¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art

Pride Flag Stolen from Gallery Exhibit Featuring Homoerotic Themes

For Immediate Release –  23 June 2016

Buffalo, NY–The ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art in Buffalo’s Allentown neighborhood had a rainbow pride flag stolen last Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

“While this may seem like ‘insignificant larceny’, we are taking this act very seriously,” said Orin Langelle, Gallery Director. “After the acts of violence in Orlando and the long history of repression against the LGBTQ community, we cannot take it lightly.” He added, “We will most likely never know if this was a deliberate act of hate, a warning to the LBGTQ community or our gallery, or just a senseless theft, but we think it is important that the public is aware.”

In honor of the 2016 Pride month and the 25^th anniversary of Buffalo’s first public Pride celebration, the gallery had been flying the rainbow flag outside of the building since the beginning of June. The ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery’s exhibit for Pride month is SOULJA: Peace and Love Warriors featuring New York City artist Cassandra. The show runs through July 29^th.

About the theft, Cassandra said, “Defending the freedom to love and the love of freedom is more urgent than ever. No one is on the sidelines.”

Freedom to Love

Following the June 12^th shooting in Orlando, a large 3’ x 5’ print of “Freedom to Love” was displayed in the gallery’s front window along with the following statement of solidarity with the victims of the shooting:

The !Buen Vivir! Gallery stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and with all victims of senseless violence and hate.

This is about liberation, it’s about struggle, it’s about love.

The police responded yesterday to the call from the gallery and filed a report calling the offense “petit larceny.”

Contact: Carolyn Lansom, Gallery Manager, +1.716.931.5833 carolyn@globaljusticeecology.org

The !Buen Vivir! Gallery stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and with all victims of senseless violence and hate as we have just seen in Orlando, FL in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016.

Our Gallery is about liberation, it’s about struggle, it’s about love.

What we saw yesterday took place during Pride Month and our Gallery has a one woman show, by NYC artist Cassandra, who states “There’s no Freedom to Love if you don’t have a love of freedom.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

I want to thank my friend Bill Jungels for supplying these black and white shots of the opening reception that occurred on 3 June 2016 of Cassandra’s SOULJA exhibit in Buffalo’s ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery of Contemporary Art. All photos below are Bill’s except for the three in color after his, which I shot. Many thanks go out to all those who made this exhibition possible – especially those who are gone, but not forgotten. Orin Langelle

For more information on Casandra and SOULJA, please see Current exhibit.

Cassandra in front of Freedom to Love print

Witch Hunt sculpture (left), Dona Clara hanging mural, Jennifer Russell (Buffalo Canvass) and Anne Petermann (Executive Director of Global Justice Ecology Project)

Carolyn Lansom, Gallery Manager (left) and Sarah Tomani (Gallery staff). Ab’ya Yala print on on right

Gallery Director, Orin Langelle

Live music by Greg Amato with Adelita hanging mural to the left

Bill Jungels, with camera, who shot the above photographs

People at the opening. There was no mobile phone talk or texting in the gallery, just people enjoying themselves

Rose at altar of Doña Clara

¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art
148 Elmwood Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14201

The evening prior to the opening of Cassandra’s SOULJA exhibit at the ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art. Photos: Langelle

painting pedastal

swallowing sword or cross?

Adelita looking to her left

design, tools, etc.

Buffalo, NY (June 2, 2016)–New York City artist Cassandra opens her first Buffalo exhibit, SOULJA, at the ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art, 148 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo’s Allentown Art District on June 3 from 6-9 p.m. A second special reception will take place at the gallery during the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 5, noon – ?

[Please note that the Gallery has a new improved website at BuenVivirGallery.org.]

SOULJA features large prints, bronze sculptures and murals with themes exploring feminism, homosexuality, Latin culture and more.

“With SOULJA, I hope to show Buffalo all the love in my heart and contribute to joy, the secret of resistance,” said Cassandra. She refers to the work in this show as “a tribute to sisterhood as well as an erotic, magical Sapphic dream of flight and liberation for the freedom to love.”

Doula by Cassandra – bronze sculpture

“We’re very excited about bringing Cassandra’s work to Buffalo,” remarked ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery Director, Orin Langelle. He continued, “Cassandra’s multidimensional work emerges as empowering metaphors – striking bronze and plaster sculptures, as well as large painted ‘floating murals’ that explore the full gamut of liberation and invite the beholder to see, feel and act.”

Doña Clara by Cassandra – acrylic on canvas

From an artistic perspective, Cassandra considers herself “Made in Mexico.” She studied at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking in Mexico City and painted with the Mexican muralism workshop Ojos de Lucha (Eyes of the Struggle).

Cassandra has work in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art in New York City. The Leslie-Lohman Museum is the world’s first dedicated LGBTQ art museum. She also has exhibited at the East/West Gallery in London, and the Chopo Museum in Mexico City.

On June 3, the ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art will host an opening reception with the artist at the gallery, 148 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. The opening will include complimentary wine, hors d’oeuvres and music by Greg Amato. SOULJA will remain on display until July 29. There will also be special gallery hours during the Buffalo Pride Parade, beginning on Sunday June 5 at noon.

Regular Gallery Hours beginning June 4: Tuesday through Friday 1-4 p.m., Friday evening 6-8 p.m. and Saturday 1-3 p.m.

For more information and photos from the exhibit, visit the ¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art.

CONTACT:
Kip Doyle, Media Coordinator
¡Buen Vivir! Gallery for Contemporary Art
+1.716.931.5833 (office), +1.716.867.4080 (mobile)
Gallery@BuenVivirGallery.org