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Asian Arts Fest

Asian Arts Fest

At the Southampton Cultural Center
By
Star Staff

The Southampton Cultural Center’s 2018 Spring Performing Arts Festival, which will take place on Saturday at 5 p.m., will feature a Chinese face changer as one of its major attractions. Face changing was initially an important part of the Chinese Sichuan Opera, in which performers created fascinating transitions by repeatedly changing their painted masks.

Presented by the Asian Cultural Arts Alliance, the festival will showcase the music and dance of Korea, China, and Japan. The performance will be preceded from 3 to 5 by a free workshop for children that will include Chinese paper cutting, Indian henna painting, Asian face painting, and Chinese calligraphy and brush painting. 

A reception with Asian cuisine for performers and guests will take place from 6 to 7. Tickets for the 5 p.m. performance are $20, $10 for children and students under 21.

Jazz Competition Features East Hampton Musicians

Jazz Competition Features East Hampton Musicians

At the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan
By
Star Staff

The Made in New York Jazz Competition, an online-based, technology-driven, global jazz contest, will celebrate its fifth anniversary at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Among those slated to perform is Randy Brecker, a six-time Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who lives in East Hampton with his wife, Ada Rovatti, a saxophonist. Mr. Brecker has also been a judge for Made in New York since its inception.

Other performers are to include John Patitucci, Francisco Mela, Bobby Sanabria, and Yaacov Mayman, as well as winners of this year’s competition. Tickets are $45 to $55 and available through madeinnyjazz.com.

Casting Call

Casting Call

A screenplay reading of “Do No Harm"
By
Star Staff

Paul Moschetta has issued a casting call for a screenplay reading of “Do No Harm,” to be presented at the East Hampton Library on Aug. 5. The call is for four male actors, two ages 20 to 35 and two ages 40 to 65. Auditions can be arranged by emailing [email protected].

The Art Scene 05.17.18

The Art Scene 05.17.18

Local Art News
By
Mark Segal

Art Barge Reopens

The Victor D’Amico Institute of Art on Napeague, which comprises the Art Barge and the D’Amico Studio and Archive, will open for the season on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. with receptions for two exhibitions.

“Sea, Sky, and Sculpture: An Integration of Art, Architecture, and Landscape,” will feature outdoor sculpture by Mabel D’Amico, Phyllis Hammond, Marcie Honerkamp, Ruby Jackson, Jim Posner, Michael Rosch, Arden Scott, Claire Watson, and Marianne Weil. Organized by Anne Seelbach, a Sag Harbor artist, the show will occupy the grounds of the studio and archive at 128 Shore Road on Lazy Point through Sept. 22.

The gallery at the Art Barge off Napeague Meadow Road will present “Promised Land Remembered,” an exhibition focused on the menhaden fishing industry and the significance of Promised Land, the area on Gardiner’s Bay just west of Lazy Point.

Co-organized with Rachel Gruzen, an environmental planner, the show will include photographs, documents, stories, and a selection of works on paper by Mabel D’Amico dating from the 1940s through the 1960s. It will run through June 23.

Classes will begin at the Art Barge on June 4 and continue through Sept. 28. The Artists Speak series of artists’ talks will feature Judith Hudson on June 13 and continue with Eunice Golden, Audrey Flack, and Peter Spacek on dates to be announced. Details on classes, exhibitions, and other events can be found at theartbarge.org.

 

Sullivan at Rental

“Love Letters,” a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by Billy Sullivan, will be on view at the Rental Gallery in East Hampton from Saturday through June 17. A reception will be held on May 26 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Drawing on a large archive of personal photographs, Mr. Sullivan has long captured the people around him, including friends, artists, writers, and models, often in fleeting instants of leisure or contemplation. 

“All my pictures are about being in the moment,” he has said, although some of those moments took place years ago, as in a candid portrait of the late choreographer Trisha Brown, reworked from an image from 1982.

 

New at Halsey McKay

The Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton will open “Converter,” a group exhibition, and “Necromancer,” a solo show of work by Ryan Steadman, with a reception on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. The shows will continue through June 24.

“Converter” brings together the work of seven artists who incorporate specific everyday objects from outside the studio, among them discarded masonry, bones, surveillance imagery, sea glass, and potato chips.

