Large glass windows on the corner of Washington Street and Lafayette Square open up the new age of art in Buffalo. Passing by on the way to work or the Buffalo Public Library, eye-catching life-sized paper cranes might spark curiosity.
On the other side of those windows lives the Hunt Art Gallery. Resident artists Mojo Banjo, Emma Brittain, Paulie!, Emma Stanton and Cecilia Beavers showcased their creations made during their six-month residency at the gallery on Saturday.
“This was an amazing residency,” Paulie! said. “Just working with everybody and working on these pieces. Being in this space has been awesome.”
Residents grew close during the six month period they spent in the workshop space below the gallery. Bright energy filled the space watching artists interact. Stanton is one artist who clearly reflected friendship and play in her work.
“When I was applying to this residency I had just finished undergrad and was feeling really burnt out,” Stanton said. “So I spent the summer after graduation just playing around and having fun with my art. Which I really enjoy because that’s kind of why I started making art in the first place as a kid.”
The idea of play entered when she started making art out of bubbles to reflect cellular images.
“I had this giant empty canvas and that’s when I decided let’s play because that’s fun and I started mixing paint with the bubbles and the first layer,” Stanton said.
Stanton played with trial and error when mixing paint with bubbles didn’t quite create the effect she intended. She began using bubbles themselves using a special formula to create a bubble print on paper. She then folded this paper into giant origami cranes which are hanging proudly in the gallery.
Play as a form of escape is something that is constant among artists in the gallery. Artist Banjo uses inspiration from games to express his relationship with life and death.
“I want to explore my relationship with life and death because ever since I was young I had a very interesting relationship with life and death,” Banjo said. “Losing a parent … It’s something that I’m always thinking about. It always is something that to a sense haunts me. And with these pieces it feels like I’m sort of embracing that.”
Two of Banjo’s pieces clearly play with that line of another world with their hyper realistic features and complete landscapes. It would be nice to take a trip into his fluffy clouds even if there is a monster lying below.
Death and the human body is also explored in the art in Hunt gallery through the work of Beavers. Beavers didn’t talk about her own experience with death, but the connection with her own body.
“I thought about a connection with death and how we’re all going to die and that’s OK. That’s part of the journey,” Beavers said.
Beavers said she also tries to incorporate blood in her work because it’s something that connects her to her body.
“I work at a school and we have the kids, when they make art, we have rules and we’re like you can’t draw blood,” Beavers said. “I feel like having my period and bleeding is a type of blood that is not bad and creepy.”
Artists didn’t shy away from what was important to them. Paulie! incorporated his love for God and the Bible in his work.
“I go into the Bible just for my own sake,” Paulie! said. “But when I read certain parts of the Bible which describe poetry and other things like that I do get inspired by that.”
Paulie!’s work generally originates in his sketchbook where he explores different representations and historical connections to the Bible. Paulie! might be doing more active thinking than he thinks he does himself as he certainly goes back into the Bible and explores what different things might look like. For example, the armor of God.
Brittain tied ideas of history, identity and art together in her pieces that explored African American history. Brittain used a familiar Buffalonian or UB vessel to express her ideas, geese.
“They mark time with their cycles of migration and they mark the relationship of the North and South, which is the common connection for most people of color,” Brittain said.
Brittain took laser cut images of geese and painted important markings of things she explored from plantations to the last river crossing of the Underground Railroad, Freedom Park.
“When I first moved to Buffalo I would walk dogs. There was a dog that lived in that neighborhood and so I would walk them in this park,” Brittain said. “I remember seeing this sign for the first time that said, ‘This is the last river crossing of the Underground Railroad?’ And I just panicked, like my heart started racing and it was hard to breathe because I’m looking at how fast this water moves and how wide that river is.”
Brittain connected Buffalo in other pieces when she laser cut a goose with skittles, an homage to Trayvon Martin.
All of the artists’ pieces represent a piece of them, and some, pieces of history. The Hunt Art Gallery is open Wednesday-Friday 11 a.m- 5 p.m and on Saturdays 10 a.m- 2 p.m. The artists’ works are available for purchase, and the workshop space is available to peruse.
Building art and community is apparent at the Hunt Art Gallery, and especially through the friendly and thoughtful artists who opened up.
Sophia Stines is the assistant features editor and can be reached at sophia.stines@ubspectrum.com
Sophia Stines is an assistant features editor.
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
