By Jimmy Keller
(Image above: Hallwalls 51st Annual Members Exhibition)

Welcome to Hive Highlights; a weekly exhibits roundup from The Buffalo Hive. This showcase is meant to point you to gallery openings, ongoing exhibits, closings, artist talks and happenings in the visual arts community of Western New York for the week/end ahead. These lists are not designed to be comprehensive, instead providing a keyhole into the creative hum of our region. 

1. Hallwalls 51st Annual Members Exhibition Opening at Hallwalls
   OPENING, Friday July 18, 2025 7-10p
   341 Delaware Ave. Buffalo, NY 14202

Hallwalls has been growing ever since its first event back in 1974. Each year, more talented artists become a part of the community and each year that collective uniqueness has been celebrated through an annual exhibition. In 2024, this exhibition hit a record 277 artworks. This year will be just as impressive and even more relevant, sharing hundreds of works by artists from many backgrounds and media. This is a great show exhibiting the diverse artist community in our own backyard. Check this out through Aug. 22.

Learn More: https://www.hallwalls.org/visual/6620.html

2. Do Not Go Out of the Door at BICA
   OPENING, Friday July 18, 2025 7-10p
   30 Essex Street, Rear D, Buffalo, NY 14213

Ten artists reflect on our current political situation and future by ironically looking back, to the past and to home. Home may mean something different to everyone but the present and the future, in a strange way, may mean the same to most. Kit Xiong, guest curator of this exhibition as well as Buffalo writer and critic, describes the show as an assembly of “the ghosts haunting wildly different imaginations, creative practices, and levels of belief in the promise of home, manifested through found objects and facsimiles, translucent glass and illusionistic painting.” This exhibition can be viewed through Sept. 6.

Learn More: https://www.thebica.org/exhibitionsarchive/do-not-go-out-of-the-door

3. Rest & Relaxation at Burchfield Penney Arts Center
   ONGOING through Sept. 26
   1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222

For a relaxing yet contemplative exhibition, you can explore this ongoing exhibition at the Burchfield Penney. It feels almost as if the gallery becomes home, but a unique home forcing the viewer to reflect on their surroundings and interaction with the interior around them. Focusing on furniture, paintings and sculpture, this show can be discovered along with the several others currently taking place throughout the gallery. 

Learn More: https://burchfieldpenney.org/exhibitions/exhibition:rest-and-relaxation/