Mr. Steadman will present a wall installation of abstractions based on books. Drawing upon a range of sources, from rare Bauhaus designs to New Wave-inspired publications, the life-size works employ a wide variety of painting techniques.

 

Ashawagh Retrospective

A retrospective exhibition of paintings by James Joseph DeMartis, assembled by his children Bruno, Barbara, and James, a sculptor from East Hampton, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs from tomorrow through Sunday, with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.

DeMartis studied at the Art Students League, the California School of Fine Arts, and, from 1950 to 1954, in Florence, Italy, where he developed a style reminiscent of Rouault and the Expressionists. His work of the 1960s and 1970s included impressionistic and lighter-toned treatments of the Maine landscape, while his final period blended romantic realism with Abstract Expressionism.

 

Strong-Cuevas Talk

Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas, who is known for her monumental sculptures in fabricated metal, cast bronze, and stainless steel, will be interviewed by Jeffrey Sussman, an author, on Saturday afternoon at 2 at the East Hampton Library. The interview will focus on her new book, “Strong-Cuevas Drawings: Ideas on Paper,” just published by Abrams.

Kurita at Ille Arts

A solo exhibition of new photographs by Koichiro Kurita will open at Ille Arts in Amagansett with a reception Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. and remain on view through June 18.

Originally a commercial photographer in Japan, Mr. Kurita turned to fine art photography in 1990 and moved to New York in 1993. His large black-and-white platinum prints focus on the elements of nature, of which he has said, “The smallest things, or seemingly most insignificant phenomena, have their reason and their role.” 

 

Hudson at Tripoli

“Under the Covers,” an exhibition of new paintings by Judith Hudson, will open at the Tripoli Gallery in Southampton with a reception on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through June 18.

Inspired by an Ovid poem about the bedroom as a refuge for intimacy, the show includes wallpapers that evoke Rorschach tests, plush rugs marked with drips and washes of vibrant color, and paintings on paper that depict anonymous sleepers all but concealed by the tossed, rumpled bedding.

 

Four at White Room

“Positive Space,” an exhibition of work by Cindy Press, Alicia Gitlitz, Serge Strosberg and David Mandel, and Seek One, is on view at the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton through May 28. A reception will be held on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

A former fashion designer, Ms. Press creates paintings and drawings of women inspired by images clipped from magazines. Ms. Gitlitz works in a variety of styles, including both traditional and abstract impressionism.

Mr. Strosberg and Mr. Mandel fuse the visual language of Flemish and German portraiture with fantasy jewelry and fabric design. A former street artist, Seek One combines photography and graffiti on canvases that take their cue from Andy Warhol’s processes.

 

Art for the Retreat

The RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton will present “Fresh Start Collective,” a juried exhibition for the benefit of the Retreat, a nonprofit agency that provides domestic violence and sexual assault services on eastern Long Island, from Saturday through June 4. A reception will take place on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

The show will include work by 18 artists from throughout the United States and abroad chosen by Richard Demato, the gallery’s owner, and Margaret Bowland, an artist, from more than 70 submissions.

 

Two at Grenning

Recent work by Stephen Bauman and Carl Bretzke will be on view at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor from Saturday through June 17, with a reception set for Saturday evening from 6 to 7:30.

A gifted draftsman, Mr. Bauman will be represented by expressive figurative drawings as well as oil paintings that reflect his classical training. Mr. Bretzke is drawn to landscapes and cities, often painted at night, whose quiet familiarity has drawn comparisons to the work of Hopper and the Ashcan School.

 

‘Art in Focus’

“Art in Focus,” a series of three talks co-presented by the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and the Stony Brook Southampton Library, will kick off on Tuesday evening at 7 with a lecture at the library by Katy Siegel, an art historian and curator, on the late artist Jack Whitten.

Ms. Siegel’s focus will be on the abstract painter’s previously unknown sculpture, which is the subject of an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art that will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this fall.

Future lectures will cover Jackson Pollock’s mural for Peggy Guggenheim (June 5) and “Rodin in Asia” (June 19).

 

Keyes Art’s New Space

Julie Keyes, a veteran curator, art dealer, and consultant, has opened a new space at 53 the Circle in East Hampton. “Hello!” is the title of the inaugural show, and it will open with a reception on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through June 2.

