BICA School Lab | 30 Essex Street
Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Benjamin, Walter. “A Short History of Photography.” In Selected Writings, Volume 2, Part 2: 1931–1934, edited by Michael W. Jennings, Howard Eiland, and Gary Smith, translated by Rodney Livingstone and others, 507–530. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.

What do we see in a photograph—and what do we miss?

In this richly layered essay, Walter Benjamin explores how photography transformed our relationship to images, memory, and truth. Written just a few years before The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, this piece previews many of Benjamin’s key concerns: aura, authenticity, reproducibility, and the politics of visual culture.

We’ll talk about early photographic portraiture, what it means to capture a face, and how new technologies continue to reshape how we look—and how we’re seen.

Bring your thoughts, your snapshots, or your questions about what makes an image powerful.

Join us to celebrate the 2025 Generator Fund grantees!

This informal happy hour is your chance to meet the ten artists and collectives awarded a total of $60,000 through this year’s Generator Fund. Stop by to learn more about their projects—ranging from backyard installations and immersive performances to analog media labs, public sculpture, and cold-weather art experiments.

We’re gathering at 1500 Clinton Street, Unit 156—home to Libby Projects + Editions and H Boone and Quincey Miracle, two of this year’s grantees. Expect good vibes, great conversations, and light refreshments in a working artist space that reflects the energy of the Generator Fund community.

This event is free and open to the public—no RSVP required. Whether you’re a past applicant, a future one, or just Generator Fund–curious, come celebrate with us!

The 2026 exhibition season of the Buffalo Society of Artists opens early in 2026 with LOCI, a three-way collaboration between the Buffalo Society of Artists, Locust Street Arts, and the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art.

This cross-city exhibition elevates emerging voices from within the Eastside and Westside artistic communities of Buffalo for a combined presence that transcends locale while respecting the unique voices of the communities. Artists working within proximity to LSA and BICA art centers were invited to submit work that highlighted the themes of Cooperation over Distance, Elevation of voice, Connection through Art, Identity, and the axis of Accessibility/Exclusion.

This exhibition is the first of its kind for the Buffalo Society of Artists and is made possible through charitable donation from anonymous donor partners and funding from the BSA treasury. This exhibition showcases artists working in the Westside and Eastside of Buffalo regardless of membership status with the Buffalo Society of Artists to exhibit as part of this exhibition – all artists working in the Eastside and Westside communities of Buffalo are encouraged to participate.

This exhibition is staged with staggered dates:

January 9 – 23, 2026 at BICA: The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art at 30D Essex Street

and

January 16 – 30, 2026 at Locust Street Art at 138 Locust Street

The exhibiting locations were chosen to represent their individual artist’s voices, and the curatorial team worked together to select individual work for cross-city exhibition within each respective venue to  represent community identity, cooperation and connection through the arts. Some artists are represented at both locations, based on the curation of their individual works.

Opening Receptions will be held from 5 pm – 8 pm on the following dates: 

January 9, 2026 5 pm – 8 pm at BICA, 30D Essex Street

January 16, 2026 5 pm – 8 pm at Locust Street Art, 138 Locust Street

Work included in this exhibition was chosen by a three-panel jury: Emma Brittain, Director of Locust Street Art, Tami Fuller, President of the Buffalo Society of Artists and Emily Reynolds, Director and co-founder of The Buffalo Institute of Contemporary Art.

LOCI showcases the work of Caitlin Andrejova, Axens, Kayliee Bertrand-Henretta, Nicholas Christakis, M Clark, Margaret Connolly, Cassandra Cook, Deidra Duell, Doretha Edwards, Sarah Gerass, Alton Hosey, Gilly Jay, Katharyn Ketter-Franklin, Iris M Kirkwood, Edie Monroe, Ari Moore, Shanti Morrissey, Scott Olmstead, Sabrina Parsons, Silas Rubeck, Rachele Schneekloth, and Sky Vance.

BICA School Lab | 30 Essex Street
Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Ruskin, John. “The Nature of Gothic.” In The Stones of Venice, vol. II. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1853.

→ Riegl, Alois. “Die Stimmung als Inhalt der modernen Kunst.” Die graphischen Künste 22 (1899): 47–56.

