Adjacent Spaces

Karen Tashjian and Mark Lavatelli, each with decades of artistic experience in Western New York, have, over the last few years, established their studios in adjacent spaces in the Niagara Frontier Food Terminal. This building complex, once among the largest in the world of its kind, and its neighboring Clinton Bailey Farmers Market, inaugurated in 1930, were pivotal centers for the sale of agricultural goods from regional farms for decades. In more recent years, the terminal has evolved into a community hub, hosting a diverse array of businesses and artist studios.

Sharing a fascination with the dynamic relationships between positive and negative spaces, Tashjian and Lavatelli often juxtapose fractured and solid colors in their works, approaching abstraction as a deconstruction of representations of the real world. Both artists share an affinity for the 20th century artist Richard Diebenkorn, whose Ocean Park series started in the late 1960’s represents a similar kind of abstraction away from the real. Their takeaways are unique to each body of work. Both artists are graduates of Cornell University.

Their studios, situated side by side, serve as spaces where their artistic exploration unfolds. In their creative process, both artists apply multiple layers of paint, occasionally scraping away to reveal subtle traces of earlier brushstrokes, creating a rich and layered visual experience within the shared artistic enclave of their adjoining studios. Recent collaborative oil paintings display their shared painting interests.

Tashjian is a licensed architect. She taught in the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo for eighteen years. She has also designed sets for numerous plays, including Shakespeare in Delaware Park. Her paintings often feature buildings transformed by time. In some works, the skeletal remains of steel mills, once vibrant symbols of industrial might, stand as silent witnesses to the bygone era of manufacturing. The play of sunlight on rusted surfaces, broken windows, and crumbling walls adds depth and texture to the scenes.

Lavatelli is a master of the encaustic medium (heated beeswax paint). His paintings often contain images of tree trunks and branches that are combined with geometric elements. He was a Professor of Art and Humanities at Medaille University in Buffalo for more than thirty years and a teacher of art for nearly fifty. He is also a curator. In his first five years in Buffalo, he worked on important exhibitions including Wilhelmina Godfrey: A 40-Year Retrospective in 1990, Contemporary Iroquois Art in 1991 and AIDS: An Acquired Awareness in 1992. Lavatelli is the co-author of Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico, published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in 2007 and the author of Awkward Beauty, published in Richard Diebenkorn Works on Paper 1949-52 for an exhibition at VanDoren Waxter Gallery in New York City in 2016.

Adjacent Spaces: Paintings by Karen Tashjian and Mark Lavatelli, juxtaposes the work of these two painters who focus on the built and natural environment, respectively, creating a harmony in the opposing subjects of their paintings. This exhibition is as much about adjacent spaces as it is about the spaces that are forgotten or unnoticed.

Adjacent Spaces: Paintings by Karen Tashjian and Mark Lavatelli is presented through the generous support of Ms. Shelley Drake in loving memory of Dr. Kenneth C. Drake, Mrs. Cynthia Baird Stark and the Cameron and Jane Baird Foundation, Dr. Steven Lakomy and Ms. Cheryl Lyles, and an anonymous donor.