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The COMMA Fine Art Gallery announces its thematic holiday show, WONDERS, WILD AND NEW,  representing the work of 30 local and regional artists.

 

The prompt for the artists participating in this group show is inspired from a line in the prologue to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, a story that has delighted and inspired imaginations of millions for over a hundred years. Work was chosen from over 100 submissions as work that best invited curiosity and hinted at the strange.  This off-the-wall show is curated around the idea of art as a gift and as giftable and includes treasures both small and large. Works in all media are represented. 

 

In collaboration with Megan Howe of Alice, Ever Books, we also offer a curated selection of contemporary fine art illustrated, rare and out of print editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  for purchase. These include editions illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, Graham Baker-Smith,  Salvador Dalí.

 

WONDERS, WILD AND NEW

The exhibit is on view through Friday, December 22 with additional hours on Saturday December 23, 4–8:30 during East Aurora Carolcade  

 

A schedule of guest gallerists will allow the public to meet the artists featured in the show during the exhibition. Guest gallerists include Sara Heidinger, Jenny Licata, Susan Miller, Richard Rockford, Sarah Baker Michalak, Alice Valenti, Lee Williams and Suzanne O’Brien. A complete schedule of featured gallerists and artist talks will be announced on the gallery’s website and social media at www.thecommafineart.com.

 

The COMMA Fine Art Gallery is located at 17 Elm Street in East Aurora. Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and by appointment.

 

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Convo @ The COMMA: Forums

Dec. 16: Collage, Assemblage

An afternoon of artists insight + conversation: Convo @ The COMMA: Join artists Sara Baker Michalak, Pat Pendleton, Richard Rockford and Russell Ram at The COMMA on Saturday, Dec. 16 for a roundtable: artists reflecting on their medium of collage, assemblage and found/manipulated objects. This artist forum open to the public as part of COMMA's thematic show WONDERS, WILD AND NEW, on view through Dec. 22.

The COMMA invites visitors to the gallery to observe and engage with the artists as they share an afternoon of informal conversation on process, insights, shared experience and anything else that arises in between. This unscripted, organic conversation is intended to offer the artists a chance to connect with fellows who work in the medium and exchange ideas and inspiration and the public to connect with their works and see them in a deeper light.

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Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to arrive early to view the artist's works and revisit the exhibit afterward and share how their appreciation or perception of the work is altered after connecting with the artists working in the medium.

Gallery Hours: 12 - 3
Roundtable Discussion: 1-2(ish)pm

 

Our Artist Panel:

 

Sara Baker Michalak:
I developed an artistic practice in expressive design, surface treatment and fine craft while completing an undergraduate Fine Arts Program in Textile Processes. My work grew to include other 3-D processes along with painting and drawing. As environmental issues entered more and more into daily discourse and became a focus for artists, I entered the Interdisciplinary (Geoscience/Humanities) Graduate Program at SUNY Fredonia. Coursework and readings there led to subsequent creative exploration and my current mixed media works that reflect an interest in the beauty and ephemerality of the natural world.

My work has been shown at the American Craft Museum in New York; the Burchfield Penny and Albright Knox galleries in Buffalo; International Small Art Show in Atlanta, Georgia; and Cleveland Museum of Art. My studio is located on the banks of the Canadaway Creek in western New York, where in addition to continuing my creative work I propagate native wildflowers.

Sara is a member of Buffalo Society of Artists and the North Shore Alliance. She describes her practice as arising from an interestr in the natural world's materiality and the fluid forces that animate it. Completed pieces convey my impressions of growth, decline and return: as such, these are landscapes of time.

Baker Michalak has four pieces of work in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Autumn Sublime, Meadowmorphosis I, Meadowmorphosis II + Meadowmorphosis III

She is active on Facebook. View her profile on www.buffalosocietyofartists.com.

 

Pat Pendleton:
My process-based abstract paintings are a play between activity and stillness. I often include a fragment of collage along with layers of texture, gesture, and color in my aim to reveal an individual experience rather than represent the physical world.

Pat Pendleton is from Tonawanda, NY. She received a BA in Studio Art from SUNY Oswego and an MA in Counseling Psychology/Art Therapy from Naropa University. She has shown work in numerous local venues during the last decade since returning to Western New York after years of working and exhibiting in California, Manhattan, and Colorado. Her recent publication, The Shape of Becoming: Woman in the Mirror—a memoir in seven stories tells about that time and the evolution of a woman artist in the late Twentieth Century and beyond. She is a member of the Buffalo AKG, the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Carnegie Art Center and Buffalo Society of Artists.

Pendleton has two pieces of work in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Working + Watching

She is active on Facebook and on Instagram. Her book is currently available at Fitz Books & Waffles, Ellicott Street, Buffalo.
www.patpendletonstudio.com

 

Richard Rockford:
My artwork began about 30 years ago and uses strictly old, antique, and original materials, all of which I gather myself. I make richly colored and heavily patinated works reflecting my love of old surfaces. I use vintage framing where possible to match the art. Some things are extremely simply presented, some are quite complex, but the point of all is to share the experiences gathering and the colors and textures of the materials. If you enjoy looking at this work or it transforms how you see some of the discards and remnants of our culture, I am pleased.

