The Lavender Room Presents:

Tiberius & Sweet Petunia with Mimeo and Ian Mccuen

hi!!!! come join us for our first EVER show at the illustrious BICA Garage!

Joining us will be the return of our dear ol pals Sweet Petunia (@sweetpetuniaband), along with our new pal Tiberius (@tiberiuswright) on tour! Joining them will be the fantastic Mimeo (Jake King (@rockinjakeking) & Ronnie Mae Valentine (@dirt_swagg)) and lan Mccuen (@ianmccuen)

* it will be an evening of lofi nonbinary folk music, art, and splendor!

Friday July 24

BICA Garage

Doors 6pm Music 7pm

$15 // PWYC

Folk / Freak Folk / Anti-Folk / Indie / Singer-Songwriter

All Ages

Flyer by @sweetpetuniaband

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—bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Brecht, Bertolt. The Threepenny Opera. 1928.

What happens when you make crime as charming as it actually is?
Brecht's musical follows a gangster, a corrupt police chief, and a cast of thieves and sex workers through a version of Victorian London that looks suspiciously like Weimar Germany. The songs are catchy. The morals are nonexistent. That's the point. Brecht wanted audiences to enjoy the show and feel uneasy about enjoying it—a deliberate jolt meant to keep people thinking rather than just feeling. It's an early, vivid example of his theory of "epic theater," where the goal isn't to lose yourself in the story but to stay sharp enough to question it. A lively read for anyone curious about how art can entertain and unsettle at the same time, and what theater owes to the world outside the theater.

BICA School is planning a Field Trip to the Medina Triennial, and all are welcome!

Art is better experienced together — formulating an opinion and then testing it against a friend's is half the fun and how we develop our own tastes and thoughts. So we're heading to Medina on July 19th to see the Triennial, and anyone who wants to come is invited.

This isn't a tour, and there's no official program, though the Triennial is running its own tour that day at 1pm, open to anyone who wants to join.

Otherwise: wander, look, talk. Afterward, maybe we'll land at a bar or park or ice cream stand nearby to keep going — what we saw, what stuck, what we'd argue about.

We’ll start at the Triennial Hub at Noon.

Join us for the opening of New Formations, BICA's 2026 guest-curated exhibition, organized by Toronto-based curator Yasmin Nurming-Por. The show brings together Lucas Cook, Maggy Hamel-Metsos, Liza Lacroix, Scott Rogers, Silas Rubeck, Unconditional Design, and Haena Yoo — artists who take apart what's already in front of us: church organs, car parts, gua shas, the building itself.

Meet a few of the artists and the curator, and see the gallery transformed by five new bodies of work built from material most people would call finished.

New Formations is on view through September 5.

We’ll also celebrate the opening of Nicholas Christakis: Junk Drawer in the BICA School Project Space.

The experimental trio of Ryan Bell, Tim Georger, and James Pardue have put on multiple memorable sets in our garage and around the Buffalo area over the past few years. With James Pardue headed back to his home state of Louisiana to pursue a PhD, this will likely be their last performance as a unit for an unknown period of time.

With support from Regional Headbutting Techniques, Canticle Fade, and Lihuen Sirvent.

Doors: 7pm, Start: 7:30pm

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—bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Schiller, Friedrich. Letters Upon the Aesthetic Education of Man. 1794.

Can beauty make us free?
Writing in the shadow of the French Revolution, Schiller watched a political project meant to liberate people collapse into violence, and went looking for an explanation. His answer: people weren't ready for freedom because they weren't whole—split between reason and feeling, duty and desire. Art, he argues, is what can heal that split. Aesthetic experience isn't decoration or escape; it's training ground, a way of practicing freedom in miniature before we're asked to live it for real. Written as a series of letters, the text is personal and persuasive rather than systematic. A foundational read for anyone wondering what art is actually for, and why a society that wants to change itself might need artists as much as it needs reformers.

LIVE in BICA’s Main Gallery OR LIVEstreamed.

Was our 12 hour telethon too long for you? This telethon is 6 hours.

A wide variety of sonic audio experiences from the Buffalo area, as we raise funds for BICA School. Love what you see? We suggest a $10 donation to support our school. Come make some friends or just lurk in the chat!

Contemporary Communications 1.5 will be working out the technical side of the Livestream Process, Incorporating live video and compositing. Tune in to see Musical Acts, Faux Ads, and Video works from Buffalo Creatives. Tune in for a band or marathon the whole thing, But be sure to watch the screen, and the scene.

