After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry (2022)

Q: Where can you find a TV Shovel, a Dissociative Armoire, and a 19 SQFT Negative?

A: “After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry”!

It may seem unlikely that an answer to that first question even exists, but in truth these are only a fraction of the works that you can expect to see throughout the month of April on the second floor of the CEPA Gallery. “After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry’’ is a group show from the University at Buffalo’s first year Studio Art MFA candidates. It contains the work of Bello Bello, Alex Cassetti, Josie Freeman, Robert George, Anja Heli Honisett, Quincey Miracle, Diana Polanco, Taylor Robers, Soda, and Walker Tufts. The exhibition “After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry’’ is not just built on the interplays of group dynamics, but on all manner of interaction: the relationships between individuals, their environment, reality, and the self. All are welcome to attend the opening on April 1st from 5 pm to 8 pm at the CEPA Gallery.

NEWS RELEASE

March 22, 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE through April 30, 2022

Contact: Mark Snyder, Art Resource Manager: marksnyd@buffalo.edu

BUFFALO, NY – An exhibition of work by ten first year MFA students from the Department of Art

at the University at Buffalo, will open on Friday, April 1, 2022, with a public reception from 5 to 8pm at CEPA Gallery, 2nd Floor Passageway Gallery, 617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203. CEPA Gallery Hours are Wed, Fri, Sat: 12-4pm, Thursday: 4-7pm or by appointment at cepagallery.org. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on view in the second-floor gallery through April 30, 2022

The exhibition features the artwork of Bello Bello, Alex Cassetti, Josie Freeman, Robert George, Anja Heli Honisett, Quincey Miracle, Diana Polanco, Taylor Robers, Soda, and Walker Tufts. Additional information on the artists can be found at https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/art/graduate/current-graduate-students/2023mfa.html

After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry

UB Class of 2023 Art Exhibition

The exhibition “After the Charm: Chasing Chemistry’’ is not just built on the interplays of group dynamics, but on all manner of interaction: the relationships between individuals, their environment, reality, and the self.

Bello Bello (he/him), is an interdisciplinary artist whose focus is experimenting with art, biology, sound, and technology. He creates custom electronics and software to enable participants to interact with plants and other lifeforms.

Alex Cassetti (he/him) is a photographic artist working in New York City. Cassetti received his BFA in Photography in 2016 from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and spent time studying at the Royal College of Art in London. Cassetti is interested in finding new ways of making images that are pushing the boundary of what contemporary photography is today. His work has been shown in various galleries in New York City and in London UK. He has also been published by Vogue Italia and the Impression Magazine.

Josie Freeman (she/her) is a recent graduate from Allegheny College and had been working in Pittsburgh prior to attending UB. Her focus is on utilizing simple photographic techniques and digital scanning processes to manipulate the body into surrealistic forms, reflecting the perception of women’s bodies as an idea to be witnessed and controlled. Freeman’s most recent series of nude and semi-nude self-portraits have been digitally altered to make her body something inhuman and sexually provocative. The goal is to cultivate the body into the uncanny, magnifying the viewer’s desires of the flesh to uncomfortable limits.

Robert George’s (he/him) photographs reconstitute the tropes of paranormal imagery. They examine the truth claim of photography, and the material processes which transfigure the real into the unreal. Through an exploration of the images which exist on the cultural fringe, they strive to find the means through which photographs construct the understanding of reality.

Anja Heli Honisett’s (she/her) recent work merges traditional figurative painting with the natural world, focusing on women’s self-observation through a personal lens, unobscured by filters, fluctuating beauty standards, or technology. Through the utilization of traditional materials such as linen, walnut oil, and oil paint, an art historical context is provided, as is a dialogue with past academic and figurative painters. Honisett’s aim is to accentuate the strength, vulnerability, and uniqueness of women, and to bring the viewer’s gaze back to the self in its purest form, whilst illuminating women’s relationships to themselves in the current social milieu.

 Quincey Miracle (they/them) is a nonbinary and queer sculptor, performance artist, event organizer, and collector of curiosities. Quincey received their AFA from Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane Washington and a BFA from Central Washington University in Ellensburg Washington. Quincey’s work is a self-reflective investigation into facets of identity that have been informed by traumatic environments and abusive interpersonal experiences. Imagery referencing the body and the home explore topics of inherited mental illness, negativity stemming from idyllic notions of perfection, suppressed aspects of the self, and an unhealthy reverence for nostalgia. Oftentimes, the work’s inception lies in found objects: toys from childhood, journal pages, and vestiges of the domestic sphere that have been imbued with a personal narrative through associations and experiences.

Diana Polanco (she/her) is a painter whose work focuses on portraiture and color theory. She aims to depict dailiness, domesticity, and companionship, all of which coalesce for her in images of leisure and quietude.

Taylor Robers’ (she/her) installations of paintings, sounds, and sculptures forge a connection between the viewer and forest ecosystems by igniting curiosity through sensory experiences. As a painter and naturalist, Robers’ realized that viewers need a personal relationship with their surroundings to care about conservation. Her paintings aim to forge a connection between the viewer and ecology by creating imagery that ignites curiosity and recalls memories and sensory experiences. In Robers’ art practice, she combines painting, research, and endless curiosity for ecology. With water-soluble oils and cold wax, she creates gestural and textured brushstrokes that spur spontaneous, organic moments throughout the work. She doesn’t aim to paint photorealistically, but to paint light, color, and texture in a way that feels more real than a photograph, to capture the spirit of that unique organism or environment. The goal of her paintings is to help the viewer slow down, observe closely, question, relearn, and become more engaged with their local environment.

Soda (they/them) works primarily as a painter in oils and pastels but does enjoy the occasional sculpting. They work mostly in abstract realism and Fauvism. Soda’s mission is to bring forth a new way to colorize the world. They take figures and everyday emotions and synthesize them through a kaleidoscope. The use of color is playful yet strategic, mixed with the emotion each piece is meant to represent. With an influence of Fauvism and Impressionism, they seek to grab the colors in front of them, and dive deep into the true nature of color.

Walker Tufts (he/him) is a game design researcher and visual artist. His work complicates our relationship to others (human and more-than-human) through games, kitchen renovations, paired meditations, posters, dinner parties, and performances. He works with/as Kosmologym and Camp Little Hope. His work has been shown internationally including: MassMoCA: North Adams, MA, USA; Den Frie Udstillingbygning: Copenhagen, DK; and Flux Factory: NYC, NY, US. He has participated in residencies from Saint Petersburg, RU to Green River, Utah, US.