The Craft of Weaving

“Woven,” a group exhibition of work by artists who explore and expand the art and craft of weaving, is on view at the Rental Gallery in East Hampton through Jan. 31.

Mia Romanik, an art adviser who lives and works in Los Angeles, has organized the show. Of its genesis, she said, “I began to tease out connections between contemporary art and traditional craft, specifically through the practice of woven textiles. In the warp and weft of the fabric itself, in the meditative act of weaving, and in the commitment to the craft passed down through generations of practitioners, we see something timeless, something that dips beneath the surface of art history to engage with something innately human.”

Artists featured include Alvaro Barrington, Alighiero Boetti, Jodie Carey, Anne Cathrin November Høibo, Dan Coopey, Lucy Dodd, Sam Falls, Josep Grau-Garriga, Liza Lou, Jayson Musson, Antonio Pichilla, Marina Pinsky, Sterling Ruby, Samantha Thomas, Ruby Sky Stiler, Kaari Upson, Hank Willis Thomas, Brian Wills, and Margo Wolowiec.

Holiday Show at Ille

Ille Arts in Amagansett will open its annual holiday show with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. It will run through Jan. 15. The gallery has issued an open call for up to three works on paper per artist, with a size limit of 22 by 30 inches and a maximum price of $1,000. According to the gallery, works by hundreds of international, national, and local artists will be on view.

Plein-Air Painters

The East Hampton Library will present an exhibition of work by the plein-air painters of the Wednesday Group from today through Dec. 30, with a reception set for Dec. 9 from 3 to 5 p.m. Participating artists are Teresa Lawler, Jean Mahoney, Alyce Peifer, Gene Samuelson, Cynthia Sobel, Frank Sofo, Bob Sullivan, Aurelio Torres, and Pam Vossen.

A New Joint Studio

Many artists have shown at the space at 4 North Main Street in Southampton over the past eight years, but few as often as Paton Miller. In a somewhat unusual arrangement, Mr. Miller and Scott Bluedorn, both mainstays of the East End art scene, have turned the venue into a joint studio of sorts, with paintings, drawings, and prints on view by appointment only, through Dec. 17. 

Studio visits can be arranged by calling Mr. Miller at 631-885-1289 or Mr. Bluedorn at 631-838-7518.

Set in an old power station on the outskirts of Southampton’s busy commercial center, Jeff Lincoln’s Art + Design gallery has one of the coolest spaces on the East End. Art viewers are accustomed to the various potato barn galleries that sprout each summer, but this space feels more Meatpacking District than Bridgehampton farm field.

Playing off its high ceilings and industrial interiors, Mr. Lincoln opens his gallery’s garage doors to the air on sunny and warm days and the space is filled with light and objects.

A showcase for both art and design, the gallery is no white box. Instead, Mr. Lincoln sets up seating areas with chairs, tables, lounges, sculptural etageres, benches, stools, and art objects throughout the space, in addition to on the walls. He demonstrates how to live with not only restrained midcentury modern, but the more over-the-top practitioners of design.

The gallery’s fall and winter exhibition, “Heart of Darkness,” features design from the Haas Brothers, John Eric Byers, Wendell Castle, Anna Karlin, Thaddeus Wolfe, and Jeff Zimmerman along with art from Thomas Houseago and Conrad de Kwiatkowski.

Although Mr. de Kwiatkowski’s hangings of Aymara weavings dominate the space, Mr. Houseago’s monumental bronzes tend to steal the show. Mr. Kwiatkowski chose to show his collection of textiles with his sculptures to compose a supplemental exhibition for the space. The weavings are made by women from alpaca and lamb’s wool that is died with the blood of insects. The natural dye produces dark hues of purple, black, and blue, making the rectangular panels a study in tonal negative space.

According to Mr. Lincoln, the artist approached his curatorial duties in the spirit of a wunderkammer, also known as a cabinet of curiosities. These anything-goes collections of odd and unique objects from around the world first became prominent in the age of exploration. The hangings are placed throughout the main room. They mingle with the small basalt sculptures that are carved and polished to bring out their own natural patterns and design qualities. Their smooth surface and natural beauty are enticing.

Mr. Houseago plays with the duality of abstraction and figuration, fine and primitive, suggesting that his monumental bronze sculptures are figures and heads but not doing too much to refine that vision. His “Head (Black Hill I)” from 2010 contains overt or subtle references to Darth Vader, ancient helmets, the monumental head of Constantine in Rome, and all of Picasso’s nods to the tribal and the classical.