We’re kicking off our winter season with two short, spirited texts that ask: What is art for—and what does it reflect about the people who make it?

John Ruskin’s “The Nature of Gothic” is a defense of craftsmanship, labor, and the values of imperfection—part art history, part social manifesto. Paired with that, we’ll read Alois Riegl’s “Mood as the Content of Modern Art,” where the 19th-century theorist suggests that it’s not subject matter or style that makes art “modern,” but the inner feelings it conveys.

Together, these texts open up big questions about ornament, intention, emotion, and the role of the artist in society—questions we’ll be carrying all winter long.

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Hugendubel, Eleonore, Dean Kissick, and Matt Moravec, eds. What Is Contemporary Art For Today? And What Should It Be For, If Anything? Berlin: Períc Collection, 2025.

This final session of the season centers on a simple but disarming question:

What is contemporary art for today—and what should it be for, if anything?

This anthology grew out of The Seaport Talks, an informal series of conversations held in a New York City bar throughout 2023. There were no recordings, no transcripts—just real people talking about art face to face. The book carries that same spirit forward, gathering unfiltered reflections from artists, curators, critics, and regulars alike.

The result is something honest, open-ended, and sometimes contradictory—just like contemporary art itself. Join us as we reflect on the year, share thoughts, and maybe ask a few better questions.

🎁✨ BICA’s Winter Art Market ✨🎁

Saturday, December 13 & Sunday, December 14

11:00 AM–6:00 PM

Join us for the fourth annual Winter Art Market at BICA, a two-day celebration of creativity, community, and cozy holiday vibes. With over 20 local artists and makers, this is your one-stop shop for thoughtful, handmade gifts—including jewelry, prints, ceramics, clothing, and more.

Come for the art, stay for:

– Hot & festive mocktails and cocktails

– DIY wrapping that’s delightfully eco-friendly

– A chance to snap your very own holiday card photo

– And surprises that only an art school market can deliver

Whether you’re checking off your gift list or just in it for the vibes, you’ll be supporting local artists and BICA School with every purchase. Free to attend, and full of cheer.

🎁✨ BICA’s Winter Art Market ✨🎁

Saturday, December 13 & Sunday, December 14

11:00 AM–6:00 PM

Join us for the fourth annual Winter Art Market at BICA, a two-day celebration of creativity, community, and cozy holiday vibes. With over 20 local artists and makers, this is your one-stop shop for thoughtful, handmade gifts—including jewelry, prints, ceramics, clothing, and more.

Come for the art, stay for:

– Hot & festive mocktails and cocktails

– DIY wrapping that’s delightfully eco-friendly

– A chance to snap your very own holiday card photo

– And surprises that only an art school market can deliver

Whether you’re checking off your gift list or just in it for the vibes, you’ll be supporting local artists and BICA School with every purchase. Free to attend, and full of cheer.

Hosted at BICA in collaboration with BICA School and Civic Arts (a project by teaching artist Robin Lee Jordan), Arts for Something! is an interdisciplinary program for young and emerging artists (ages 14–19) exploring the intersection of art and civic engagement.

Over the course of the series, participants will build creative skills—like screen-printing, zine-making, sewing, literary arts, and specialized visual arts—while learning how these tools can be used to support civic initiatives such as social justice, activism, and local community needs.

Young artists who commit to all eight sessions (with up to two excused absences) will have the opportunity to create and present a civic arts–inspired project in any medium. These projects will be featured in a collaborative zine and shared during a final exhibition and celebration in June.

Workshops take place the first Saturday of every month, October through May (skipping January), from 12–2 PM. 

December Workshop:

Feedback Feedback: Collaboration Across Mediums

Description:

Silas and Natalie's workshop will explore what it meant to collaborate, through conversation and shared visual languages collaboration can mean more than just working together on a piece, Working in parallel to one another we will show how subtle the actual act of collaboration can be. Silas and Natalie will share their collaborative process of painting and digital glitch art, then invite participants to create their own collaborative pieces in any art form drawing on Silas’ projections for inspiration. Finally some pieces will be added to a larger collaboartive piece symbolizing the collective nature of collaboartion and how as you make together you also create a unique style and language to the place and time and people making alongside you.

