SUPERSOAKER

Work by John Budney, Emily Churco, Sherri Miller & Mario Fanone

Part of the Side-By Each Exhibition series curated by Kyle Butler

John Budney's work is characterized by an easy-going sort of expansiveness: following one train of thought for a bit before setting it aside in order to try something else out. To name just a few, in the past year alone he has rooted around in abstract and landscape embroidery work, various innovative uses of scratchboard (with paint and thread), and a sporadically revisited comic narrative series about the cleanliness conflicts between his characters Bubble Man and Dirt Man. When not working abstractly, John often freely references the world around him by incorporating established film characters (or approximations of) into his narratives and recreating found images and artworks in his own manner.

Emily Churco's comic work dwells in a mildly sardonic worldview, lightheartedly observing daily frustrations, inconveniences, and odd (but widely shared) bad habits. Her character's laments are tempered by a similarly low-key reveling in creature comforts; the little things that subdivide a world otherwise composed of cumbersome, clunky gloom. Churco also has a knack for poetically tailoring her scenarios to comic form, be it a witty one-panel or an adeptly cinematic full spread.

Sherri Miller and Mario Fanone are more commonly affiliated with musical performance than with the art gallery, but their approach to performance has always gone beyond the music by incorporating costuming, props, and a distinct exploratory demeanor. It isn't so much theatrical as it is an amorphous display of two playful personalities with a penchant for the left-field. For their part in this exhibition they will be translating their sound work to sculptural form using an enclosure of box fans as sound modulators. Additionally, there will be an assembled array of (weird) shoes from their collection and documentation of a recent performance.

Opening Reception: Friday, September 21, 2018
6-9pm
Starlight Studio & Art Gallery
340 Delaware Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14202

On-view through October 15th