Although “Yet to Be Titled (Peeking Figure)” predates it by several years, it seems to have a lot in common with the monster in the Netflix series “Stranger Things” as well as Umberto Boccioni’s “Unique Forms of Continuity in Space.” 

Fuzzy creatures, anthropomorphic tables and chairs, pod-like lighting fixtures, prickly vases, and bean-shaped lounges are part of the Haas Brothers’ alternative universe and are placed throughout the space. They add a bit of sci-fi capriciousness to the already eclectic surroundings.

Mr. Zimmerman has a mix of very precisely made light sculptures and molded mirrored glass vessels that look like shiny mistakes, which often have crystals embedded in their hallows. One of these objects, a perfectly formed globular shape akin to a raspberry, stands out in the otherwise imperfect field. 

Sometimes it becomes difficult to know which objects are in the show and which are not, but it allows a personal interpretation of what in the space projects darkness and what implies light.

The exhibition will be on view through March 31.

Our Fabulous Variety Show, a South­ampton-based group of performers who develop and present original theatrical programming, will have four different shows this weekend at Guild Hall, starting tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. with two of the group’s resident divas, Rusty Nails and Naomi, as well as Julia King, a singer and musician. Ray from 101.7 the Beach FM and Joe Pallister, an actor, will host.

Samantha Slithers will bring her vaudeville and snake-charming acts to Guild Hall on Saturday afternoon at 2, and Tyler Fischer, a New York City comedian, will take the stage on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Both shows will be hosted by Mr. Pallister and Edward Kassar, another actor familiar to East End audiences.

On Sunday afternoon at 2, Danny Ximo of RaffaShow will perform such classic numbers as “New York, New York” and “Mele Kalikimaka” and a duet with Rusty Nails, and Omar Tello will bring his salon-inspired act. Mr. Ximo and Mr. Pallister will host.

Each of the four performances will include material from the company’s 19 previous productions. Among the highlights are a medley of jazz-funk pieces choreographed by Kasia Klimiuk, one of the troupe’s co-founders; “Bojangles: A Tribute,” a stair-tap routine; “Take Five” and “Drummer Boy” choreographed by the company’s other founder, Anita Boyer; original comic carols, and slam poetry.

Tickets, which are available at the company’s website, range from $15 to $50. Discounts for students and senior citizens can be obtained by calling 631-507-4603.

The Neave Trio, a chamber ensemble that has performed in concert series and festivals worldwide, will return for its second performance in the Music at St. Luke’s series on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Hoie Hall at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton.

The program will include Debussy’s Trio in G major, Foote’s Trio in B-flat major, and Piazzolla’s “Estaciones Portenas.” The group recently recorded the Debussy piece along with works by Roussel and Fauré on the Chandos label.

The trio also champions works by living composers and collaborates frequently with artists in other mediums, among them the Blythe Barton Dance Company, Ryan Brady, a projection artist, and Pablo Berron, a filmmaker.

Tickets are $20 at the door, free for those under 18.

The Southampton Cultural Center will hold open auditions for its spring production of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” on Monday and Tuesday at 6 p.m. in its theater on Pond Lane. Auditions will begin promptly, and late arrivals will be seen at the discretion of the director, Michael Disher, and the music director, Amanda Jones. 

Those auditioning have been asked to prepare 16 to 32 measures of a Disney or Broadway standard, wear suitable clothing and shoes for a dance audition, and have a flexible schedule. Most rehearsals take place Mondays through Fridays during the evening. Light music rehearsals will begin in December, full rehearsals in mid-January. Performances will run from March 8 through March 25.

Now in its 10th year, the Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film festival has grown from four films to 25, added a fifth day of free screenings, and created three new awards to enrich an already jam-packed program.

Opening today at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor and continuing through Monday, the festival will include such noteworthy films as Susan Froemke’s “The Opera House,” the history of New York’s Metropolitan Opera, which premiered at this year’s New York Film Festival and will be shown this evening at 8, and Friday night’s Spotlight Film, Susan Lacy’s “Spielberg,” an intimate portrait of one of cinema’s towering figures.

