the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.

Galen’s work has been exhibited and collected in Europe, the U.S., Canada, and China.  She has had residencies at the Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, MASS MoCA, and DaWang Culture Highland in Shenzhen, China.  A residency at Pouch Cove, in Newfoundland is upcoming in 2024. Past shows include Mark Bettis Gallery (Asheville), David Richard Gallery (NYC), University of Maine at Augusta, Fleming Museum (VT), University of Dallas, The Painting Center (NYC), Gray Contemporary (Houston), and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, among many others. Her work has been featured in many publications, including New American Paintings, Art New England, Tupelo Quarterly, Berkshire Magazine and Whitefish Review, among others. She was recently interviewed for the podcasts Sound and Vision and I Like Your Work.

Press Release available here.

Photo by Tallulah Gordon, Get Foku’sd Productions, Creatives Rebuild New York.