UB Anderson Gallery Announces Upcoming Exhibitions by Gerald Mead

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery has announced the opening of two upcoming exhibitions by local artist, curator and collector Gerald Mead.

Both exhibitions will open to the public on April 25 with a public reception from 7-9 p.m. in the UB Anderson Gallery.

               "CONTINUUM: The MacKrell Collage Archive Project by Gerald Mead" will focus on collection and organization of print material, an obsession shared by collage artists such as Joseph Cornell, Hannah Höch and Jess.  For more than 50 years, the late WNY artist Marie MacKrell assembled and categorized more than 4,000 items of print ephemera. This exhibition consists of a highly structured presentation, authentication, classification and documentation of MacKrell's idiosyncratic collage archive and a site-specific installation that illustrates the depth and range of the voluminous material it contains. The exhibition and installation comment on the private/public nature of archival collections and the strategies by which archives are institutionalized and interpreted over time.

               Mead will guest curate an accompanying exhibition, "A Collage Survey:  Collected Works," which draws from public and private collections in Western New York.  Organized as a companion exhibition for "CONTINUUM: The MacKrell Collage Archive Project by Gerald Mead," it surveys various techniques and approaches that artists working in this media have used from the 1960s to the present, the period over which the MacKrell Collage Archive was assembled. These works, many of which combine paper and printed imagery with other media such as paint, range from the highly detailed compositions by longtime UB art professor, the late Seymour Drumlevitch, to the vibrant gestural forms of Charles Clough, a UB alumnus and a founder of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. John Hultberg's eight-foot-wide Giant Collage belies the perception that collage is essentially a diminutive art form.  Also included in the exhibition are collage works by Romare Bearden, Nancy Belfer, Larry Bell, Lois Lane and Andrew Topolski.

              Mead, an award winning collage/assemblage artist who teaches at the UB and Buffalo State College, is a former longtime curator at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center.  His work is included in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the George Eastman House/International Museum of Photography and Film and the Castellani Art Museum, and has been in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. 

Mead will also present several education programs in conjunction with his two exhibitions: 

* May 1, 7 p.m.:  Artist's tour and lecture, An Insider's View of The MacKrell Collage Archive Project by Gerald Mead; this event is free and open to the public. 

* May 17, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.:  The Art of Collage:  At this hands-on workshop, Mead will present the development of collage, provide instruction on a number of collage techniques and guide participants in creating their own artwork.  Admission fee is $15; offered to adults 18 and up. 

* May 21, 6-9 pm:  Collage History and Techniques for Teachers:  Educators Workshop.  Admission fee is $10; certificate of attendance is provided. 

Space is limited:  workshops will be filled on a first-come, first-admitted basis. Pre-register by contacting Ginny Lohr at 716-829-3754 or ginny@andersongallery.org. 

UB Anderson Gallery, located on Martha Jackson Place near Englewood and Kenmore, is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1-5 pm.  The gallery is free and open to the public.  For directions and more information call 716-829-3754 or visit http://www.ubartgalleries.buffalo.edu.