This year the Career Achievement Award will be presented to Liz Garbus, a two-time Emmy Award winner, whose credits include “Love, Marilyn,” “Bobby Fischer Against the World,” and “What Happened Miss Simone?” Starting Saturday evening at 7, a cocktail reception and ceremony will precede the screening of “Shooting Fire: Stories From the Edge of Free Speech,” which will be followed by a conversation between the filmmaker and her father, Martin Garbus, a noted First Amendment attorney.

The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Helen Whitney will receive the Filmmaker’s Choice Award on Saturday morning at 11:30 prior to a screening of her film “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death,” in which people of all ages wrestle with the inevitability of death.

The Sunday Night Spotlight Film is Sabine Krayenbuehl and Zeva Oelbaum’s “Letters From Baghdad: The Story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq,” a documentary about the British archaeologist, explorer, and spy whose work in the Middle East during and after World War I played an important role in shaping the region. 

“The Killer Bees,” Ben and Orson Cummings’s exploration of the world of the renowned Bridgehampton High School basketball team as it prepares to defend its state championship title, is the festival’s closing night film, set for Monday at 7.

The festival’s new Breakout Director Award, which recognizes an original and exceptional vision, will go to Catherine Bainbridge, whose film “Rumble: The Indians Who Rock­ed the World” illuminates the contribution of Native Americans to rock and popular music history. 

Also new is the Sloane Shelton Human Rights Award, which honors courage in the face of social injustice. This year’s recipient is Josh Howard’s “The Lavender Scare,” a documentary about discrimination against government homosexuals in the 1950s.

The Hector Leonardi Art and Inspiration Award acknowledges a film that embraces the vibrancy of an artist whose work expanded our spirits and lives. Richard Kane will receive the award at the screening of “I Know a Man . . . Ashley Bryan,” a film about the 93-year-old African-American poet-illustrator, on Sunday at noon.

As usual, films engaging social and political issues predominate. Some focus on the challenges facing individuals, among them “Crazy,” Lise Zumwalt’s film about Eric, a young man diagnosed with schizophrenia who must choose between traditional mental health treatment and his own particular circumstances.

Emilie Bunnell’s “Bean” is the story of Alana and Lori, two young women who met on Tinder shortly before Alana learned she was suffering from lupus and needed a kidney transplant. When Lori learns she is a donor match and decides to give Alana a kidney, a casual meeting unexpectedly becomes one that will bind them and their families forever. 

In Ken Marsolais’s “The Bullish Farmer,” a Wall Street financier trades in his career after Sept. 11, 2001, for life as a farmer in upstate New York, only to find his dream of a simple agricultural life challenged by big agriculture.

Other films examine broader issues, among them Wade Gardner’s “Marvin Booker Was Murdered,” which focuses on the 2010 killing of a homeless man by five correctional guards in Denver. Nancy Buirski’s “The Rape of Recy Taylor” uses archival footage and interviews to tell the story of a 24-year-old African-American sharecropper who was abducted and raped by seven white men in Alabama in 1944.

“Acorn and the Firestorm” examines the attack on and ultimate destruction by Breitbart Media of ACORN, a national community-organizing group, during the contentious 2008 election year.

Laura Poitras, the Academy Award-winning director of “Citizenfour,” turns her attention in “Risk” to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, while Blake Kerr, a Wainscott physician, examines China’s military occupation of Tibet and its impact on the people there in “Eye of the Lammergeier.”

The arts take center stage in “Close Harmony,” Nigel Noble’s Oscar-winning film about a fourth and fifth-grade chorus at Brooklyn Friends School that performs with elderly retirees at a Brooklyn Jewish Center; “The Last Dance,” Mirra Bank’s film about the collaboration between the Pilobolus dance company and Maurice Sendak; “The Way It Goes,” Lana Jokel’s film about the visual artist Nathan Slate Joseph, and “Anatomy of a Male Dancer,” a portrait of the Brazilian ballet star Marcela Gomes by David Barba and James Pellerito.

The festival will conclude Monday with a free community day sponsored by Douglas Elliman. No tickets will be required for “Eye of the Lammergeier” (2 p.m.), “I Know a Man . . . Ashley Bryan” (3:30 p.m.), “The Lavender Scare” (5 p.m.), or “Killer Bees” (7 p.m.). 

Tickets to most other programs are $15, $13 for senior citizens. Friday and Sunday night Spotlight films are $25, and tickets to Saturday night’s program are $50. Four-day passes are available for $150 on the festival’s website.

