What to expect from the brand new Buffalo AKG Museum

Formerly known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the massive museum opens in June after three years of construction

Building, a small Greek Revivalist structure built in the early 1900s.

The Buffalo AKG Museum, formerly known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, is set to open this summer after over three years of transformative renovations. The museum’s vast expansion was funded by a $230 million capital campaign — the largest in the history of any Western New York cultural institution.

More of a rebirth than a simple reopening, the museum’s June 2023 debut will include new acquisitions, new community space and a completely reinvigorated 50,000-square-foot campus.

Architect Shohei Shigematsu led the overhaul of the museum’s campus and designed the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building, an ultra-modern structure that will house 30,000 square feet of gallery space, a sculpture garden and a theater. Its glass paneling and grand spiral staircase are a stark contrast against the original Knox

The top of the Gundlach Building will provide a bird’s-eye view of Delaware Park, giving the museum a sense of openness and connection to nature.

The new Buffalo AKG campus will also include the Ralph Wilson Town Square, the museum’s new hub for community engagement. Once an open-air pavilion attached to the Knox Building, the town square has been renovated to serve as a “comfortable, accessible community space that people from across Western New York and beyond can visit without the need to purchase anything,” according to a press release.

Covered by “Common Sky,” an intricate glass roof designed by artists Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, the Town Square will host performances, interactive art installations and a restaurant. Admis-

Review: It’s a kid’s movie — relax

The new Mario movie is packed with impeccable animation and slapstick comedy

DYLAN GRECO

OPINION EDITOR

Leave your neckbeards and fedoras at home. If you’re looking for a plot-driven drama thriller about two little Italian guys stomping on turtles, this is not the movie for you.

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“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is, surprise surprise, catered toward kids — but that doesn’t mean that people of all ages can’t enjoy our two favorite plumbers on the adventure of a lifetime.

The film was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, both known for their sion to this part of the museum will be completely free of charge. Much of the museum’s permanent collection — including notable contemporary and modern works by artists like Paul Gaugin, Andy Warhol and Frida Kahlo — will be reframed and reglazed to be put back on display. But the museum’s expansion has doubled the amount of space to showcase art — and with this extra space comes plenty of new acquisitions.

The museum recently acquired one of Yayoi Kusama’s iconic “Infinity Rooms,” titled “My Heart is Dancing into the Universe.” The immersive installation, a mirrored room lit up with kaleidoscopic lanterns and covered in the artist’s trademark polka dots, is the first major work by Kusama to enter the museum’s collection.

Among the Buffalo AKG’s inaugural ex- work on “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” as well as the series, “Teen Titans Go!” Like in their work on the DC show, the duo’s trademark slapstick humor is front and center in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

While the film’s comedy is moderately corny, that’s to be expected from a kids movie. What makes this type of humor palatable is that the movie is aware of its clichés and keeps them to a minimum.

The plot of this film follows your regular old hero’s journey; There’s no character-driven kino, but it’s loads of fun to watch. Illumination Entertainment, the artists behind “Despicable Me” and “The Secret Life of Pets,” did the animation for the film and wow did they deliver.

From perfectly-cast shadows and lighting to blemishes on animated characters’ skin, this movie takes detail very seriously. Illumination perfected the physics of each character’s clothes and hair blowing in the wind.

A fiction film, especially if it’s animated, has one job: to make the audience suspend disbelief and transport themselves into the world of the movie. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” does just that — and gives you a reason or two to chuckle along the way.

One of Nintendo fans’ biggest concerns pre-release was Chris Pratt’s voice- hibitions is “Through a Modernist Lens: Buffalo and the Photo-Secession,” a show that will highlight more than 600 photographs from the museum’s extensive photography collection, featuring artists like Alfred Stieglitz and James Craig Annan.

Also opening is “Clyfford Still: A Legacy for Buffalo,” a retrospective of the enigmatic abstract expressionist painter who donated a major portion of his works to the museum in 1964.

“Great art is now built into the very physical fabric of the Buffalo AKG,” Cathleen Chaffee, the museum’s chief curator, said in a statement. “Our local community will find the great works of modern art they know best alongside never-before-seen recent acquisitions by leading contemporary artists.”

Email: meret.kelsey@ubspectrum.com acting role as the movie’s titular character. Pratt, best known for playing Star-Lord in “Guardians of The Galaxy,” wasn’t exactly your average Mario fan’s first choice for the voice of the plumbing paisano. Some were even concerned that Pratt wouldn’t don an Italian accent. (In contrast, fans were delighted to hear that Charlie Day was cast as Luigi.)

Pratt proved those fears to be unfounded. He did a wonderful job voicing Mario, incorporating a slight accent while not going over the top.

The voice acting in this film is generally great, but Jack Black truly knocks it out of the park as the voice of Bowser. After a four-year hiatus from acting, Black brings his fiery personality to the brutish king of the Koopas.

Every scene with Bowser is down-right chilling, as Black breathes life into the character with a guttural, menacing tone.

Anyone who plans on seeing this film should remind themselves that this movie was made for kids. Sure, there are callbacks to the original games, but this movie isn’t a middle-aged nostalgia trip.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” may not be a profound piece of cinema, but it’s definitely a fun watch for people and families of all ages.

Email: dylan.greco@ubspectrum.com