By Elise D’Haene
(11/03/2009)
¡Ray Parker at
Washburn Gallery
“Ray Parker: The Simple Paintings” opens today at the Washburn Gallery in New York City with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
Mr. Parker, a noted Color Field painter who lived in East Hampton and had a studio in East Hampton Village, said that his goal in these works had been “to cut out everything else but pigment on ground and let color tell the whole story,” according to a release.
“The ‘Simple Paintings’ have the brushed surfaces and rough edges associated with Abstract Expressionism, but in more focused, clearly defined, and articulated forms that look forward to the lean geometries and minimalist impulses of much art of the 1960s,” the release says.
The artist, who died in 1990, has works in the permanent collections at dozens of museums, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The show can be seen through Jan. 9.
Jacques Moiroud At
Richard Demato Fine Arts
The Richard Demato Fine Arts Gallery in Sag Harbor will present “Jacques Moiroud: The City Never Sleeps,” opening on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m.
Mr. Moiroud, who studied at San Diego City College, the Art Students League, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City, drew much of his inspiration from the streets of New York, finding subjects for his sketches on buses and trains, and in subways. He made etchings of his drawings with drypoint and aquatint. “The City Never Sleeps” is a series of images of people asleep in public spaces. Most involve unusual viewpoints, from below or above or from an oblique angle.
Mr. Moiroud has exhibited widely, including at the International Print Center, the National Arts Club, the Kyoto Museum in Japan, and the Grace Institute in Manhattan.
The show can be seen through Dec. 7.
David Levinthal’s
‘Bad Barbie’
John McWhinnie and Glenn Horowitz Bookseller at 36 Newtown Lane in East Hampton are showing “Bad Barbie,” vintage photographs by David Levinthal, which opened yesterday and will be on view through Dec. 5.
The series of photographs, all made in black and white, date from 1972 and represent Mr. Levinthal’s first explorations in the artistic use of toys. “He deploys the commercially ubiquitous dolls, Barbie, her ‘boyfriend’ Ken, and G.I. Joe in a series of poses and tableaux of sexual liaison and activity,” according to a release.
At the time, the artist was responding to the sexual freedoms being expressed following the upheavals of the 1960s. Mr. Levinthal shoots scenes of the “preternaturally blond, tanned, buxom California” Barbie in scenes reveling in her sexuality. “She gives pleasure and is pleasured in return,” a release says, and “blithely crosses the racial divide in her carefree eroticism, hooking up with a black G.I. Joe.”
In conjunction with the show, the booksellers are publishing a new book featuring Mr. Levinthal’s “Bad Barbie” series.
Three Up At
Crazy Monkey Gallery
Those loony simians on Montauk Highway in Amagansett, otherwise known at the Crazy Monkey Gallery and artists’ cooperative, opened a new show on Friday featuring Sally Breen, Lance Corey, and Evan Thomas, a guest artist.
Ms. Breen is known for her impressionistic seascapes infused with changing light and mood. She studied at Syracuse University, the New York Academy of the Arts, the State University at Purchase, and New York University.
A graduate of Notre Dame University, Mr. Corey traveled as a Fulbright scholar to Egypt and China and has translated his experiences into the vocabulary of his paintings. His work is “primitive and raw, seeking to touch the common nerve that binds humanity,” according to a release.
Also exhibiting his photographs and boxes will be Mr. Thomas, who “is not only a skilled artist, but also a fire performer.”
The show can be seen through Nov. 22 and a reception will be held on Nov. 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.. It will include juggling and fire poi performances by Mr. Thomas and Keith Leaf.
Gallery Talks
At Guild Hall
In conjunction with the “ac.qui.si.tions” exhibit, which will be on view through Jan. 17 at Guild Hall in East Hampton, a gallery talk will be offered tomorrow at 11 a.m. with Christina Mossaides Strassfield, the museum’s chief curator. She will discuss the recent acquisitions and the process of putting the show together.
On Sunday at 1 p.m., several of the artists represented in the exhibit will be on hand to discuss their work. They include: Linda Alpern, Judith Boucher, Stephanie Brody Lederman, Philippe Cheng, Jennifer Cross, Peter Dayton, Dorothy Frankel, David Gamble, Eunice Golden, John Hardy, William King, Cynthia Knott, Rima Mardoyan, Paton Miller, Bastienne Schmidt, Joan Semmel, and Darius Yektai.
The museum also has a solo show, “Bloom,” of works by Priscilla Heine, who was the winner of the 69th annual Artist Members Exhibit Part I in 2007. That show is on view through Nov. 29.
