FOCUS ON ARCHITECTURE Works from the Gerald Mead Collection Buffalo Niagara Visitors Center Gallery in the Market Arcade Building in Buffalo, NY. On View: September 16 - October 29, 2011 OPENING RECEPTION: Curtain Up! Friday, September 16, 5:30 - 8 p.m. The paintings, prints, drawings and photographs selected for this exhibition are all artworks inspired by the architecture of Buffalo. They range from a 1936 engraving of Buffalo City Hall by Kevin B. O'Callahan to a 2001 photograph by Biff Henrich depicting the interior of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Darwin D. Martin House. Other Buffalo landmarks included are the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Kleinhans Music Hall, First Presbyterian Church, St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral and the Buffalo Psychiatric Center among others. The artists included in the exhibition are painters Rita Argen Auerbach, Henry Gorski, Lin Xia Jiang and James Vullo, photographers Patricia Layman Bazelon, Mark Bizub, Diane Bush, Bill Cannon, Donna Jordan Dusel, Paul Francis, Hans Gindlesberger, Biff Henrich, Albert Kerr, Salvatore Nasca, John Pfahl, Katie Schneider, Robert Schultz, Catherine Linder Spencer and Dennis Steier, graphic artists Francisco Amaya and Derek Gabryszak, and printmakers J. J. Lankes, Evan Hawkins and Kevin B. O'Callahan. Structured as a brief historical survey of this genre, this exhibition illustrates the broad range of styles and techniques artists have used when approaching architecture as subject matter and highlights the artistic achievements of artists affiliated with regional organizations such as the Art Institute of Buffalo, Buffalo Society of Artists, Buffalo Print Club and CEPA Gallery. Since 1987, noted Buffalo artist, educator and independent curator Gerald Mead has assembled an encyclopedic private collection of over 550 artworks in all media by over 470 artists associated with Western New York, representing a unique cross section of the art history of this region. Over the last decade, 20 thematic exhibitions from the Gerald Mead Collection have been presented at college and university galleries and other public venues across Erie and Niagara counties, most recently at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University. The Gerald Mead Collection has been profiled in the Buffalo News, Buffalo Spree Magazine and Artvoice and works from the collection have been loaned for exhibitions at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo Museum of Science, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and the University at Buffalo Anderson Gallery. Biff Henrich Evan Hawkins