On view will be work by Bert Stern, Bill Claps, Nathan Slate Joseph, Darius Yektai, Ned Smyth, April Gornik, Larry Rivers, John Chamberlain, and Willem de Kooning.

Hamptons Benefits 2018

Hamptons Benefits 2018

Some of the arrivals at last year's Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party, a popular benefit scheduled for July 14 this year.
Some of the arrivals at last year's Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party, a popular benefit scheduled for July 14 this year.
Carrie Ann Salvi

Not all events were set at the time of publication. Check back often for more and updated information.

 

June

• June 23, American Heart Association, Hamptons Heart Ball, Southampton Arts Center, 6-10:30 p.m., $600, heart.org

• June 23, Performance Space New York, Cocktails to Benefit the 2018 Spalding Gray Award Commission, Spalding Gray residence, Sag Harbor, 6-8 p.m., $122. performancespacenewyork.org

• June 23, Wildlife Center of the Hamptons, Get Wild!, Joan and Bernard Carl residence, Southampton, 6-8 p.m., $250, wildliferescuecenter.org

 

Jazz for Jennings at the Watermill Center, Carrie Ann Salvi

• June 24, Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, Jazz for Jennings, Watermill Center, 12:30-4 p.m. $500, www.bhccrc.org

• June 30, Southampton Fresh Air Home, American Picnic and Grucci Fireworks, 1030 Meadow Lane, Southampton, 7 p.m., $300, sfah.org

• June 30, Cormaria, Summer Gala, Cormaria Retreat House, Sag Harbor, 7 p.m., $250, cormaria.org

• June 30, Wings Over Haiti, art show and auction, Watermill Center, 5:30-8:30 p.m., $150, www.wingsoverhaiti.net

• June 30, East End Hospice, Under the Palms, Jeffery residence, Second Neck Lane, Quogue, 7-11 p.m. $275, eeh.org

• June 30, Nature Conservancy on Long Island, Summer Benefit, Center for Conservation, 142 Sag Harbor Turnpike, East Hampton, 7 p.m., $1,000. nature.org

• June 30, Stony Hill Stables Foundation, Back in the Saddle cocktail party, Stony Hill Stables, Amagansett, 6-8 p.m., $125, stonyhillstables.com

July

• July 6, The Southampton Rose Society, Roses, Rosé, Cocktails, and Silent Auction, Linden, 160 Ox Pasture Road, Southampton, 5:30-8 p.m. $300, southamptonrose.org

• July 7, Bay Street Theater Annual Summer Gala, Long Wharf, Sag Harbor, 6-10 p.m., $1,500, baystreet.org

• July 7, Southampton Historical Museum, Halsey House Gala: Summer of Love, Thomas Halsey Homestead, 249 South Main Street, Southampton, 5:30-8 p.m., $150, southamptonhistory.org

• July 8, Sag Harbor Partnership, The Big Tent: Party for the Cinema, Long Wharf, Sag Harbor, 5-8 p.m., $60, $50 in advance, sagharborpartnership.org

• July 14, Parrish Art Museum Midsummer Party, Montauk Highway, Water Mill, 6:30-1 a.m. $1,500, parrishart.org

• July 14, Hamptons Tea Dance, presented by The Center, Services and Advocacy for L.G.B.T. Elders, and Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, Nova's Ark Project, Bridgehampton, 4-8 p.m., $150, hamptonsteadance.org

• July 14, Heart of Gold Gala, a benefit for the Bridge School, cocktails, dinner, and a performance by Neil Young at a private estate in Water Mill, $10,000, bridgeschool.org/support/gala

• July 14, The Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, The Hamptons Happening, 900 Lumber Lane, Bridgehampton, 6:30-10 p.m. $425, waxmancancer.org

• July 14, South Fork Natural History Museum Summer Gala, South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center, 377 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Bridgehampton, 6-10 p.m. $450, sofo.org

• July 20, East Hampton Historical Society, preview cocktail party for annual East Hampton Antiques Show, Mulford Farm, East Hampton, 6-8:30 p.m. $150, easthamptonhistory.org

• July 21, Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, Unconditional Love Gala, Gin Lane, Southampton, 6:30 p.m., $1,000, southamptonanimalshelter.com

