SulliView

Not many art openings in Buffalo attract more than 600 people, but that's what happened Thursday night at "Wish You Were Here," the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's fascinating look back at Buffalo's avant-garde art scene in the 1970s.  The place was buzzing, the art was ever so retro-cool, and a little girl was dancing like a mini-Madonna as The Vores rocked a Clifton Hall reception. (Vores frontman Biff Henrich also had a photograph in the CEPA section of the show.)

It felt like a reunion, everyone was saying, and, to use the lingo of the era, a happening.  Artists Robert Longo and Linda Neaman chatted and reminisced, along with much of Buffalo's art world  -- past and present -- and you half-expected Cindy Sherman to walk in at any moment.  The New York Times sent a writer and photographer.  The exhibit's curator, Heather Pesanti, at right, was taking a few well deserved bows.

Buffalo News Critic Colin Dabkowski explains the origins of the show (and provides ticket information) in this cover story from today's Gusto.

And in the video below, gallery director Louis Grachos talks about the exhibit's centerpiece: Cindy Sherman's "A Play of Selves" -- her first solo installation, from Hallwalls in 1976 -- which set the tone for much of the groundbreaking work she would do over the next four decades.

  

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