Sacred and Saragossa
The Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton is showing concurrent exhibitions, “Saragossa” and “What Color Is the Sacred?” through March 26, by appointment only.
Organized by Safe Gallery, “Saragossa” features work by Annabeth Marks, Gracie DeVito, and Sophie Stone, all of whom create stories within stories. Ms. Marks's painted rectangles within rectangles have the effect of unboxing themselves in front of the viewer, while Ms. DeVito’s fuzzy blotches of color appear to glow from her irregular-shaped canvases. Ms. Stone interlaces found materials in unexpected ways.
“What Color Is the Sacred?” is a solo show of sculpture by Megan Reed, who transforms discardable packaging, such as Styrofoam or cardboard, into complex configurations fused with Hydrocal. The result is unique handmade objects fashioned from mass-produced materials.
Ly Takes Manhattan
A solo show of paintings by Charles Ly will open Thursday at Harper’s Chelsea with a reception from 4 to 8 p.m. The works reflect the cultural background of the artist, a Vietnamese-American who grew up in East Hampton.
Mr. Ly’s ongoing interest in intricate patterns finds expression here in detailed images of Vietnamese life, among them one of four women playing the card game Bai Tu Sac and another of a woman cleaving a roasted duck.
In another painting, two hands are spooning noodles from a bowl while adding sriracha, but the bowl is floating on a sea of water and the hands descend from the sky, while ducks, cows, and other animals nestle among the noodles.
The exhibition will continue through Feb. 19.
Celebrating Pollock
On the eve of Jackson Pollock’s 110th birthday, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will present a conversation via Zoom with Steven Naifeh, the co-author of “Jackson Pollock: An American Saga,” next Thursday at 6 p.m. The book, written with Gregory White Smith, won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for biography.
A link to register can be found at villagepreservation.org/events.