Western New York Collects: Nancy Dwyer was the fourth in a series of exhibitions that highlights the work of a diverse range of visual artists with Western New York (WNY) connections who have gained significant national and international recognition.

Nancy Dwyer attended the State University of New York at New Paltz and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University at Buffalo in 1976. Her first solo WNY exhibition was at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in 1977, an artist-run, alternative art space in Buffalo, NY where she was one of the founders.  Dwyer has been exhibiting her image and text based sculptures, paintings and multimedia installations worldwide for over twenty five years. Her work, much of which is characterized by its wry presentation and manipulation of language, has been shown at major museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; MOCA Los Angeles, CA; the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, TX; the Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna, Austria; and the The Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand.

This exhibition consisted of Dwyer’s paintings, sculptures, prints and editioned works - dating from 1977 to 1997 - that have been selected from public and private collections in WNY. The Western New York Collects exhibition series has become an important means of uniting the public institution platform with significant WNY collectors. Furthermore, this ongoing series is an effort to honor the role that local collectors play in creating and maintaining an enduring artistic legacy for our region. We hope this series reveals the varied, but always vital, relationships between artists and collectors. Every collector holds unique insights, history and provenance regarding the acquisition of their work(s) by Nancy Dwyer. Collectively, these works form a cohesive exhibition with representative examples of the creative output of Dwyer’s exemplary career, and also serve to reinforce the scope and strength of the collector base in our region. As Dwyer’s work influences artists of today, her invaluable contributions to contemporary art will endure for the future.

Western New York Collects: Nancy Dwyer was co-curated by Gerald Mead, Artist, Art Collector and Independent Curator, and Michael J. Beam, Castellani Art Museum Curator of Exhibitions and Special Projects.

The exhibition is presented with support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

• exhibit catalog