Last Saturday, the lazy late-summer afternoon was punctuated by the sounds of bat hitting ball and ball hitting glove. On the Amagansett School field, a group of men and women were engaged in a spirited but friendly game.

    This first annual meeting — on the diamond, that is — of music industry attorneys lay at the end of a long and winding road shaped by the seismic changes in the music business over a relatively brief period.

    Bob Donnelly, an attorney with Manhattan and Minneapolis firm Lommen Abdo, is a 34-year veteran of the music industry. On Saturday, as colleagues played catch on the school’s field, the Sag Harbor resident considered the broad range of events that have transformed the industry and brought the players together on a baseball field.

    Mr. Donnelly is known as a champion of recording artists. He was part of the team that won a judgment in unpaid royalties for the artist Ronnie Spector against her former record label. Former New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer credited him with a case that resulted in payment of $55 million in back royalties by labels to artists. And he was a prominent figure in the repeal of the changes to the “works-for-hire” provision of the Copyright Act of 1976, which paved the way for recording artists to take ownership of their master recordings after 35 years. The act went into effect in 1978: As 2013 approaches, many recording artists are indeed moving to claim their master recordings.

    “Gigantic,” Mr. Donnelly said of the implications. “Right now, 60 percent of all [record labels’] sales are deep catalog.”

    This effort on behalf of songwriters and musicians — few of them among the most business-savvy members of society — reflects a lifelong love of music, evident in the attorney’s often self-deprecating remarks. “Like so many people in the business side of the music business, I’m a hopelessly failed musician,” he said. “I took guitar lessons when I was in the sixth grade, and at the end of the semester you’d play that concert for your parents. I had one song, three chords. I played it so badly that even my mother, who to the day she died was my greatest apologist, could find nothing redeeming to say. When your mother thinks you suck at something, that’s the time to change course. I then became the kid that had every record, even every imported record. Whether you hated me or not, you had to invite me to your party because I had the best record collection.”

    Mr. Donnelly attended Providence College on a track scholarship, and then pursued a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Columbia University, “which, I like to joke, I use more dealing with artists than I use my law degree.” The School of Law at St. John’s University was next, after which the young graduate worked for New York State Assemblyman Edward Meyer’s campaign for Congress.

    “Right after the campaign,” Mr. Donnelly said, “I got a job that enabled me to negotiate a deal with Steve Leber and David Krebs, who had just left the William Morris Agency and were forming what grew to become the biggest management company in America, Leber/Krebs. They offered me a job to become general counsel. I was intensely flattered, until I discovered they intended to pay me about one-eighth what I was currently making. But it was a full-time music position, and that’s what I was looking to do. I was very lucky, because the first band that Leber/Krebs signed was an unknown band from Boston called Aerosmith. On their heels came Ted Nugent, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Parliament-Funkadelic. I was in-house there for about three years and then went off on my own, with them as my first client.”

    With the birth of grunge in the early 1990s, the music industry rode Nirvana and other artists to unprecedented prosperity. But as the decade drew to a close, a software called Napster was spreading like a virus across college campuses and, quickly, across the record-buying public. With Napster and the programs that quickly followed, digital audio files could be freely shared by anyone with a computer and modem. The music business would never be the same.

    “During the 1990s, we would increase the price of a CD by a buck each year, and everybody would say we were going to hit the wall, there would be price resistance,” Mr. Donnelly said. “To our utter amazement, sales went up. While the film business, the theater business, all the similar entertainment industries were going up and down, we were going straight up. An arrogance developed, along the way, that we were smarter than everybody else.”

    The industry was slow to react, finally launching user-unfriendly Web sites to sell their recordings and attempting to stuff the genie it had unleashed, in the digitization of pre-recorded music via the compact disc, back into the bottle. But all copy-protection schemes were easily hacked, and the labels couldn’t compete with free, albeit inferior, MP3 files of their products.

    “It was a demonstration that we didn’t get it, we didn’t understand the technology revolution that was happening around us,” Mr. Donnelly conceded. “And 2000 was the watershed year. Since then, our ‘hard good sales’ — CD sales — are off, I think, 40 percent.”

    Such a dramatic reduction led to widespread layoffs, from which attorneys were not exempt. With the consolidation of the major-label industry (now numbering just three transnational corporations) and far fewer artists being signed, “You have a larger pool of attorneys seeking to represent a smaller pool of artists,” Mr. Donnelly said. “In that way, our business isn’t as economically viable as it once was.”

    A manifestation of the music industry’s retrenchment is reduced travel expenditures, one result of which is fewer East Coast-based attorneys able to attend the annual Entertainment Law Initiative luncheon and scholarship presentation during Grammy Week in Los Angeles. “For many years, when I would negotiate a deal, even though we would do it over the telephone for the most part, at the very least we would meet on the day of closing, where the label and the artist and the lawyers would all get together in the conference room,” Mr. Donnelly said. “If at no other time, you were assured of meeting your colleague. That doesn’t happen anymore; we do everything with FedEx, PDFs. The ELI luncheon has become an important part of doing things.”

    With the participation of the Sag Harbor resident Joe Serling, of Manhattan company Serling Rooks Ferrara McKoy and Worob, a meeting of attorneys, not in a conference room but on an Amagansett baseball diamond, began to make sense. “We were on a conference call organizing a breakfast we’re going to have in October for music lawyers,” Mr. Donnelly said. “There were other folks on the call who were also out here. We were all saying, ‘We’re all going to be out here in August, why don’t we get together?’ Joe organized this.”

