Eyeing, Buying, And Being Out and About
By Elizabeth Fasolino
(03/27/2007) Saturday morning dawned with crystal blue skies and balmy temperatures, but by 4 p.m., as visitors to Guild Hall’s 69th annual Members Exhibit in East Hampton began parking their cars along James Lane and filing through the triple brick arches of the museum’s iconic entrance, the wind had picked up, and lowering skies threatened rain.
 Durell Godfrey
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But the bad weather didn’t keep visitors away from the show, and minutes after the doors opened the gallery was filled with visitors and artists with work in the show.
“Can I buy the Grant Haffner?” Carolyn Clark of Springs asked Guild Hall’s senior curator, Christina Mossaides Strassfield, at 4:07. The answer was of course yes; all the paintings are for sale, with the proceeds to be split 60-40 between the artists and the museum.
And so Ms. Clark became the owner of her second Haffner painting, “Fowler Lane,” the winner of the Catherine and Theo Hios award for best landscape. (Ms. Clark bought her first painting by the artist last summer at Ashawagh Hall.)
Ms. Strassfield has been hanging the popular members shows since 1987 — not “curating,” because these are all the paintings that were submitted, and she has to work with all of what she’s given, not just ones that she’s selected. “I’ve done about 11 and this year I’m doing 2,” she said, explaining that because of renovations the gallery space is reduced, so the show has been divided into two sections.
“It really is fun. When I’m arranging the art I don’t look at names, I look for a rhythm and flow.” Her eye for mixing colors, textures, and complementary styles works brilliantly this year, especially along the eastern wall in the small room toward the back, where “Lemons” by Mary Daunt hangs above Paul Broches’s “Measure of Man,” evoking a chic Left Bank sensibility.
This year, top honors went to Priscilla Heine, a professional artist and resident of Cedar Point in East Hampton for the past 15 years. Her mixed-media composition “Pick Me a Place” is a confetti of colors and shapes, combining a mortar and pestle, which propels itself vertically to a frothy explosion of texture.
“I like this very much,” said Ruth Nasca, a painter whose work will appear in the second portion of the show. “It’s sculpture, but it’s painting.”
The second half of the annual Members Exhibit will open on May 5.
In the Drawing Room
Virtually across what might have been the village green when the Gardiners and the Montauketts first became wary neighbors in the 17th century, another festive art event was in full swing at the Drawing Room, off Newtown Lane. The gray skies threatened to drench the chic crowd who filed toward the doors of the gallery, which is down a small pedestrian footpath, carrying bags from Calypso and Henry Lehr.
The gallery, a series of three interconnecting bright white rooms, was filled almost to capacity, drawing friends and relatives to a show of work by five local artists, Peter Dayton, Robert Kelly, Rex Lau, Kelly Spalding, and the late Alan Shields.
The pragmatic gallery owners, Victoria Munroe and Emily Goldstein, know that to keep the crowding to a minimum it’s better to rely on word of mouth, and to limit advertising receptions, so it’s best to check in for information about openings. The current show is on view through April 30.
Nestled in this jewel-box of a gallery are some sparklers, including the oil abstractions of local waters — especially the area around Fishers Island — by Mr. Lau. The painter first came to the East End on an Edward Albee fellowship 28 years ago, and soon afterward moved here permanently.
Kelly Spalding’s ribbon-stripe paintings evoke beach balls and bathing suits, wicker and silvered shingles. And Robert Kelly’s delicate palimpsest collages done on aluminum with layers of oil glazing mesmerize like thought-provoking dominoes that spill across the walls.
In the crowd were Ric Stott, principal of Flynn Stott Architects in Southampton, and his wife, Diana Pepi Stott; Jameson Ellis and his wife, Jill Musnicki, both painters, with their new baby; Eileen Roman-Catalano, a member of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, and her husband, Mark Catalano, a local attorney, and their friend Louise Eastman, an artist with a North Haven studio.
Arlene Bujese was also at the opening at the Drawing Room. Her decision to shutter the doors of her venerable gallery last fall threatened to deprive local artists and collectors of her encyclopedic knowledge, but on Saturday she shared a bit of good news: She will be guest curating shows for the Spanierman Gallery in East Hampton, and is looking at work from local artists for inclusion.
At Solar
At the same time the festive shows were in full swing at Guild Hall and the Drawing Room, another show was opening at Esperanza Leon’s gallery, Solar, on David’s Lane. Ms. Leon, a native of Venezuela, brings a bit of Latin glamour, perhaps by way of Miami Beach, to the East Hampton art scene.
Solar specializes in work by Latin American artists. A retrospective show in January of work by a Venezuelan artist, Eduardo B·rcenas, received accolades in The New York Times.
Visitors entering the gallery through the modest side door must descend a short flight of stairs to the basement gallery, where they will find a cache of beautiful work. The current show, “building boats+bridges,” features work by Carlos Calderon, Reinaldo Crespo, Walter Sanchez, Aurelio Torres, and Gaston Valin.
The complex and colorful abstractions by Mr. Valin feature interconnecting blocks of color, with black underpainting. The mix, which may sound jarring, looks like an optimistic take on a seaside market-day in the artist’s native Uruguay by way of Cap Ferrat during the heady days of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald.
“He’s in a good place,” Ms. LeÛn said of the painter’s exuberant canvases. The photographs of Walter S·nchez, a native of Argentina, showcase the environmental dilemma of Mar del Plata, a wide river port, where the hulks of abandoned tankers float in the blue waters of the river harbor. The show is on view through June 3.
Parrish Fling
Southampton may only be a 20-minute drive from East Hampton, but the Parrish Art Museum’s annual Spring Fling offered a glimpse of why these two communities remain fiercely independent.
In East Hampton it’s hard to go to an event, or walk down the street for that matter, without being reminded of the haute bohemian style of Christiane Celle’s Calypso boutiques. In South ampton the style is decidedly more polished, like a St. George’s boarding school alum who has decided to forgo pantyhose and pumps while at the seaside, and wear her favorite Lily Pulitzers.
The theme for this year’s fling was “Soul Train,” and decorations featured neon-colored silhouette cutouts of go-go boot-clad disco-dancers with afros. No live afros were spotted, nor did any of the mostly white-haired revelers look like the type who might have sported one back in the day.
The crowd included a sprinkling of beautiful teenage girls and their glamorous young mothers, who were looking forward to getting down to soul classics once the band got under way, along with those more interested in the teeth-whitening and Botox treatments donated for the silent auction.
Renee Despins, a real estate broker at Corcoran in Bridgehampton, seemed to straddle the generational divide — chic in a not-too-revealing black tunic with elegant sequins around the v-neck, and purple chandelier earrings. When making her bidding decisions, she eyed the cosmetic treatments but ended up vying instead for a Founder’s Pass donated by the Hamptons International Film Festival.
A reporter questioned the jolliness of a movie pass for one, but Ms. Despins laughed off the suggestion. “I lived in Manhattan for years, and I loved going to the movies by myself,” she said. “Besides, I know everyone here, and I’ll know everyone at the festival!”
 Durell Godfrey Photos
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