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The Art Scene 05.19.16

The Art Scene 05.19.16

Local Art News
By
Mark Segal

Sag Harbor’s Story

“Every Village Has a Story,” an exhibition of work by nine Sag Harbor artists, will open at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum on Saturday and run through June 27. A reception will be held on May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibition has been organized by Elise Goodheart, a Sag Harbor resident and former gallery owner, who invited the artists to explore the working class roots and underpinnings of the village’s past through its buildings and places, and to reflect on how those parts of the village inform its present.

Contributing artists are Reynold Ruffins, John Capello, Paul Davis, Erica Lynn Huberty, Joan Tripp, Scott Sandell, Peter Solow, Carolyn Conrad, and Michael A. Butler. 

 

Mixed Media at Ashawagh

“NextActArt,” a mixed-media exhibition of work by nine retired or semi-retired women, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8.

The artists, who have shown in solo and group exhibitions but never together, met several years ago in a weekly class in collage and mixed media.  The exhibition celebrates their friendship and artists who have embraced art as a career later in life.

Participants are Barbara Brier, Rena Diana, Madeline Farr, Madlyn Goldman, Ronnie Grill, Judy Kaplan, Patricia Miller, Stephanie Suskin, and Sheila Wolper. Photographs, fragments of paintings and drawings, found and homemade papers, lace, ironwork, broken jewelry, recycled wood, and tools, are some of the items repurposed in their work.

 

New Work by Paton Miller 

Paton Miller, the Southampton artist whose work reflects his extensive travels and his admiration of such Spanish artists as Goya, Velazquez, and El Greco, will show new paintings at the Monika Olko Gallery in Sag Harbor from tomorrow through June 13. A reception will happen May 28 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Miller arrived here in 1974 to study at Southampton College, and except for a three-year stint in Hawaii, where he grew up, has divided his time between the South Fork and Costa Rica ever since. His work, which draws on his adventurous life and personal experiences, ranges from the exotic to the surreal to the whimsical.

 

Rudolph Serra in Manhattan

“Handmade,” a two-artist exhibition at the Christian Duvernois Gallery in Manhattan, will include recent terracotta sculptures by Rudolph Serra, an artist with studios in Sag Harbor and SoHo, through July 6. In addition, Mr. Serra’s “Bottom Turn” has been purchased by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and will be on view from today through June 12 in the academy’s exhibition “Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards.”

Mr. Serra, inspired in part by the dunes and tidal pools of Northern California, where he grew up, transforms the earthly material of clay into organic, animated forms whose folds and contours give the impression of temporarily suspended motion. 

 

Sea and Sky in Southampton

“Beach Light,” an exhibition of large-scale landscape paintings by Eileen Dawn Skretch, will open tomorrow in the Sayre Barn at the Southampton Historical Museum with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. It will continue through Oct. 23.

The images in the exhibition, which focus on the beaches and sky of the East End, were first created en plein air on a small scale, then re-created on massive wood panels in the artist’s Southampton studio. Ms. Skretch feels the wood surface lends a glow to her subjects that cannot be matched on plain white canvas.

 

New Gallery in Village

Like SoHo’s West Broadway in its heyday, Newtown Lane has become the village of East Hampton’s gallery row, with yet another venue, Art Space 98, set to open Saturday at — you guessed it — 98 Newtown Lane. Devoted to contemporary art in a variety of mediums by local and visiting artists, the gallery has been founded by Thomas Buehler and Rosemarie Schiller, Swiss-born artists who now divide their time between New York City and Montauk.

The inaugural exhibition, “People and Lost Traces,” which will open Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., will include paintings by Mr. Buehler and clay assemblages by Ms. Schiller. It will continue through June 20. Subsequent exhibitions will feature Camille Perrottet of East Hampton, Michael Oruch, and Dennis Snyder.

Mr. Buehler’s vividly colored abstract paintings have been influenced by his frequent travels, especially to the deserts of the western United States. Ms. Schiller’s sculptures explore the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds. 

 

Phyllis Chillingworth in Chelsea

“Currents,” a solo show of work by Phyllis Chillingworth, will open today at the Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and continue through June 11. The paintings capture the impressions and rhythms of Montauk, where she lives, as well as her recent travels to Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, and Montana, in a personal, expressionistic style, reflecting her belief that content, which includes her feelings and ideas, is more important than straightforward subject matter.

Watermill Center's Open Studios, Rehearsals, Brunch

Watermill Center's Open Studios, Rehearsals, Brunch

A weekend of open studios and rehearsals by resident artists, a guided tour of the facility, and the second installment of its spring International Brunch series
By
Mark Segal

The Watermill Center is shedding the relatively low profile it has maintained for the past few weeks with a weekend of open studios and rehearsals by resident artists, a guided tour of the facility, and the second installment of its spring International Brunch series.

