This 50th-anniversary edition of AHA! is my last fundraising auction as Executive Director. In January 1992, less than one year into this job, at a precarious juncture in Hallwalls’ then just 17-year history—and with the helping hands of staff curators Sara Kellner and Don Metz—I organized Hallwalls’ first benefit auction since 1981. After eleven years, this was an emergency. There were only 15 works by 14 artists (Robert Longo gave two), modest by today’s standards, but that auction (and its donors and buyers) helped keep our doors open, so here we are, 33 years later. Four of those 14 artists are since deceased (Bruce Adams, Duayne Hatchett, Joe Piccillo, and Mike Zwack), but another four are represented again in this year’s auction (Longo, Charles Clough, Biff Henrich, and Cindy Sherman), along with thirty others, from Hollis Frampton (1936–1984) & Marion Faller (1941–2014) to current exhibiting artist Hans Grindlesberger. After 1992 (another 17 years later!), we tried another auction in 2009 for our 35th anniversary, then another for our 40th in 2015, then it became the annual event it is now in 2016. I am personally thankful that since 2009 staff curator John Massier has handled the art side (as he does the gallery year-round), and that since 2023 the planning side has been and is in the capable hands of Parrish Gibbons (now my Deputy E.D.), supported by our hardworking and generous Board of Directors (current President Kris Kemmis) and its Special Events Committee (current Chair Tracy Heneghan). I thank them all, along with all of the corporate sponsors they have solicited, and all the artists (and artists’ estates) that have donated. Finally, I thank all of you for attending and bidding on these artworks. I will join you in 2026.

Edmund Cardoni Executive Director, 1991–2025

Thank you to our sponsors for supporting contemporary art!
The Hallwalls Board of Directors

MTB Charitable
Abstract Architecture
Gross Shuman PC
Hodgson Russ LLC
Lehigh Contruction
McCarthy Williams PLLC
Merrill Lynch / Bank of America
Acquest Development
Burchfield Penney Art Center
CannonDesign
The Buffalo to Budapest Artist Exchange, Inc.
Wegmans Food Markets
AKG Buffalo Museum
Montante Solar
Mirabo Press
The Place
Starlight Studio and Art Gallery
Zemsky Development
Buffalo Toronto Public Media
Donna Dusel
ERLO Contemporary
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Graycliff
Gypsum Systems
Mader Construction Co. Inc.
Nick Pietrocarlo
Russo Development
Talking Leaves…Books
Amy Alvarez and Julio Alvarez-Perez

Art Resource

​Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art
Brawdy Construction
Carnegie Art Center

CEPA
Conely Caseworks LLC
Elma Press
Five Points Framing
Ginny and the Angels Holistic Skin Care
Kris Kemmis
Maureen’s Buffalo Wholesale Flower Market & Goods