• July 21, St. Jude Children's Hospital, Hope in the Hamptons, The Fields, Rosko Lane, Southampton, 6-10:30 p.m., $300; $350 after June 15, stjude.org

• July 21, Children's Museum of the East End, Family Fair Fundraiser: Under the Sea, Bridgehampton, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., $200 adults, $150 children with discounts for advanced purchases, cmee.org

• July 21, LGBT Network, Sunset on the Harbor, Breakwater Yacht Club, Sag Harbor, 5-8 p.m., $175, lgbtnetwork.org

• July 21, LongHouse Reserve, LongHouse Celebrates Brooklyn, 133 Hands Creek Road, East Hampton, 6-11 p.m. $1,250, longhouse.org

• July 27, The Perlman Music Program, A Taste of Shelter Island, 73 Shore Road, Shelter Island, 6-11 p.m. $350, cocktails and concert, $1.000 dinner, perlmanmusicprogram.org

• July 28, Watermill Center, Time Bomb benefit and auction, Watermill Center, 39 Water Mill Towd Road, Water Mill, 6 p.m., $650 cocktails, $500 until May 31, $1,500 dinner, watermillcenter.org

• July 28, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, 35th Anniversary Benefit, Atlantic Golf Club, Bridgehampton, 6:30 p.m., $1,500, bcmf.org

• July 28, Ellen Hermanson Foundation, Evening of Enchantment, Topping Rose House, Bridgehampton, 6:30-11 p.m. $500, ellenhermanson.org

• July 28, James Beard Foundation, Chefs and Champagne, honoring Padma Lakshmi, Wolffer Estate Vineyard, Sagaponack, 6 p.m., $300, jamesbeard.org

• July 29, Hayground Chefs Dinner, Hayground School, Bridgehampton; cocktails, 4:30 p.m.; dinner 6 p.m., $1,500. haygroundchefsdinner.org

August

• Aug. 2, UJA Federation of New York, Hamptons Trunk Show, Bridgehampton Historical Society, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., $36, rain or shine, ujafedny.org

• Aug. 3, Veterinarians International, Wild at Heart Gala, Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club, Bridgehampton, 6:30 p.m., $550, veterinariansinternational.org

• Aug. 4, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Hamptons Paddle and Party for Pink, Havens Beach, 8 a.m. and sunset party, 7 p.m., $1,500 for party, $175 for race, hamptonspaddleforpink.org

• Aug. 4, Southampton Hospital Summer Party, Wickapogue Road and Old Town Road, Southampton, 6:30 p.m., $500, southamptonhospital.org

• Aug. 4, Montauk Playhouse, the Playhouse Gala, Montauk Playhouse, Edgemere Street, Montauk, 7-11 p.m., $300, montaukplayhouse.org

Aug. 5, Thomas Moran Trust Garden Party, The Thomas and Mary Nimmo Moran Studio, Main Street, East Hampton, 6-8 p.m., $150, thomasmorantrust.org

• Aug. 5, Peconic Land Trust, Through Farms and Fields, Salt Air Farm, Cutchogue, 4 p.m., $350, peconiclandtrust.org

• Aug. 10, Guild Hall Summer Gala, Guild Hall and private residence, East Hampton, 5-11 p.m., $500 cocktails, $1,250 dinner, guildhall.org

• Aug. 11, East Hampton Library, Authors Night, Field at 4 Maidstone Lane and private residences, East Hampton, 5-10 p.m., $100 reception, $300 dinner, easthamptonlibrary.org

• Aug. 18, Animal Rescue Fund, Bow Wow Meow Ball, ARF Adoption Center, 124 Daniels Hole Road, Wainscott, 6:30 p.m., $750, arfhamptons.org

• Aug. 19, Hamptons Theatre Company, 2018 Summer Benefit, Quogue Field Club, 6 Club Lane, Quogue, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $150, hamptontheatre.org

• Aug. 23, Center for Therapeutic Riding of the East End, CTREE at Sebonack, Sebonack Golf Club, 405 Sebonack Road, Southampton, 6-9 p.m., $250, ctreeny.org

• Aug. 25, East End Hospice, Box Art Auction, featuring 90 artists' interpretations of a cigar box, St. Luke's Hoie Hall, 4:30-8 p.m. Free preview reception Aug. 22, 5-7 p.m., eeh.org

