Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: That Upstate Heart
Next story: Roman De Gare

Off the Beaten Path

Visiting art spaces in neighborhoods out of the usual loop

For art lovers who want to experience something outside of their usual haunts, this week we focus on a few spaces off the beaten path. These places are not in the familiar downtown, Allentown, and Elmwood Village locales.

A Roland Wise retrospective is on exhibit at Michael Donnelly Interior Design

There is a tradition of students establishing alternative art spaces that have gone onto become well respected organizations, such as CEPA, Hallwalls, and Big Orbit. On Delaware Avenue in Kenmore, Designosaurus is a new space opened up by a trio of graduating seniors at Buffalo State. The team of Jeremy Dolph, Jodi Wroblewski, and Ryan Hirliman wanted a place off campus and found a flexible landlord who gave them a reasonable rent on a small storefront that had sat vacant for some time.

The space is decorated according to its name, with all manner of dinosaur figures. The gallery has been hosting shows with a graphic design bent.

“It’s really admirable what they did—as undergrads finding a space and dealing with some of the problems that commercial business owners have to contend with,” says Gerald Mead, who was their advisor. “Some of their problems were unforeseen but they handled them and were able to open on time for their thesis shows.”

The Hertel Avenue commercial district continues to gain momentum new restaurants and businesses open. It is also gaining new art spaces. A familiar face to many is Michael Morgulis. Last year he opened New Buffalo Graphics on Hertel, where you’ll find his Buffalo-centric work interspersed with sensual images of fruit, flowers, and vegetables.

Also on Hertel is an exhibition of paintings by Roland Wise entitled Purity of Color/Purity of Thought at Michael Donnelly Interior Design. Wise was chairman of the fine arts department at Buffalo State, where he taught for 37 years. The show contains abstract compositions Wise painted over the span of his career.

Designosaurus Gallery is located at 2935 Delaware Avenue (289-1366, jdolph@gmail.com).

Michael Morgulis and Local Color Gallery are at 1417 Hertel Avenue, Tue-Sat noon-6pm (885-5188, newbuffalographics.com).

The Roland Wise retrospective Purity of Color/Clarity of Thought is at Michael Donnelly Interior Design, 1534 Hertel Avenue, until July 19 (917-572-2090, 20thcenturyfinest.com).

Witzel’s show at the Grant Street Gallery is on view until June 29, at 216 Grant Street near Lafayette Avenue (772-221-8437, rjwitzel.com).

Tom Hughes’s gallery Autocrat is next door at 218 Grant Street (autocrat-art.org).

Lukia Costello’s show at Artsphere 466 Amherst St. is on view until July 6 (876.7188, artspherestudio.com).

Grant Street is witnessing a revitalization in the form of two galleries that have recently opened in the same building, with a café coming soon. After spending time in Seattle and Madison, Wisconsin, Tom Hughes came back to Western New York and set up Autocrat, where he recently showed his work. His pieces have a technological bent, fusing mechanical elements with video footage and sound clips.

“During the opening night, I stepped outside across the street. Seeing people inside the lit space, walking around, talking, looking at the work made the space seem so vibrant,” says Hughes.

Next door in the same building is the Grant Street Gallery, which hosts a retrospective of Robert J. Witzel’s watercolors.

Another area seeing an upswing in activity is Amherst Street in Black Rock. Artsphere, a gallery and studio space run by Doreen DeBoth for the last seven years, has been hosting shows by local artists. An exhibit of photographs by Lukia Costello is currently on view. Costello’s Manhattan cityscapes are full of shadows and negative spaces. “We move so fast we don’t have time to appreciate things. I stop and grasp certain moments,” says Costello. She likes to challenge people to give her a place they may not think has beauty and find something of interest within that space. “When you’ve turned a corner and had an awakening, that’s what I capture,” she says.

Awakening to the potential of new spaces can be thrilling for artists, collectors, and gallery owners. Galleries take a risk in trying to carve out a niche for themselves, but also offer viewers the chance to discover an up-and-coming artist, and may even encourage gallery hoppers to explore unfamiliar neighborhoods.

lucy yau

blog comments powered by Disqus