The Art Scene
By Janet Goleas
On-Line Art
Guild Hall’s 62nd annual Clothesline Art Sale will take place rain or shine on Aug. 2 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Long a favorite, the event offers original art from established and emerging artists alike.
A treasure trove of paintings, prints, collages, photographs, and small-scale sculpture awaits seasoned collectors, bargain-hunters, and first-time buyers. Original works cost between $50 and $2,000.
The real challenge is to take it all in while meandering through a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling array of pieces installed throughout the museum galleries and grounds. As many as 350 artists will participate and more than 1,000 visitors can be expected to consider the works.
The proceeds from sales are split evenly between the artists and Guild Hall, and it is one of the institution’s most profitable fund-raisers.
Artists who would like to participate can pick up a registration form at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Pieces can be dropped off next Thursday or Friday, Aug. 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Duck, Duck, Fluke
Hand-carved decoys, hand-tied fishing lures, specialty fishing rods, wildlife sculpture, and other forays into the natural world will be the focus on Saturday at the Southampton Decoy and Sporting Arts Expo.
The one-day event will feature work by award-winning artisans from across Long Island as well as carving and painting demonstrations by decoy-makers such as Arnie Arnister of Water Mill.
Organized by the Southampton Historical Museums and Research Center, the expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Rogers Mansion on Meeting House Lane in Southampton. Admission costs $5 per person and is free for children.
Pushing Paint Around
The Spanierman Gallery in East Hampton will present a solo show of paintings by Frank Wimberley, an abstract painter whose work is included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection, beginning today. Mr. Wimberley, a longtime resident of Sag Harbor, will show paintings done since the early 1990s.
Mr. Wimberley is known for pushing paint to the edges of his large, bold canvases. Using found objects or handmade tools, he scrapes and scours pigment, creating imaginary landscapes that can be smooth with color that pulses in jazzy syncopation. Descendants of the Abstract Expressionist tradition, Mr. Wimberley’s works are also suffused with the light of the South Fork’s beaches and low-lying fields.
The exhibit, “Frank Wimberley: Physicality/Action,” has a brochure and essay by Phyllis Braff, a noted art historian. The show can be seen through Aug. 18.
Lively Art for Haitian Kids
Sag Harbor’s Christ Episcopal Church will host an exhibit and sale of Haitian art and handicrafts this weekend. The proceeds will benefit children living in the remote village of Chermaitre, a desperately impoverished community about six hours from Port-au-Prince.
Haiti has a long tradition of painting characterized by vivid colors, eccentric spatial perspective, lively depictions of fabled island life, glorious visions of food, jungle animals, mardi gras, fantasy landscapes, and voodoo symbolism. Haitian craftspeople are also known for metalwork, ritual flags, and masks.
This weekend’s event will include nearly 200 original paintings and an assortment of handmade crafts, including iron sculpture, silk scarves, and jewelry.
The benefit sale opens tomorrow with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The hours will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. The show is offered in partnership with the Vassar Haiti Project, which helps feed and educate the children of Chermaitre. More information about the Vassar Haiti Project can be found on its Web site, projects.vassar. edu/haiti.
One Big Family
Sag Harbor’s Romany Kramoris Gallery will exhibit photographs by John Messinger in “Chasing the Wind: Underfoot, Overhead, and All Around,” opening with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Mr. Messinger is a proponent of a school of photography derived from Edward Steichen’s “The Family of Man,” which documented the human experience through the work of 273 photographers at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955.
“The subjects in my photographs are part of a collective ‘we,’ part of a universality of our journey,” Mr. Messinger wrote in a statement publicizing the show. He works in the tradition of photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Robert Capra. The show can be seen through Aug. 7.
At the New Elaine Benson
Kimberly Goff, an artist, has curated “Landscape Treasures,” which opens on Sunday and will be on view through Aug. 19 at the new Elaine Benson Gallery at the Southampton Inn.
Ms. Goff, whose mother was the late Elaine Benson, the owner of a landmark gallery in Bridgehampton, hopes to reprise her mother’s legacy in the new spot at 91 Hill Street in Southampton. The gallery is a collaboration between Ms. Goff and Dede Gotthelf Moan, the Southampton Inn’s owner.