• Aug. 30, Southampton Arts Center, Summerfest, 25 Jobs Lane, 6-10 p.m., $500, southamptonartscenter.org

 

 

 

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It’s a Couples Thing at Tribeca

It’s a Couples Thing at Tribeca

“To Dust” stars Geza Rohrig, right, and Matthew Broderick in an unusual buddy movie that won the best new narrative director award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
“To Dust” stars Geza Rohrig, right, and Matthew Broderick in an unusual buddy movie that won the best new narrative director award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
“To Dust” by Shawn Snyder, is a quirky, unsettling, and sometimes uproarious buddy movie
By
Jennifer Landes

Placed in the mix of dramas, docs, shorts, and talks at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, which wrapped up on Sunday, were a couple of small film projects that involved some of the bolder-faced names of East Hampton.

One film, “To Dust” by Shawn Snyder, is a quirky, unsettling, and sometimes uproarious buddy movie starring Matthew Broderick, an Amagansett part-timer, and produced by the acting spouses Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola, who also have a house in Amagansett. Fabien Constant’s “Blue Night” stars Mr. Broderick’s wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, making the festival a bit of a family affair.

Both films are departures for their stars, but in different ways. “To Dust” takes on the immense grief of Shmuel, a Hasidic cantor, for his wife, who has just died of cancer. Plagued by nightmares and fearing that her spirit is in pain, he seeks to understand how long it will take for her body to turn “to dust,” which will thereby free her soul.

As played by Geza Rohrig, a Hungarian actor, Shmuel and his behavior become the talk of his insular community. In order to seek the answers he needs, he goes outside of it, to absurd effect. He eventually walks into the Biology 101 class of Mr. Broderick, a gentile professor at a local community college, to find a more scientific explanation for the answers he seeks. The plot gets pretty Byzantine, and there are some quite foul moments that illustrate both factual and imagined decay, but the cockeyed camaraderie that these two very different people develop is, if not heartwarming, at least a bit touching in a very strange way.

In addition to winning the audience award for narrative film, Mr. Snyder, who is a first-time feature director, won Tribeca’s jury award for best new narrative director last Thursday. Josh Charles, Zosia Mamet, and Joshua Leonard served as this year’s jury for the award. “To Dust” also won an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation feature film award in 2015 for the role that forensic anthropology (the science of human decomposition) played in the plot.

Given the often extreme lengths the characters go to to resolve Shmuel’s question, Mr. Broderick and Mr. Rohrig are grounded and charming, despite their self-made and increasingly bizarre circumstances. The two actors are as realistic as possible, given their characters’ eccentricities. The bond that develops between them feels genuine. The rest of the cast, including Shmuel’s mother and two sons, are also affecting in their own grief and concern for their father.

Ms. Parker’s film also deals with themes of mortality. “Blue Night” takes us on her 24-hour journey after she receives a diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer. An aging chanteuse who has obviously faded in fame and acclaim despite what her manager and friends tell her, Ms. Parker is forced to face her life choices and how they have affected those she loves and who love her. Most of the film focuses on her attempts at connection. One of its key mysteries is whom she might choose to accompany her to the hospital the next day for a new battery of tests. 

If the plot sounds familiar, that’s because it is loosely based on the 1962 Agnes Varda film “Cleo From 5 to 7.” Familiar faces populate it, including Common as her manager, Simon Baker as her ex, and Renee Zellweger as a friend she obviously has not seen in a while.

Ms. Parker sings two songs, a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which plays over the credits, and “Unfollow the Rules” by Rufus Wainwright (another East Hampton connection), which she sings in a club. While she can certainly carry a tune, her breathy delivery doesn’t really jibe with the dominance her character is purported to have in her genre.

It’s not clear what the fate of these films will be, but both would be worth seeing should they find distribution deals. “To Dust,” in particular, offers a fresh and truly unique vision. “Blue Night” allows fans of Ms. Parker to see her expand her range in acting and song.