Richard Rockford is 76, lives in Clarence, NY, and is widowed. Honors program at Monroe High School, Rochester, 1965, BA in Politics, Brandeis University, 1969. Richard has operated an antiques business since 1972, in Toronto and Clarence. He is represented by ERLO Contemporary in East Aurora, and currently has work at the Burchfield Penney Art Center as part of the 2023 Art in Craft Media Biennial, on view through March 10, 2024, and 22 of his works continue to decorate the banquet area of The Mansion on Delaware. 

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Rockford has three pieces of work in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Sun, Shore, Sea, Unsquare Dance, Shelf Improvement + Harmony

He is active on Facebook and accessible through social media and email.

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Russell Ram:
Russell Ram is not currently on show with The COMMA, but has kindly offered the gift of his time and perspective for this event. Ram is a Buffalo artist with an established and respected career in collage and mixed media that spans over 50 years. "Russell Ram: 50 Years" was published on the occasion of the 50-year retrospective exhibition of Russell’s career at the Kenan Center in Lockport, NY, in the Fall of 2020. All copies are currently sold out. A wait list for reprint is available on Ram’s website. More information on this artist can be found online through the Burchfield Penney Art Center and Meibohm Fine Arts.

In a statement on his website he says: "Presented below is a set of eight recently completed collages, each based on vintage material that I have accumulated over a span of more than fifty years. That material includes papers, stamps, letters, buttons, and other bits and pieces. Their meaning is open to interpretation by the viewer. It has been so fulfilling to connect with others who enjoy and respond to my work."

www.russellram.com

 

We look forward to hosting these fine artists and the opportunity to learn from their experience, perspective and imagination on Saturday, Dec. 16.

 

Pause. Breathe. Change the way you see.

WONDERS, WILD AND NEW at The COMMA is the gallery's second group show, an off-the-wall show curated around the theme of art of as a gift (and giftable). It contains over 60 works of art representing nearly 30 regional artists working in multiple mediums. WONDERS, WILD AND NEW will be on view through Dec. 22.

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Dec 17 Photography Graphic COMMA.png

Dec. 17: Out From Behind the Lens

A photographers' roundtable: Artists on view Lee Williams, Biljana Petreska, James Sedwick and Sara Heidinger, will be joined guests panelists Dennis Stierer and Peter Potter for an afternoon of organic conversation about traditional photography, digital photography, darkroom and alternate process and anything that rises from the process at The COMMA on Sunday, Dec. 17.

This roundtable is open to the public as part of COMMA's thematic show WONDERS, WILD AND NEW, on view through Dec. 22.

The COMMA invites visitors to the gallery to observe and engage with the artists as they share an afternoon of informal conversation. This unscripted, organic conversation is intended to offer the artists a chance to connect with fellows who work in the medium and exchange ideas and inspiration and for the public to connect with their works and see them in a deeper light.

​

Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to arrive early to view the artist's works and revisit the exhibit afterward and share how their appreciation or perception of the work is altered after connecting with the artists working in the medium.

​

Gallery Hours: 12 - 3
Roundtable Discussion: 1-2(ish)pm

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Artist Panel:

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Lee Williams:
Lee Williams is a native Buffalonian, earning his BFA in Communication Design from SUNY at Buffalo, with concentrations in typography and photography. After graduating in 1983, he began a career in the printing industry working as a pressman.

A desire for expression led him to pick up the camera again, starting Pugbully Studio in 2015. He quickly gained a following in his hometown of Lockport NY with images from the Flight of Five locks as it undergoes a historic restoration. Lee found a shared interest with others with subjects like aviation, architecture and nature. Recent clients include Bank on Buffalo and Catholic Health Fund. He is currently a member at several area galleries like Lockport’s Kenan Gallery and Carnegie Art Center in North Tonawanda. As an exhibiting member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, his work has shown in the Castellani Art Museum and solo show ‘Lit Buffalo’ at Flight Gallery in Larkenville was a success last fall.

Williams has five pieces of work in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Trylon and Perisphere 1940, Trylon and Perisphere 2021
Still Standing, Springing and Shibui

He is active on social media and online at pugbullystudio.com

 

Sara Heidinger:
After studying photography at Mckinley High school, Sara Heidinger continued to fine-tune her craft at the University at Buffalo and for years following in New York City. She moved back to the Old First Ward neighborhood in Buffalo that she grew up in and that continues to be a main inspiration and subject for much of her photography. Sara believes photography can showcase the beauty in ordinary things. Her quest to uncover joy and process emotions through photography has taken her on many adventures and given her the opportunity to connect with people she may never have crossed paths with. Her journey has become more than just creating a final product, but a celebration of experiences for herself and others that may have been unknown otherwise. Sara’s creative, yet comfortable approach allows for the capture of truly vulnerable, real, and esteemed moments and objects. Her portraits of people and places convey empathy for the living, but also breathe life into the untouched.