Join us on Saturday, June 27 from 3–8PM for the fifth annual Open Essex — a free neighborhood carnival of contemporary art and creativity at the Essex Street Arts Complex. 

sponsors:

Rivalry Projects, Usonia Wine, 19 Ideas

food:

Extra Extra Pizza

participating artists:
Seth Brauchler, Koala, Major Glitch, Issa Mars, Laney Norton, Claudia D’Auria, Emily Constantin, E.L. Hohn, Nick Mass, Skenderton, Chango, LIBBY Projects + Editions, Silas Rubeck, Adelina Metz, Lucas Cook, Kit Xiong, Three of Cups (Lauren Jane, Alex Post and Grace Hoffman), & Nicole Galuszka

music:

organized by the Lavender Room

MX Piggy, Dgi-dgi, All Maine Points, Georgie, & Cool Party

Neptune is a band from Boston, Massachussetts that initially began as a sculpture project. The band played its first show in a basement in late December of '94. Currently Neptune consists of three members playing home-made instruments. The music is noisy and uncombed, a concoction of busted garage and incorrect math created with bike parts, saws, old metal chairs, hobo electronics, amplified springs, metal drums with contact mics inside and other debris found in the trash. With several different members over the years, the music has evolved with the instruments, blending the traditional sounds of rock music with what sounds like mistake-day at the ball bearing factory. Jason sculpts most of the instruments out of scrap metal. Mark has taken an interest in electronics, culminating in the assembly of a small army of nifty synthesizers. Dan has mastered the fine art of building debt and breaking stuff.

$10-20 suggested cover

BICA GARAGE

doors/dj @ 7:30

music @ 8.

done by 10pm

Generator Fund Project

Backyard Shenanigans presents Parallel Play Date!!  A day dedicated to nothing but Play. Let's go offline & be on DnD as we engage with the tangible again. Choose your own adventure from multiple Play areas, Zine-making & collaging, and a Beyblade Tournament! Art Exhibition by Echelon Graphic Novels and Visuals provided by Silas. Vendors, S'mores & so much more!!

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—bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Hauser, Arnold. "Prehistoric Times." In The Social History of Art, Volume 1. London: Routledge, 1951.

What did art do before there were museums, markets, or audiences?
Hauser opens his sweeping history of art and society at the very beginning—art's earliest known forms, made by hunting and gathering peoples with no concept of "art" as a separate category at all. He argues that art here wasn't decoration or self-expression; it was practical, even magical, tied directly to survival, ritual, and the rhythms of group life. A hunter painting an animal on a cave wall wasn't making a picture—he was trying to act on the world. This chapter sets up the question Hauser carries through the whole book: how does art's purpose, audience, and meaning shift as societies themselves change? A foundational read for anyone curious about why we think of art the way we do now—and how recent that thinking actually is.

ABRASH PRESENTS: BLIND DUOS VOL. 1

first time duos from:

Steve Baczkowski / Ryan Bell

Lihuen Sirvent / Safie Falto

with support from:

Auxcab

Saturday, June 13th

BICA Garage

8PM

$10 PWYC

it should be possible opening

a group exhibition featuring teen artists involved with 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.

Eliza Niemi with radiocalisthenics & Georgie

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 June (skipping January), from 12–3 PM. 

Open Studio Hours added April 18 & May 16th

Bring your work for the zine or exhibition to this workshop in our lab, or to the gallery during any of BICA’s gallery hours in starting May 1st, (W12-5, Th12-7, F12-5, S12-5).

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— bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Rancière, Jacques. "Mechanical Arts and the Promotion of the Anonymous." In The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible, translated by Gabriel Rockhill, [pp.31-34]. London: Continuum, 2004.

Who gets to be seen — and what does art have to do with it?

This essay takes the form of an interview, which makes it one of the more approachable entry points into Rancière's thinking. He's working through a deceptively simple question: how did photography and film come to be recognized as arts? His answer turns the usual story on its head — it wasn't the technology that made them art. It was a prior shift in who and what was considered worthy of being seen at all. Anonymous people, ordinary objects, everyday life: once these became legitimate subjects, the camera could follow. A short, generative read for anyone thinking about what contemporary art is for and who it's made with in mind.

Process opening reception

3rd Annual Sketchbook Exhibition

Sunday, May 24th, 1-5pm

at The Crucible

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— bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Carson, Anne. Autobiography of Red. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

A novel in verse about a red-winged monster who wants to be an artist.