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Clark, T.J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers. Princeton University Press, 1985. Chapter 2, “Olympia’s Choice,” pp. 79–146.

What made Édouard Manet’s Olympia so shocking—and what does that shock still tell us about modern life, class, and the act of looking?

In this chapter from his groundbreaking book, T.J. Clark places Olympia not just in art history, but in the messy, changing world of 19th-century Paris. With sharp analysis and rich historical context, Clark explores how the painting challenged polite taste and forced viewers to confront the realities of modern urban life—race, sex, money, and power included.

It’s a bold take on a bold painting. Let’s dig in together.

A workshop designed to delve into how to protect your art and the legal remedies available to artists in disputes. Topics will cover the basics of Copyright law, trade mark law, contract law, and what you can do if you feel like your art has been infringed upon.

Supermodel

THE LIFE, DEATH, AND RE-BIRTH OF A POP ICON

NOVEMBER 21, 2025

WITH PERFORMANCES IN THE BICA GARAGE BY:

SUPERMODEL (WITH NEFTALI )

BEBE DELURE

HEADBUTT

SOYFRUIT

FOLLOWED BY A DJ SET BY IMISSEDMIMI

DOORS OPEN AT 6PM

NO COVER

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come‑as‑you‑are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Deleuze, Gilles. On Painting: Courses, March–June 1981. Edited by David Lapoujade, translated by Charles J. Stivale. University of Minnesota Press, 2025. Introduction & Session 1.

What happens when painting isn’t just about “making something pretty” but becomes a zone of catastrophe, diagram, colour, and force?

In this session we’ll dive into the introduction and the first chapter of Deleuze’s 1981 seminar, where he explores the concepts of the “diagram” and the “catastrophe” in painting—from Turner to Cézanne, Klee to Van Gogh. It’s dense, imaginative work, but rich with ideas about how art does something to us rather than just shows something.

Bring your curiosity. Bring your “Huh?” moments. Bring your willingness to wonder.

Hosted at BICA in collaboration with BICA School and Civic Arts (a project by teaching artist Robin Lee Jordan), Arts for Something! is an interdisciplinary program for young and emerging artists (ages 14–19) exploring the intersection of art and civic engagement.

Over the course of the series, participants will build creative skills—like screen-printing, zine-making, sewing, literary arts, and specialized visual arts—while learning how these tools can be used to support civic initiatives such as social justice, activism, and local community needs.

Young artists who commit to all eight sessions (with up to two excused absences) will have the opportunity to create and present a civic arts–inspired project in any medium. These projects will be featured in a collaborative zine and shared during a final exhibition and celebration in June.

Workshops take place the first Saturday of every month, October through May (skipping January), from 12–2 PM. 

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Steinberg, Leo. “Contemporary Art and the Plight of Its Public.” Harper’s Magazine 224, no. 1342 (March 1962): 31–42.

Why does new art so often make people uncomfortable? Why does it seem to provoke confusion, outrage—or silence?

In this sharp and often funny essay, Leo Steinberg considers the “plight” of the public in the face of contemporary art. He argues that great modern works don’t just expand our expectations—they rearrange them. With references ranging from Picasso to Rauschenberg, Steinberg makes the case that discomfort isn’t a failure of the work—or the viewer—but part of the process of seeing anew.

This one’s lively, opinionated, and surprisingly generous. Bring your reactions—we want to hear them.

What do you want to believe in?

An apple a day. The power of art. The Bills. Climate change. Socialism. Capitalism. God. The moon landing. Bigfoot. Elvis is alive. Aliens are real. Acupuncture.

BICA’s annual gala is a celebration of belief — in art, in transformation, in the wild idea that gathering together can still mean something. On October 25, step into our transformed campus for a night of light, sound, food, drink, and the unexpected.

We’ve teamed up with GroupWork, Buffalo’s premiere party alchemists, to conjure music, movement, and atmosphere all night long. 

Dress code: Costume or cocktail 

Tickets start at $25

VIPs ($100) get in early (7–8 PM) for an open bar and first access to art, experiences, and a little magic

$$ BICA Bucks will be your currency for drinks, food, and anything weird you find along the way

Show us you want to believe.

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity. We’re sharing two versions of this text with different translators. Read either or read both!

→ Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In Illuminations, edited by Hannah Arendt, translated by Harry Zohn, 217–251. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.

→Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility: Second Version.” In The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, edited by Michael W. Jennings, Brigid Doherty, and Thomas Y. Levin, translated by Edmund Jephcott and Harry Zohn, 19–55. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.

What happens to art when it’s no longer one-of-a-kind? What do photography, film, and mass production do to the “aura” of a work?

In this landmark essay, Walter Benjamin argues that technologies of reproduction—starting with photography—don’t just change how art is distributed; they change what art is. From politics to perception, authenticity to accessibility, Benjamin’s provocative ideas continue to shape conversations about art, media, and culture nearly a century later.

Expect big ideas, bold claims, and plenty to discuss.

About Arts for Something:

Hosted at BICA in collaboration with BICA School and Civic Arts (a project by teaching artist Robin Lee Jordan), Arts for Something! is an interdisciplinary program for young and emerging artists (ages 14–19) exploring the intersection of art and civic engagement.

Over the course of the series, participants will build creative skills—like screen-printing, zine-making, sewing, literary arts, and specialized visual arts—while learning how these tools can be used to support civic initiatives such as social justice, activism, and local community needs.

Young artists who commit to all eight sessions (with up to two excused absences) will have the opportunity to create and present a civic arts–inspired project in any medium. These projects will be featured in a collaborative zine and shared during a final exhibition and celebration in June.

Workshops take place the first Saturday of every month, October through May (skipping January), from 12–2 PM. 

Session Details:

How can you turn "what is" into "what could be" when you combine collage techniques and found poetry? What lurks beneath the surface? What possiblities hover at the edges? (Found poetry is when you create poetic language using text you find from other sources.)

Led by:

Robin Lee Jordan is a teacher, poet, collage artist, and zine-maker. She has an MFA in poetry and has published multiple chapbooks and many zines. Along with her teaching artist work at Arts for Learning & WNY Book Arts Center, she is currently a co-organizer of an annual ZineFest, runs civic arts-themed programs for youth & adults at The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Arts & Burning Books, and works with aging artists at Delavan Grider Community Center.

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Kant, Immanuel. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Edited by Paul Guyer, translated by Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

What makes something beautiful? Is taste just personal—or do we expect others to agree with us when we say something is really beautiful?

In this week’s reading, Kant begins to untangle the nature of aesthetic judgment, setting up a framework that’s still foundational in how we think and talk about art today. We’ll work through his distinction between the agreeable, the good, and the beautiful, and ask what it means to judge something “disinterestedly.”

A little dense? Yes. But worth it—and we’ll make our way through it together.

Info Session at BICA

Saturday, September 20th, 2025

2PM

Manuel A. Rodríguez-Delgado: Interestatal transforms our gallery into an archive of future ruins, roadside relics, and techno-shamanic tools born from the thresholds of memory, motion, and myth.

Join us for our opening reception of Interestatal

Friday, September 19th, 2025 from 7-10pm

If you’d like an early peak, you can join alongside BICA School’s Thursday evening walkthrough before the opening (6:30/7:00)

There will also be a artist-led workshop on Saturday, September 20th to be decided by Manuel.

Papermaking workshop with Mia Brown-Seguin.

September 6th, 2025 3-6pm

Be prepared to get a little messy as we play with pulp, learn how to form sheets of paper, and add inclusions.

Materials provided!

Suggested donation $5-10

Ages 8 & up

Optional: bring your own “inclusions” (collage materials and/or small paper thin objects)

Join us for a conversation with curator Yasmin Nurming-Por as she shares her research around creative misuse—how artists repurpose everyday materials and systems to respond to local needs and contexts. From DIY speakers made from rice cookers to alternative models of education, Yasmin will discuss how artists can use what’s around them to create something entirely new.

This event marks the beginning of Yasmin’s collaboration with BICA, where she will curate our annual group exhibition in summer 2026. Artists interested in this way of working may find opportunities to develop projects with BICA over the coming year.

About the Speaker

Yasmin Nurming-Por is a curator based in Toronto. She has held curatorial and research roles at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Walter Phillips Gallery, Images Festival, and more. Her recent projects span the Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art (CN), National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (AB). She is co-founder of gallery two seven two and a PhD student in Art History at the University of Toronto.