    “I’m a big fan of Bob’s,” Mr. Serling said. “He knows what he’s doing and is good to negotiate with. Bob is a very solid guy, and a very decent guy to be on the other side of deals with.”

    In recent years, Mr. Donnelly co-founded Modern Works Music Publishing, a publishing administration company with a decidedly artist-friendly bent. “In an ever-shrinking music industry” the company will soon hire its ninth employee, Mr. Donnelly said.

    At home, where he lives with his wife, Marie, Mr. Donnelly grows oysters from the end of his dock on Sag Harbor Cove, part of a program overseen by Cornell University to introduce oysters grown in captivity to Peconic Bay. “I don’t know who enjoys it more. Me? My grandkids? The oysters?”

    Despite the rampant piracy of pre­recorded music and consequent contraction of the music industry over the last dozen years, he remains an optimist, and clearly retains a deep love and enthusiasm for his work.

    “The revolution grabbed us by the throat and threw us down on the floor,” he said. “But it’s caused us to think about the business differently. One of the objections that people had for the last few years is that everyone, including the artist, was guilty of being obstructionist in trying new technologies. I’m still nervous when [music streaming service] Spotify pays 0.00027 cents per play. But I’d rather be exploring these new avenues. I’d like to leave the business in as good shape as I found it, because I love music. Even though I’ll battle with the record labels, and have had my fair share of wrestling matches with them, I don’t want to see them fail. They’re a crucial part of what makes this work. But they’ve got to change in the same way that the rest of us do.”

Tonal Vision

    Glenn Horowitz Bookseller in East Hampton will shift its usual focus to host Peter Dayton’s “rocknrollshrink” record release on Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m., along with a preview of the exhibition “Andy Warhol: Album Covers.”

    A clear vinyl 12-inch 45 r.p.m. disc, “rocknrollshrink” is also an archive of Mr. Dayton’s interactions with his patients as the shrink in the title. The recording contains their accounts and reminiscences of how rock music affected their lives. “Rock and roll destroyed my life,” John, 43, says in one of the testimonials. “My uncle gave me ‘Blonde on Blonde’ when I was 8 . . . so there ya go,” says Katrina, age unknown. “Rock and roll is about fucking, that’s what it means,” according to Eric, 51.

    Mr. Dayton, who also founded the 1970s punk band La Peste, designed the cover and label of the record, which is available in an edition of 300. An MP3 will be available at 6decadesbooks.com.

    The Warhol show will include his complete collection of 60 covers, such as the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” zipper cover and the full-page blotted line drawings found on Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake, Acts I & II.” It will run through Sept. 24.

New Duo at Halsey Mckay

    Halsey Mckay in East Hampton will open its next show — work by David Kennedy-Cutler and Elise Ferguson — on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. According to the gallery, the artists share “idiosyncratic approaches with materials to their unique interpretations of geometry and abstraction.” Ms. Ferguson is a painter. Mr. Kennedy-Cutler is a sculptor.

    Ms. Ferguson’s pigmented plaster reliefs will hang in the downstairs gallery and are inspired by Louis Kahn. While abstracted, her sculptural objects offer hints of material things such as stovetops, industrial packaging, and construction tools and materials.

    Mr. Kennedy-Cutler’s work reflects his neighborhood in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a fairly remote, industrial area where pollution and gentrification meet in a muddle. His sculptures contain epoxy resin, clear and tinted Plexiglas, acrylic printer’s process ink, photographs of oil rainbows on wet asphalt, smashed compact discs, and recycled motor oil. The exhibition is on view through Sept. 30.

Hurricane Talk

    Richard Barons, the director of the East Hampton Historical Society, will give a curator’s talk on Saturday at 10 a.m. on the current exhibit, “The Long Island Express: Rare Photographs of East Hampton After the 1938 Hurricane.” The show, which is on view on weekends at Clinton Academy, is the result of the discovery of dozens of hurricane pictures tucked away in two family photo albums found locally in an antique bureau.

    Responsible for more than 600 deaths on Long Island and New England, the Hurricane of ’38 is the one against which all other severe weather incidents in the region are measured. It hit land at Westhampton Beach and made Montauk into an island. The show includes more than 125 rarely seen images taken in the aftermath of the storm. Mr. Barons will repeat the talk on Sept. 15.

Eighth “Body of Work”

    “Body of Work VIII” will be shown at Ashawagh Hall in Springs beginning tomorrow and running through Monday. It features work by artists such as Rosalind Brenner, Linda Capello, Ellen Dooley, Michael Cardacino, Tina Folks, Gordon Gagliano, Anthony Lombardo, Michael McDowell, Frank Sofo, and Margaret Weissbach. The artists make up a group that is interested in depicting the figure in various forms of naturalism and abstraction. A reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Ramiro at Grenning

    The Grenning Gallery has a solo show of work by Angel Ramiro Sanchez, known simply as Ramiro, on view now in Sag Harbor. It features pieces from his series of studio interiors that, intimate and on a human scale, are far removed from his grander historical paintings. The artist had a retrospective in Milan in 2011 and traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, last winter, which inspired the painting “Memories of St. Petersburg.” In addition to his interior scenes, a number of East End landscapes are in the show.

New at Kramoris

    The Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor will show the work of Herbert August and Michael Yurick beginning today and on view through Sept. 20, with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. Mr. August, an abstract artist, is from Sagaponack. His work often starts from nature and then moves away from the form as he focuses and expands on aspects of it.