Joss Lake, a novelist interested in expanding the form by destabilizing gender, time, and the boundaries between the self and other, will read from his novel-in-progress and discuss the ideas behind and sources of his writing tomorrow from 6 to 7 p.m.

Hans-Jörn Brandenburg, a German musician and composer and frequent collaborator of Robert Wilson, the center’s founder and artistic director, will present his theatrical work “pian-O-pera” in an open rehearsal from 7:30 to 8:30 tomorrow evening. Mr. Brandenburg’s research centers on musical restrictions that create and control movements and spatial arrangements.

Netta Yerushalmy, a dancer and choreographer who has worked in New York City since 2000, will present an open rehearsal on Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. of “Paramodernities,” a series of dance experiments that deconstruct modern dance choreographies, performed along with the contributions of writers, philosophers, and historians who situated these works within the larger project of modernity.

Armando Mariño, a visual artist from Cuba, will open his studio on Sunday afternoon at 3. During his residency, he has continued to develop “Sweet Dreams,” an installation of 20 to 25 hand-painted mattresses, each of which contains a realistic portrait of a notable 20th-century political figure, among them Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Stalin, Qaddafi, and others.

A tour of the center’s building, grounds, gardens, and collection, which consists of more than 8,000 pieces collected by Mr. Wilson over the past 50 years, will be offered at 1 p.m. on Saturday. On Sunday at noon, Eva Schmidt, the center’s chef, will prepare a brunch inspired by the food culture of the East End.

All programs and events are free, but reservations are required.  .

Montauk's Four Days of Music, 85 Artists

Montauk's Four Days of Music, 85 Artists

Hopefully Forgiven will be one of dozens of acts from far and near performing this weekend in Montauk.
Hopefully Forgiven will be one of dozens of acts from far and near performing this weekend in Montauk.
Some 365 sets by more than 85 artists, from soloists to full bands, will be performed across 40 venues
By
Christopher Walsh

The Montauk Music Festival’s seventh annual happening heralds summer’s imminent arrival, as the four-day event draws hundreds of artists and thousands of music lovers to the hamlet on the weekend before Memorial Day. 

Some 365 sets by more than 85 artists, from soloists to full bands, will be performed across 40 venues. This year’s festival features a wealth of talent hailing from the South Fork, including Megan Leonardo, Whaleheart, Hopefully Forgiven, and the Montauk Project, and from as far west as Texas and Colorado. The full lineup and schedule is at montaukmusicfestival.com.

“It’s definitely receiving more attention each year,” said Kenny Giustino, the festival’s founder. “Every year tops the last, which is hard to do, but that’s what’s been happening.” 

The party kicks off with tonight’s opening event at Gurney’s Resort. The $45 admission includes live music on two stages, hors d’oeuvres, and festival sponsors’ liquors and beers from 8 until midnight. All other performances are free. Those attending performances at a new stage this year, at the Montauk Lighthouse, must pay the landmark’s standard admission, Mr. Giustino said. On Saturday and Sunday, the Montauk Friends of Erin will host a barbecue on the downtown green with beer, wine, and soda, proceeds benefiting its charitable endeavors. 

The preseason festival provides a financial windfall for the hamlet’s many hotels, restaurants, and bars, with hotel occupancy jumping from around 20 percent to capacity, according to Mr. Giustino, who is also the founder and publisher of The Montauk Sun. “People can enjoy the different restaurants and bars. We hope they support the musicians, maybe by buying their CDs, because they’re getting all this great music at no charge.” 

Montauk residents are also big fans of the festival, he said. “It’s one of their favorite weekends,” and one that brings a different kind of visitor to the hamlet. Mr. Giustino allowed that “all the hoopla about Montauk” — the hamlet’s recent reputation for riotous behavior by summer visitors — is overblown, “but this is definitely a different crowd. They’re music-lovers, looking to see something new and exciting.” 

Meghan Trainor, whose song “All About That Bass” was one of the biggest singles in 2014, performed in the festival’s second year. “That was fun that she became famous,” Mr. Giustino said. “That’s what people are always looking for, to see something that hasn’t been discovered yet, and they’re the ones that can say they saw it at the festival.” 

Pianofest Alumna Returns to Southampton Cultural Center

Pianofest Alumna Returns to Southampton Cultural Center

At the Southampton Cultural Center
By
Star Staff

The Rising Stars Piano Series at the Southampton Cultural Center will conclude its spring season with a piano concert by Jiayin Shen on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Ms. Shen recently returned from her native China, where she performed to sold-out houses with the Yantai Symphony Orchestra. The holder of a doctorate from the Peabody Conservatory of  Johns Hopkins University, she has toured extensively throughout China, Germany, Switzerland, England, Norway, Canada, and the United States.

