"Ecologies of Decay" -- the Splendor and Intrigue of Destruction and Rot

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo's detritus and blight, what Hadas Steiner, associate professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo, calls "its bounty of domestic and industrial flotsam," has long been the stuff of Dennis Maher's art.

Two years ago, the UB architecture adjunct faculty member created haunting sculptures, paintings and installations from discarded and ruined building materials he had collected from demolition sites and salvage yards throughout the city and installed them in other city buildings slated for demolition, restoration or renovation.

Maher, who once worked in the construction and demolition industries, is back again this month to bring his sensibilities to bear on architectural ruin.

He joins fellow artists Julian Montague, a graphic designer, and Jean-Michel Reed, who holds a master's degree in architecture from UB, in a stunning artist-curated exhibition of installations titled, "Ecologies of Decay," at Artspace, 1219 Main St., Buffalo.

It opened last week and will run through Oct. 18 in the gallery, which is open 6-10 p.m. daily.

The exhibition and the three artists whose work it comprises aim to resensitize viewers to the spectacle of urban out-migration, vacancy and derelict properties, and to the "worlds" -- the ecologies -- that rise up out of the decay these produce.

Each of three separate sections explicate in a different way the process of decay afoot in this deindustrialized 19th century American city. In each case, these culture workers generate a rich and provocative art from the dissolution and collapse they document.

The artists' installations -- many of which are being shown for the first time -- include floor plans, photographs, fabric banners and large-scale sculptural installations. What they have in common is that each is an imaginative investigation of the ruined housing stock of Western New York. One might expect to feel revulsion in the presence of personal rot that we collectively elect to ignore. Here, however, it is employed as the raw material of work that transforms and is itself transforming.

In "Profanation," Maher assembles the debris of a home demolition site into large, textural, abstract expressionistic arrangements that are simply beautiful.

Studies by Montague of the minute biological systems at play in aging architectural structures turn the industrial gallery into a celebration of the artfully re-presented creatures that feed off us as well as one another. His investigation is titled "Abandoned House/Decay Community/Secondary Occupants Collected & Observed."

"Night Fires" is the title of Reed's installation of large photos taken before, during and after night arson fires in abandoned homes on Jewett Avenue, Genesee at Adams and elsewhere in the city. Reed calls these marginalized neighborhoods "wild, forgotten and violent" places -- places, says Elizabeth Otto, assistant professor of visual studies at UB, that "go out in a blaze of glory."

The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essays by Steiner, Otto and Allen Shelton, associate professor of sociology at Buffalo State College.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.