University at Buffalo (UB)
Published May 7, 2024
"Heatwaves and Coldfronts", a painting exhibition
Below the show details, there is a review of the show, written by Art student Juntralai Moore.
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Exhibition Details:
Location: Center for the Arts, Room 219 A + B
Open Dates: May 7th – 10th, 2024
Closing Reception: May 10th, 4-6pm (Refreshments to be served!)
Curated by the students of ART411/412 Professional Practices in Painting: Johnny Chen, Marianne Goorbaran, Xinwen Li, Juntralai Moore and Isabelle Santos
Professor: Becky Brown
Juntralai Moore's Review:
Brighid Johnson, Happy Shape Party, 2024
In a time of climatic changes, sudden temperature drops, and blustery Buffalo days, painting students create colorful oil paintings encompassing art movements such as Surrealism, Expressionism and Abstraction, and exploring unique themes like resistance and magical worlds. Curated by a student team, the exhibition features artists from three sections of Advanced Painting: ART311 Alternative Painting Strategies, ART312 Self-Initiated Painting and ART411 and 412 Professional Practices in Painting. The exhibition space is strategically utilized to display warm and cool tones from the chosen pieces. Works by Brighid Johnson and Johnny Chen are just two examples of this contrast.
Johnny Chen, Depression, 2024
As if bursting from the canvas in vibrant flavor, Brighid Johnson represents our Heatwave with an abstract, oversaturated and “noisy” piece that is packed with feeling.
“My paintings are essentially a more polished and simplified representation of how my brain works at the time of creating a piece… [They explore] relations between form, scale, and color.”
In a haze of the coolest blue, Johnny Chen represents our Coldfront. In quick strokes of dry brush, and interpretive color, he creates a cooling effect across the canvas. With a pensive tone, he pulls from the depths of the coldest colors on the wheel.
Beyond contrasting colors, we travel through time, meet interesting creatures and find ourselves challenged to consider our art as resistance. Two more artists, Samiha Islam and Audie D’Amico embody the variety of narrative and expressive work in Heatwaves and Coldfronts.
Samiha Islam is a voice to be heard: “I hope that the viewer can connect the dots to see exactly how repetitive the cycle of colonial oppression is; commit to the belief in the existence of a better world; and find a personal responsibility to disrupt the capitalist, White Supremacist project of the US war machine in 2024.”
Her work tackles the looming presence of late-stage capitalism and colonial oppression. By intentionally sitting with real scenes of apartheid and genocide, she develops her paintings considering questions about peace: what does peace look like, can it be contained or bought? She uses recognizable imagery like the United States dollar and scenes from Palestine with impeccable typography to communicate her powerful ideas.
This exhibition appears as the personal reflections of self, our fears, environment, and interpretations of the times, past and present.
Samiha Islam, Can You Put a Wall Around It?, 2024
Using every warm and cool tone, Audie D’Amico’s Expressionist piece takes us back to the 1980s exercise trend of aerobics and jazzercise. She plays with contrasting neon colors and exaggerated figures of women in classic exercise outfits to capture this era: “Whether that’s the ecstasy of performing jazzercise to an 80s dance pop classic or the childlike wonder of dreaming what it might feel like to ice skate on the rings of Saturn, I hope to offer my viewer a bit of escapism from the monotony of day-to-day life.”
Audie D'Amico, Physicality in Motion, 2024
Heatwaves and Coldfronts is a look into the perspectives of young artists. Through the unpredictability of warm winters and cool summers, artists present their unique perspectives and motivations while being time capsules to a changing world.
- Juntralai Moore
Photos from the Exhibition Reception
