The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Summer Exhibition Schedule

Written by Elaine Pyne, Director of Advancement Sunday, 30 January 2011 22:17

Buffalo , NY – The Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s summer exhibition schedule features four varied exhibitions:   two drawn from the Permanent Collection, which will highlight the Gallery’s rich and varied holdings, and two focused on significant contemporary artists represented in the Collection.   Gallery Director Louis Grachos has stated, “This will be a great summer for seeing diverse works of contemporary art at the Albright-Knox.   Artworks from the Collection that are seldom on view or recently acquired will be shown along with many important works on loan to the Gallery in these four provocative installations developed by our curators.”

Strange Brew:   The 1960s , organized by Associate Curator Holly E. Hughes, opened on May 29 and will be on view through September 20, 2009.   This exhibition focuses on works of art that sprang from 1960s counterculture and includes seldom-seen prints and other works on paper from the Permanent Collection along with cover art from rock music albums of the time on loan to the Gallery from local private collectors.   The art that sprang from the 1960s counterculture, which fuses elements of Surrealism and Pop art with swirling patterns, neon colors, repeated motifs, and bizarre iconography, speaks to a wide range of social, political, and spiritual themes.   This selection of works installed in the Clifton Hall Link features works by such artists as Les Levine, Werner Philips, Joe Tilson, Larry Slezak, and William Weege, and illuminates an era that produced some of the most culturally responsive imagery in American history.

Curator Heather Pesanti is organizing the group exhibition Bad Habits, to be on view July 10 through October 4, 2009.   The exhibition takes its name from a suite of prints by Lisa Yuskavage in the Gallery’s Permanent Collection.   The opening of the exhibition will be celebrated on Friday, July 10, 2009, during the Gusto at the Gallery festivities that evening.   A meditation on vice and naughtiness in contemporary art , Bad Habits will feature a selection of the some of the more subversive objects in the Collection highlighting an important strain of contemporary art that focuses on compulsion, perversion, eroticism, anger, greed, trickery, and other vices associated with the underbelly of human existence.   Drawn exclusively from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection, the exhibition includes works by Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Brinker, Cecily Brown, Robert Colescott, Gregory Crewdson, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Jeanne Dunning, David Hammons, Nikki S. Lee , Glenn Ligon, Robert Melee, Cathy de Monchaux , Tony Oursler, Jason Rhoades, Thomas Ruff, Kiki Seror, Jeff Wall, Andro Wekua, and Lisa Yuskavage. 

Opening on July 24, 2009, WALL ROCKETS:   Contemporary Artists and Ed Ruscha will feature approximately one hundred works by more than seventy-five artists that pay tribute to Ed Ruscha, one of the first American artists to consider the role of consumerism in art and culture.   Organized by Lisa Dennison, Chairman of Sotheby’s North and South America and former chief curator, deputy director, and director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, this exhibition is on loan from the FLAG Art Foundation in New York City, and will remain on view through October 25, 2009.   The installation of the exhibition at the Albright-Knox is being organized by Curator Heather Pesanti, who will be augmenting it with a selection of works by Ed Ruscha and other artists from the Gallery’s Collection.   Among America’s most influential contemporary artists, Ruscha’s work has focused on the urban landscape, especially in Southern California where he lives, and on the complexities of language as a form of visual imagery.   He has often incorporated both in his art, which has inspired many artists over the past several decades and is the premise of this exhibition.

The work of renowned American sculptor Fletcher Benton will be showcased in the special long-term installation Fletcher Benton:   The Alphabet  to be on view in the Gallery for Small Sculpture from July 30, 2009, through July 5, 2010.   Benton is best known for cutting, folding, and realigning two-dimensional sheets of steel into three-dimensional objects that seem to defy gravity.   This exhibition, organized by Albright-Knox Art Gallery Associate Curator Holly E. Hughes, will focus on Benton’s “Alphabet” series, which he began in the 1970s.   The seventy works included are on long-term loan from the collection of James J. Curtis along with paper maquettes and corresponding sculptures, which will provide an in-depth examination of the artist’s creative process.   Scheduled to be on view for a full year, this exhibition will also be the focus of a comprehensive educational program for elementary, middle, and high school students in the 2009-2010 academic year through the Art’scool guided tour program for area schools that is generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is recognized as one of the world’s leading collections of modern and contemporary art. With more than 6,500 works in its collection and a dynamic series of exhibitions and public programs, the AKAG continues to grow and fulfill its mission to acquire, exhibit, and preserve modern and contemporary art in an enriching, dynamic, and vibrant environment.

Hours: Wednesday and Thursday 10 am to 5 pm; Friday 10 am to 10 pm; Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays.   Admission:   $12 for adults; $8 for seniors and students; free for Gallery Members and children 12 and under.   On Fridays from 3 to 10 pm, Gusto at the Gallery features a variety of free programs for visitors of all ages.   For additional information, visit www.albrightknox.org.