Rivalry Projects

Congratulations to Nando Alvarez-Perez on the thoughtful reviews of Give Me One Good Reason for Leaving the House, curated by Colin Beattie at the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) in Kingston, New York.

The exhibition is featured in both Musée Magazine and Chronogram. Links to both articles are in our bio.

Writing for Musée Magazine, Yulianna Nunno writes that Nando’s photographs “draw from found photographs and American iconography, creating a visual amalgamation of the nation.”

Thank you to M. Delmonico Connolly for the thoughtful article on Crystal Z Campbell’s exhibition, Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica.

You can now read “Science of the Underloved: Rivalry Projects Presents Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica” in the October 2026 issue of Buffalo Spree, now available.

An excerpt from the article is included below, and you can find a link to the full feature in our bio.

“In Southern U.S. tradition, freedom-seekers eyed the plant to see if slave catchers had passed through recently. In Filipino folklore, a shy girl is hidden in the garden from Spanish raiders by her parents, who discover she has transformed into the plant. Creating a place for these fugitive histories, Campbell’s work challenges the idea of what a w**d is and pays respect to the systematically underloved. ‘From what I’ve learned, it seems like w**ds are called w**ds because they have grown in places beyond desire,’ Campbell observes. ‘Weeds thrive out of bounds.’”

Our sincere thanks to Crystal Z Campbell for trusting us with this remarkable work, and to Matt and Buffalo Spree for helping share it with a wider audience. Crystal Z Campbell💚❤️🇵🇭💚❤️ Matt Connolly Buffalo Spree Magazine

Congratulations to Hannah Secord Wade on her inclusion in Meet Me in The Forest at the Cafesjian Art Trust Museum, which will be on view through February 27, 2027.

Curated by Cafesjian Art Trust Museum’s Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, and Linnea Seidling, Assistant Curator of Glass, the exhibition focuses on the complex and layered relationships between nature and humankind. Exhibited artists include: Christina Bothwell, Kate Clements, Inka Essenhigh, Pao Houa Her, Mayme Kratz, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Ana Mendieta, Lori Nix, Ebony G Patterson, Erica Rosenfeld, Amanda Michelle Smith, Paul Stankard, Hannah Secord Wade, Carrie Mae Weems, Nancy Wissemann-Widrig, Emma Wood, and Hiroshi Yamano.

Hannah Secord Wade, Underground, 2022, acrylic on linen, 60 x 48 inches. Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine. Museum purchase, Lynne Drexler Acquisition Fund, 2022.31. Photos courtesy of Cafesjian Art Trust Museum. Hannah Secord Wade Farnsworth Art Museum Cafesjian Art Trust Museum

Crystal Z Campbell’s exhibition, Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica, is now on view at Rivalry Projects and will run through Friday, October 30. The gallery is open Wednesday–Saturday, 11:00 AM–5:00 PM, and by appointment.

Join us on Tuesday, October 20 at 6:00 PM for an artist talk and publication launch, featuring a new essay by scholar, artist, and writer Amalle Dublon, who is Guest Faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and faculty at The New School. Snacks and Refreshments will be available.

Amalle Dublon’s writing has appeared in Art in America, Movement Research Performance Journal, Gay and Le***an Quarterly, Artpapers, and The Drama Review, among other publications. Since 2018, Amalle has co-organized I Wanna Be With You Everywhere, a serial cross-disability arts gathering. Amalle’s artwork, made collaboratively with friends and loved ones, has been exhibited at Artists Space (New York), Museum MMK (Frankfurt), ARGOS Arts (Brussels), and Dazibao (Montreal). Amalle is currently Guest Faculty at Sarah Lawrence, and also teaches at The New School, where they are a 2026-27 fellow at the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography & Social Thought.

Special thanks to the University at Buffalo Humanities Institute (College of Arts and Sciences) and the UB Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development for their generous support of this publication.

Images: Crystal Z Campbell, Mimosa Pudica: Gainesville, Florida, 2026, Acrylic paint, archival inkjet print, glazed and unglazed ceramic shards, fish leather, wax, homegrown crystals on birch wood panel, 24 x 18 inches, 24.75 x 18.75 inches, framed

Crystal Z Campbell’s exhibition, Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica, is now on view at Rivalry Projects.

The exhibition will remain on view through Friday, October 30. Gallery hours are Wednesday–Saturday, 11:00 AM–5:00pm, and by appointment.

Explore the exhibition and available works on our website, or send us a DM to receive a preview with images, pricing, and additional information.

Join us this evening, from 5:00-9:00pm, for the opening of Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica, our first exhibition with Crystal Z Campbell!

Crystal Z Campbell’s creative practice spans visual art, experimental film, and writing to explore what they’ve termed as the ‘underloved’ - the histories, peoples, places, and public secrets that are known by
many but unspoken. Their artistic research originates from investigations into archives, digital collections, and online repositories, paying attention to the underloved buried within institutional memory or exist beyond those bounds. This presentation will debut a new series of paint and photo-based collages, alongside
cast bronze and iron sculptures that examine global herbarium specimens of the mimosa pudica - an abundant, touch sensitive plant, with medicinal and sentient properties. To read more, check out the
link in our bio.

