Exhibit Art

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Shake Hands With Uncle Sam detail. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 0: Self-Portrait With Cockroaches by Cynthia von Buhler. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 1: Cynth-O-Matic. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 2: Cynth-O-Matic detail. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 3: The Artist. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 8: Miss Ann Thrope.Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 10: Show and Tell. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 13: Self-Portrait As Saint Sebastian. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 14: Self-Portrait As Saint Sebastian. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig.15: Sir Reptitious. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 16: Sir Reptitious detail.Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 20: What Iam Now You Will One Day Be. Click on the picture to link to a to ahigh-resolution image for reproduction.

Fig. 21: What Iam Now You Will One Day Be. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

Shake Hands With Uncle Sam interaction. Click on the picture to link to a to a high-resolution image for reproduction.

May 17, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Step Right Up! Chelsea Meets Coney Island in Meatpacking
Cynth-O-Matic: A Kinetic Art Arcade by Cynthia von Buhler

Dates: June 9 – July 25, 2005
Location: CVB Space, 407 West 13th Street, NY, NY 10014 (betwn 9th Ave. and Washington St.)
Subway: A, C, E, and L to 14th St at 8th Ave.
Hours: Tues-Fri 1 PM - 5 PM, Sat 1 PM – 4 PM and by appointment
Telephone: 646-336-8387
Related Events: Opening Reception and Live Performance: June 9th, 6 - 9 PM at CVB Space, free
CVB Space Circus Party: June 25th, 9 PM – 2 AM at CVB Space, $20

A twinkling string of dismembered store-front letters hanging in the gallery at once spells out and sets the tone for Cynth-O-Matic, a sharply rendered kinetic carnival of three-dimensional paintings, sculptures and machines from Cynthia von Buhler, director of CVB Space. The exhibit recently returned from Boston and is, as the flashing marquee hanging over 13th Street advertises, “100% Genuine Cynthia von Buhler”. Though the artist works in numerous media, her pieces are uniform in that each piece provides incisive commentary, whether on morality, aging, vanity, politics, or the art world itself.

The opening-night reception on June 9th from 6pm to 9pm incorporates a live performance piece by the artist; also on display will be a video projection of New Yorkers interacting with von Buhler’s machine, Shake Hands With Uncle Sam, shot while the Republican National Convention and resulting protests boiled nearby. Special guest performers include Sxip of Luminescent Orchestrii and Sxip’s Hour of Charm. Admission is free of charge.
The exhibit returns this fall to CVB Space from October 6th to October 31st, and then early in 2006 it travels to the Studio D’ARS Gallery in Milan, Italy.
Von Buhler’s canvasses are three-dimensional collages enhanced with objects, live animals, and electronics, such that in addition to being paintings, they are also often large and elaborate mixed-media installations. For example, Miss Ann Thrope is a life-sized painting of a woman with two doves perched inside. When the birds move in the piece, they change its equilibrium and alter its intended meaning. In Sir Repetitious, a egotistical man’s transparent insides reveal two voracious rats, hungry for the food and attention of onlookers – feed the rodents with the supplied seed, and you are satisfying Sir on physical and metaphorical levels. A velvet-curtained puppet theater sets the stage for Show and Tell, a multimedia painting of two familiar sisters that explores the use of word versus action with hidden visual and auditory messages. The aptly-named Please Don’t Look Up My Skirt is a commentary on date-rape in which a Botticelli-esque beauty without arms or legs tries modestly to cover herself, imploring the viewer not to violate her; those who disregard the plea see what they have become. As when the mind is absent but the body lives on, the pensive but vacant face of Grandfather explores the mechanics of Alzheimer’s disease; the pendulum oscillates to a steady rhythm, but time stands still for a broken clock.

Regardless of medium, all of von Buhler's pieces require the viewer to get involved: sometimes physically, by pulling a cord or inserting a coin to operate a machine, and at other times mentally, when the message sent strikes a cord with the viewer. The Artist is a disembodied mannequin head and wooden hand in a booth. The work takes your quarter, deliberates a moment, and then gives you a tongue-in-cheek asssessment of your artistic temperament, dispensing a postage-stamp-sized example of your style. The exhibit’s eponymous Cynth-O-Matic offers the brave a chance to buy one of various plastic capsules containing actual samples of the artist’s body hair and fluids from a gaily-decorated vending machine. The piece is von Buhler’s critique of those who attend art openings to chat with the artist and scarf hors d’ouvres while ignoring the art. An androgynous pair of gold-painted legs offers up a Viewmaster slideshow from its pubic region – the piece warns of sexually transmitted diseases by delivering a surprising visual twist. Lil’ Blast O’ Past conjures memories of trying to be grown up by dispensing three more ubiquitous men’s colognes from the ‘80s with accompanying audio dialogue; many will remember the smells associated with their various suggested locales – locker room, prom date, and an infamous New York dance club.

Contact:
CVB Space: 646-336-8387

Cynthia von Buhler

Artist Biography Cynthia von Buhler is an internationally exhibiting visual artist, author, illustrator, and performer living in New York City. In addition to numerous one-woman shows in Boston and New York City, her work has been shown at galleries, universities, and museums internationally. Von Buhler's work is in the collection of The University of Toronto, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Howard Stern, Jann Wenner, and hundreds of personal collections all over the world.

Von Buhler is also a performance artist, and has performed at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Roseland Ballroom in New York City, and at galleries and night clubs in major cities across the country. She has been nominated for a Boston Music Award and won a Best Music Poll Award from The Boston Phoenix.

Von Buhler and her work have been featured as the cover stories of the following publications: Communication Arts, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, The Improper Bostonian, LA's Entertainment Today, and many others. A Boston Globe Calendar cover story and photograph of Von Buhler in front of the CVB Space’s NYC Meatpacking glowing red CVB sign was later turned into a billboard. The billboard has been on display on a major highway in Boston since November 2004. Articles and reviews have also been featured in The New York Times, New York Arts, ID Design Annual, Vogue, Alternative Press, Print, and Art New England. Her artwork has been printed as full pages in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Newsweek, National Geographic, Discover, Atlantic Monthly, and many other publications. Von Buhler was interviewed and profiled in "Mary Magdalen: An Intimate Portrait" on television's Lifetime Network. In addition, a painting of hers commissioned by The New Yorker was featured in the show's introductory graphics.

Recently Von Buhler was interviewed about the traveling CYNTH-O-MATIC exhibit when it was held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for Channel 5 News Boston (an ABC affiliate) and by Italian television on the International Channel Worldwide. This fall her work will appear in an episode of Law and Order, SVU.
Von Buhler also writes and illustrates children’s picture books. She has illustrated Little Girl in a Red Dress with Dog and Cat (Viking), They Called Her Molly Pitcher (Knopf), and others. Von Buhler contributed an illustration to Steven Spielberg's Starbright Foundation's book/audio benefit project, Once Upon A Fairytale, (Viking) where her work is paired with a story by Martha Stewart. Von Buhler’s books have received starred reviews in Publisher's Weekly, The New York Times Review of Books, Horn Book, and positive reviews in many other prestigious publications. Currently she is working on a book about a homeless cat for Boston based publisher Houghton Mifflin which she will illustrate by creating an elaborate set and puppets.

Castle von Buhler, an independent record company (now closed) created by von Buhler and her partners, Adam Buhler and Clifford Stoltze, has published a series of award-winning benefit art and music compilations designed to raise money and awareness of AIDS.

Return to the Cynthia von Buhler Website