UB Art Galleries opens season with two exhibitions in CFA Gallery – UBNow: News and views for UB faculty and staff

The UB Art Galleries will open the 2025-26 academic year with exhibitions in the Center for the Arts Gallery and the UB Anderson Gallery, with the first exhibitions in the CFA Gallery focusing on trailblazing gallerist Martha Jackson, as well as new work from artists from a progressive Buffalo art studio.

Both CFA exhibitions open with receptions from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 4 in the CFA Gallery.

The two additional exhibitions open later in the month in the UB Anderson Gallery.

“Martha Jackson in Paris,” in the CFA’s First Floor Gallery, brings new focus to one of the most visionary figures in postwar American art. It runs through May 17.

“Bits by Bits: Six Artists from Buffalo’s Progressive Studio,” in the Second Floor Gallery, presents new work by six artists from Starlight Studio and Art Gallery, a progressive art studio in Buffalo that supports adults with disabilities in developing independent, self-directed art practices. It runs through Dec. 20.

“Martha Jackson in Paris” explores how Buffalo native and trailblazing gallerist Martha Jackson (1907–69) reshaped the art world — not only through the artists she supported, but through the relationships she nurtured across continents.
 
A champion of abstraction, Op Art and installation-based practices, Jackson cultivated an international network of artists whose work defined the postwar era. Her regular travel to France, financial support of artists and investment in her son David Anderson’s Paris-based Gallerie Anderson-Mayer made her a central connector in a Paris-New York art axis that remains underexamined.
 
“‘Martha Jackson in Paris’ shifts the dominant narrative that centers New York as the lone postwar art capital,” says Anna Wager, curator of exhibitions at the UB Art Galleries. “It reveals Paris as a powerful site of artistic exchange, where Jackson’s artists found inspiration, community and each other.”
 
Artists featured in the exhibition — including Joan Mitchell, Paul Jenkins, Sam Francis, Claire Falkenstein, Norman Bluhm, Antoni Tàpies and Walasse Ting — are all part of Jackson’s dynamic roster. Their work, and the relationships they formed in Paris’ cafés and studios, reflect the influence of Jackson’s intentional internationalism.
 
“Martha Jackson had a unique kind of power,” adds Erik Huk, co-curator and gallery associate. “She was a connector — she didn’t just support artists; she introduced them, created networks and cultivated friendships that had a profound impact on their work.”
 
Drawing from the UB Art Galleries Permanent Collection, Martha Jackson Gallery Archives and the Martha Jackson Oral History Project, both housed in the UB Art Galleries, the exhibition offers new scholarship on Jackson’s global reach. It is also a cornerstone of the UB Art Galleries’ 25th anniversary as a university art museum.
 
“This exhibition is a celebration of Martha Jackson’s vision and of UB Art Galleries’ commitment to supporting art as inquiry,” says Robert Scalise, director of the UB Art Galleries. “When David Anderson donated the Anderson Gallery building and his family’s collection to UB in 2000, it laid the foundation for a museum that is now a hub for research, teaching and public engagement.”

Rather than organizing around a shared theme, “Bits by Bits” highlights individual artistic voices — each artist working toward ambitious, personally meaningful projects developed over many months with curatorial and production support. Mathew Sharp’s paintings blend expressive color fields with playful figures. Eyes, ears and other surprises often emerge from what at first appears to be purely abstract. Larell Potter explores moral extremes — good and evil, angels and devils — through drawings that are dark, funny and emotionally raw, channeling the energy of graphic novels and adult animation.

Shamika Long’s intricate, layered patterns become backdrop to animal portraits that play with scale and finish, collage and composition. Angelina Blackmer uses colored pencils and markers to conjure cozy, witchy interiors and lush outdoor dreamscapes that feel both nostalgic and escapist.

Andy Calderon begins with prints and builds on them, layering strong forms and bold colors. His work often features closely positioned faces — sometimes human, sometimes animal — that are set in vibrant gardens or surrounded by symbolic repetition. Kelly Evans brings a sparkly, goth sensibility to scenes that blend shadow and charm. Her drawings often hint at darker moods or quiet intensity, layered with glitter and personal symbolism that invite the viewer to look again and reconsider the everyday.

“This exhibition reflects what we believe at Starlight: When artists are given the time, space, support and respect to pursue their work, extraordinary things happen,” says Carrie Marcotte, director of Starlight Art Studios. “Each of these projects grew over many months and the artists participating in ‘Bits by Bits’ represent 20 years of artistic production at Starlight. This moment of recognition is deeply meaningful.”

Together, these artists offer six distinct visions — emphasizing experimentation, ambition and voice. In bringing their work into a gallery setting, “Bits by Bits” invites viewers to consider what artistic agency looks like when it’s supported, respected and allowed to grow over time.

“At UB Art Galleries, we’re proud to highlight how creative practice grows within and beyond academic walls,” Scalise says. “‘Bits by Bits’ reflects not just the accomplishments of these six artists, but the strength of Buffalo’s broader art ecosystem — its educators, mentors and community spaces.”

“Bits by Bits” is co‑curated by Cléa Massiani, a curator and art historian pursuing her PhD at the University of Maryland, and Emily Ebba Reynolds, marketing and communications manager for the UB Art Galleries, community curator for Starlight studio and co‑founder and director of The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art.