On view will be work by 17 artists in a broad range of mediums including photography, painting, tapestry, and watercolor. The gallery plans an ongoing series of shows featuring works by noted artists and pieces from Ms. Benson’s private collection. A reception will be held Sunday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Past Perfect
Ann Madonia Antiques will feature artworks by several 19th-century American artists: Childe Hassam, an American impressionist, Walter Clark, a portraitist, and Howard Logan Hildebrandt and Henry Ward Ranger, who chose landscapes and marine scenes as their subjects, as well as Ethel Herrick Warwick, the first woman to have a solo show, in 1916, at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
Also on view are a group of floral still-life paintings, as well as seascapes and hunting scenes by 19th-century European artists. The art can be seen at the shop, which is on Job’s Lane in Southampton, through Aug. 18.
Art, Music, Jewelry
The Gallery Sag Harbor will host a benefit exhibit, featuring jewelry, sculpture, and collages by Mia Fonssagrives Solow and abstract landscapes by Michelle Suna, on Sunday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
A catered Champagne reception will be followed by a concert at the Old Whalers Church produced by the Music Festival of the Hamptons, which will be the beneficiary of a portion of sales from the exhibit.
Ms. Solow, a fashion designer-turned-artist, will also show her fanciful sculptures, animal-inspired jewelry, and complex collages concurrently at the gallery. Ms. Solow spent a decade in Paris before returning to the States and starting her second career.
Ms. Suna, who is described in a press release as having started her artistic career at the tender age of 4, has had her work featured in films, including Will Smith’s “Hitch,” and the Drew Barrymore comedy “Music and Lyrics.” She is also well known for being generous to charitable institutions.
Lutherans Meet Birdmen
The Surface Library Gallery in Springs will present “Swedish Fish,” an exhibit of new paintings by Daniella Landelius, a Swedish native who has lived in the United States for the past decade. An opening reception will be held tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.
The exhibit includes mixed-media works from a series called “The Postcard Collection.” The pieces are said to be playful and free-spirited, although filled with spiritual motifs recalling the artist’s upbringing by parents who were Lutheran ministers. Butterflies, Aztec birdmen, and musical notes play a part in the artist’s work.
The gallery will also host a closing brunch at noon on Sunday.
Photos Soft and Gritty
The Crazy Monkey Gallery is showing photographs by Jennifer Meihofer of East Hampton, and Clare and Daniel Schoenheimer of Montauk, through Aug. 4. The Amagansett gallery, which is an artists’ collective, is also showing work by other members, including Sally Breen, Jana Hayden, Bob Savage, Cynthia Sobel, Marcia Tucker, Stephanie Reit, and Ruth Rogers-Altman. A reception for the artists will be held on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Ms. Meihofer, a photographer for 20 years, started out in advertising. She now concentrates her lens exclusively on images that capture her imagination. She brings a nostalgic appeal to contemporary images by relying on a soft focus and the limited sepia palette of the medium during the 19th century.
Mr. and Mrs. Schoenheimer often collaborate on projects. Their work is distinctly contemporary, gritty and grainy black-and-white prints dominate, and they choose diverse subjects that seem to present strong compositional elements. Their subjects range from the vigor and grace of sports to nature on the South Fork.
Furniture for All
Beginning tomorrow, Pritam and Eames in East Hampton will present “The Marina Line,” an exhibit of furniture by Michael Hurwitz. The pieces were inspired by a conversation Mr. Hurwitz had with a Japanese colleague about producing a line of affordable furniture suitable for small-scale factory production and the Japanese market.
Mr. Hurwitz, whose designs are known for being one-of-a-kind, was intrigued, as he had often thought of designing a line of furniture that would be affordable to more people. The series incorporates his penchant for simplified construction with recycled and sustainable materials. Mr. Hurwitz’s furniture can be seen at Pritam and Eames through Sept. 2.
Skyline and Shoreline
The Wallace Gallery in East Hampton will present a solo show of painting by Carl Scorza beginning today and on view through Aug. 20.
Mr. Scorza, who has been the official artist in residence at New York’s Governor’s Island for the past three years, paints landscapes, both rural and urban. He is perhaps best known for his predilection for the spires and towers of the Manhattan skyline, but the show will also include beach scenes that capture the expansive stretches of shoreline along eastern Long Island.
A reception for Mr. Scorza will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Janet Goleas is an independent curator and private art consultant living in East Hampton.