Li-lan and Yun Gee
In Taipei Exhibit
Li-lan, a Chinese-American artist who has maintained a studio in Springs since the early 1970s, has work in an inaugural exhibit called “R/evolution” at the newly expanded Tina Keng Gallery in Taipei, which opened on Sunday and can be seen through Nov. 27.
Her father, Yun Gee, a well-known modernist painter who developed a name for himself in both New York and Paris, exhibiting at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932, just a few years after the museum was founded, will also be shown.
Li-lan had a solo exhibit, “Reflections of Kaidan,” in the spring at the Jason McCoy Gallery in New York City that was curated by Carter Ratcliff, an art critic and contributing editor to Art in America. The show’s title refers to kaidan, a combination of two Japanese words: “kai,” meaning a strange, rare, or bewitching apparition, and “dan,” which means talk or recited narrative.
The artist first exhibited with Tina Keng in 1995 will have a solo show there in the spring.
Roisin Bateman
at Roanoke Vineyards
Roisin Bateman of Sag Harbor has a solo show of large-scale abstract oil paintings at the New Roanoke Gallery at Roanoke Vineyards in Riverhead, which was curated by Scott Sandell and will be on view through November.
Ms. Bateman described her works as “inspired by the flux and flow of weather and the elements; the forces that transform and shape-shift the landscape.” Her paintings, which are influenced by the landscapes of eastern Long Island and the west of Ireland, where the artist grew up, emphasize the intervals between dramatic shifts in weather, “the settling down after the swirl.”
Ms. Bateman’s work has been in several shows on the East End, including at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor, and at the Nabi Gallery in New York City.
The gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Saturdays. More information is available at the vineyard’s Web site, roanokevineyards.com.
Bonac Tonic’s
Bring Your Own
“Let Ashawagh Hall be the stomping ground to showcase your beautiful vision.” That is the word from the Bonac Tonic Art Collective in its announcement of its third annual “B.Y.O.A. (Bring Your Own Art)” exhibit at the Springs venue, opening on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. and on view Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
All forms of artwork will be welcome, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, mixed media, video, performance, and installation. As space will be limited, the group is asking artists to limit their work to 2 by 2 feet, and only one piece per artist.
The show is co-sponsored by the Springs Improvement Society and some of the proceeds will be donated to the upkeep of Ashawagh Hall.
The reception will include the typical Tonickers’ fun and games, with live music, food and drinks, and a 50-50 raffle. There is a suggested donation of $10 to participate.
More information is available by e-mailing Molly Weiss at mollyweiss@ gmail.com.
Bettina Werner at
Tiffany & Co.
Bettina Werner, a k a the Salt Queen, who works out of a renovated potato barn in Water Mill, where she stores the raw material for her art — Sicilian sea salt from fine-grained to chunky — will be the featured artist in an exhibit at Tiffany and Co. in East Hampton, where an opening reception will be held on Saturday from 3 to 6 p.m.
Ms. Werner studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan over 20 years ago, and it was there she came across the medium that would define her art. She is a painter and sculptor in the minimalist tradition, and her abstract paintings on large panels are encrusted in grains of salt and monochromatic tones.
Her works have been seen in museums and galleries all over the world, including the Whitney, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Portofino and the Triennale Museums in Italy, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The exhibit can be seen through Feb. 28.
Wilson’s Luminosity
At DC Moore Gallery
The DC Moore Gallery in Manhattan will exhibit “Jane Wilson: Recent Paintings” in conjunction with the publication of “Horizons,” the first comprehensive monograph of Ms. Wilson’s 60-year career, published by Merrell of London in October.
Ms. Wilson has been painting “luminous landscapes that hover between abstraction and representation, inspired by the sky, sea, and land of the East End,” according to a release.
She has been exhibiting steadily since 1953, when she was a founding member of the Hansa Gallery on East 12th Street in New York City. At that time, she was working in an abstract expressionist mode, creating dynamic canvases that resonated with the energy of a defining moment in postwar American art.
Later in the decade, she shifted to expressionist landscapes characterized by bold color and lively brushwork or subtle, open compositions that dematerialized form. She then focused on New York cityscapes, particularly atmospheric views of Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, as well as still lifes set in her apartment and studio, including a group of behind-the-scenes paintings of worktables and artist materials.
In the early 1980s, she returned to landscapes and began creating the distinctive works for which she is best known today. Her paintings are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens, as well as other major museums across the country.
The exhibit opens Wednesday and a reception will be held next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. The show can be seen through Dec. 23.