    Mr. Yurick will show his “Rising Sky” series of metallic, iridescent, and flat finished paintings. His works are abstracted, too, but inspired by the meeting of sea and sky.

Bilotta at Crazy Monkey

    Barbara Bilotta’s work is featured in a solo show at the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett. Ms. Bilotta was the winner of the gallery’s 2012 art competition in February. She paints large colorful canvases in a style she calls “abstract impressionism.” The artworks of all of the members of the artist cooperative are also on view through Sept. 29. A reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.

Bartlett and Sharma

    The Drawing Room in East Hampton will have solo exhibitions by Jennifer Bartlett and Raja Ram Sharma beginning tomorrow. Ms. Bartlett will show 20 paintings on mulberry paper with squares of gold, silver, and platinum leaf. They were inspired by the themes and techniques she used for a ceiling installation in Homan-ji, a Japanese temple, in the 1990s. The artist has used a grid to organize the compositions, which include snapshots of objects she saw in Japan as well as the colored squares. She lives in Amagansett and New York City.

    Mr. Sharma will show “Contemporary Paintings From Rajasthan.” He is a temple painter in India and makes cloth paintings of Krishna for Hindu temples. When he is not working on this sacred art, he makes his own miniature paintings about contemporary life in Rajasthan. He works in gouache with one-hair brushes on paintings no larger than six by eight inches depicting landscapes that embrace larger concerns. Palace architecture and gardens are among his other subjects. The exhibitions will be on view through Oct. 29.

Closing the Parrish

    The Parrish Art Museum closed its doors on Tuesday in preparation for the move to its new facility on Montauk Highway in Water Mill. The new building will open to the public on Nov. 10. Although the museum on Job’s Lane in Southampton will be closed for exhibitions, it will host two events there before and after the move.

    The first is a Pecha Kucha gathering on Sept. 20. Rapid-fire presentations by artists and others, it was known previously as Lightning Round but now by its internationally recognized title. Parrish Presents, a bazaar and auction that happens each year during Thanksgiving weekend, will take place there from Nov. 23 to 25. The offices will continue to operate at the Job’s Lane site until mid-October.

    The grand opening of the new Parrish will be free to the general public and will continue throughout the long Veterans Day weekend to Nov. 12. A series of special previews will begin on Nov. 3 for museum donors and community groups. Those will continue through Nov. 9.

Stone in Southampton

    New work by Dick Stone, a Bridgehampton-based painter, will be on view at 4 North Main Gallery in Southampton beginning on Saturday with a reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Mr. Stone, who paints in a structured and colorful abstract style, studied for four years at the Art Students League in New York City with Raphael Soyer, Moses Soyer, George Bridgman, and Chaim Gross. He then attended the Yale University School of Fine Art, where he studied with Josef Albers before receiving a bachelor’s degree.

    He had a successful career as an illustrator before moving on to photography and filmmaking for commercials, which earned him several Clio Awards. He painted in his free time throughout his career and then took it up full time upon his retirement in 1989. In 1993, a fire destroyed his Sag Harbor studio and all of its contents, some four decades of work. These paintings reflect the artist’s evolution since then. The show will be on view through Sept. 17. A closing reception will be held on Sept. 15 from 5 to 7 p.m.

Matsuoka at Olko

    The Monika Olko Gallery in Sag Harbor is showing work by Lynn Matsuoka, who lives in Bridgehampton, through Wednesday. Drawings from the Hampton Classic and paintings from her “Diver” series, inspired by the Olympics, are on display.

    As a reportage artist, she works at sporting events, rehearsal stages, and high-profile court cases. “I work quickly to produce an initial line drawing, indicating light and shadow, add color, and then often finish the piece in my studio,” she said in a release. She has worked with a long list of performers, sports stars, and dignitaries.

    Her work is also on view at Sen in Sag Harbor, where viewers can order a commemorative sushi roll in her honor.

10 Artists at Ashawagh

    ARTX10 will feature the work of 10 artists at Ashawagh Hall in Springs beginning Saturday with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The artists include Phyllis Chillingworth, Hector de Cordova, Alex Ferrone, Steve Haweeli, Gordon Matheson, Jim Miller, Bill Negron, Alyce Peifer, Frank Sofo, and Kris Warrenburg. They will offer a range of styles and mediums from plein-air landscapes to mixed-media abstractions and aerial photographic images.

Ross at Watermill

    Sculpture by Carol Ross can be seen at the Watermill Center through the end of the month. On view are 20 welded steel and aluminum sculptures with archaic, classical, and modern allusions but finished in a contemporary style, with metal flake paint and aerodynamic forms. The exhibition is accessible through the marked paths off the driveway at the center from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

   It has been a good summer for the silly in the Village of East Hampton. First, Guild Hall gave us theater of the absurd with the Lonny Price-directed “Luv,” and now the Mulford Repertory Theatre gives us theater of the ridiculous with a revival of Charles Ludlam’s Off Broadway hit, “The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful.”

    While not on the level of Mr. Price’s excellent production, if you are prone to laugh at silly things, then get out your picnic basket (the Mulford Farm museum suggests picnicking on the grounds before the 7:30 curtain) and head on over to catch this two-man show, starring Trevor Vaughn and Isaac Klein, as directed by Kate Mueth.

    Mr. Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, founded in 1967, was born and nurtured in a time of revolution and change for gay America. The Stonewall Riots of 1969, arguably the moment that most changed the way the gay and lesbian community interacts with each other in public, happened just yards from the company’s long-time home on Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village.

