The Buffalo AKG announced that the museum’s Public Art Initiative will sponsor six local artists during the East Side Garden Walk, on July 20 and 21, from 10 am to 4 pm, for plein air artmaking. These six Buffalo-based artists—Emma Brittain, Naija Boles, Stephen Forman Jr. (aka Paulie!), Bree Gilliam, Shanel Kerekes, and Faith Quinn—will produce original works during their two-day residencies. The results will range from sketches and preliminary work for nascent or ongoing projects, to completed original works of art in drawing, painting, and ceramics. 

The East Side Garden Walk, which began in 2018, encourages visitors and neighbors to walk, drive, or bike Buffalo’s East Side, learning about the creativity of this community. Visitors meet its gracious gardeners and experience its historic neighborhoods and wide-ranging architecture. The various featured gardens are an eclectic mix of private homes, community gardens, and even some urban farms, with participating gardeners ranging from schoolchildren helping in outdoor classroom gardens to senior citizens and everyone in between.

Sponsored artists can be found at the following locations:

•    365 Newburgh Avenue (Renata and Ron), Buffalo, NY 14215 will host Naija Boles and Stephen Forman Jr.

•    821 Humboldt Parkway (Samantha's Garden), Buffalo, NY 14208 will host Shanel Kerekes and Faith Quinn.

•    389 Broadway (Grassroots Gardens), Buffalo, NY 14204 will host Emma Brittain and Bree Gilliam. 
 

About the Artists

Emma Brittain

Emma Brittain is a multidisciplinary artist and can frequently be found teaching classes, workshops, and engaging with community arts. She has recently exhibited work at BOX Gallery and Buffalo Art Movement. She upholds her own studio practice along with having a line of handmade pottery, Black and Birdy. The name of her brand is inspired by her appreciation for nature and birds, as well as her ethnicity. Brittain is proud to play a crucial role in raising awareness about Black naturalists. She also is in the NYS Master Naturalist Training Program, which involves training in conservation work and volunteering at nature reserves and with citizen science initiatives.

For the East Side Garden Walk, Brittain will be exploring the early stages of an ambitious mosaic project intended on telling historic and personal stories of Black connectivity to nature. Like many in our community, Brittain was heartbroken at the recent passing of Buffalo’s beloved Gail Wells and will be exploring the ways in which our community can also uplift Gail’s legacy through this project. 

Naija Boles

 

Naija Gregory Lanurias Boles has been creating ever since he was able to hold a pencil. After graduating from the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts, Naija earned his BFA from the University at Buffalo, where his practice evolved from drawing prehistoric creatures in composition notebooks to breathing life on canvas through oil paints.

Naija focuses on creating work that reflects the behavior of the natural world and reaches beyond surface-level reality. He aims to inspire a deep sense of wonder and connection through his vivid colors and lively forms. In an age of constant change, Naija invites audiences to find a moment of solace in the rhythms of his work. Naija draws inspiration from music, biology, and metaphysics. Naija’s work has been exhibited at the Burchfield Penney Art Center with WNY Urban Arts Collective and Buffalo Kids Gallery, curated by international artist and entrepreneur Westside Gunn. Recently, Naija assisted the Buffalo AKG Public Art Initiative and Eat Off Art in the production of a mural on the Jesse E. Nash Medical Center at 608 William Street in Buffalo, an Erie County Health and Wellness Center focused on supporting local and immigrant communities.
 

Stephen Forman Jr., aka Paulie!

Stephen Forman Jr., aka Paulie!, is a Christian, African American illustrator born and raised in Buffalo, New York. He seeks to express his faith, the Black experience (both the tribulations and triumphs), and his love for storytelling through a marker on an illustration board, paint applied to a canvas, stylus on a tablet, or even a ballpoint pen in a sketchbook. Figures and visual analogies are his main vehicle to convey his ideas and thoughts, with each piece’s goal being to spark conversation.

For the Garden Walk, Paulie! plans to paint an illustration that fuses both studio time and plein air practices on Masonite or MDF boards. The guiding principle for this exploration stems from Paulie’s studio practice of late: showing children of the future who have minds to work and their eyes set on a greener future for impoverished communities. 

Bree Gilliam

Bree Gilliam is a figurative painter from Buffalo, New York. She is the owner and founder of Paintphoria, Buffalo’s first paint-throwing studio. Gilliam attended SUNY Buffalo State University, where she received a BFA in painting and a minor in art therapy. In her work, she addresses the social issues that plague society. As a young Black woman, she believes that her responsibility is to depict the perspective of marginalized people, give a voice to the voiceless, and empower her community.

In 2023, Gilliam was selected as an artist-in-residence at Hunt Art Gallery. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions around Western New York. Some of these include a solo exhibition, INSPIRED, at BOX Gallery and Buffalo Arts Studio, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center’s Amid/In WNY 2024, and Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Sharing Our View: 25th Anniversary. She has been commissioned to paint several murals in the Western New York area.

Recently, Gilliam assisted in the creation of a mural with the Buffalo AKG and Eat Off Art on the Jesse E. Nash Medical Center at 608 William Street in Buffalo. In 2023, the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area chose Gilliam to paint her mural entitled Free Your Mind. Gilliam has received more than ten academic awards and scholarships during her time at Buffalo State. These include the Dean's Award for Excellence in the School of the Arts and Sciences, the Robert C. and Marilyn Wilson Painting Scholarship, and the SUNY Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship.

Shanel Kerekes

Shanel Kerekes is a creative with experience in art conservation, architectural restoration, and faux finishing as a full-time career. She is a practicing oil painter who is actively exploring the genre of photorealism within her work. Kerekes is practiced in delivering lessons to art students of all ages and passionate about fostering a positive learning environment, encouraging students to explore creativity.

Over two days, Kerekes plans to create an interactive painting with the attendees of the East Side Garden Walk. The first day will focus on the foundation of the work (subject matter, color palette, composition, etc.), while the second day will be intended for refinement and finishing touches. She will be supplying a bouquet of assorted flowers that can be pressed in paint and stamped directly on the canvas however desired by participants.  

Kerekes earned her BFA from Villa Maria College and, in addition to her art restoration work for Swaitek Studios, she is a painting instructor at Buffalo Arts Studio. Her work has been shown in Sharing Our View: 25th Anniversary at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, and in a solo exhibition titled Softcore at Pine Apple Company. 

Faith Quinn

 

Faith Quinn is a visual development artist and illustrator who specializes in painting, figure drawing, landscape, and animation. Quinn studied at the Watts Atelier as well as with Mike Hernandez at DreamWorks Animation. In addition to her work as a concept artist for indie games, Quinn works in a variety of styles ranging from photo-real to highly stylized and illustrative.

For her work with the East Side Garden Walk, Quinn will produce paintings on pieces of illustration board. Quinn will use this opportunity to study color, lighting, and the shape design of various flowers and their environments. The artist is currently in the process of creating an original animated music video; the work produced during the Garden Walk will serve as inspiration for the backgrounds of this work in progress. Quinn earned her BFA from Daemen University.

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More information about the East Side Garden Walk can be found at gardensbuffaloniagara.com/esgw which includes a link to a downloadable map. Physical maps can now be obtained at the nine downtown Buffalo Public Library locations, or during the days and hours of the Garden Walk at the ESGW headquarters (People's Park and Martin Luther King, Jr. Park).

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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 (formerly the Albright- Knox Art Gallery) 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 is 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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