Alicia Malik and Kristina Siegel & Jorg Schnier, July 25 – September 13, 2014

Exhibition Catalog, Alicia Malik, Kristina Siegel, Jorg Schnier

Alicia Malik, Husks, July 25 – September 13, 2014

Buffalo-based artist Alicia Malik investigates the interplay between death, the essence of things living, and space in her series of paintings titled Husks. Through the detailed representation of dead bugs surrounded by vast nebulous. space, Malik simultaneously draws your eye to the remains of an overlooked life and the energy of the space that exists in spite of the absence of life. By painting the husks in an infinite, yet almost recognizable place, Malik creates a spatial experience that encourages viewers to shift their visual and emotional perspective in relation to their own mortality and to consider, in quiet contemplation, the lives of the creatures “who have fallen lonely in our windowsills.” Even though the bugs are masterfully painted and the “focal point” of each piece, it is impossible to focus solely on the bug. The eye must travel and explore the expressive surface of space. Painting in both watercolor and acrylic, Malik’s process includes constantly working between the bug and the space to create visual and thematic harmony across the substrate. Compared to the tightly structured bugs, the endless atmosphere is aggressively painted. According to Malik, this difference in paint-handling “mirrors the feeling of a constant energy that surrounds everything – even after life has left its vessel.”

Alicia Malik is an artist born and raised in the Buffalo area. As a graduate of Daemen College with a BFA in Painting, Alicia continues her involvement in the local arts community. She is a resident member of Studio 464 and a Teaching Artist at CEPA Gallery. She can often be found tending the bar and assisting events at these and other Buffalo galleries. Alicia is also stationed in East Aurora where she spends early mornings as a Barista and manager of Taste Cafe. While she is still early in her artistic career, Alicia has found her niche in painting insects and plans to continue expanding her collection.

Kristina Siegel and Jorg Schnier, Deserted Rooms & White Noise, July 25 – September 13, 2014

German-born artists Kristina Siegel and Jorg Schneir create ethereal installations together. Deserted Rooms is a quiet, reverent exploration of the Memento Mori theme. The installation is accompanied by Schnier’s photographic works titled White Noise. The images expose the often unseen angels of white-walled galleries. Tied together, these works create both solidity and fragility of space. Siegel delicately creates a large house facade of gossamer silk organza. There seems to be nothing solid to the form, and yet, as we walk through two large empty doorways, we feel we have entered a real, if not inhabited, space. The window floats in space, but the reflection is solid on the gallery wall. This is life. We exist and are solid. We pass away and become intangible memories to others. The imperfections of the hand-sewn structures contrast and complement the large photographic prints on the walls. Like Siegel’s transparent structures, Schnier’s abstract, hard-edged photographs shimmer in the light. Upon the first glimpse, they appear to be monochromatic values of gray. However, upon closer inspection, small bits of color fluctuate over the surface. The photos add to the narrative of the space created in Deserted Room. While the angles of the photographed gallery walls hang upon the real gallery walls in a house made of fluttering silk, we can question our inhabitation of space and what it means to be breathing inside the space.

Kristina Siegel. originally from Dresden, Germany and now living part time in Buffalo, is an internationally acclaimed installation artist and scenographer. She holds a MFA in Scenography from the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden (HfBK Dresden) as well as a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Technology in Dresden and the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris-La Defense (Paris-Val de Seine). She has designed for numerous theaters and opera companies in Germany, France, Spain, Austria, and Finland. Since 2012, she collaborates with Torn Space Theater in Buffalo. Parallel to her theater work, she has pursued her interdisciplinary artistic work. Her installations are usually compositions of drawings and ethereal objects that form three-dimensional “Nature Morte” Tableaux.

Jorg Schnier received a degree in Interior Design from the University of Applied Sciences of Rosenheim in Germany. After the fall of the iron curtain, he moved to East Germany and went on to study architecture at the University of Technology in Dresden and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Again in search of new horizons, he moved to Buffalo in 2002 to accept a tenure track position for Interior Design at Buffalo State. Kristina Siegel and Jorg Schnier have collaborated on art projects such as the site-specific installations “Wrecker’s Ball” chandelier (2012) and “Another Story” (2013) displayed in the Perot Malthouse at Silo City during ELAB’s City of Night event.