Designwire: What’s up in Buffalo
No, it isn’t a novel recipe for chicken wings. It’s world-class art.
At the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, work has begun on Sol LeWitt's largest commissioned scribble drawing, to cover 3.200 square feet in the main stairwell. Albright·Knox director Louis Grachos initiated talks with LeWitt a year prior to the artist's death, and he fortunately left simple instructions to be carried out by draftsmen from his studio: "Line. Continuous gradation and a feel of steel." When completed in October, the installation will accompany "Sol LeWitt Remix," featuring drawings and prints from the permanent collection. In the meantime, the Albright-Knox and 10 other institutions have organized "Beyond/In Western New York 2010: Alternating Currents." on view starting September 24 at venues throughout the Buffalo Niagara region. Local artists will join a dozen international contributors, among them Andy Goldsworthy and Do-Ho Suh.
An unlikely-sounding arts venue, perhaps, is Kohn Pedersen Fox's Michael J- Dillon United States Courthouse, Buffalo, New York. When it opens next April, however, the curving entry's fritted-glass exterior will be punctuated by Buffalo native Robert Mangold's stained-glass windows in colors evocative of Lake Erie and ever changing foliage. Another key color is Gold, as in the LEED certification that KPF is targeting.