Body Spray

January 18 – February 17, 2019

Opening Reception: Friday January 18, 7-10PM

The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art is proud to present Body Spray, a pop-up exhibition showcasing a group of artists who address the human figure in all its hairy glory and wet desire in a variety of media. Putting local Buffalo artists into dialogue with artists from across the country, the figures represented here address bodily realities and misperceptions, and speak to the fluidity of bodies across genders, across borders, and across time. This exhibition aims to set a stage for BICA in the future, a fluid and imperfect institution.

Featured artists: Annie Bielski, Maria Guzmán Capron, Pchy Fleshtone & Julian Perez, Whitney Hubbs, Courtney Johnson,  David Lasley, Hope Mora, Elle Pérez, and Stephanie Rohlfs.

About the Artists

Annie Bielski is an artist based in Buffalo, NY. Her paintings, sculptures, and performances have been exhibited at NADA New York with September Gallery; at Incident Report, an experimental viewing gallery in Hudson, NY; at Burning in Water, New York City; and in Paris, London, Hong Kong, Chicago among others. She has collaborated and performed with musician Jenny Hval, and is currently completing her MFA at the University of Buffalo. anniebielski.com

Maria Guzmán Capron lives and works in Berkeley, CA. She received her BFA from the University of Houston in 2004, an MFA from California College of the Arts (CCA) in 2015. Her recent exhibition include Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME; BBQLA, Los Angeles, CA; Interface Gallery in Oakland, CA; Alter Space in San Francisco, CA; 100% Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Minnesota Street Projects, San Francisco, CA; and a solo exhibition at R/SF Projects, San Francisco, CA. mariaaguzman.com

Pchy Fleshtone was born from the chaos of being queer, mixed race, chubby and left handed. She’s white from the neck up and black from the waist down.

Whitney Hubbs is a photographer who explores both straightforward and uncertain modes of image production. Hubbs was involved in the punk rock riot grrrl community from a young age, where she made fanzines, organized art shows, participated in performances and worked as an activist. She later received her BFA from the California College of Arts in 2005 and an MFA at UCLA in 2009. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Alfred University and is represented by M+B Gallery in Los Angeles and Situations Gallery in New York City. She lives in New York state. whitneyhubbs.com

Courtney Johnson is an artist living and working in San Francisco. Selected exhibitions include projects shown with Fused Space, San Francisco; Alter Space Gallery, San Francisco; Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland; and Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in the Huffington Post and San Francisco Chronicle. She holds an MFA from California College of the Arts and a BA from Prescott College. misscourtneyjohnson.com

David Lasley is an Oakland-based painter. His work has been exhibited at Carroll and Sons, Boston; C2C Gallery, San Francisco; and as part of Get It For Cheap International. He holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a BFA in painting from Northern Illinois University. davidlasley.org

Hope Mora is an interdisciplinary artist from West Texas. She is completing her MFA at the University of Buffalo and holds a BFA from Texas State University in San Marcos. As a response to identity, Mora takes familiar and unrelated or found and appropriated imagery to create new visual relationships between the personal and physical space around her by combining photography and video. Mora has shown work in gallery and public exhibitions in Central Texas and Western New York.

Elle Pérez is an artist from the Bronx, NY who works primarily in photography. Pérez has held solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1, New York; and 47 Canal, New York. Their work has been exhibited at The Stonewall National Museum & Archives, Ft. Lauderdale, and the Bronx Documentary Center, New York, among other venues. Pérez is a founding member of Junte, a local and international artist collective and visual art project based out of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. They are currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University, and a Dean at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Pérez is represented by 47 Canal. cargocollective.com/elleperez

Julian Perez (b. 1993 in Dunkirk, NY) lives in Buffalo, NY. He studied photography and sculpture, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the latter from the State University of New York at Fredonia. His photographic work utilizes an editorial approach, taking inspiration from haute couture and fashion spreads. 

 
Stephanie Rohlfs is an Oakland-based artist. She has previously exhibited work at Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland; Bass & Reiner, San Francisco; Root Division, San Francisco; and inside a giant cheese cube in Manchester, England. She has participated in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and Signal Fire's Wide Open Studios. She served as co-director of City Limits Gallery, Oakland from 2014-2016 and co-founded The Stipend, a Bay Area arts microgrant. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014, and her BFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. stephanierohlfs.com

About the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art

The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (BICA) is a new art and education project for Buffalo founded by Nando Alvarez-Perez and Emily Ebba Reynolds. Through innovative exhibitions, cross-disciplinary skills-based programming, and arts ecology development, BICA aims to break down barriers between the art world and the rest of the world in order to make lives better through practical engagements with contemporary art. thebica.org