Buffalo Artist on Display at Rosalie "Roz" Steiner Art Gallery

Fugue State: Drawings by Tricia Butski

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BATAVIA, NY (09/28/2017) Genesee Community College welcomes the public to come and experience "Fugue State," drawings by Buffalo resident, Tricia Butski, on display from October 5 to November 2, 2017 in the Roz Steiner Art Gallery in Batavia. In addition, the artist will give a lecture on the exhibit on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 12:30pm and receptions will follow at 1:00pm and 5:00pm.

This exhibit examines the concept of memory through the limited and unstable lens of portraiture.

Expressed in large-scale charcoal drawings, Butski's work both captures and alludes to the face, the body and the subject. Viewers are drawn out of the conscious and into a subconscious space somewhere between remembering and forgetting. It is that undulation between figure and fragment that makes Butski's artwork simultaneously peaceful and distressing, alluring and grotesque.

"The figures and faces, which have been distorted through a repetitive layering process, manipulate our sense of familiarity," says Butski. The original image is continuously photographed and documented while being subjected to a litany of films, ointments and other substances. The resulting image is then augmented digitally to complete the distortion. Butski then renders the image in charcoal to adjust and reinterpret the reference image. "The final image can only be realized through the activity of drawing, which creates a third representation that is neither real nor imagined."

Butski, whose work has been displayed all over Western New York, earned her BFA from Fredonia State University in 2013 and an MFA from the University of Buffalo's Department of Art in 2015. She is currently a Resident Artist at Buffalo Arts Studio and an adjunct instructor at SUNY Fredonia and Erie Community College, teaching foundational courses in drawing, painting and 2D design. In addition to many publications and recognitions, in 2013, Butski was awarded Best of Show at the Evans Arts Guild 40th Anniversary Summer Show in Angola, NY and the Award of Excellence in the Discipline of Drawing and Painting at Fredonia State University. Additional works by Butski can be seen on her website at www.triciabutskiart.com.

The Roz Steiner Art Gallery is open to the public Monday - Friday from 10am to 2pm and during special events as published at www.genesee.edu/campuslife/arts. Admission is free. For more information, contact Gallery Coordinator Mary Jo Whitman at (585) 343-0055 ext. 6490, or via email: mjwhitman@genesee.edu.