“They really helped me pick my courses. In fact, without the help from the Honors College, I don’t think I would have been able to switch my direction as I did. I spoke with Dr. Capuana at length about my decision to pursue art - it was a hard decision for me. Later, when I won an art department scholarship to travel in China, Honors guided me to additional resources through the Research and Creative Activities fund that allowed me to spend a full three months in China studying sculpture and researching my family.”
“I was interested in mounting an experience rather than a physical piece.” At the opening of the art department’s senior thesis exhibition in Buffalo’s abandoned but still grand Central Terminal, Albert deployed thirty suit-wearing briefcase-carrying men and women to mingle with the crowd; at a signal, they all sat down, opened their cases, drank tea from tiny Chinese cups, and then resumed their mingling as if they hadn’t stopped. Albert also had an army (“thousands and thousands”) of inch-high silvery robots he’d cast, standing inconspicuously in nooks and crannies.
Buffalo has a history of launching alternative art careers. It may be that some day we’ll count Albert among the Buffalo-made stars. He and a fellow student rented space and opened the One Hour Gallery when they were sophomores; it’s still going, showing student work from local colleges and universities.
Albert came to UB planning to combine study in communication design and psychology. Then he considered chemistry and philosophy together as training for medical school. Finally, a course with sculptor Reinhard Reitzenstein set him on the path he followed all the way to graduation - just art, mostly sculpture, with side trips to study in Finland, China, and Italy.