Tracy Jamar in Gansett

“Coils, Folds, Twists, and Turns: Contemporary Techniques in Fiber,” an exhibition of work by Tracy Jamar, is on view at the Amagansett Library through the end of the month. A reception will take place tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m., and the artist will discuss contemporary fiber art on Dec. 28 at 6 p.m.

Ms. Jamar, who lives in Springs and New York City, strives to expand the possibilities of traditional handmade techniques such as rug hooking, collage, appliqué, and embroidery in her diverse body of work, which uses new, old, and repurposed yarns and fabrics as well as nontraditional materials.

East End Photographers

Folioeast will present “Photographers on the East End,” a show organized by Ned Smyth, from Saturday through Jan. 7 at Malia Mills, its off-season location on Main Street in East Hampton. A reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Participating artists are Philippe Cheng, Ralph Gibson, Laurie Lambrecht, Tony Lattari, Lindsay Morris, Jonathan Morse, Joe Pintauro, Michael Ruggiero, Bastienne Schmidt, and Mr. Smyth.

Group Show at Drawing Room

The Drawing Room in East Hampton is presenting a group show of work by Stephen Antonakos, Antonio Asis, Vincent Longo, Alan Shields, and Jack Youngerman through Jan. 14. Also on view, through Dec. 31, are selected photographs by Charles Jones.

Four at Ashawagh

“Short Days Art Show,” an exhibition by four artists whose work draws connections between nature and abstraction, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 to 5, with a reception set for Saturday from 4 to 8.

Phyllis Chillingworth’s watercolors and oils capture the emotions she experiences both around Montauk and during her travels. Lynn Martell highlights the contrast and luminescence of the four seasons on the East End in her paintings and watercolors. 

Annie Sessler will show her traditional Japanese-inspired gyotaku ink impressions on cloth as well as other work, while John Todaro, a photographer, will exhibit recent black-and-white landscapes and semi-abstract images.

News From the White Room

“Sex, Fishnets, ’n’ Rock ‘n’ Roll,” work by Steve Joester and Luciana Pampalone, will open tomorrow at the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton and continue through Jan. 7. A reception will be held Dec. 16 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The gallery has also asked for submissions for “Positive Space,” a juried show open to painters, photographers, mixed-media artists, and sculptors that will take place in May. One winner will be selected from each medium. Details are available by emailing [email protected]. 

Portraits by Susan Wood

“Women: Portraits 1960-2000,” a compilation of photographs taken by Susan Wood, who lives in Amagansett, will be published in January by Pointed Leaf Press. Among Ms. Wood’s notable subjects are Diane von Furstenberg, Martha Stewart, Nora Ephron, Alice Waters, Jayne Mansfield, and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Mademoiselle chose Ms. Wood as one of its top Ten Women of the Year, and her work has appeared in many other periodicals, including Vogue, Life, Look, Harper’s Bazaar, and New York magazine. She was a founding member of the Women’s Forum and was involved in the fight for women’s rights and equality in the 1960s and 1970s. Her friends included many members of the vanguard of the feminist movement, among them Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.

The Ellen Johansen and Marlene Markard Piano Duo will perform free holiday concerts on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Montauk Library and on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Guild Hall. Both programs will include sing-alongs as well as piano performances.

The Montauk concert will feature compositions by Handel, Vince Guaraldi, Mykola Leontovych, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Bach, and Leroy Anderson that have been adapted for duo performance. Among the four-hand arrangements to be performed at Guild Hall are “Silent Night,” “Christmas Time Is Here,” “Sleigh Ride Fantasy,” and excerpts from “The Nutcracker Suite.”

Ms. Johansen has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist throughout Long Island. Her music studio offers early childhood music classes and group piano lessons. Ms. Markard teaches at East End Arts, the Southampton Cultural Center, and the Children’s Museum of the East End, and she operates her own music studio as well. Both women studied at Juilliard and other notable conservatories. 

A new All Star Comedy show hosted by Joseph Vecsey (of Optimum’s “The Un-Movers” and the podcast “The Call Back”) will take place tomorrow night at 8 at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Mr. Vecsey’s guests will include Crystian Ramirez (“Last Comic Standing”), Omar Thompson (BET’s “One Mike Stand”), Veronica Mosey (“Gotham Live”), and Jared Sandler (Netflix’s “The Do-Over”). Tickets are $30 in advance, $40 the day of the show.