In addition to her solo recitals, she is active in chamber music performances and piano duo ensembles, and has collaborated with musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She is an alumna of Pianofest of the Hamptons.

Tickets are $20, free for students under 21.

Yoonie Han's Classical Piano Concludes Salon Series

Yoonie Han's Classical Piano Concludes Salon Series

At the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
By
Star Staff

Classical piano will be featured at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill tomorrow at 6 p.m. when Yoonie Han, an award-winning soloist, will wrap up the museum’s Salon Series for the season. 

Ms. Han has garnered first prizes in competitions in Washington, D.C., Fayetteville, Ark., the Juilliard School, Cincinnati, and in 2009 was honored with the Gawon Music Award as the “most brilliant pianist aged 17 to 31 of any nationality who possesses the most promising potential for global prominence.”

Her Parrish concert will span nearly 300 years of Western music, with compositions by Bach, Liszt, Saint-Saens, Jean Sibelius, and Arvo Part, a contemporary Estonian composer. 

Tickets are $20, $10 for members and students.

Durang's 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' at HTC

Durang's 'Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike' at HTC

At the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue
By
Star Staff

The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue will present “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” a Drama Desk and Tony Award-winning comedy by Christopher Durang, beginning next Thursday at 7 p.m. and continuing through June 12.

Mr. Durang, who is known for his outrageous and often absurd comedy, has insisted that the play is not a Chekhov parody, despite some apparent similarities. He said he took Chekhov scenes and characters “and put them in a blender.”

The story revolves around Vanya, his adopted sister, Sonia, and Masha, a third sibling, who visits the other two at their farm in Bucks County, Pa. A glamorous actress who supports Vanya and Sonia, Masha sweeps into their lives with a much younger boyfriend, and, as they discuss their lives and loves, threatens to sell the house.

Ben Brantley of The New York Times called it a “sunny new play about gloomy people” when it ran on Broadway in 2013 with a cast led by Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce. The playwright emphasized that the play does not require familiarity with the work of Chekhov.

The production is directed by Diana Marbury and stars Smeralda Abel, Andrew Botsford, Rosemary Cline, Amanda Griemsmann, Jane Lowe, and Eduardo Ramos.

Performances will take place Thursdays and Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8, and Sundays at 2:30. Tickets are $30, $25 for senior citizens (except Saturdays), and $10 for students under 21.

The Art Scene 05.12.16

The Art Scene 05.12.16

"Stele #1" and "Composition #1" by Toni Ross will be on view at the Drawing Room beginning Friday.
"Stele #1" and "Composition #1" by Toni Ross will be on view at the Drawing Room beginning Friday.
Local Art News
By
Mark Segal

New at Drawing Room

The Drawing Room in East Hampton will present two concurrent exhibitions, “Toni Ross: New Sculpture” and “Artists in the Field,” from tomorrow through June 20.

Ms. Ross’s new stoneware sculptures explore surface, structure, and stability, with scored, abraded, and slip-brushed surfaces revealing the sculptor’s processes and referring to architecture, assemblage, and cuneiform. Several of the works incorporate discernable yet ambiguous textual elements.

“Artists in the Field” includes work by Irene Kopelman, Pat Pickett, and Alexis Rockman, all of whom operate in direct contact with nature to create work informed by traditions of scientific observation. 

Ms. Kopelman will show small paintings created while camping for a month in the Amazonian rainforest. Ms. Pickett has used drawing, photography, and video to capture how trees respond to invisible natural forces. Mr. Rockman’s “East End Field Drawings” use indigenous soil and sand to create works on paper that depict the region’s ecosystems.

 

RJD Show for the Retreat

The RJD Gallery in Sag Harbor will open “The Art of Discovery,” an exhibition to benefit the Retreat, with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will continue through June 12.

It includes the work of five artists selected from more than 100 who submitted works by making donations to the Retreat: Amanda Bellino, Anthony D’Avino, Miles Jaffe, Sarupa Sidaarth, and Anzhelika Doliba.

Ms. Bellino uses sand, mortar, and gel to create multi-dimensional sculpture. His antique toy collection is the inspiration for Mr. D’Avino’s work. Miles Jaffe’s “Artists’ Color” series features paint tubes that explore the relationship between pop culture, the artist, and his medium.

Ms. Sidaarth uses acrylic paint to make circular and metallic elements to transform images that raise social issues. Ms. Doliba is part of a group of artists who alter space with murals, plaster forms, and faux finishes.

The Retreat is the only nonprofit domestic violence agency serving the East End.

