INVISIBLE ARCHIVES VOL. 2 SELECTIONS FROM THE COLLECTON OF GERALD MEAD, PART 1

Since 1989, Buffalo curator and artist Gerald Mead has assembled a collection of over 300 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, photographs, crafts and video by 204 artists. With a few exceptions, all the artists Mead has collected have some connection with Western New York. Historically, they range from an 1888 etching of the Niagara River by Amos Sangster to an Untitled (Under the WTC) 1980/2001 film still by Cindy Sherman. Acquired through purchases from galleries, auctions and artists and by direct barter, Mead's intent was to build an encyclopedic collection that included significant artists in this region who were associated with such organizations as the Patteran Society, Hallwalls, CEPA, Big Orbit or were educators at the Art Institute of Buffalo, University at Buffalo or Buffalo State College.

As an artist/curator, Mead's selections have been motivated by both personal taste and scholarly interest. As a young collector, he has found inspiration in the zeal of life-long collectors/philanthropists in the region such as Dr. Charles Rand Penney. In recent years, Mead has also donated works by Western New York artists to the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Amherst Museum, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, and Castellani Art Museum.Gerald Mead is a collage artist, an adjunct lecturer in design at Buffalo State College, and a curator at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center. He has exhibited his work at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Arnot Art Museum, Carnegie Museum of Art, Castellani Art Museum, Erie Art Museum, Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, and Oswego State College among others. Mead's work has been published in photography textbooks such as Exploring Color Photography and Alternative Photographic Practices and he is listed in Who's Who in American Art. He is also is a past president of the Buffalo Society of Artists and his work is in numerous public and private collections. He is a frequent lecturer, artist-in-residence, guest curator and art exhibition judge. He serves on the boards of Big Orbit Gallery and Buffalo United Artists, and the advisory boards of CEPA Gallery, a nd El Museo Francisco Oller y Diego Rivera in Buffalo.

This ongoing series will be displayed on the walls of the Hallwalls bar (aka Barwalls) and will include works by
Bruce Adams, James A. Allen, Reed Anderson, The Art Guys, John Baldessari, Edward G. Bisone, Harvey Breverman, Alfred H. Briggs, Bob Budin, Paulo Buennos, Diane Bush, Nicholas Chaltas, Charles Clough, William Currie, Virginia Cuthbert, Seymour Drumlevitch, Phil Elliot, Robert Evans, Jackie Felix, Hollis Frampton & Marion Faller, Tyrone Georgiou, Bonnie Gordon, Carlos Gutierrez-Solana, Duayne Hatchett, Donald Haug, Adele Henderson, Patrick Holderfield, Richard Huntington, Jessica Hutchins, Josh Iguchi, Layman Jones, Katrin Jurati, Larry Kinney, Jody Lafond, Arthur H. Lindberg, James C. Litz, Robert Longo, Jane Markinsky, Kelly McFadden, Patrick Mills, Catherine Parker, Thor Eric Paulson, Beth Pedersen, John Pfahl, Joseph Piccillo, Walter Prochownik, Agnes Robertson, Milton Rogovin, William Rowe, Christy Rupp, Jeffery Scharf, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Sherven, Katherine Simonds, Andrew Topolski, Martha Visser't Hooft, Alfonso Volo, James Vullo and Roland Wise.

Some publications related to this event:
November and December, 2002 - 2002