    Seemingly apolitical, but always subversive, Mr. Ludlam was the only member of the founding company to have theatrical training. Though his writing shows an artist steeped in the classics, most of the company’s work, which Mr. Ludlam wrote, directed, and usually performed in, was based thematically not on theater, but on old movies. Men played women, women played men, and there were no boundaries. The plays were built day by day, by rehearsing, talking, and playing. Always playing. The result was organic chaos.

    “The Mystery of Irma Vep” is probably the most accessible of Mr. Ludlam’s works. It is certainly the most produced. He wrote it to play with his long-time lover and partner, Everett Quinton. Sadly, Mr. Ludlam died of AIDS less than three years after the 1984 opening. Fortunately for us, his humor lives on.

    “Irma Vep” has a dose of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” folded into layer upon layer of the early Universal Pictures horror movies. Think Frankenstein, Wolf Man, and the Mummy, complete with the prerequisite over-the-top melodramatic acting. If you want to understand the style, Google “Colin Clive it’s alive” and play a YouTube clip of Mr. Clive shrieking with joy, “It’s alive! It’s alive!” as the Frankenstein monster comes to life in the 1931 classic.

    On its own, the real thing is already campy fun. Seen through the prism of Mr. Ludlam’s mind, it becomes an excuse for silliness and lunacy.

    The plot centers on the newly married Lady Enid (Mr. Klein) and Lord Edgar Hillcrest (Mr. Vaughn), with the former Lady Hillcrest, Irma Vep, looming over Mandacrest mansion from her portrait atop the fireplace. There are wolves, and talk of vampires, and howling in the night.

    The play opens with Jane Trisden (Mr. Vaughn), the faithful maid of the house, talking about the new Lady Hillcrest with Nicodemus Underwood (Mr. Klein), a demented worker on the estate who has a wooden leg. Then the parade of characters begins.

    Both men bite into their multiple roles with gusto. Mr. Vaughn’s Lord Hillcrest really gets to the heart of melodrama. He seems to be channeling Colin Clive himself. Mr. Klein, who is playing the role originated by Mr. Ludlam, is quite adept at rather bizarre off-stage conversations between two characters, both of whom he is playing at the same time while he does a quick change. He too has a good handle on language, important for the Ludlam part. There are homages to Edgar Allen Poe and of course, William Shakespeare.

    And, silly, melodramatic lines. When Lord Hillcrest tells Lady Hillcrest he is going to the morgue, she says, woefully, “Why don’t you just go live at the morgue instead of making a morgue of our home?”

    Jane Trisden lays out a gown for Lady Hillcrest once worn by Irma Vep. Lady Hillcrest asks Jane if she’s sure Lord Hillcrest likes the gown.

    “Positive. He even wore it himself once.”

    My favorite rim-shot line of the night comes from Lady Hillcrest: “It’s a hard thing to marry an Egyptologist and find out he’s hung up on his mummy.”

    The set design is very well executed by Brian G. Leaver, who takes the aesthetic of the barn the theater is in and mixes in German Goth, a la “Vampyr.”

He incorporates the upstage door from the barn, which Ms. Mueth uses for her cast, to great effect. Her choreography of the constant quick changes and entrances and exits is wonderful.

    The production values are quite good. The sound design by Joe Brondo is excellent; the incidental music is well chosen. Lighting, by Sebastian Pazcynski, and costumes, by Yuka Silvera, are also well done.

    There are a couple of bumps in the road. In theater of the absurd, or even the ridiculous, there has to be a bit of self-editing. When, for example, Mr. Klein’s Nicodemus broadly wiped his nose with his hand, then extended the hand to an unwitting Jane Trisden, I was neither grossed out or amused. It was simply a dead moment.

    A little less would be a lot more, especially considering that the play’s running time, including intermission, was about two hours 15 minutes last Friday night. Part of the problem is the opening scene, which drags on too long. In the style of melodrama, Mr. Ludlam incorporated extensive exposition into the early scenes, which, truth be told, could be cut. The audience does not need to be told why the silliness is happening. Just let it flow.

    Once you get past the deadwood, however, there is some silly ridiculousness to be had here. It is good to know that Mr. Ludlam is not forgotten.

    “The Mystery of Irma Vep” plays tonight through Sunday night, with the final two performances Wednesday and next Thursday.

Morning Music

    Peter Martin Weiss and Jane Hastay will perform at a musical Shabbat service on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons on Woods Lane in East Hampton. The couple, who live in Springs, play jazz and standards — Mr. Weiss on stand-up bass and guitar, Ms. Hastay on piano.

‘Green Afternoon’

    The Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre will present “Green Afternoon,” a performance and installation, on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at the home of Marcia Previti and Peter Gumpel, who are architects, at 230 Old Stone Highway in Springs. The evening will begin with hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, and a garden performance installation, followed by a more formal performance at 5:30 and a reception to bring the evening to a close.

    Tickets cost $40 and are available online at amandaselwyndtgreenafternoon.eventbrite.com.

Bauer Leads It

    The Bay Street Theatre has announced that Chris Bauer is the campaign chairman for its 2012 annual appeal, an effort to raise money to support the theater’s educational programs. Beyond Mr. Bauer’s credits on and off Broadway and his co-starring role on HBO’s “True Blood,” he has also been a member of Bay Street’s board of trustees since his appearance there in 2010 in David Mamet’s “Romance.”

    Those interested in donating can call the Sag Harbor theater’s development office or visit baystreet.org.