 

Arts Center Appointment

The Southampton Arts Center has announced the appointment of Amy Kirwin as its new director of programs. Since 2010, Ms. Kirwin has served as head of museum experience at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, where that uncommon title encompassed both visitor services and public programming. 

Her varied background includes extensive experience in theater, ranging from a degree from the Circle in the Square Theater School in Manhattan to management positions with the Broadway League and the Tony Awards.

“I’m thrilled to join the staff of the arts center to take the lead on programs,” she said, “and I look forward to bringing new and exciting offerings to Southampton Village and the East End.”

 

Floral Photography

The “Florescence Exhibit,” a show of work by three photographers who engage floral subjects, will be on view at the Alex Ferrone Gallery in Cutchogue from Saturday through June 19. A reception will take place Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Participating artists are Barbara Macklowe, who has a house in East Hampton and an eponymous antiques gallery in Manhattan; Sandra Carrion, who teaches photography at Nassau Community College, and Richard Gardner, whose influences include the artist Man Ray.

 

Terry Elkins at Estia’s

Landscape paintings by Terry Elkins are on view at Estia’s Little Kitchen in Sag Harbor through July 11. A Texas native, Mr. Elkins was academically trained until, as a graduate student at the University of Houston, he met Willem de Kooning, Ron Gorchov, and other New York artists. As a result, his work turned toward abstraction, and he decided to move, first to New York City and then, in 1987, to Bridgehampton.

Finding himself in “a landscape surrounded by ocean,” he returned to representation, focusing on landscapes, nautical and marine themes, lighthouses, and the older houses and barns of the East End. His work is in numerous private and public collections.

 

Hampton Classic Poster Artist

Shannon Lawlor of Alberta, Canada, has been selected as the official poster artist for the 41st annual Hampton Classic Horse Show, which will take place in Bridgehampton from Aug. 28 through Sept. 4. The selected artwork, “Flexible Soul,” is a painting of the famed Olympic show-jumping stallion Flexible, photographed at last year’s Masters Tournament at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, British Columbia.

Parlor Jazz in Bridge

Parlor Jazz in Bridge

At the Bridgehampton Museum’s archive building
By
Star Staff

Houston Person, a tenor saxophonist, will return to the Bridgehampton Museum’s Art of Song/Parlor Jazz series on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a program titled “Let’s Fall in Love.”

Dubbed “jazz’s working-class hero” by Russ Musto of All About Jazz, Mr. Person first gained national attention in the 1960s, and in 1968 began a 30-year musical partnership with Etta Jones, the Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist who died in 2001.

Asked by Mr. Musto to describe his music philosophy, Mr. Person said, “Well, it’s uplifting and important. And a release and a relief. That’s what it is, jazz, so-called jazz, to me. It’s important that it’s relaxing. Something that when the end of the day comes, after a hard and frustrating day out in the world, that relieves you. Relaxes you and makes you feel good.”

The program, as always, will be hosted by Jane Hastay, a pianist, and Peter Martin Weiss, a bassist, both of whom will accompany Mr. Person. The concerts take place at the museum’s archive building, east of the monument. Tickets are $30.

Grammy-Nominated Flutist at Parrish Salon Series

Grammy-Nominated Flutist at Parrish Salon Series

Carol Wincenc
Carol Wincenc
At The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
By
Star Staff

The Salon Series at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill will present a concert by Carol Wincenc, a Grammy-nominated flutist and winner of lifetime achievement awards from the National Flute Association and the Society of Arts and Letters, tomorrow at 6 p.m. She will be accompanied on the harp by Parker Ramsey, one of her Juilliard students.

Ms. Wincenc has premiered concertos written for her by such composers as Christopher Rouse, Lukas Foss, Henryk Górecki, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield, and Jake Heggie. She has appeared as a concerto soloist with orchestras from Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, London, and Warsaw and at festivals throughout the United States and Europe.

Tickets are $20, $10 for members.

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Fest Concerts Will Total 13 This Year

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Fest Concerts Will Total 13 This Year

From July 31 to Aug. 28
By
Star Staff

The 33rd season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Long Island’s longest-running classical music series, will present 13 concerts, from July 31 to Aug. 28, beginning with “Mozart: A Portrait in Music and Words,” narrated by Alan Alda. Tickets, always in demand, will go on sale Saturday at the festival’s website, bcmf.org, or by calling 212-741-9403.

Other programs will include “Unfinished Business,” a program of music by Schubert, Arvo Part, Elizabeth Brown, and John Harbison, which will take place at the Parrish Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name; a program of French Baroque music that includes Rebel’s “Les Elements,” and three of Bach’s “Brandenburg” concertos, which will be performed at Bridgehampton’s Channing Sculpture Garden.