Guest author Ligia Sato reflects on Allan D’Arcangelo: Landscapes and Constellations and her own work as an artist. 

Sherry Miller Hocking shares her story of a lifelong friendship with artist Steina Vasulka in an open letter, reflecting on their early days exploring video as a new art form. 

Marisol's name literally translates to “sea and sun” when spoken aloud in Spanish (“sea”/mar “and”/i (y) “sun”/sol). Three musical syllables suspended in a balance of opposites. When she began to show her work publicly, she abandoned her surname (María Sol Escobar) and used only the nickname that her mother had given to her before she committed suicide. Sea and sun—a name that immediately calls to mind myth and legend. A blessing and a curse. 

How do you become an icon? Marisol was able to navigate popular culture with more than the usual canniness. Not only an iconic artist within the Pop art movement, she turned media to her advantage and circumvented the traps set out for women artists at the time. But how do you influence people’s perceptions of you? How do you use presentation to tell a story? Costume professional Cassie Elsaesser takes us through the making of an icon from the outside in.  

Artist Richard Howard Hunt has a long history with the Buffalo AKG. Hunt was featured in the first show of all Black artists that the Albright-Knox ever produced. Curated by guest curator Beryl Wright, The Appropriate Object featured seven contemporary artists. In the catalogue for the show, Wright interviewed Hunt about his work. In celebration of Hunt’s incredible legacy, we are republishing that interview here. 

The following text is included in the catalogue for the special exhibition Electric Op, on view through January 26, 2025. Ruth Leavitt studied painting before turning to mainframe computers in 1967, making her one of the first women to make computer art (along with Vera Molnar, whose writing is included below). In 1976, she published Artist and Computer, an anthology of artists’ statements that she gathered from her fellow pioneers and an invaluable resource on the early history of computer art. 

The following text is included in the catalogue for the special exhibition Electric Op, on view through January 26, 2025. Dr. Gerald Oster was a biophysicist whose interest in moiré effects led him to becoming one of the major practitioners and proponents of “Optical art.” 

The following text is included in the catalogue for the special exhibition Electric Op, on view through January 26, 2025. The abstract painters Eduardo Mac Entyre and  Miguel Ángel Vidal inaugurated the Arte Generativo  (Generative Art) movement with this manifesto in 1960. 

Guest author Stephen Fredman discusses poet Robert Creeley’s Presences: A Text for Marisol and how the making of the book promotes immersion in Marisol’s art and in Creeley’s language.