The Buffalo AKG Art Museum recently opened Hi-Vis, an exhibition that celebrates many of the artists who have worked with the Buffalo AKG’s Public Art Initiative in its first ten years. Artists on view include Julia Bottoms, FUTURA 2000, Maya Hayuk, Logan Hicks, Jun Kaneko, Monet Kifner, Shantell Martin, Louise Jones, Felipe Pantone, Pat Perry, and Edreys Wajed.

The exhibition is presented on the third floor of the museum’s new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building and will remain on view through June 9, 2025. Hi-Vis is co-curated by the Buffalo AKG’s Public Art Team: Aaron Ott, Curator of Public Art; Eric Jones, Public Art Projects Manager; and Zack Boehler, Assistant Curator, Special Projects.

The museum has also created a thirty-minute documentary that traces the past ten years of projects to come from the Public Art Initiative, titled Hi-Vis: Ten Years of Public Art, which is available on the museum’s YouTube page, and will also air nationally on PBS affiliate stations starting early summer.

Hi-Vis connects audiences familiar with public works to the museum and vice versa, re-engaging and at times introducing audiences to the depth and breadth of practices that the Buffalo AKG’s commissioned artists embrace, highlighting the work produced over the Initiative’s dynamic first ten years. Perhaps no mode of presentation captures audiences as broadly and as deeply, positioning public installations as one of the most consequential methods of production today. Hi-Vis provides an opportunity to engage with the diversity of artistic practices that our commissioned artists engage in, contextualizing their public works within the sphere of broader contemporary practices. As such, Hi-Vis is an exhibition assembled to foster a greater connection between our community and the museum itself.
 

About the Public Art Initiative

The Public Art Initiative was born in 2013 out of a partnership between the Buffalo AKG and Erie County, soon after joined by the City of Buffalo. In its first ten years, the Buffalo AKG’s Public Art Initiative has created more than sixty works by eighty artists. As the first dedicated public art department at an American museum, the Initiative has been celebrated as a sustainable and impactful model for creating public artworks.

Often the Public Art Initiative challenges artists to create their first-ever public works or the largest works of their career. Working in this way creates opportunities for robust dialogue in shared civic spaces throughout the many unique neighborhoods in Western New York. These community-led conversations establish new platforms for people from all walks of life to create, experience, and talk about meaningful aspects of our collective creative culture. With Hi-Vis, the Buffalo AKG is thrilled to expand those conversations with the work into the museum itself, to offer a platform for these artists in a new way, and to forge new connections with the communities and neighborhoods of Western New York.

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Hi-Vis is presented by the Buffalo AKG National Council and made possible through the generosity of the Rich Family Foundation and the Rich Family Fund for Community Access. Additional support is provided by Greyline Outdoor Advertising. This exhibition is co-sponsored by Aleron, Mod-Pac Corp, and The Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation, and realized with support from the Hi-Vis Exhibition Committee.

The Public Art Initiative was established and is supported by leadership funding from the County of Erie and the City of Buffalo. 

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About the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Founded in 1862, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is the sixth-oldest public art institution in the United States. For more than 160 years, the Buffalo AKG has collected, conserved, and exhibited the art of its time, often working directly with living artists. This tradition has given rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of modern and contemporary art.

In June 2023, following the completion of the most significant campus development and expansion project in its history, the Buffalo AKG opened anew to the public. The project was funded by a $230 million capital campaign, the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York, including $195 million raised for construction and $35 million in additional operating endowment funds.

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