Hallwalls
Encyclopedia
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
band, The Vores, in Monsters of Nature Design, representations of the John F. Kennedy assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
by Ant Farm and T.R. Uthco’s 1975 film, The Eternal Frame with photographer, sculptor, painter and video artist, Eric M. Jensen in Parallax Views, and the 2008 exhibition series, The Imaginary Line, featuring Mexican performance artist, Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña
Guillermo Gómez-Peña was born in Mexico City and moved to the US in 1978, where he established himself as a performance artist, writer, activist, and educator. He has pioneered multiple media, including performance art, experimental radio, video, performance photography and installation art...
, Ursula Biemann, Jim Finn
Jim Finn
James Finn, Jr. is an American football fullback who is currently a free agent. He was originally drafted by the Chicago Bears in the seventh round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He played college football at Pennsylvania...
, and a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Love Canal
Love Canal
Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the white collar LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue...
by Fereshteh Toosi.
The biennial festival, Ways In Being Gay:Ways in Between Gender started in 1988 by then Hallwalls performance curator, Ron Ehmke, celebrated its 20th year in 2008. The yearlong celebration began with Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
’s final film, Blue.
The annual literary festival, Babel, which Hallwalls co-sponsors, featured a reading by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
, winner of the 1992 Man Booker Prize for The English Patient
The English Patient
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje. The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out...
,’’ in 2008.
Hallwalls also collaborates with other non-profit organizations in the Western New York community. Since 1986, ARTGREASE , both Hallwalls' and Squeaky Wheel's shared timeslot on Buffalo Public-access television
Public-access television
Public-access television is a form of non-commercial mass media where ordinary people can create content television programming which is cablecast through cable TV specialty channels...
cable TV, Channel 20,, has given the institution a chance to serve the community with its half-hour television program, Artwaves. Hallwalls also co-sponsors, along with organizations Just Buffalo Literary Center, Gay & Lesbian Youth Services of WNY, and Compass House, Spotlight on Youth, an open-mic, poetry program dedicated to young poets and artists in the Buffalo community.
The gallery has also made it a mission to showcase work that directly showcases Buffalo’s fading industrial past, with exhibitions such as Jesse Webber’s: You Can’t Smoke in Here, Mr. Corbusier, You’ll Burn This Mother Down, featuring silkscreen prints of photographs of several grain elevators taken by husband and wife team, Herd and Hilla Becher.
A Brief History
Hallwalls was established by Charles CloughCharles Clough
Charles Sidney Clough is an American painter. His art has been exhibited in over 60 solo and over 150 group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe and is included in the permanent collections of over 70 museums.-Early life and education:Charles Clough was born and raised in Buffalo, New...
, Robert Longo
Robert Longo
Robert Longo is an American painter and sculptor. Longo became famous in the 1980s for his "Men in the Cities" series, which depicted sharply dressed businessmen writhing in contorted emotion.-Early life and education:...
, Diane Bertolo, Nancy Dwyer, Larry Lundy, Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. Sherman currently lives and works in New York City. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. She is represented by Sprüth Magers Berlin London in and Metro Pictures gallery in...
, and Michael Zwack, in 1974 in a converted ice packing warehouse, the Essex Art Center, which had been converted into studios for artists.
The focus of Hallwalls since its inception has been to produce a space that will accommodate artists from diverse backgrounds. Works from varying mediums, which include film, video, performance art, music, painting, photography, and sculpture, have come together since the beginning, to confront
the prevailing social issues of contemporary culture.
In the 1980’s, Hallwalls moved to 700 Main Street. During this time, the curators found it increasingly difficult to counterbalance the initial intentions of the founders, which were to create a space where artists could freely show works that were not creations sponsored or funded by corporate interests, and grow as an arts institution that could serve the largest possible audience. Funding increases allowed for a larger gallery space in the 700 Main Street complex, as well as opportunities for more artists to show their work in the gallery, but required the input and compensation of more staff and organizers.
Funding has been a consistent issue, but Hallwalls has been able to survive. Despite severe cuts in the 1990’s, Hallwalls has remained a strong presence in the Western New York community.
In January 2006, Hallwalls moved into its new home, which it shares with Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records is an American independent record label. It was created by progressive folksinger Ani DiFranco in 1990 to release her own songs in lieu of being beholden to a mainstream record company.-History:...
, at 341 Delaware Ave., in a former Asbury Methodist Church, purchased by Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
.
A catalog of some of the films shown at Hallwalls are archived at The Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo.
Some of the performers who have performed at Hallwalls include:
- Kathy AckerKathy AckerKathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S...
- Glenn BrancaGlenn BrancaGlenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
- Fifth Column
- The Kipper KidsThe Kipper KidsThe Kipper Kids are contemporary artists who live and work in New York, USA, and Scarborough, United Kingdom.-Biography:Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh are a performance duo...
- Ann MagnusonAnn MagnusonAnn Magnuson is an American actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who first gained prominence in the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan...
- Christian MarclayChristian MarclayChristian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
- Harvey PekarHarvey PekarHarvey Lawrence Pekar was an American underground comic book writer, music critic and media personality, best known for his autobiographical American Splendor comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a critically acclaimed film adaptation of the same name.Pekar described American Splendor as "an...
- Richard SerraRichard SerraRichard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...