Body Stories

    Body Stories: Teresa Fellion Dance will make its Long Island debut on Sunday at Amagansett Square from noon to 2 p.m., with a second appearance on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. The Sunday performance is free; the one on Tuesday, which includes a reception and dance party, costs $10.

    The dance company will also give a master class on Saturday at Danse Arts in Bridgehampton from noon to 2:30 p.m. On Monday, workshops and master classes for all ages will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at DanceHampton in East Hampton. The company’s Web site is bodystoriesfellion.com.

Swing and Sin

    The Atlantic City Ballet, which has set out to redefine ballet for modern audiences, will present a double feature of “Caught Up in the Swing” and “7 Sins” on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Guild Hall.    The first is a fun and funny story set in the 1920s in Atlantic City. It features dance styles taken from Broadway, tap, ballet, and even showgirls. “7 Sins” has eight parts and portrays the seven deadly sins as a way to understand human failings and their consequences. Both are appropriate for children.

    Tickets cost $37 for adults, $17 for children, and can be purchased on the Atlantic City Ballet Web site, acballet.org.

    Mike Solomon will present “Exquisite Corpse.2: The Surfboard as Body” an exhibit and silent auction of artists' surfboards he organized to benefit three nonprofit organizations. The show will be presented at Neoteric Fine Art in Amagansett on Saturday.

    The theme of the show, “surfboard as body,” features surfboards transformed by artists such as Scott Bluedorn, Matisse Patterson, Bubba Charron, Michael Rosch, Peter Dayton, Mathiew Satz, Michael Halsband, Peter Spacek, and many others.

    Each board was divided into three sections to mimic the Surrealist artist game of Exquisite Corpse, where each participant depicts a separate portion of the body divided into head and neck, torso, then legs and feet. The paper is folded so that the artists have no idea what their predecessors have done. In this case the surfboards are divided into sections: noses, middles, and tails, with the body portions corresponding to those sections. The boards are long, short, old, and new for a variety of approaches and supports. A total of seven surfboards created by 21 artist/surfers will result.

    Viewing  and bidding Thursday and Friday is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; it continues on Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m., when bids will be final. Saturday night will also include a reception with food, drink, and music. The organizations that will benefit from the auction are Hoops 4 Hope, Citizens for Access Rights, and Surfrider Foundation.

    Is there any more prominent and trenchant depicter of the not-so-secret life of contemporary haut bourgeoisie than Eric Fischl? Aside from his latest bullfighter paintings, which have held a prominent place in all the right art fairs in the past few years, it has been awhile since I have seen the artist in any type of concentration, and certainly not in his more familiar milieu.

    In Guild Hall’s exhibition “Eric Fischl: Beach Life,” a collection of paintings from the mid-1980s to 2010, the view is still askew, with a focus on island getaways and settings inspired by the South Fork. The subjects remain familiar, even as they are relocated from suburban interiors into a recreational mode.

    Mr. Fischl has been compared to Edgar Degas. Perhaps it is the influence of his bullfighters, but I see more evidence of Edouard Manet with touches of Edward Hopper, particularly in his interior scenes.

    But here we have people cavorting and relaxing on the water. The sunbathers allow for casual and plausible nudity, the windsurfers less so. What has always given his paintings their charge, however, is that unexpected or absurd insertion of deshabille into the more mundane aspects of existence. It is that frisson that draws us in and forces the viewer to realize that what is apparent is not necessarily all that remains to be seen there.

    Mr. Fischl has said his artwork explores such themes as the relationships between men and women, intimacy, privacy, and boundaries. This is why seeing the figures he paints as subjects can seem beside the point. They appear to be more like ciphers, a visual code for the vulnerability of the human form and psyche. What is remarkable about his work is that the dehumanization of his figures can make them that much more affecting.

    In paintings such as “The Raft,” “Costa del Sol,” “Beautiful Day,” and “Four Women,” the casual nudity is unselfconscious, but the gaze of the viewer on them still feels awkward, voyeuristic, and impossible to mitigate. He makes it even more challenging by reducing the setting to wide swaths of green, sand, or blue, with little detail. Faces are blurred, too, and the focus shifts to where it must: the bodies, molded by tone summarily, as in modeling clay.

    Contrast these images with paintings like “The Gang,” and “Stephanie and Lily Margaret,” recognizable portraits of friends and subjects with actual identities, as in Stephanie Seymour and her daughter Lily Margaret Brant. These are people with facial features, more defined musculature and skin tones and, yes, clothes.

    There is no doubt that in some of these sun-swept and exotic locales there are beaches that welcome the nudity that Mr. Fischl depicts, but it is also clear that these are just as likely to be part of his imagination. And as that one veil lifts, the veiled and generalized forms gain more meaning, become more dreamlike, stand-ins for that vulnerability and mortality of the flesh. It’s the figure as still life or vanitas.

    Sometimes this can be seen literally, as in a diptych painting from 1983, “A Visit To/A Visit From/The Island.” The pale, upper-class bodies on the left relax in turquoise water and brilliant sun with a resort hotel beckoning in the distance. On the right, the presumed natives of the same island carry bodies from a roiling dark sea. This is an obvious metaphor for the struggles under colonialism that every Caribbean island nation has suffered, but also points to the general threat posed by water under any circumstances.

    The work implies that we are never as safe or alone as we think. If no one is watching, there might be still darker forces at work readying their power to mete an untimely end. (This idea was alluded to infamously in Mr. Fischl’s sculpture “Tumbling Woman,” made in response to the Sept. 11 tragedy and removed from Rockefeller Center because it reminded people too vividly of falling bodies from the World Trade Center building as it burned.)