The HooDoo Loungers and Joe Delia and Thieves, two mainstays of the East End music scene, will take the stage for a Rockin’ Holiday Dance on Saturday at 8 p.m. The Loungers, currently finishing their third CD, are known for their New Orleans-inspired party music, while Mr. Delia’s blazing piano will be joined by the sounds of James Benard, Klyph Black, Al Buonanno, and PJ Delia. Tickets are $25.

Alfredo Merat is not standing still. Last Thursday, hours before he would resume a new, weekly residency at Lulu Kitchen and Bar in Sag Harbor, the musician excitedly shared plans to bring a vision to life in ways large and small. 

Outside his house in Springs sat a recently acquired recreational vehicle. Inside the house, guitars and ancillary musical equipment were everywhere, scattered among and between books and sheet music. All play an essential role in his upcoming plans. 

Last fall, Mr. Merat, who often plays at venues including Baron’s Cove in Sag Harbor and Sole East and Saltbox in Montauk, performed “Brel by Alfredo,” in which he channeled the spirit of Jacques Brel, the Belgian singer, songwriter, and actor who died in 1978, at Bay Street Theater, also in Sag Harbor. That performance, in which he sang in French and spoke about Brel’s life in English, coincided with the 50-year anniversary of Brel’s farewell concerts at the Olympia Theater in Paris, part of a long goodbye from live performances. 

The project sparked more ideas, and a collaboration with the director and producer Stephen Hamilton, who co-founded Bay Street Theater, and Randal Myler, the Tony and Drama Desk Award-nominated director whose credits include “Love, Janis,” a musical biography of Janis Joplin, and “Dream a Little Dream: The Mamas and the Papas Musical.” 

“We’re putting the concept together as far as this being more a theater play,” Mr. Merat said. “Hopefully, we’ll be done in the spring.” 

Mr. Merat, who was born in Madrid and grew up in France, has fully immersed himself in Brel and his music. Among the books scattered around his house are a comprehensive collection of biographies of Brel, an immensely popular artist in his time. He has contacted and corresponded with one biographer, is absorbing “a lot of insider information and anecdotes,” and has devoured and translated interviews, excerpts of which may be incorporated into the show. “Tell the story and sing the songs” is how he envisions it. 

Brel’s oeuvre struck a chord in him, he said, in part due to his upbringing in France. “Then, when I was young, I picked up a guitar around the time his songs were in my ear,” he said. More recently, “I was in Paris, and realized I wanted to revisit his work. My God, there’s so much good stuff in there.”

Subsequent to the October 2016 performance at Bay Street, Mr. Merat traveled to Cuba, a journey that unexpectedly added a new element to the project. With Cuban musicians in a Havana studio, he recorded 11 Brel songs, often in a unique interpretation. “They’re fun songs,” he said, “and I’m doing it my way, rearranging them, rediscovering some of them, thinking, ‘This would be great with salsa.’ ” 

“Alfredo Sings Brel,” the resulting CD, features, for example, two versions of “Le Moribond,” one a lush and dreamy bachata arrangement, the other an up-tempo salsa interpretation. 

“I want to break it here,” he said of the show, “meaning we’ll do the rehearsals and then the previews. This is not going to be a one-time show — at least, that’s the aim! We will start production, hopefully, this winter into spring.” After previews at a South Fork venue to be determined, he hopes to take it to Manhattan. “Hopefully, it takes on a life of its own,” he said. “I’m hopeful that there will be a market in Canada, France, England, Belgium, Morocco, because those are the places he performed, and he performed in French. But for now, we’ll run it here and see if it’s got legs.”

Simultaneous to this project, Mr. Merat began the weekly residency at Lulu, a consequence of performing there during the Sag Harbor American Music Festival, in September. The gig is serving as a kind of laboratory in which, depending on the circumstances, Mr. Merat alternates between performance as part of a duo or trio and experimenting with Brel’s music. “I was really happy when Lulu came along and invited me to do this,” he said. “They were very receptive and complimentary when I did the festival.” 

“The funny part is, while I’m doing this solo work I’m preparing for the bigger show,” he said. “Ultimately, the plan is to do the big show but also prepare something much smaller where I can tell the story in English as well, in between songs, or translate while the song is going.” 

Hence the recreational vehicle, in which he plans to travel extensively in 2018 and beyond. “When I go to New Orleans and other places, in some places I’ll have gigs,” he predicted, “but in some I’m going to wing it. That’s my plan.”