The best art is about altering our perception. From impressionism to cubism to abstract expressionism, artists have always been concerned with rearranging reality to represent deeper truths than looking at it straight-on would reveal. And for artists in the Op art movement that peaked in the ’50s and ’60s, screwing with the viewer’s visual perception was the literal goal. In “Op Art Revisited,” opening Friday at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1285 Elmwood Ave.), viewers can catch a glimpse into a movement that was (and is) all about the optical illusion. The show includes work from pioneers of the movement like Josef Albers, Victor Vasarely (whose 1969 painting “Vega Nor” is above) and Bridget Riley, all of which are from the Albright-Knox collection and many of which were acquired shortly after their completion. The show will also include more recent work from Olafur Eliasson (he of the gigantic waterfall installations recently unveiled in New York City), Tim Bavington and Susie Rosmarin. The show runs through Jan 25, 2009. For more information on the exhibition, call 882-8700 or visit albrightknox.org. -Colin Dabkowski
By Tom Buckham
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 07/18/08 7:21 AM
Albright-Knox Art Gallery bolstered its curatorial staff Thursday by hiring Heather Pesanti, currently assistant curator of contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. She will join the Albright as curator in October, replacing Claire Schneider, who recently accepted a curatorial position in Scottsdale, Ariz.
BY COLIN DABKOWSKINews Staff Reviewer
Updated: 07/11/08 8:35 AM
NIAGARA-ON-THE -LAKE, ONT. — In a surreal bit from the Canadian sketch comedy show “Kids in the Hall,” Bruce McCulloch, playing an over-ambitious CEO, rattles off a series of complex and inane requests to his secretary. The secretary (played by Kevin McDonald in drag) repeats the request back to McCulloch, who has already proceeded to his corporate office to conduct business at light speed on several telephones, one of which is hanging from the ceiling. When his heart suddenly stops working, he extracts it from his chest and berates it as “a substandard piece of crap.”
By Herman Trotter
NEWS CRITIC EMERITUS
Updated: 07/08/08 6:50 AM
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE , Ont. — Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” is unquestionably a masterpiece. It is unpretentiously sophisticated, teasingly literate, wickedly witty, mesmerizingly melodious, rhythmically lulling and disarmingly frank in its exposition of the open sexual mores of Swedish life in 1900.
By Colin Dabkowski
NEWS STAFF REVIEWER
Updated: 06/30/08 6:50 AM
CHAUTAUQUA — As the summer movie season prepares to enter high cotton-candy mode, Western New York theaters have come up with the perfect antidote: pure, unadulterated tragedy. And it couldn’t be more welcome.
After a week of dreary weather and more than its share of false starts, the ranting and raving of Shakespeare in Delaware Park’s “King Lear” finally came out in full force Tuesday night.
By Colin DabkowskiNEWS ARTS WRITER
Updated: 06/22/08 9:03 AM
When Chautauqua Theater Company artistic directors Vivienne Benesch and Ethan McSweeny first met with popular TV actor Stuart Margolin, they were immediately charmed.
BY COLIN DABKOWSKINews Staff Reviewer
Updated: 06/20/08 9:13 AM
Forget all about Kansas, Toto. I have a feeling we’re not even on Broadway anymore. After nearly a year of giddy anticipation from Broadway fans across Western New York, the blockbuster musical “Wicked” has swooped into town for a monthlong run that started Wednesday night in Shea’s Performing Arts Center. And if Thursday’s official opening night performance was any indication, it’s been well worth the wait.
You already know the characters. They populated the fantasy world of L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the glittering place young baby boomers pined for with every Christmastime TV showing.
Once upon a time, Gregory Maguire wrote a book called “The Dream Stealer.” It combined several Russian fairy tales –the legend of the Firebird, the tale of the evil witch Baba Yaga, Vasilissa the Beautiful and others –into an illustrated novel for young adults.
