Continuing My Exploration of Art in WNY

One of the true gems of downtown Buffalo is the CEPA Gallery, celebrating the art of photography. Last week I saw two exhibits there, including the Writing With Light show advertised in the above picture. This is a series launched last year in which local school kids are given a camera and a theme and asked to come up with not only a picture but also a poem related to the theme (this year it was "respect"). Some of the results are pretty good (no tthe least the photo seen above). This exhibit will be up for awhile if you are in the area and want to check it out. Unfortunatley the other exhibit I saw has closed. It was a group show of night photography (if you've been reading this blog over the past couple of weeks, you can imagine why that had some appeal to me) done by some local artists, and again, much of it was quite spectacular. One memorable sequence was of lonely ice machines outside of gas stations and convenience stores around the city (shot at night); another followed the nocturnal wanderings of a "sprite of light" who seemed to be haunting Delaware park and environs; a third were impressionistic images after those produced by artistic photographers of the early twentieth century, like Edward Steichen. I had a nice chat with one of the CEPA staff, who seemed really happy that I stopped by (the gallery was otherwise empty-- I hope that wasn't true through the exhibit, lest it become harder to mount similar shows in the future). All of the work was interesting and made me want to get out and make some pictures myself.

Then today, I stopped by the Queen City Gallery (housed in the Market Arcade Building where CEPA is also located), and got to see an exhibit of photos by Paul Zone documenting the New York Undergorund Scene, 1972-1977 (here's a link to the exhibit when it was on display last year in Los Angeles-- Buffalo is it's second stop). Most all of the images featured musical performers like Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, and various members of the Ramones. The proprietor at the Queeen City Gallery told me that Zone is working on putting together a book, so if you like the examples at that link (or get a chance to see the show itself), they may be avaialble in a published edition sometime in the near future.