Images: Crystal Z Campbell, Malu-malu, 2026, Cast iron, 8.25 x 5.75 inches Crystal Z Campbell💚❤️🇵🇭💚❤️

Join us for the opening reception of Crystal Z Campbell - Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica, this Friday, September 18, from 5:00 - 9:00pm.

Crystal Z Campbell, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts, is a visual artist, experimental filmmaker, and writer of Black, Filipinx, and Chinese descents whose archive-driven works engage historical perception, psychogeography, and the underloved.

Campbell’s visual art and films have exhibited and screened internationally: MOMA , European Media Arts Festival, SFMOMA, Chicago International Film Festival (Silver Lion), National Gallery of Art, The Drawing Center, ReMai Modern, Berlinale International Film Festival, MIT List Visual Arts Center, REDCAT, Gallerie im Turm, SculptureCenter, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Walker Art Center, ICA-Philadelphia, Studio Museum of Harlem, Bemis, Nest, Semana Cinema de Negro, Knoxville Museum of Art, New Orleans Film Festival, BLOCK Museum and others. Recent solo exhibitions include Artists Space, St. Louis Art Museum, Memorial Art Gallery, and a forthcoming exhibition in Fall 2027 at Harvard Radcliffe Institute.

Campbell’s work is in the permanent collections of MIT List Visual Arts Center, Memorial Art Gallery, Philbrook Museum, Gilcrease Museum, Duke University, Harvard University, the Beth Rudin DeWoody collection, and other private collections in the US and Italy. Campbell is currently an Associate Professor in Art and Media Study at the University at Buffalo and visiting MFA faculty at Bard College. They live and work between Oklahoma and New York.

Photo: Portrait of Crystal Z Campbell by Brandon Watson.

Join us for the opening of Aftertouch: Mimosa Pudica on Friday, September 18 from 5:00 - 9:00pm!

The presentation will debut a new series of paint and photo-based collages, alongside cast bronze and iron sculptures that examine global herbarium specimens of the mimosa pudica - an abundant, touch sensitive plant, with medicinal and sentient properties. Native to South and Central America, but now found in tropical climates around the world, the history of mimosa pudica is grounded in anthropomorphization, colonial touch, and scientific experimentation. Together, the works in the exhibition expand upon these histories to speak to contemporary ripples of colonialism, extraction, and empire. The exhibition will be on view from September 18 - October 30 and will be accompanied by a new publication.

Image: Crystal Z Campbell, 2026, Acrylic Paint, Archival Photo, Glazed and Unglazed Porcelain and Stoneware Ceramic Shards, Jacquard Weaving, Fish Leather, Ink Fabric, Beads on Birch Wood Panel, 60 x 36 inches

Tonight: Rivalry: After Dark

Join us for the closing celebration of Gabriel Martinez's exhibition, Sites of Encounter.

Inspired by the role of the dance floor in Q***r culture—and the ways disco, light, and memory resonate throughout the exhibition—the evening invites visitors to experience the work in two distinct settings.

Beginning at 7:30 PM, DJ Brian Buttlett will spin disco and dance classics as the gallery gradually transitions from its standard lighting into an immersive after-dark environment that echoes the mirror-ball and laser exposures embedded within Martinez's photographs.

Lighting for Rivalry: After Dark is designed by Frank Napolski. A Buffalo-based intermedia artist and creative technologist, Napolski has created a site-specific mirror-ball installation that extends Martinez's experimental darkroom process into the gallery itself, transforming the space into a luminous reflection of the photographs on view.

Thursday, August 27
7:30–10:00 PM
Rivalry Projects
106 College Street, Buffalo, NY

Free • RSVP encouraged (link below)

The evening continues with drinks at 26 Allen following the event.

Gabriel Martinez: Sites of Encounter remains on view by appointment through September 4.

Join us for Rivalry: After Dark, a closing celebration of Gabriel Martinez’s exhibition, Sites of Encounter.

Inspired by the role of the dance floor in q***r culture and the ways disco, light, and memory resonate throughout Martinez’s practice, the evening invites visitors to experience the exhibition in two distinct settings.

DJ Brian Buttlett will spin dance classics as the gallery gradually transitions from its standard lighting into an immersive after-dark environment.

Lighting for Rivalry: After Dark is designed and installed by Buffalo-based intermedia artist and creative technologist Frank Napolski, co-founder of the audiovisual collective Groupwork. Napolski has created lighting and sound installations for Torn Space Theater and other regional arts organizations. For the closing, he’ll build a mirror-ball environment that echoes the darkroom light Martinez exposed into the prints themselves.

Thursday, August 27, 7:30–10:00 PM
Rivalry Projects
106 College St, Buffalo, NY 14021
Free, RSVP required, link in bio.

The evening concludes with drinks at 26 Allen, just down the street.

Photo credit: 1) Mark Duggan, 2) Gabriel Martinez Gabriel Martinez Brian Buttlett Frankie np twentysixallen