Halsted Welles: Gardens, Music, and the Seasons

Halsted Welles: Gardens, Music, and the Seasons

Two days after putting the final touches on his time-lapse artwork, Halsted Welles relaxed at home in Sag Harbor.
Two days after putting the final touches on his time-lapse artwork, Halsted Welles relaxed at home in Sag Harbor.
Durell Godfrey
A series of time-lapse images of the gardens he’s created as they undergo the vicissitudes of weather and city life
By
Jamie Bufalino

Halsted Welles is a garden builder. He is not a landscaper or a lawn care specialist. His particular skill set, which includes expertise in horticulture, construction, masonry, bricklaying, as well as an Ivy League education in art history and sculpting, has led him to his nearly 50-year career as the founder of Halsted Welles Associates, a New York City design-and-build firm that specializes in creating lush outdoor living spaces out of urban terraces and rooftops.

It will also be leading him to Carnegie Hall next Thursday when his artwork — a series of time-lapse images of the gardens he’s created as they undergo the vicissitudes of weather and city life — will accompany the performance of a piano concerto titled “Four Seasons” by Georgia Shreve. 

Mr. Welles is a part-time Sag Harbor resident who is in the process of creating an “earthwork” at his Noyac Road properties by transforming his backyards and a neighbor’s into a park. He said that straddling the worlds of art and horticulture has been a lifelong pursuit ever since his father, a screenwriter, and his mother, a costume designer, first introduced him to the joys of environmental design during his childhood when they began adding plants and bushes to the grounds of a house they were building in Nyack, N.Y. “Since I came from an arty background and education, it seemed natural to figure out the connection between art and gardens,” he said. “Somehow there was a welding to be done, I didn’t know exactly what it was, but that was my adventure.”

During his years at Antioch College he was given the opportunity to do a work-study stint at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where he took a course in sculpture. He later spent nine months apprenticing with a sculptor in Paris. “I was sitting in the midst of a bunch of neo-Dadaists — one painter was shooting a .22 filled with paint capsules,” he recalled. A graduate degree in art from Yale followed, and then “I moved to New York and put up the shingle: sculptor.” 

“I had a couple of shows that went nowhere, not even a sketch sold,” he recalled. “And if you wrestle some big rocks up an elevator into a little gallery, it isn’t a happy experience. I wasn’t a horrible sculptor, there just wasn’t a need for them. So I set out to create a need for sculptures. That’s how I got into building gardens.”

After landing a job at a garden store by touting his credentials as a mason — “I can build patios,” he boasted — he started developing a client base and soon lit out on his own. 

Mr. Welles met Ms. Shreve, a composer and writer, when she became a client of his. He helped turn the terrace of her apartment into an urban oasis complete with a spacious pergola, a dining area that seats 12, and a floor covered in pink granite.

It was Mr. Welles who approached Ms. Shreve about collaborating on a project that would end up becoming part of a Carnegie Hall performance featuring both of their works. Inspired by the concept of using digital technology to create a real-time portrait of a garden, Mr. Welles decided to set up several GoPro cameras around some of the spaces he’d designed for clients. After seeing the shots of spring and summer captured by the cameras, he had an intuition that something magical would happen if the time-lapse images were set to music. “I thought, ‘This is kind of cool. Why don’t I show Georgia and maybe she’ll write a piece,’ ” he said. He invited her to his studio, where he had 11 monitors set up to display the images and Ms. Shreve immediately asked, “Could you do all four seasons?” recalled Mr. Welles. “And I said, ‘Well, yeah, sure what the hell.’ ” 

Turns out, Ms. Shreve had already composed a piece titled “Four Seasons,” and she thought the images would complement it perfectly. “You can’t tell if the music is generating the change in seasons or vice versa,” said Ms. Shreve of how well the works fit together. 

With Ms. Shreve’s directive to capture gardens in the fall and winter, Mr. Welles chose his subjects carefully. “For fall, I picked a building in SoHo with a grove of Japanese maple trees on a rooftop because I knew I’d get some color in there somehow,” he said. “And I used this terrace that overlooks Central Park for winter.” 

While gathering the images for his work, Mr. Welles said he found himself surprised by three main discoveries. First, “there’s an honesty to the time-lapse medium,” he said. “Either the bird landed on the branch or it didn’t.” Second, although the focus of the work was meant to be the plant life in the garden, it often got upstaged. “The goddamn shadow patterns crossing the brick walls were so cool,” he said. And third, “When the hell would you ever think that a window would be a major part of a garden?” he said. “It’s major, major. There’s a whole story just looking at the window because it’s reflecting everything — clouds, blue skies, lights.”

