Virtual Exhibition on View November 1-December 10, 2021
Artist Presentation, November 9, 2021 at 7pm / Zoom Information: Meeting ID, 954 7287 4374 Passcode, 674219
Artist Presentation, November 9, 2021 at 7pm / Zoom Information: Meeting ID, 954 7287 4374 Passcode, 674219
DAVID MOOG / COURTESY BURCHFIELD PENNEY ART CENTER. COPYRIGHT DAVID MOOG 2015
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Alberto Rey is an educator, painter, and filmmaker whose work sometimes borders on sculpture and installation. He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1960, received political asylum through Mexico in 1963, and moved to Miami, Florida in 1965. In 1967, his family relocated to Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. He lived in this small coal-mining town until 1982 when he finished his B.F.A from Indiana University of Pennsylvania after attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. In 1989, he moved to Dunkirk, New York to accept a teaching position at the State University of New York at Fredonia where he remains as SUNY Distinguished Professor.
Rey’s paintings can be found in over twenty museum collections and have been in over 200 exhibitions. His films/videos have been screened internationally and his illustrated articles and artwork have graced the covers and pages several journals and articles. In 2012 he was designated a Living Legacy artist by the Burchfield Penney Art Center. |
For additional projects and artwork, visit albertorey.com
Biological Regionalism Overview
For the past 20 years, I have lived in rural Western New York and have worked on several series of paintings that investigated Cuban and American culture. The Biological Regionalism Series is one of a couple series that I am working on at this moment. It was started a few years ago although the research for it began when first arrived to this area and began reading about local history and began researching local entomology, biological cycles of regional salmonids (trout) and the role of local rivers in culture and the economy. As I acquired more information about this region, I investigated the painters of the Hudson River School of the 19th century and their role in American society. This art movement documented the expanding American landscape for the general public who had little exposure to this new environment. The study of biology, botany, geology and art was popular amongst the residents of the new country and piscatorial art and nature painting was considered a form of “high art” during the early 19th century. This art form no longer seems innovative in our contemporary art landscape although there is a need rediscover the connection between nature and culture. This connection is deteriorating as most of our social and economic reliance has moved to an urban setting. The Biological Regionalism Series tries to reestablish this connection by reintroducing the fish and landscape that are characteristic to a region through the use of traditional and contemporary mediums. By doing so, I hope to also create a venue to begin dialogues between historical and contemporary theories of aesthetics, social development and environmentalism.
As our culture becomes more homogenized by mass media and consumerism, the one element that remains true to a region is its natural environment. Although we try to manipulate it to fit our needs, most landscapes and their biological inhabitants characterize a region’s nature. It is an omnipresent influence that affects a region’s people and culture. The knowledge of a region’s distinguishing natural elements is being lost as generations continually become more disconnected from a lifestyle that relies on the landscape for survival and for spiritual renewal.
Paintings, video and wall plaques with historical and biological information are used to document local bodies of water and the indigenous fish species found in these waters. The regions investigated are usually a short walk or drive from the exhibition venue. When a viewer experiences the installation, I hope they begin to create an informed long-term connection to their immediate environment. When video and paintings are include from other parts of the country and world, it creates a connection between the viewer’s home and regions around the world.
While the regions investigated are specific, the issues raised are universal.
As our culture becomes more homogenized by mass media and consumerism, the one element that remains true to a region is its natural environment. Although we try to manipulate it to fit our needs, most landscapes and their biological inhabitants characterize a region’s nature. It is an omnipresent influence that affects a region’s people and culture. The knowledge of a region’s distinguishing natural elements is being lost as generations continually become more disconnected from a lifestyle that relies on the landscape for survival and for spiritual renewal.
Paintings, video and wall plaques with historical and biological information are used to document local bodies of water and the indigenous fish species found in these waters. The regions investigated are usually a short walk or drive from the exhibition venue. When a viewer experiences the installation, I hope they begin to create an informed long-term connection to their immediate environment. When video and paintings are include from other parts of the country and world, it creates a connection between the viewer’s home and regions around the world.
While the regions investigated are specific, the issues raised are universal.
Biological Regionalism: Scajaquada Creek, Erie County, New York, USA
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The solo museum exhibition includes a series of large paintings, water samples and related data, historical information, ecological research, large maps, video projections, process work samples, related programming and presentations and selection of Alberto’s past works. The installation explores the history and the present condition of the Scajaquada Creek that flows through three municipalities before it is diverted through a three-mile tunnel underneath the city of Buffalo. “The objective of the exhibition is to bring the language of both art and science to bear upon a complex of cultural, social, economic, technological and geopolitical issues,” said Anthony Bannon, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Burchfield Penney and research professor at SUNY Buffalo State.
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Graphs and Texts The installation included specific information and graphs above the water samples that were collected at each of the five testing sites. The attached PDF provides the specific data, brief explanation of data collected, graphs and a short history of the Clean Air Act.
Biological Regionalism: Bagmati River, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
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In 2014, I had a solo museum exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York (Please see next project below this one for more information). It was during this installation that I was approached to consider doing a similar project about the Bagmati River that flows though the middle of Kathmandu, Nepal. I was excited about extending my body of work beyond the Western Hemisphere and to working with a culturally diverse community. After initial discussions with professionals, museum staff and community members in Kathmandu, it was clear that there was a great deal of interest in me starting a new project investigating the Bagmati River. I was granted a residency at the Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Center in the Patan Museum and a solo exhibition at the Siddhartha Gallery in Kathmandu. The project which included the publication of a book, a video documentary, an exhibition and a website that archives the project.
www.bagmatiriverartproject.com |
Click to view project publication
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Click to view project documentary
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Biological Regionalism: United States
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