One and Many Chairs
A cradle to grave exhibition with remakes of retired UB Libraries study chairs, created by members of the University at Buffalo and greater Buffalo community.
In the Department of Art Lower Gallery
Center For the Arts, Room B45
On View: September 1 - October 17, 2026
Left to right credits:
Bryce Baker, Strata. Chair, leather, Walnut, Oak, Maple, Koto, and Ebony Veneers, paint
Madeline Bartley, Rooted in Existence. Chair, hand printed textiles, woodblock print, appliqué, collage, machine embrpoidery, fabric, paint
Brian Millspaw & Sarah Brown, b#. Chair, Ash wood, upholstery fabric
Abigail Keller
Bella Rosenthal
Brian Millspaw & Sarah Brown
Brian Tulowiecki & Mary Kay Omara
Bryce Baker
Caitlin Andrejova
Catherine Linder Spencer
Chantal Calato
Cole Pawlowski
Deirdre Harder
elton kinkelaar
Emma Brittain
Evelyn Bellreng
Gabriela Zappi
Gerald Mead
H Boone
Jeff Sherven
Office of Enrollment Management: Clayton Cobb, Michael Conroy, Holly Evert, Katie Fox, Jessica Kane, Kristin Lowe, Brent Zimmerman
Joel Brenden
Karyn St George
Kelly Myers-Chunco
Laura Valkwitch
Lucas Cook
Maddie Bartley
Makena St. George
Matthew Owczarczak
Nicholas Wheeler
Nirmiti (Nini) Pandit and Mathieu V. Liu
Quincy Koczka
Reinhard Reitzenstein
Roscoe Duquette
Rosemary Lombardo
Sarah Campbell
UB Sustainability Community
Will Quintana
More info on participating artists and the artworks coming soon!
Is an old chair still a useful chair? Is it junk, lumber, an art supply, an opportunity?
One and Many Chairs is an evaluation of what can be created when we look at a pile of old library chairs marked for disposal, and ask many creative people to take stab (or saw, or paintbrush, or blow torch, or needle, or whatever the creator chooses) at them, to make a new art object. The aesthetics and concepts that now shout from the chairs not only perform the artistic voices of their makers, but also explore lifecycles and economics of contemporary life and amenities, across institutional, domestic, and studio types of spaces. Investigating and perhaps re-pathing the lifecycles of particular objects is the “cradle to grave” process.
In a world full of choices within and beyond our control, what we decide is “for disposal” and what is for keeping, even if just for a little while longer, is a question that can be asked at any moment and with any thing. Right now, we explore and celebrate one manageable and cool little drop in the bucket, one chair.
A tree is born of a seed of its parent.
It grows in a forest for a time, and
It might be destined or eventually designated
To be felled for furniture and no longer climb.
Metal is mined and smelted, and
Fashioned for staples, screws,
Rivets, and nails, and flat little feet--
Things that a builder will use.
Cotton is planted and harvested,
Picked, spun, felted, or strung
Or woven and melted to polymers--
A million purposes near and far-flung.
A chair is born of its industrial producer,
Who used to have a storefront in NYC
And now doesn’t care
After give or take 50 years
Who owns the thing, and
To what ends they’ll see it be.
In the landfill or a pyre?
Do we put it in its grave?
Or imagine
Some reuse
Many of one
Chair we might save
A sculpture is born of its artist
Functional or just for fun
It seems to be newly destined
For an adventure, now just begun.
Open Call poster
For the Open Call announcement see here.
One and Many Chairs is curated by Whitney Kehl Chamberlain, Art Resource Manager for the Department of Art.
Special thanks to:
- Todd Nibbe, Libraries Facilities Operations Supervisor, University at Buffalo Libraries, for his assistance in providing the study chairs and other furniture to be disposed of by the Libraries, to the Department of Art, where new life can be breathed into old objects.
- Denise Wolfe, Senior Communications Specialist, University at Buffalo Libraries;
- William Offhaus, Reference Archivist, University Archives, University at Buffalo Libraries; and Robert Aaron Burleson, MFA Candidate, for their research assistance.
- Jeff Sherven, Virginia Samsel, Joan Linder, Roscoe Duquette,
and Caitlin Andrejova, for their exhibition preparation assistance. - The 35 artists who put their time and resources into creating beauty and intrigue, here and in so many other ways.
"Old chairs get new life-- a cradle to grave exhibition Open Call", announcement on UB Department of Art News roll, April 1, 2026
"Old Lockwood chairs find new life in exhibition", article by Grace Boylan, UBNow, April 14, 2026
"From trash to treasure to art" article by Kaden Zhong", The Spectrum, Sept. 9, 2026