July M&T Second Friday 2023

On the second Friday of every month, thanks to the support of M&T Bank, the Burchfield Penney stays open late and admission is free! From exhibition openings to all-ages art-making, screenings, and special programs, visitors experience the best of the Burchfield Penney. Explore the galleries and enjoy live music. The cash-only pop-up bar will be open, serving soft drinks, wine, and beer from Community Beer Works.

Pssst! Don’t miss out! Receive 10% off your Museum Membership when you sign up in person during M&T Second Friday!

Exhibitions Opening

^{Julia Bottoms, My Mother’s Crown, 2023, oil on canvas, 67 inches x 46 inches; Courtesy of the artist}

A Light Under the Bushel: Paintings by Julia Bottoms
East Gallery

Buffalo-based visual artist Julia Bottoms has utilized traditional portraiture to express the nuance and complexities of Black identity beyond limiting, reductive stereotypes. Thinking through historic periods in which portraits were commissioned for figures of prominence, Bottoms’ practice interrogates portraiture as a concept of record. The inclusion – or lack thereof – of Black and Brown bodies in classical portraiture has inspired a new conceptual direction in her work. A Light Under the Bushel features work from this new series, building upon the artist’s interest in expanding narratives around representations of Blackness. Referencing portraiture of the Victorian and Renaissance eras, the featured works emphasize that Black and Brown bodies have always been an important part of history. Her work fuses the historic with the contemporary through her models’ dress and poses that emulate depictions of saints and other angelic beings. The religious iconography embedded within the series pushes against the erasure of Black and Brown bodies in the history of Christianity. Bottoms notes this influence “is meant to spark our imaginations and challenge the viewer to value the light of every individual and to never be the bushel that conceals it.”

Julian Montague: Projects
East Gallery

Since the late 1990s, Julian Montague has been making art with a multidisciplinary approach and an undercurrent of existential humor. Montague’s artwork takes many different forms, from multi-year conceptual investigations, to making ephemera for a fictional 1970s art institution, to hard-edged abstract paintings. Much of his work is concerned with exploring (and perhaps undermining) the systems of order that we use to make sense of the natural and human-made worlds. Works in this mid-career retrospective exhibition are executed using several mediums including painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, fabric, and video. This is the first time that examples from all of Montague’s different bodies of work will be presented together.

Live Music 

Root Cellar
Friday, July 14th | 5:30 pm - 8 pm
Reception Space 

Root Cellar is an experimental music project from Buffalo, NY. Combining original compositions with exploratory improvisations, Kyle McGinty (trumpet,) Katie Weissman (cello,) Evan Kaderbeck (guitar,) Ed Klavoon (bass,) and Bill Conroy (drums) bring their experience in a range of projects in jazz, rock, classical, and the avant-garde to Root Cellar’s varied and energetic group interplay. They have honed their catalog of original music over the past six years and are eager to share it with listeners around Buffalo and beyond.

All-Ages Art-Making

Friday, July 14th | 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Useum Studio - First Floor

We will be making photo collages inspired by artists Muhammad Zaman and Michael Mandalfo. Explore their captivating exhibition, The Language Within Us, and create your own text and image artwork to take home.