The UB Art Galleries presents Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017

The UB Art Galleries presents Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017, one of the galleries’ largest and most ambitious contemporary art exhibitions to date.  The exhibition opens at both the galleries’ locations on September 7, 2017 and will be on view through December 31, 2017. It will then travel to the Des Moines Art Center and open February 18, 2018. An opening reception will take place at the UB Art Gallery, CFA September 7th from 5-8pm and at the UB Anderson Gallery on September 9th from 11-2pm.

Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, Journeys 1967-2017 questions and explores the complex nature of artists as voyagers—those who depart their studio to create work outside of the confines of four walls. This exhibition is a comprehensive survey of the artist’s need to roam and the work that emerges from this need. No longer separately relegated to “walking” art or “land” art, but including an array of action-based processes, Wanderlust allows viewers to experience 50 years of artistic practices that are intertwined while highlighting diverse approaches to contemporary art. The exhibition presents artists working as both solitary figures implanting themselves physically on or in the landscape while others perform and create movements in a collaborative manner or in front of an unsuspecting audience.

Each work recognizes the walk and the journey as much more than just a basic human act. Rebecca Solnit observes that walking replicates thinking, adding “the motions of the mind cannot be traced, but those of the feet can.” The exhibition encompasses a broad spectrum of artists working in this particular way—demonstrating that artists who step outside of their studio have a shared sensibility, yet approach art making in a spectrum of ways.

“Wanderlust showcases work by over 40 artists, with under-recognized and emerging artists alongside pioneers in the field of contemporary art,” said Rachel Adams, curator of Wanderlust and Senior Curator of Exhibitions at UB Art Galleries. “Beginning with Richard Long’s A Line Made by Walking and Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Walking Sculpture, this exhibition has work representing every decade from the last 50 years and includes artists from the Western New York region and the United States as well as internationally including Canada, Italy, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine and Poland. This exhibition will not only be a learning experience but promote much-needed discourse for students and the greater Buffalo community.”

Artists featured in Wanderlust include Vito Acconci, Bas Jan Ader, Nevin Aladağ, Francis Alÿs, Janine Antoni, John Baldessari, Kim Beck, Roberley Bell, Blue Republic, Sophie Calle, Rosemarie Castoro, Cardiff/Miller, Millie Chen, Zoe Crosher, Fallen Fruit, David Hammons, Mona Hatoum, Nancy Holt, Kenneth Josephson, Allan Kaprow, William Lamson, Richard Long, Marie Lorenz, Mary Mattingly, Anthony McCall, Ana Mendieta, Teresa Murak, Wangechi Mutu, Efrat Natan, OHO, Gabriel Orozco, Carmen Papalia, John Pfahl, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Pope.L, Teri Rueb, Michael x. Ryan, Todd Shalom, Greg Stimac, Mary Ellen Strom, and Guido van der Werve.

Highlights of the exhibition include A Line Made by Walking—Richard Long’s first walking work, Vito Acconci’s Following Piece, 12 photographs from Ana Mendieta’s Silueta seriesand several new commissions including over 20 fruit trees planted as part of Fallen Fruit’s Endless Orchard in the Fruit Belt neighborhood in Buffalo; Marie Lorenz’s Gyre—a series of found objects from her trip down the Erie Canal in summer 2016 cast in porcelain; a new skywriting performance by Kim Beck; Untitled (Infinity Mirror) —a single-channel work by William Lamson; and Still Visible, After Gezi by Roberley Bell, an investigative artwork where Bell scoured the streets of Istanbul in 2015 after the Gezi Park protests trying to find trees she had photographed originally in 2005 and 2010.

The exhibition will also feature a variety of public programming, allowing visitors to also depart the gallery and explore the city of Buffalo. Todd Shalom will lead a newly-commissioned walk through the west side of Buffalo; Teri Rueb’s participatory GPS-based sound walk is located on Buffalo’s outer harbor at Times Beach, with a free app available for download; and Carmen Papalia—a visually-impaired artist will lead his Blind Field Shuttle in which the artist leads participants on eyes-closed walks.

Carmen Papalia’s walk will take place on September 9th at 1pm starting at UB Anderson Gallery. On September 11th at 6:30pm William Lamson will give a lecture at UB Center for the Arts. Todd Shalom’s walks will take place on September 29th at 7pmand September 30th at 4pm and 7pm with a rain date on October 1st at 2pm. Teri Rueb will give an artist talk at Times Beach on October 14th at 12:00pm. 

Wanderlust will be on view at both the UB Art Galleries locations—UB Anderson and UB Art Gallery, Center for the Arts.

Wanderlust is accompanied by a fully illustrated 264-page catalogue published by the UB Art Galleries, distributed by MIT Press, and designed by Neil Donnelly Studio. The catalogue is an in-depth study of an increasingly important mode of 21st-century artistic practice—beginning with the performance works of the late 1960s and early 1970s and connecting to artists working in a similar vein today. The catalogue includes comprehensive texts by Rachel Adams, Jane McFadden and Lori Waxman and short texts about each artist written by art historians and curators from across the country.

Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, and Journeys 1967-2017 is organized by the University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York and curated by Rachel Adams, UB Art Galleries Senior Curator. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Generous support for the exhibition and catalogue has also been provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support comes from Charles Balbach and the Techne Institute for Arts and Emerging Technologies at the University at Buffalo with in-kind support provided by Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center and Eleven Twenty Projects, Buffalo, NY. 

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About the UB Art Galleries: The University at Buffalo is privileged to have two art galleries dedicated to the university’s mission for academic excellence and service to the community. Each gallery presents a year-round series of exhibitions, providing students and the broader community easy access to thought-provoking art, visiting artists, and stimulating educational programs. In addition, the UB Art Galleries provide professional training for graduate and undergraduate students through internships and curatorial opportunities, and support faculty and student research.

The UB Art Galleries are supported by the UB College of Arts and Sciences, the Visual Arts Building Fund, the Anderson Gallery Fund and the Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund. Hotel support is provided by the Doubletree Club by Hilton Buffalo Downtown.

UB Anderson Gallery: Wednesday-Saturday 11AM-5PM and Sunday 1-5PM
UB Art Gallery, CFA: Tuesday-Friday 11AM-5PM and Saturday 1-5PM

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