Anne Carson retells the myth of Geryon — a winged red creature slain by Herakles — as a coming-of-age story set in the contemporary world. Geryon grows up, falls in love, takes photographs, and tries to figure out what he is. Carson moves between lyric poetry, essay, and narrative without announcing the transitions. The result is a book that feels like several things at once: a love story, a mythology, an autobiography, a meditation on color and memory and what it means to make something. Come having read as much or as little as you can.

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 June (skipping January), from 12–2 PM. 

Open Studio Hours added April 18 & May 16th

Bring your work for the zine or exhibition to this open studio in our lab, or to the gallery during any of BICA’s gallery hours in starting May 1st, (W12-5, Th12-7, F12-5, S12-5).

Generator Funded project Backyard Shenanigans by Desiree and Aly.

Fantasyland: Truth & Desire with Bebe D’lure

Sounds presented by imissedmimi

First event in a series of community based events

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 June (skipping January), from 12–3 PM. 

Open Studio Hours added April 18 & May 16th

Bring your work for the zine or exhibition to this workshop in our lab, or to the gallery during any of BICA’s gallery hours in starting May 1st, (W12-5, Th12-7, F12-5, S12-5).

Join us for the opening of two new exhibitions!

In the main gallery, Emma Safir: Passionate Wretch, whose paintings tarry at the boundaries of privacy and presentation, interiority and reflection, temptation and rejection. Safir photographs textures—fences, blinds, water, leaves, fabric—and then physically works against them. Printed onto gauzy, semi-transparent fabrics, Safir smocks, beads, or upholsters the images over sculptural forms, burying them beneath layers of accumulated handiwork until they function less as pictures than as surfaces: pressured, adorned, and only partially visible. She calls the results paintings. Taking its title from an excerpt by William Blake, Passionate Wretch brings together two new bodies of work by Safir. 

In the project space, Isabelle Janssen: Gitmo Baby is an accumulation of personal archival materials digitized into a 2000’s Geocities homepage. By logging on to the domain, the viewer is able to explore this narrative performance of web-self within the artists’ fictionalized childhood bedroom, bringing the voyeurism of online social spaces into question and bending the rules of socially acceptable oversharing.

Emma Safir makes paintings using fabric manipulation, lens-based media, smocking, rasterization, upholstery, and digitization. Her paintings function as screen simulations, proxies, and portals. Safir holds a BFA in Printmaking from RISD and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale. She has had solo exhibitions at HESSE FLATOW, Blade Study, Baxter St at CCNY, SHIN HAUS at Shin Gallery, and Bunker Projects, and has participated in group exhibitions at HESSE FLATOW, Galerie Nicolas Robert, Charles Moffett, Jack Barrett, and Lyles & King, among others. She lives and works in New York City.

As part of BICA School’s regular Thursday night meetings, but open to all Safir will walk us through her exhibition Passionate Wretch and her practice more broadly as a special preview to her opening on Friday.

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 June (skipping January), from 12–3 PM. 

Open Studio Hours added April 18 & May 16th

Bring your work for the zine or exhibition to this open studio in our lab, or to the gallery during any of BICA’s gallery hours in starting May 1st, (W12-5, Th12-7, F12-5, S12-5).

The Lowliest One, Wild Gone Girls, & HappyGroupppp

Latest offering of gloom, doom, sustained incoherence and sparse moments of bliss… Like everyday life but louder.

The Lowliest One (Kingston) is back on tour with their creaky Lynchian bar band feel smeared with greasy bass synth, drum machines and pedal steel courtesy of Zoots Houston.

Local support from A/V club dweebs, WGG, and brand-spankin’ new happygroupppp lineup.

BUFFALO, APRIL 17

7:30PM Doors // 8PM Music

$10 door

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— bring your thoughts, questions, and curiosity.

→ Krauss, Rosalind. "The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism." In The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985.

What does photography have to do with Surrealism — and what does Surrealism have to do with us?

Rosalind Krauss argues that photography isn't just a medium Surrealists happened to use — it's structurally central to what Surrealism was doing. The uncanny, the double, the sense that reality has slipped slightly out of joint: Krauss finds these not in subject matter but in the photograph itself. A sharp and rewarding essay for anyone who has ever felt that a picture was showing them something they couldn't quite name.

Wylie Something, The Knife Kickers, & Kitchen

Wylie Something, The Knife Kickers, & Kitchen

April 12th, 2026

$10

7PM Doors // 8PM Music

a little, but not a lot

an album by devon logel

Featuring performances by Shane Meyer Jacob King and Devon Logel

Saturday, April 4th

6PM DOORS 7PM MUSIC

$10 Suggested cover PWYC