Campus News

New exhibitions opening in UB Anderson Gallery

“Annie Bielski, Untitled (Pink Path), 2019. Acrylic, dye, wax, ink on silk. Detail. Courtesy of the artist and SEPTEMBER Gallery.”.

“Annie Bielski, Untitled (Pink Path), 2019. Acrylic, dye, wax, ink on silk. Detail. Courtesy of the artist and SEPTEMBER Gallery.”

UBNOW STAFF

Published February 7, 2020

Print

Two new exhibitions — “Patricia Layman Bazelon: The Color of Steel” and “Annie Bielski: Strutting, Fretting” — will open Feb. 8 at UB Anderson Gallery with a public reception from 6-8 p.m.

Both exhibitions will be on view through April 11.

“Patricia Layman Bazelon: The Color of Steel” showcases architectural photographs taken by the English-born artist Patricia Layman Bazelon (1933-95) during her time in Buffalo during the 1980s. Architect Reyner Banham, who taught at UB from 1976-1980, commissioned Bazelon to photograph the region’s grain elevators for his landmark publication Concrete Atlantis, which elevated her career as an architectural photographer.

Shortly thereafter, beginning in 1987, Bazelon began a four-year project documenting the recently abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna during the facility’s reclamation phase. Her imagery offers a new way of viewing present day architectural relics and focuses on the beauty she found in abandonment, decay and destruction.

“Patricia Layman Bazelon, Basic Oxygen Furnace, Vessel on Charging Platform, Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Lackawanna Plant, 1989. Chromogenic print. University at Buffalo Art Galleries: Gift of Lauren Tent, 2015. Image courtesy of the estate of Patricia Layman Bazelon.”.

“Patricia Layman Bazelon, Basic Oxygen Furnace, Vessel on Charging Platform, Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s Lackawanna Plant,” 1989. Chromogenic print. University at Buffalo Art Galleries: Gift of Lauren Tent, 2015. Image courtesy of the estate of Patricia Layman Bazelon.

The exhibition showcases a significant donation of Bazelon’s photographs of Bethlehem Steel that was made by Lauren Tent to the UB Art Galleries in 2015. “The Color of Steel” is the first exhibition of work from this donation, which strives to be one of many that opens the opportunity for multidisciplinary research and experiential learning for UB students and faculty to research, curate and teach from the UB Art Galleries’ Permanent Collection.

The exhibition is curated by Nicholas Ostness, registrar at the UB Art Galleries. Additional programming includes a family-oriented architectural photography workshop led by Lauren Tent from noon to 2 p.m. on Feb. 29, and a lecture/discussion, titled “In the Frame: The Collaboration between Reyner Banham and Patricia Layman Bazelon,” by Hadas Steiner, associate professor in the Department of Architecture, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 1.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Recent UB graduate Annie Bielski (MFA ’19) uses materials from both the studio and domestic space in her work, including paint, canvas, curtains, unfinished quilts and bedding. “Strutting, Fretting” continues her exploration of the body, gender and a self-conscious concealing and shameless revealing in her often large-scale stretched and draped paintings. 

“Strutting, Fretting” has been organized by the UB Art Galleries in partnership with the UB Arts Collaboratory. A concurrent installation of Bielski's work will be on view in the Center for the Arts Atrium Gallery as part of the Arts Collaboratory’s “Art in the Open” series from Feb. 1 through May 16.