Universals Albright-Knox 150 (UN.0201–UN.0350), 2012
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery
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Universals Albright-Knox 150
150 People | 1 Work of Art | Celebrating 150 Years
It is not every day that a museum has the opportunity to celebrate a 150th anniversary. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, founded as the The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in 1862, is the sixth oldest public art museum in the United States. From its establishment through today, the Gallery's main mission has been to collect and exhibit the art of our time. In November 2011, the Albright-Knox launched a series of special events and exhibitions exploring its history, its future, its Collection, and its role in the greater Western New York community. The final milestone in this year-long celebration is the installation of a recently commissioned unique work of art by the artists Eric and Heather ChanSchatz (American, born 1968). The Gallery's staff and Board of Directors are thrilled to present here, for the first time, Universals Albright-Knox 150 (UN.0201-UN.0350), 2012 -- the first work of art to enter the Gallery's Collection that the Western New York community is truly a part of.
Eric and Heather ChanSchatz marry traditional approaches to artmaking, such as painting and sculpture, with socially engaged and event-based practices. The artists collaborate to create works of art based on their interaction with the public and invited participants through a process they have explored and developed over the past fifteen years. ChanSchatz’s distinct visual language is exclusive to their working practice, and serves as the foundation for each of their works. At the beginning of the process, participants are invited to select from a series of drawings, texts, and color combinations composed by the artists. Past project guests have included American soldiers in Iraq, coal miners in Pennsylvania, Cairo citizens in the Egyptian revolution, and stateless children in Thailand.
One hundred and fifty Western New Yorkers were selected to participate in the creation of Universals Albright-Knox 150 through a submission process and lottery drawing. Each participant met with the artists in Buffalo in May 2012, during which time they interacted with a site-specific event artwork involving a questionnaire designed for each guest and participating in a one-on-one conversation with the artists. Documented from multiple points of view, each element and phase of the project was recorded as the on-site social engagements unfolded in succession. The artists have commented that they situate their practice and define their artwork by developing projects such ass this one, which brings together “the museum, the community, and artistic methodology in a context of participation, exchange, and collective creation.”
Although abstraction is a part of ChanSchatz’s visual endpoint, themes of identity, communal relationships, and socio-political networks are referenced throughout their creative process and ultimately form the foundation of each of their final works. For the past five months, Eric and Heather ChanSchatz have been using the information and observations they gathered during their meetings in Buffalo to create 150 unique, hand-painted works—one to represent each participant. These paintings—the central component of this exhibition—are accompanied by a video installation created by ChanSchatz that incorporates the footage of the participants’ sessions. This component not only reveals another layer of the artists’ working process, it emphasizes that a person’s identity resides much deeper than their façade, and includes personal preferences, the cadence of one’s voice, and even the intimate gesture of how one holds a writing instrument. Part of an ongoing series, the 150 paintings in Universals Albright-Knox 150 will augment a growing number of Universals paintings that ChanSchatz have created, totaling 400 to date.
Universals Albright-Knox 150 reveals the first half of a two-part project the Albright-Knox has commissioned from Eric and Heather ChanSchatz. In spring 2014, the Gallery will receive a large-scale sculpture by the artists that is based on the imagery of Universals Albright-Knox 150. This sculpture will be debuted as part of a larger exhibition organized by Albright-Knox Curator for the Collection Holly E. Hughes in collaboration with the artists.
Works In The Exhibition
Eric and Heather ChanSchatz
Universals Albright-Knox 150 (UN.0201–UN.0350), 2012
One hundred and fifty paintings: Hydrocarbon resin on board, and acrylic dome with Cel-vinyl, polyurethane gasket and screwcovers.
101 x 959.5 x 6 inches (260 x 2440 x 15 cm) overall.
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery
A-K MOV.0001-150, 2012
Single-channel HD video
Runtime: 7 hours, 32 minutes
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Universals Albright-Knox 150 is presented on the occasion of Founders' Week, which is present by M&T Bankand supported by West Herr.
Support for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Collection-based exhibitions and installations is generously provided, in part, by the latePeggy Pierce Elfvin; The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, Inc.; The John R. Oishei Foundation; and The Margaret L. Wendt Foundation.
Exhibition text © 2012 The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy
All works © Eric and Heather ChanSchatz
1962 Building
In honor of its 150th anniversary, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery commissioned the artists Eric and Heather ChanSchatz (American, born 1968) to create a unique work of art that was on view as the museum celebrated its Founders’ Week.
Eric and Heather ChanSchatz have been collaborating through a creative process that marries traditional approaches to artmaking, such as painting and sculpture, with socially engaged and event-based practices. They create artworks based on their interaction with the public and invited participants through a process they have explored and developed over the past fifteen years. At the beginning of the process, participants are invited to select from a series of drawings, texts, and color combinations composed by the artists.
ChanSchatz’s distinct visual language is exclusive to their working practice, and serves as the basis for each of their works. Past project guests have included American soldiers in Iraq, coal miners in Pennsylvania, Cairo citizens in the Egyptian revolution, and stateless children in Thailand.
Although abstraction is a part of ChanSchatz’s visual endpoint, themes of identity, communal relationships, and socio-political networks are referenced throughout their creative process and ultimately form the foundation of each of their final works.