Alexa Kanarowski: The Window Won’t Shut All the Way

09.05.25 – 09.24.25

Opening Reception Friday, September 5, 7-10PM

When we look out a window, does the landscape look back in? The Window Won’t Shut All the Way investigates the meaning of glass, and the inability to fully separate ourselves from what we see.

Photographic media imposed on glass forms grapples with the passage of time and the vernacular landscape. Squares and grids appear repeatedly throughout the work. Often altered or in a sense of decay, the grid is reminiscent of city blocks and the changes they undergo over time. By using imperfect squares, the work takes on a confused identity. Highlighting the transparent qualities of glass with a muted color scheme, Kanarowski engages the viewer in both what is and what has been. The expected language of stained glass is subverted to engage with the simple language of a plain window, and the landscape that is seen through a window. Much of the glass is found, further solidifying the connection between the built environment, the work, and ghosts of a time gone by. 

Combined with glass, Kanarowski uses the technique of Polaroid emulsion lifts to create ghostly images. Whether pasted on the surface of a piece or sandwiched between glass like a sample between microscope slides, the photographs become a part of the glass and emphasize its fragility. 

The process of Polaroid emulsion lifts makes physical the notion of time. Because they are taken with a Polaroid camera, the images must be transferred to glass within hours of their exposure. The process itself is prone to unexpected results, allowing the one-of-a-kind image to take on its own form and autonomy. Shooting in the square format of Polaroids places further emphasis on the grid like structures that appear throughout the work, while encouraging a simplistic approach to composition. 

This body of work also engages in tensions between art and craft. Working with a craft like stained glass, Kanarowski both accedes to and distances herself from the rules of the media. Her reliance on grids brings her back to a motif that is often present in her practice, quilts and patchwork. In Refuse Quilt, Kanarowski takes this quite literally, crafting a quilt out of the waste products of Polaroid Emulsion lifts, and the haunting ephemeral landscapes they produce.  

Alexa Kanarowski is a photographer based in Buffalo, New York. Through investigating systems that combine to make our present moment, she focuses on the landscape, cultural, and systemic patchworks that contribute to defining the everchanging now. Frequently working in photo series, Kanarowski creates quilt-like narratives that are sensitive to memory, labor, and landscape. In addition to photobooks, her practice encompasses craft practices, using stained glass and sewing to further elucidate the patchwork nature of the contemporary moment.

Kanarowski is a member of the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art’s BICA School. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornell University, and her work has been exhibited throughout New York State, such as a solo show at the Johnson Museum of Art (Ithaca, NY). She has been the recipient of multiple awards and grants, including the Edith Adams and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize and the Gibian Rosewater Traveling Research Award.

Open to All | Free to Join | No Registration Required

Join us at BICA School for a casual, come-as-you-are reading group that welcomes everyone—whether you’ve read the text cover to cover or just want to hear what others have to say. We’ll explore critical and curious texts together in a space that values open conversation, listening, and learning.

Read ahead if you can, but there’s no pressure to be an expert—just bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Ngai, Sianne. “The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde.” Critical Inquiry 31, no. 4 (Summer 2005): 811–847.

Why do we describe some things as “cute”? And what happens when the avant-garde—the sharp, strange, and experimental—gets tangled up with the soft, sweet, and small?

In this session, we’ll read Sianne Ngai’s “The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde,” a smart and surprisingly fun essay that explores how aesthetic categories like “cute” shape the way we perceive objects, bodies, and artworks. Ngai digs into everything from Kant to Keane paintings to unpack what cuteness reveals about power, vulnerability, and our deeply weird relationship with things.

Bring your thoughts, your questions, or your love/hate feelings about Sanrio characters. We’re here for all of it.

Palmer Segner: 23
Opening Reception, August 15, 7-10pm
BICA School Project Space

In addition to being a picture making process, photography is also a game.  The point of this game, as John Szarkowski said, “is to know, love, and serve sight, and the basic strategic problem is to find a new kind of clarity within the prickly thickets of unordered sensation.”  These photographs were made along the route of the number 23 bus over the course of a few days in March 2025 and are presented here as a series of 20x24” C-Prints.

Palmer Segner, b. 1990, is a photographer living and working in Buffalo, NY.