Buffalo, NY – Today the Albright-Knox Art Gallery announced the first exhibition that will take place at Albright-Knox Northland, a new venue that will serve as a space for installations of groundbreaking artwork, programming for AK Members, and a variety of performances and events. Albright-Knox Northland will open January 17, 2020, with an exhibition featuring artists Heather Hart (American, born 1975), Edra Soto (Puerto Rican, born 1971), and Rodney Taylor (American, born 1966). Collectively, their work explores how people build connections to others both inside and outside the walls of those structures we call home. Albright-Knox Northland is made possible by a generous grant from M&T Bank.

Visitors are encouraged to climb on top of and underneath Heather Hart’s life-size rooftop construction, unexpectedly situated at ground level within the gallery. Over the course of the exhibition, this interactive sculptural environment will host performances, discussions, community gatherings, and other events led by local artists, cultural producers, and community leaders. Programming is an integral part of opening up this house—which is loosely based on Hart’s childhood home—to wide-ranging conversations and opportunities to share with one another.

Since 2016, Edra Soto has turned her daily dog walks into what she has likened to urban beachcombing: collecting discarded liquor bottles. The artist carefully strips her findings of their branded labeling, playing up the simple elegance of the bare bottles by displaying them on decorative panels inspired by rejas, the painted wrought-iron screens that commonly adorn homes in her native Puerto Rico. As part of special artmaking activities, visitors will be invited to adorn the bottles with cast clay seashells, reimagining the definition of beauty in our personal and shared spacesthrough the creation of these newly enhanced hybrids.

A series of Rodney Taylor’s paintings inspired by homes near his studio on Fillmore Avenue in Buffalo’s East Side completes the exhibition. Like both Hart and Soto, Taylor is interested in revealing the complexities at the heart of such everyday structures. In his paintings, he transforms the architecture of the homes into virtual frames, suggesting buildings under stress. These images confront us with what we regularly see but rarely acknowledge: the burden, unequally distributed in an environment of increasingly stark economic disparities, of maintaining what ought to be a space of sanctuary and shelter.

Programs will include a variety of musical performances by Zoe Scruggs, Henri Muhammad, Ujima Theater with selections from The Gospel at Colonus, and a DJ set by Obsidian Bellis. Chef Alexa Joan will present Mezaland, a food-based gathering centered on healthy eating and storytelling in collaboration with other chefs and food-based organizations. Naila Ansari will present an original dance and movement performance, Albright-Knox Deputy Director Joe Lin-Hill and Annette Daniels Taylor will host a talk about the work of Rodney Taylor, and a number of workshops will be held in support of Edra Soto's installation. We look forward to announcing additional programs by Just Buffalo Literary Center and more. Please visit the Albright-Knox website at www.albrightknox.org/northland for complete programming details.

About the Artists

Heather Hart

Heather Hart has exhibited widely with installations at Storm King Art Center, NY; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; and Seattle Art Museum, WA, among many others. Hart has also participated in numerous programs including the Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and residencies at Franconia Sculpture Park, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and Joan Mitchell Center, among others.

Hart holds an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, with courses at Princeton University and a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts. She teaches sculpture and theory at Rutgers University.

Edra Soto

Recent venues presenting Edra Soto’s work include Chicago Cultural Center, IL; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, KS; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, PR; Hunter East Harlem Gallery, NY; Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, IL; Smart Museum of Art, IL; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, NE; DePaul Art Museum, IL; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL. Soto was awarded the Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship, the DCASE for Individual Artist Grant from the City of Chicago, the 3Arts Make A Wave award, 3Arts Projects grants, and the Illinois Arts Council grant. 

Soto holds an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico. She teaches Introduction to Social Engagement at University of Illinois in Chicago and is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Rodney Taylor

Born in Buffalo in 1966, Rodney Taylor moved to New York City at the age of 20 where he studied, lived, and worked for sixteen years. He studied at The Cooper Union, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Bard College, and the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, where he received a fellowship. Past exhibitions include Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, various galleries in Miami and New York City, and the University at Buffalo Art Galleries at the Center for the Arts. Taylor’s work is included in many prominent collections nationwide, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

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