When she isn't behind the lens, Sara curates the Cass Gallery at 500 Seneca and is a Co-Owner of Undergrounds Coffee House & Roastery. She enjoys partnering with those who have a passion to create a better life for others.

Heidinger's "In My Dreams" is available as part of WONDERS, WILD AND NEW.

She is active on Facebook and on Instagram. More of her work can be found online at www.saraheidinger.com

 

Biljana Petreska:
Biljana Petreska grew up in Macedonia, Europe. She holds multiple degrees, including one in Fine Arts. Her artistic focus is photography and mixed media conceptual imagery and self-portraiture illuminating the power of vulnerability. Her work is a reminder to have empathy for ourselves and others, while navigating the same innate feelings of hope, pain, joy, and sorrow.

Artist Statement:
I am an artist who primarily produces self-portraits. I utilize different types of photography techniques in addition to mixed and paint media to communicate the shared human experience through expressive portraits. My work is a commentary on vulnerability, transparency, and fragmented perception of the self and others, inviting its viewer into a discussion about their own sensitivities and view on narratives that we may all be connected to.
My focus is mainly on the process of creating where I use imagination derived from emotions and materials to depict layers of the self while arriving at the final image. My goal is to evoke connection and empathy in the viewer in addition to sharing stories that make us feel accepted as who we genuinely are.

Petreska is active on Instagram as @biljanartist.
She has three pieces on display in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Hidden, Sounds and Turmoil

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James Sedwick:
James Sedwick , a graduate of SUNY/Buffalo, retired from the practice of psychotherapy in 2015. He lives in South Wales, NY. He has made photographs and sculpture since his high school years and shows his work with the Buffalo Society of Artists, Western NY Artists Group, and at Meibohm Fine Arts. His photographs and poetry have been published in several magazines and books including The Sun, Orion, Steam Ticket, and Uncharted Lines: Poems from the Journal of the American Medical Association. He specializes in alternative process photography using palladium process.
He has work on view currently with the Burchfield Penney Art Center as part of the 2023 Art in Craft Media biennial.

Sedwick has four palladium prints photographs in WONDERS, WILD AND NEW:
Ice, Union Canal
Tao of Hunters Creek
Sinking Ponds No. 17
Sinking Ponds No. 3

More information can be found online at Meibohm Fine Arts, www.meibohmfinearts.com

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Peter Potter:
Peter Potter is an East Aurora native and a Roycroft Master in Photography specializing in digital photography and manipulated imagery. He currently serves as the President of the Roycrofters-at-Large Association.

"The images I generally produce are referred to as HDR. I take several (usually 3) different exposures and blend them in software to get details in the highlights and shadows. I really enjoy the power of the editing software and the creative processes that it allows. I use two Nikon D300 bodies and a variety of lenses. For landscapes and architecture I rely on my superwide Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 zoom. For botanical images I really love to use the Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 macro. It is insanely sharp. I have some other lenses as mentioned above that I use for available light photography. In the end my favorite part of the creative process is editing. I often use several programs to achieve the final result."

Peter is active on Facebook and available through www.ralaweb.com.

 

Dennis Stierer:
For over 40 years, Dennis Stierer (b. 1947) has been making compelling images ofour fragile landscape. Dennis is a self-taught photographer who enjoys being out by himself, watching the light, especially soft light, and how that elusive quality of light is captured in his beautiful images. Regardless of the subject – a person, a stone, a tree, or the landscape – it is the light that falls on these subjects that he is working to capture. Dennis believes that being in the moment with your surroundings, images will find you. When they do, he seizes the moment and lets the light bring them to life, to glow, and when that happens, his photograph is created. He is there to see, to be in the moment, press the shutter release, and share the experience through the final print. For Dennis, working with a camera is contemplation, relaxation, ”Right Seeing.”

During the years 2012-20, Dennis worked with a large format film camera on a project about the Erie Canal, including the Cayuga/Seneca, the Oswego, and the Champlain Canal. He made thousands of images, taught five different workshops
along the these canals, and then self-published a book entitled ‘Spirit of the Ditch.” In 2018, the Burchfield Penney Art Center acquired 49 platinum/palladium prints from this project for their permanent collection. The new Lockport Hospital just installed two 9x15 foot wall murals of Dennis’ canal work.

Dennis is a member of the Western New York Artists Group and the Buffalo Society of Artists, where he was a two-term past-president. His photographs are treasured in many private and permanent collections.

 

While neither Potter nor Stierer have work on view with The COMMA's current show, they have kindly offered the gift of their time and perspective. We look forward to hosting these fine artist and the opportunity to learn from their experience and love of their medium on Sunday, Dec. 17.

 

Pause. Breathe. Change the way you see.


WONDERS, WILD AND NEW at The COMMA is the gallery's second group show, an off-the-wall show curated around the theme of art of as a gift (and giftable). It contains over 60 works of art representing nearly 30 regional artists working in multiple mediums. WONDERS, WILD AND NEW will be on view through Dec. 22.

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