UB Co-Sponsors Exhibition of Cella Collection of Architectural Drawings

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery are co-sponsoring an exhibition of the famous L.J. Cella collection of drawings by noted artists and architects.

"Drawing Architecture: An Exhibition of the L.J. Cella Collection," which opened Sept. 21, will be on view in the Albright-Knox Clifton Hall link on the below-ground level of the gallery through Jan. 6.

Special events in connection with the exhibition are planned for Oct. 19 and include an open architecture studio of work by UB students, a guided tour of the exhibit and a discussion of the collection with Cella and representatives of both the gallery and the UB School of Architecture and Planning.

A San Francisco Bay-area collector, Cella, has long been attracted to works on paper for their demonstration of what he calls the "earthiness, spontaneity and the 'hand' of the artist." His sensational collection features work by eminent mid-century and contemporary architects, designers and artists.

The collection ranges from the excited extemporaneous sketches by architect Frank Gehry that visually burst from the page, to a detailed visual proposal for a music forest by sculptor, composer, musician and installation artist Terry Allen. Each drawing illustrates the artist's creative process at a particular point in time and permits access to ways in which creative thoughts emerge over time.

The events of Oct. 19 will be part of the Albright-Knox' free "Gusto at the Gallery" program and will feature an architecture open studio from 5-9 p.m. that will present architectural models and plans designed by students from the UB School of Architecture and Planning.

At 6 p.m., Brian Carter, dean of the UB School of Architecture and Planning, and Cella will offer visitors a guided tour of the exhibition.

The tour will be followed at 7 p.m. by a conversation about the exhibit in the gallery auditorium that will feature Cella, Carter and Claire Schneider, associate curator of contemporary art at the Albright-Knox.

They will be joined by Walter Hood, a San Francisco Bay-area landscape architect whose drawings are included in the Cella collection. Hood designed the new landscapes at the de Young Museum in San Francisco with distinguished Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.

A professor and former chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California-Berkeley, Hood received the American Society of Landscape Architecture National Award of Honor in 2003.

His recent commissions include the garden of the new Jackson Hole Center for the Arts in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the Oakland, Calif., waterfront, including designs for 10 new parks and a 6.6-mile trail.