Lost Beauty Projects (2019-2021)
Lost Beauty: Part I
Lost Beauty: Part I and II was two-part collaboration project between the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) and the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY). Lost Beauty: Part I which included the Extinct Birds Project was presented at the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) in the summer of 2019 with the support of the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY), the Roger Tory Institute of Natural History (Jamestown, NY), Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (Boston, MA) and the Stanley Museum (State University of New York at Fredonia (Fredonia, NY) and the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Ithaca, NY). Lost Beauty: Part II was presented in the fall of 2020 at the Buffalo Museum of Science (see below for more information about this project). Lost Beauty: Part I featured paintings, audio files, videos, specimens from the Extinct Birds Project, and informational plaques documenting the history and extinction of 17 extinct bird species. The Extinct Birds Project also included a book and website detailing the lives and history of seventeen extinct bird species , collection methods, politics of extinction classification and biographical information on the collectors who acquired the extinct specimens.
Lost Beauty: Part I
Lost Beauty: Part I and II was two-part collaboration project between the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) and the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY). Lost Beauty: Part I which included the Extinct Birds Project was presented at the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) in the summer of 2019 with the support of the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY), the Roger Tory Institute of Natural History (Jamestown, NY), Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University (Boston, MA) and the Stanley Museum (State University of New York at Fredonia (Fredonia, NY) and the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Ithaca, NY). Lost Beauty: Part II was presented in the fall of 2020 at the Buffalo Museum of Science (see below for more information about this project). Lost Beauty: Part I featured paintings, audio files, videos, specimens from the Extinct Birds Project, and informational plaques documenting the history and extinction of 17 extinct bird species. The Extinct Birds Project also included a book and website detailing the lives and history of seventeen extinct bird species , collection methods, politics of extinction classification and biographical information on the collectors who acquired the extinct specimens.
Lost Beauty: Part II
Lost Beauty: Part II was presented in the fall of 2020 at the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY) in collaboration with the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY). The exhibition featured small but significant artifacts and specimens that might otherwise be overlooked in the museum's extensive collection. The large paintings and accompanying book outlines the importance of these diminutive objects and the process in creating the exhibition.
Lost Beauty: Part II was presented in the fall of 2020 at the Buffalo Museum of Science (Buffalo, NY) in collaboration with the Anderson Gallery at the University of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY). The exhibition featured small but significant artifacts and specimens that might otherwise be overlooked in the museum's extensive collection. The large paintings and accompanying book outlines the importance of these diminutive objects and the process in creating the exhibition.
Lost Beauty: Icebergs
Lost Beauty: Icebergs investigates the silent remnants of the Breiđamerkurjökull glacier and the dramatic environmental effects of climate change.
Lost Beauty: Icebergs investigates the silent remnants of the Breiđamerkurjökull glacier and the dramatic environmental effects of climate change.
The following poem was written by Kathleen McCoy, Professor of English, at the State University of New York Adirondack after seeing this series on exhibit on her campus in the winter of 2022:
The Sea of Cataclysm
after the glacier paintings "Lost Beauty" by Alberto Rey
Glacial images captured in darkness
in shades of malachite and teal--
seas of earth's truest color
emerge tonight to melt, but slowly:
ice boulders like henges, or islands
of ribs, or ghost boats of bone, or
scapulae piercing dark cavities, or
final gasps of some extinct
tetrapod whose mammoth spine
twists, agonist of the deep. Under-
neath the surface parts lie
refracted, stippled by wind and moonlight--
ice mountains and universe converse,
crackle, break. A great jaw crumbles
as it utters guttural sounds we've never
heard before. Ice matter and watery
antimatter float in the Sea of Cataclysm
as we take the shallowest of breaths.
Kathleen Mc Coy
after the glacier paintings "Lost Beauty" by Alberto Rey
Glacial images captured in darkness
in shades of malachite and teal--
seas of earth's truest color
emerge tonight to melt, but slowly:
ice boulders like henges, or islands
of ribs, or ghost boats of bone, or
scapulae piercing dark cavities, or
final gasps of some extinct
tetrapod whose mammoth spine
twists, agonist of the deep. Under-
neath the surface parts lie
refracted, stippled by wind and moonlight--
ice mountains and universe converse,
crackle, break. A great jaw crumbles
as it utters guttural sounds we've never
heard before. Ice matter and watery
antimatter float in the Sea of Cataclysm
as we take the shallowest of breaths.
Kathleen Mc Coy