The figuration of artists such as Mr. Fischl is once again taken for granted, as it was in the days of Manet and Hopper, but it was not always so. Choosing the figure, as his wife, the painter April Gornik, has chosen the landscape (and how interesting to note their avoidance of each other’s turf), was a radical move in New York art circles. In Mr. Fischl’s case, it helped that he left Long Island, where he grew up, and went to school at Cal Arts in Valencia, Calif., and ended up in Chicago for a while, absorbing movements outside of the mainstream.

How to focus on the figure without focusing on the figure was the challenge. For Mr. Fischl, his art seems to be a self-conscious act of making the painting about the painter and his choices and proclivities. It is the post-modern twist that allows a figurative artist to achieve relevance and prominence in contemporary art circles. To a jaded audience far removed from the scandal of Manet’s famous paintings “Olympia” and “Dejeuner sur l’herbe,” what sensibilities are left to challenge?

    What makes the Fischl paintings uncomfortable is their darker implications as well as their depictions of sexualized figures in recognizably contemporary settings. It is still the same gambit as Manet’s — using contemporary figures to populate classical academic subject matter and taking the gloss of removed respectability away. And, surprise, it still works.

    Those staying in “the Hamptons” who stroll through the galleries of Guild Hall will, in all likelihood, recognize themselves in those images, not just physically, but in spirit as well. That complicity raises engagement with these works from mere confrontational titillation to a much more meaningful encounter.

    The exhibition is on view through Oct. 14.

   The East End’s gallery scene recasts itself at such a fierce rate that it’s almost impossible to keep up. Art outgrows its walls; leases run out; business partnerships split up. But nothing seems to stop artists from showing their work here.

    “This place was, is, and will always be a community for artists,” said Sara Nightingale, whose namesake gallery moved from Water Mill to Shelter Island and back to Water Mill all in the last few years. Besides her gallery, which is currently showing works from Ross Watts, Peter Sabbeth, Dalton Portella, Eric Dever and Perry Burns, Ms. Nightingale also recommends Water Mill’s newest gallery, Hampton Hang.

    Each town has its own personality. Here’s a rundown of what’s new in the East End art world.

East Hampton

    Away from Main Street, the far end of Newtown Lane has recently become a haven for art-lovers. “Of course you get more traffic in the center of Newtown Lane,” said Jeremy Sanders, an independent curator for Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, “but you also get less ice cream spilled on the artwork and rare books.” In business since 1995, Glenn Horowitz‚ specialists in rare books, art, manuscripts, and archival documents, recently relocated to the former Waterworks space, two doors from its original location, which it shared with Harpers Books. Tiled floor mosaics, remnants of the now-defunct kitchen-and-bath store, can still be found in the gallery/bookstore.

    “We were going to remove the old flooring,” said Jess Frost, the gallery’s director. “But we are finding that the floors add interest and work well with our space.” (They need not worry about visitors staring at the floor when nude photo/process drawings and cyantotypes by Ryan McGinness hang on the wall.) The business did put its own stamp on the space with custom details such as handmade furniture by Jameson Ellis. The next show, to be previewed on Sunday, will showcase a collection of album covers designed by Andy Warhol. 

    Halsey Mckay’s owner and director, Ryan Wallace, personally took on the big renovation project to customize his two-story gallery. Mr. Wallace and a friend also reinstalled flooring and geometrically staged lighting. “It took a lot of work to create a personalized space for our gallery,” he said, “but all of the wall-building and painting was worth it.”

    Halsey Mckay moved into its new digs in May 2011, after lease negotiations broke down for another location less than 100 yards away. The gallery, which  hosts exhibitions year-round, is currently showing Picasso-like drawings by a Spanish artist, Jose Lerma, and bold graffiti-inspired paintings by Eddie Martinez.

    “More space” was the primary consideration when Victoria Munroe and Emily Goldstein decided to pack up and relocate their gallery, The Drawing Room, away from the Newtown Lane alleyway where it had been for over nine years. “Our customers are very loyal,” said Ms. Munroe,” and others who wanted to find us in the inconspicuously  situated old location, always could.” Besides three times the area, the gallery now has “street frontage, which is a bonus, and also, we get great natural light.”

    Since it’s on the far end of Newtown, people can usually find parking spots, she said, pointing out that art galleries in upscale communities are typically on the main drag’s fringe. “This end of Newtown Lane creates a destination for people who want to come and look; it’s quiet inside, and they can focus on the artwork.” The Drawing Room currently features photographs by Mary Ellen Bartley and sculptures by Constantino Nivola.

Bridgehampton

    “It’s the only block in town,” said a smiling Julian Beck, when asked why he located his eponymous fine-paintings salon on Main Street in Bridgehampton. He opened his first gallery, on Madison Avenue, in 1974, and he recently retired to nearby Sagaponack. “I missed my old routine‚ selling paintings and discovering new talent,” said Mr. Beck, who specializes in abstract expressionist works by East End artists. “We seldom have the luxury to sell only those artists whom we like; this time I decided to do just that.”

    His 1,300-square-foot, two-story gallery lends itself to variety, and he said  almost all visitors spot at least one painting they like. Currently up are works by living artists Alex Russo, Thomas Szabo, and Sonja Grineva, School of Paris works by Jules Cavailles, Edouard Cortes, and Jules Herve, and abstract expressionist pieces by Jimmy Ernst, Balcolm Greene, Larry Zox, Robert Dash, and Cleve Gray.

