Now in its third year in the old Rogers Memorial Library location on Job's Lane in Southampton, Peter Marino's laboriously restored and magnificently updated building, which houses his art foundation and galleries, will open Saturday with exhibitions of Georg Baselitz and Erwin Wurm first up on the roster.
Mr. Marino, an architect known for designing buildings for fashion houses and other creative outlets, most recently Tiffany's headquarters in New York City, has wide-ranging tastes, as exemplified in his collection. In previous years, he has featured Anselm Kiefer, Vik Muniz, Tom Sachs, Rashid Johnson, Sanford Biggers, a group of female photographers, and others.
This year's featured artists won't be strangers to the galleries. Mr. Baselitz's works will have a season-long installation in the first-floor galleries consisting of 45 paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Defying strict categorization, he was influenced early on by an exhibition of American Abstract Expressionist paintings in Berlin that led to a lifelong engagement with Willem de Kooning's work, among others.
His style, a mashup of Mannerism, African sculpture, and the Soviet social realism that he experienced in East Germany before escaping to the West, complements much of Mr. Marino's art, which also is collected from similarly diverse sources. The works on view constitute a mini retrospective, with examples of Mr. Baselitz's trademark upside-down treatments of "heroes," "eagles," and "flowers," recent transfer or monotype canvases from his "Remix" series, and a sculpture inspired by Frida Kahlo dancing, among the often monumental pieces.
Mr. Wurm, an Austrian artist, has had a standout piece in the second-floor galleries: his portrait of Mr. Marino. He rendered the architect as a skeleton decked out in a leather motorcycle jacket and hat placed away from the wall with the assistance of a plunger, a Red Bull can, a dust brush, and other objects, which allows the piece to have a full in-the-round experience.
Mr. Wurm's work "involves taking something mundane and enlarging, curving, or otherwise distorting it." A gargantuan cucumber on a pedestal is bisected by a round modernist table holding a glass and a bottle of liquor, its feet dangling several inches in the air over the pedestal. Another cast-bronze piece sits on a pedestal, low and spreading as it appears to melt. A taller sculpture, looking like a building, melts at the base as well, spreading into a solidified puddle.
His aim is to have viewers "look closer at the sculpture and find its true meaning." The pieces often include disruptions and fractures when they are not otherwise in apparent dissolution. If they seem humorous, that is his intent. This installation of 14 paintings and sculptures will close on July 8.
Taking over that upstairs space next will be Michal Rovner, an artist from Israel who works in photography, film, installation, and video. The Marino show will include 15 works of multimedia and digital art, exploring "questions of nature, identity, dislocation, and the fragility of human existence." Historical symbols are manipulated and abstracted to become unrecognizable to defuse some of their power and meaning, particularly as they relate to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. Her show opens July 15 and remains through Sept. 30.
In addition, two photography exhibitions will be on view all summer. They are Eugene Atget's Parisian subjects and Priscilla Rattazzi's "Three Lindens" series, which is debuting at the foundation in a stunning installation.
Brunch With Bob (Colacello) returns with Mr. Wurm on Saturday and with Ms. Rovner on July 15, both at 11 a.m. These talks require invitations and tickets.
The Peter Marino Book Club is a new addition this season, with author talks and book signings occurring on Saturdays at 11 a.m. from July 29 to Aug. 26. The books are "Three Lindens," "Ceramics Trilogy," "The Sistine Chapel," "Eugene Atget," and "New York Memories." Admission is free, and books will be available to purchase at the door. Advance online registration is recommended.
Visits to the foundation require timed tickets, which can be arranged through the website.
