'Resilience: A Buffalo Story' opens at CEPA Gallery

On May 12, the Center for Exploratory & Perceptual Arts Inc. will open “Resilience: A Buffalo Story” by Mustafa Hussain.

A press release stated, “Over almost three years, Erie County lost over 3,000 people to COVID-19, and then half a year after the tragedy at Tops that took the lives of 10 Buffalonians, the most brutal winter storm in almost five decades claimed the lives of more than 40. How does a city rebuild?

“Hussain investigates that question in his thought-provoking exhibition, reaching a conclusion that the only way to rebuild is through compassion, determination, and reliance on community.”

A graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Hussain is a photojournalist and editorial, landscape and macro photographer currently based in Chicago. He has worked with the New York Times, AFP, Wall Street Journal and Chicago Magazine. Hussain has spent recent years documenting “Buffalo’s remarkable and harrowing 2020’s transformation.”

According to the artist, “ ‘Resilience: A Buffalo Story’ is a collection of portraits and reportage work over the past two years focused on the beautiful resilience within the Black community of Buffalo, New York. Through COVID, amplified systemic racism and violence, loss, and most recently a treacherous winter storm, Buffalo continues to endure.”

A press release stated, “Located in Buffalo’s historic Market Arcade Complex, CEPA Gallery is a contemporary photography and visual arts center with impact in both local and national communities. With three galleries of changing exhibits and events, multimedia public art installations, arts education programs, and an open-access darkroom and digital photo lab, CEPA creates a vibrant presence in the heart of downtown Buffalo.

CEPA Gallery is located at 617 Main St., Suite 201. For more, call 716-856-2717, email [email protected] or visit www.cepagallery.org.