    An art dealer for over 30 years, formerly with locations in Southampton, Peter Marcelle decided to launch his namesake gallery in Bridgehampton earlier this year. “You can’t get to East Hampton on 27 without first passing our gallery,” said Catherine McCormick, the director. “It’s also hard to miss us because we’re the largest gallery in the Hamptons.” The 3,000-square-foot space, previously occupied by Plum TV, now boasts front-lawn sculpture that can be enjoyed from one of two porches. Inside, the freshly redesigned gallery gets lots of natural light and room to view art from every angle. The gallery’s newest show opened on Saturday and exhibits paintings, collages, and works on paper by Dan Rizzie.

Sag Harbor

    Housed in an early-19th century building on Main Street, Rocco Gallery is said to be the oldest continuous art exhibition space on the East End. In the art world, that sort of longevity usually depends on one key factor: “I own the building,” said Rocco Liccardi, who has been a gallerist since 1961.

    Mr. Liccardi recently moved into the rear of a converted three-car garage, which collapsed during a heavy snowfall in 2010 and has since been rebuilt. His current show features strategically placed puzzle pieces on canvas, coated with layers of paint in an abstract, Pollock-esque manner. “You’ll never find other artists’ works in my gallery,” he said, smiling. “Most people think their creations are worth more than they really are.”

    He leases the property’s other storefronts to three businesses, including a new art gallery, the Hooke Sculpture Gallery. In winter, Mr. Liccardi closes shop and heads to Florida.

Amagansett

    Down a driveway on Main Street is ILLE Arts. Its owner, Sarah De Luca, moved to Amagansett full time a couple of years ago, for its “low-key, beachy feel.” An artist herself, she had never owned a gallery until this season. “Some artists isolate themselves,” she said. “Owning a gallery fulfills the social element that I crave in relation to art.”

    She focuses on works by local artists. The painter Mary Heilmann curated her current five-person show, which blends paintings, functional furniture, and photography. “My gallery’s aesthetic is Chelsea-meets-the-ocean,” Ms. De Luca said. “The prospect of venturing off of Main Street’s sidewalks sometimes acts as a deterrent, but once they get here, they’re captivated by how beautiful and relaxing it is. “It’s like a secret garden.”

    ILLE’s next opening, “Raw,” will be on Sept. 14, showing works on unprimed canvas.

    Red and blue stones decorated to resemble M&Ms, and sculpture by Dan Colen‚ signal that Karma art gallery and booksellers is nearby. (The gym equipment on the same front lawn belongs to the gym next door.)

    Brendan Dugan serendipitously opened Karma on Aug. 4, to supplement his business of the same name located on Downing Street in Manhattan. The 2,000-square-foot Amagansett location sits in the former WEHM radio station offices, and like Glenn Horowitz Booksellers, Karma’s flooring tells a story of the former occupants — where their cubicles were, anyway.

    Asked why bookstores and art galleries make a good match, Mr. Dugan replied, “They’re both based in creativity,” adding, “East Enders have a lot more space to collect both than do city residents.” Karma’s current shows include the truly eclectic range of Piotr Ulclanski, as well as paintings by Dan Colen.

    “I’ve been flipping shows every two-and-a-half to three weeks,” Scott Bluedorn said, upbeat. He recently opened Neoteric Gallery smack-dab in the middle of Main Street, exhibiting works from young local artists. He hasn’t done any traditional advertising, he’d never owned a gallery, he hasn’t even renovated the venue formerly occupied by Balasses House antique store, yet the two-storefront space had a packed house (and courtyard) for its recent openings — a 10-artist  multimedia show, aptly themed “Hybridized,” and a surfboard-as-canvas show called “Exquisite Corpse 2.”

    “The arts scene in East Hampton is somewhat sterile and caters to well-established artists,” Mr. Bluedorn said. “Neoteric is all about energy, and new names and ideas.” He said people of all ages have come to the gallery’s openings. The next one, on Saturday, will have a photography theme, and Mr. Bluedorn and a resident DJ, Jody Gambino (a k a J’TiL) are plotting a “silent rave.” “Each attendee will be given headphones that will stream dance music as well as give a guided art tour,” Mr. Bluedorn said. “We had one noise complaint last time, and this will definitely reduce the possibility of it happening again.”

Shelter Island

    “It’s not easy to own an art gallery here,” John Pagliaro said. “We have a substantial arts community on Shelter Island, so it’s essential that we have a location to show our work.” Mr. Pagliaro is a lifetime artist who produces a variety of sculpture and furniture that harmonizes with nature. Recently deciding to show work by other artists, he opened Handwerklab, a venue he envisions as a combination of an art gallery and think tank.

    “I just completed a showing of German-born artist Christine Matthai, who photographed minimalist skyscapes on Shelter Island,” he said. “I will probably end the season with an exhibition of my own pieces.” Expect shadowboxes that contain his subtly colorful clay pottery.

    In a mixed-use building containing a wellness shop, lawyer’s office, and family residence, he personalized the storefront with a cedar facade and other “intelligent handwork,” elements that lend to better curb appeal. “Parking is sometimes a problem,” said Mr. Pagliaro, whose shop is located on Route 114 near Town Hall. “People can always use the nearby church parking lot; it’s always empty.”

Sneak View of Box Art

    This year’s Box Art Auction, which benefits East End Hospice, will be held on Sept. 8. For years, dozens of East End artists have taken a basic box and used their creative vision to transform it into a singular personal expression.

