Buffalo artist Bruce Adams to speak in Art Gallery Talk tonight, March 30

Above, a quartet of works by Jackie Felix. Below, "How Are We Natural?" by Bruce Adams. “Figure and Form” runs through April 3. Gallery hours are 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday. It is free to the public.

Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an artist as he or she creates a new work?

You’ll have a chance to find out for yourself when the art gallery at the State University of New York at Fredonia hosts talks with Buffalo-based artists Jackie Felix and Bruce Adams.

Both artists currently have paintings on display at the SUNY Fredonia gallery, which is located in Rockefeller Arts Center, as part of an exhibition entitled “Figure and Form: Explorations of Humanity.”

Ms. Felix will hold a talk on Monday, March 23 at 7 p.m., while Mr. Adams will hold a talk on Monday, March 30 at 7 p.m. Both talks will be held in the gallery and are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served at each talk.

Art Gallery Administrator Tina Hastings encouraged the community to attend and meet these two artists.

“Bruce Adams and Jackie Felix will each present an informal gallery talk to discuss their work with the SUNY Fredonia campus and community,” she said “Both are prominent Buffalo-area painters whose works are thought-provoking and explore society, power and human behavior.”

Ms. Felix draws inspiration for her works from “ordinary, popular sources (comic books, film noir, the daily papers) which so mirror the flux of life that spins us into conflict with each other and where so much is uncertain and enigmatic.” She was recognized in 2004 with a “Best of Buffalo Award” from Artvoice Publications in the category of best painter.

“In my work, I examine an ambiguous and often fragmented world ─ an ominously spare one in which power and powerlessness collide and social and sexual roles shift endlessly, uneasily as we struggle to find purpose and meaning,” she said. “Engaging the viewer has been paramount in all my efforts, as we share a world of fear and hope.”

Ms. Felix earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her paintings have been featured in numerous solo exhibits throughout Western New York since 1983.

“Always connected, my work evolves from piece to piece and body to body, developing a coherency of thought and imagery, a realm in which to examine human sexuality and power,” Ms. Felix said.

Mr. Adams was born and raised in Buffalo and trained in art education at Buffalo State College. His plan was to make a living teaching, while producing art “untainted by financial dependence.” This approach has brought Adams recognition as both educator and artist.

His true training as an artist, he said, stemmed from his participation in Buffalo’s contemporary art community beginning in the early 1980s as the director and curator of a small storefront gallery called “peopleart bflo,” and through his involvement with Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center as an Artist Advisory Committee co-founder, long-time board member, and board president.

Mr. Adams has successfully straddled the fine art and art education communities as a painter, installation and performance artist, teacher, arts advocate, adjunct college art instructor, and more recently, critical and creative writer.

Though he is known primarily as a figurative painter, Mr. Adams avoids a single personal painting style, instead assuming various historical styles as a strategy for exploring contemporary issues through contextually redefined conventions. His artwork has been exhibited extensively and is included in numerous private and museum collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Castellani Museum, UB Anderson Gallery and Burchfield-Penney Art Center.

His installations and performances have been staged in public venues such as Buffalo’s First Night, the Urban Art Project, and the Artists and Models Affair.

In 2000, the National Art Education Association named Mr. Adams the New York State Art Educator of the Year. He has written art reviews for the Buffalo News and Buffalo Spree, winning the Bronze award in art criticism in the National City and Regional Magazine Editorial and Design Awards.

“Figure and Form” runs through April 3. Gallery hours are 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday. It is free to the public.