Amid/In WNY 2015 - Part 2

 

Exhibition continues through May 1

Bobby Griffiths • Adele Henderson • Billy Huggins • George Hughes • Kevin Kline • Benjamin Minter • Rodney Taylor • Necole Zayatz

Curated by Kyle Butler, John Massier, Rebecca Wing

Amid/In WNY 2015 is a conversationally-derived casual survey of the art of our region at this moment. It does not include everyone and, in the end, will not include everyone. It's not planned as some all-encompassing, omnibus survey. We have used the term "studio trolling" to describe our process and that's an apt description. We consulted with each other to cobble together a list of artists whose work we were interested in investigating at this time. Beginning in November 2014, over 70 studio visits have been completed with local and regional artists. Artists and their work were discussed before, during, between, and after our visits.

Amid/In WNY 2015 will be (with the exception of the summer members' exhibition—its own kind of casual survey) the only 2015 project in Hallwalls' gallery schedule. Four additional exhibitions will premiere in March, May, September, and November 2015. We have no idea what these remaining four exhibitions will contain. They will be similarly culled from an ongoing process of studio trolling, conversations, and lunch.

Q&A with the Curators
Q: How did you find the response to Part One of this year-long project?

John Massier: People seemed enthused by the whole notion and the resulting show. We were certainly pleased with how it came out. The show seemed formally lively with plenty of strange conceptual threads between the works. We were really satisfied in bringing such a diverse array of artists together, many of whom have been in Buffalo for a long time without necessarily exhibiting in the same context.

Q: Any favorites among the installed work?

JM: All of them, really. Which sounds diplomatic, but it's true. It was crazy fun splitting Tommy Nguyen's and Kurt Von Voetsch's on the opposite side of a shared wall. Great hanging Al Volo's knitted beside beside Brian Milbrand's video, or Virocode's bizarre horn sculptures near Jeff Vincent's drawing work. There were a lot of shared sensibilities among the works exhibited.

Q: How did Marie-Claire Bozant's sweater pile go over?

JM: She may not have piled it originally intending it as a sculpture, but we promoted its anthropological presence. People that get that, get it. Some people look at those gestures quizzically, but that's fine. Provoking curious responses is part of what curating and installing an exhibition is about.

Q: So, what was different about your second round of studio visits?

A: Mostly the reality of the most brutal winter we've had in quite a long time. That hobbled our efficiency a bit, but we still managed about 25 studio visits in three weeks. At the same time, we continue to discuss ALL the works we've seen since the process began. Things we saw in November still linger with us, though they haven't found their way into the project yet. That may still happen, so they remain part of our ongoing conversation.

Q: Speaking of that conversation, leading up to Part One, Colin Dabkowski from The Buffalo News tweeted "I've never seen a show presented with more premediated nonchalance than @Hallwalls' Amid/In WNY. Here's this thing we did. Whatevs." Thoughts?

JM: I would never use the word "whatevs." We'll take that "premeditated nonchalance" as a compliment. He could have said "forced spontaneity," which would also have been fine. We're trying to be open to everything we see and to that end, the premeditation is held to a minimum.

Q: Is there a risk in appearing too casual?

JM: Not for an audience that has some level of sophistication, which I think describes the vast majority of the cultural community here in Western New York. That said, I had the strangest conversation with someone recently, who was complimenting us on our project and the "random" manner in which we were doing it. I replied that it was NOT random and they said, yes it is, you're selecting the artists randomly. I assured them we were not proceeding randomly and they STILL insisted that the included work was selected randomly. It was the strangest conversation about an exhibition I've had in years. Loose, casual, conversation, yes. But none of these things are "random." We thought acutely about every work we selected and just as acutely how we installed it. It's funny that this might confuse someone, but I guess it's not seen to be the normal process—but we decided to set up parameters in which to operate, but parameters that were flexible enough that we could adapt as we go.

Q: Do you have a specific example of that?

JM: Actually, yes. Back in November when we were talking about the whole project, we were discussing the broad range of work and artists in our region in order to fashion our working list for studio visits. At one point, Kyle made a casual remark about us not necessarily looking to do an exhibition of portraiture, for example. He reminded us of this recently that he'd said this because, in fact, Part Two will have a curious volume of portraiture in it. We didn't go looking for that, but it's what we found. It's not all portraiture, but there's an unusual volume of it in this part.

Q: And particular surprises in this second part of the project?

JM: I was surprised when I asked Billy Huggins what pencils/pens he used in his drawings and he replied "Number 6 pencil." You don't often meet someone who's using only one pencil. It's always fun to meet with George Hughes and when he enthusiastically likened the studio visit to an executioner's call—something you could not refuse—that was pretty hilarious. Bobby Griffiths' mason jar drawings were little gems just waiting for us. But we loved meeting everyone for Part Two, including those artists who were visited but are not in this exhibition.

Q: As you've now done over 70 studio visits whilenot even being halfway through the project, any thoughts?

JM: It's striking how many people say something like "It's so great you're doing this," as though the studio visit process is a long-abandoned thing or some rare methodology no one engages in anymore. I don't think that's exactly true, though it may reflect that it's a process employed less frequently than it should be. Especially now and especially in Western New York, which is bustling with people making things. In the end, we won't get to everyone, obviously, but still plan on seeing plenty of people.

Q: How many do you think?

JM: As we move through 2015, I'm guessing we'll probably more than double what we've done so far. So maybe 150 visits. Still just scratches the surface.