Unlike Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” which begins with spring, Ms. Shreve decided the images should start with summer and end on the optimistic note of spring. The season of rebirth, as it happens, is an apt metaphor for Mr. Welles’s art project. “The piece will have an afterlife,” he said. Mr. Welles recently added a gallery to his office building in Brooklyn, and he has grand plans to showcase his work in that space. “I’m building a screen that’s 10 feet high and 20-some-odd feet long and I’m going to project it onto that,” he said. 

Kirwin Promoted to Artistic Director of Arts Center

Kirwin Promoted to Artistic Director of Arts Center

By
Star Staff

Amy Kirwin, who joined the Southampton Arts Center in 2016 as director of programs, has been promoted to artistic director of that institution. Ms. Kirwin has overseen the growth of the center into a year-round operation with more than 200 programs annually.

After moving to Southampton in 2010, Ms. Kirwin worked for six years at the Parrish Art Museum, where she was visitor services and museum programs manager. Before that she worked in the Broadway and Off Broadway industry in New York City.

Stand-Up in Sag Harbor

Stand-Up in Sag Harbor

At Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor.
By
Star Staff

The comedian Joseph Vecsey (Optimum’s “The Unmovers” and Netflix’s “Sandy Wexler”) will host a new All Star Comedy Show at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor Friday at 8. Mr. Vecsey’s guests will be Jared Sandler (“Sandy Wexler” and “The Do-Over”), Matt Pavich (MTV’s “Joking Off” and YouTube’s “Handsome Dancer”), and Goumba Johnny (Colin Quinn’s “Cop Show” and “The Joy Behar Show”). Tickets are $30.

‘Bach to Brazil’ to Montauk

‘Bach to Brazil’ to Montauk

Ani Kalayjian will perform during Music for Montauk’s spring concert.
Ani Kalayjian will perform during Music for Montauk’s spring concert.
Jurgen Tabaku
A free concert featuring the internationally acclaimed soprano Rachelle Durkin
By
Mark Segal

Music for Montauk will kick off its 2018 season with “Bach to Brazil,” a free concert featuring the internationally acclaimed soprano Rachelle Durkin, who will be joined by the guitarist Rupert Boyd and an ensemble of cellists. Set for Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Montauk School auditorium, the program will connect the music of Bach with the sounds of South America.

Ms. Durkin, who was born in Australia, is an established artist at the Metropolitan Opera, where she replaced Anna Netrebko to great acclaim in “Don Pasquale” and has appeared as well in “La Cenerentola,” “La Sonnambula,” and “La Boheme,” among others. In addition to frequent appearances in Australia, she has performed with opera companies in Spain, Hong Kong, and throughout the United States.

“We have wanted to do Hector Villa-Lobos’s ‘Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5’ for some time,” said Milos Repicky, who with Lilah Gosman and Brendon Moffitt oversees artistic planning and development for Music for Montauk. “We immediately thought of Rachelle Durkin. I had worked Rachelle at the Met. It is a great opportunity to have a major operatic artist offer an intimate and personal performance . . . world class with a personal touch.”

Ms. Durkin will sing “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5” with the cellists Ani Kalayjian, Andrew Yee, Laura Metcalf, and Caleb van der Swaagh, and a Spanish song by Manual de Falla, accompanied by Mr. Boyd, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and at festivals in Spain, China, France, Nepal, and throughout Australia.

The program will begin with Bach’s solo cello suites and include works for cello by living composers such as Caroline Shaw before concluding with the Villa-Lobos piece. 

A post-concert party featuring a buffet, drinks, and a chance to meet the artists will take place at Gosman’s restaurant from 5:30 to 7. Reception tickets are $35 in advance at musicformontauk.org and $40 at the door.

Music for Montauk’s summer series will take place from Aug. 7 through Aug. 16 with concerts at Third House in Montauk County Park, Fort Pond House, the Art Barge on Napeague, and the Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs.

Founded in 1983, Music for Montauk is dedicated to bringing a fresh and dynamic approach to classical music for all members of the community as well as visitors.