    This year, the auction organizers will hold a preview of the boxes on Wednesday and next Thursday at Hoie Hall in St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton. A free reception with the artists will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Regular viewing hours for the preview will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    The auction itself will be held at the Ross School with a silent auction from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and a live one thereafter. Admission, $75, includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. All proceeds will benefit the hospice, which provides care for terminally ill patients throughout the East End and Brookhaven Town.

    This year’s participating artists include April Gornik, James Kennedy, Stephanie Reit, Paton Miller, Bill King, and Connie Fox. Tickets can be reserved through Theresa Murphy at the East End Hospice at [email protected].

Pollock-Krasner Lecture

    Lisa Mintz Messinger will give a lecture at the Fireplace Project on Sunday with a focus on Jackson Pollock’s Orozco-influenced drawings, especially those from the sketchbooks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. The lecture is given in conjunction with the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center’s exhibition “Men of Fire: Jackson Pollock and Jose Clemente Orozco.”

    Ms. Messinger is an associate curator of modern and contemporary art at the Met. The lecture is $5, free for members. The Fireplace Project is on Springs-Fireplace Road just north of the Pollock-Krasner House.

New Show at Markel

    “Intuitions,” a show of work by Andrea Shapiro and Meredith Pardue, is on view at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in Bridgehampton through Sept. 23. A reception for the artists will be held tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.

    Ms. Shapiro, who lives in East Hampton, is an intuitive painter who uses squares, circles, ovals, and hand- or ruler-drawn lines to create her compositions. The paintings gain complexity from their texture and multiple layers, achieved through different tools, applications, paints, and mediums.

    Ms. Pardue  mixes expressiveness with controlled mark-making to create abstracted floral or plant-like forms. According to the artist, “I am most interested in creating snapshots, in extracting singular experiences from life’s endless cycles of growth and decay.” She lives in Austin, Tex.

Mood Changer

    Richard Demato Fine Arts in Sag Harbor will exhibit “Metamorphosis of Mood,” a show of paintings by Andrea Kowch, beginning on Saturday with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. These will be new works in acrylic on canvas. The artist is known for her dreamlike images that have tension and Surrealist elements.

    According to the artist, her latest work is “a deeper progression of my narrative themes, where I seek to further refine the figurative and emotional aspects of my work through evolution of mood, concept, tone, and technique.”

    The show will be on view through Sept. 21.

Rizzie at Marcelle

    Dan Rizzie will show work at the Peter Marcelle Gallery in Bridgehampton beginning Saturday through Sept. 9. A reception will be held Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.

    Mr. Rizzie is known for the international influences, both eastern and western, in his paintings. While born in New York State, he grew up in such exotic locales as India, Egypt, Jordan, and Jamaica. His work incorporates unusual materials such as Flashe commercial paint, parchment, and printed materials.

    Although he spent many of his formative years as an artist in Texas, he has been a Sag Harbor resident since 1989.

Seven Views at Ashawagh

    Seven artists will participate in “Seven Points of View” at Ashawagh Hall this weekend.

    They include Nancy Ascher, Susan Carlo, David Disick, Chris Farhood, Mary Grossman, Stephanie Reit, and Marcia Tucker.

    The show opens tomorrow at 5 p.m. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. The show will close on Sunday.

McDade Art Sale

    Goat Alley Gallery at 200 Division Street in Sag Harbor will hold a benefit art sale of works from the estate of Elinor Van Ingen McDade on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Proceeds from the sale will be distributed to several charities. More information is available through [email protected].

   “Ideas are nothing without execution‚” words that mean quite a bit to Southampton natives Margaret Braun and Chloe Gifkins, childhood friends who can now see their two-year-old vision morph into reality.

    Fresh out of college, the two founded the Adventure Bandits Art Club, a collaborative that works with other talented young artists just starting out. On Saturday, the group will hold its inaugural art show, by the same name, featuring sculpture, painting, and photography from five artists, including the two founders. In addition, there are four music acts on the bill.

    The pair embrace all people who create, because as artists, they share a common bond of creativity and expression. “Art manifests itself in so many different ways,” said Ms. Braun, a poet, paper-maker, and jewelry-maker. “We want to buck the paradigm of having to categorize an artist as a painter, a sculptor, or a musician.”

    The philosophy behind Ms. Braun’s works on paper is that words can function as drawings. Her paper displays contain excerpts from a series of poems she wrote during her final semester at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Ms. Gifkins, who attended the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., works mostly in black-and-white and color digital photography.

    While attending an art show at Nova’s Ark Project earlier this summer, the duo were inspired by the venue’s picturesque setting, and began to imagine what it would be like if they were to curate an event there. They didn’t waste any time garnering sponsorship, working with the venue, and amassing other artists who share their vision, namely Scott Bluedorn, Alex Larsen, and Matisse Patterson. Bellyfire, Eliza Callahan, Porches, and James Ryan will supply the tunes.

    “Our club name captures our desire to stay young and adventurous,” Ms. Braun said. “We realize that we’re growing up, but we also realize that our youth drives our creativity.”

    Ms. Braun and Ms. Gifkins will not charge admission to Adventure Bandits Art Club, but will accept donations to cover overhead costs. The artists showcase will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m., at which time the music will begin and play until 11 p.m.

    Snacks and beverages will be available. “We just want people to see art in a relaxed environment,” Ms. Braun said. “If they like the idea, we will definitely want to make it an annual event, or more.”