UB Art Gallery Will Present 10-Year Survey of Contemporary Artist Patricia Cronin

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- "Patricia Cronin, The Domain of Perfect Affection, 1993-2003," a 10-year survey of contemporary artist Patricia Cronin, will be on exhibit in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus from March 26 through May 22.

The exhibit will open with a free lecture by Robert Rosenblum, curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, from 6-7 p.m. March 26 in the Center for the Arts Screening Room.

A reception for Cronin and Rosenblum will follow in the UB Art Gallery from 7-9 p.m.

The exhibition was organized by UB Art Gallery associate curator Sandra Firmin. It will be free and open to the public.

A witty manipulator of Victorian tradition, Cronin uses equestrian and mortuary sculpture as well as animalierand erotic painting to investigate sexuality, gender, age, and class with regard to issues of status and desire. The exhibition focuses on a group of works from the most recent 10 years of the artist's career.

Cronin's erotic watercolors from the early 1990s invite the viewer to witness intimate moments between her and her partner. Her larger than life-size, three ton Carrara marble mortuary marker, Memorial to a Marriage(2002), uses classical sculpture styles to depict a lesbian embrace, subverting common perceptions of wealth, marriage, and status. Since it is installed permanently at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, the exhibition will include a 2/3 scale plaster maquette, two miniature bronzes and digital prints, as well as a mural photograph of the sculpture in situ.

Cronin's motivation "to use equine imagery as a metaphoric means to address concerns of female autonomy, desire, power and class," is evident in works such as Pony Tales (1996), Tack Room (1997-98) and The Domain of Perfect Affection (1999/2003), which also are featured in the exhibition.

Cronin received her B.F.A. from Rhode Island College in 1986 and her M.F.A., in 1988, from Brooklyn College, where she currently is the deputy chair of the Graduate Art Program. Recent solo exhibitions were mounted at Grand Arts, Kansas City (2002); The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1999); White Columns, New York (1998); and Brent Sikkema, New York (1997). A distinguished artist, she has received several awards including two Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grants and the prestigious invitational Grand Arts Award.

A 44-page monograph with 19 full-color reproductions and essays by Firmin and Rosenblum will accompany "Patricia Cronin, The Domain of Perfect Affection, 1993 to 2003." Rosenblum, a professor of Fine Arts at New York University and part-time curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has written sixteen books on 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century art. He is known for his training in 19th-century art history and his ability to make connections between previous and current art practices. His essay in this catalog, "On Patricia Cronin: From Here to Eternity," easily relates Cronin's work to that of her predecessors while at the same time acknowledging its unique presence in contemporary circles.

Rosenblum's lecture is sponsored in part by the UB Department of Art History. The catalog is made possible through the generous support of A.G. Rosen and Debi Sonzogni, Sara Vance and Michelle Waddell, UB Department of Women's Studies, UB Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender, and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Alliance. The exhibition is sponsored in part by Leader All Surface Printing. UB Art Gallery is funded by The Visual Arts Building Fund, The Seymour H. Knox Foundation Fine Arts Fund and The Fine Arts Center Endowment.

The UB Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For information, please call 716-645-6912.