Museum Acquisitions
Under the stewardship of its new executive director, Connor Flanagan, and its new collections manager, Tim Malyk, the Bridgehampton Museum has launched a significant expansion of its permanent collection.
The basis of the collection is the gift, made almost a decade ago, of a substantial number of works by the late artists Helen and Claus Hoie. As part of its mission under its new leadership, the museum contacted artists, either local or with a significant East End affiliation, asking whether they would like their work included in the collection.
The result is the Bridgehampton Museum Acquisition Exhibition, which will open with a reception at the Nathaniel Rogers House on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. and continue through May 30. The show features works by 40 artists.
Four of the collection artists, Helen Hoie, Joel Perlman, David Humphrey, and Debbie Ma, have created limited-edition prints that will be for sale in the museum’s gift shop, which will also open on Saturday.
Displacement and Identity
“Migrations,” a three-artist exhibition, will open at Keyes Art in Sag Harbor on Saturday, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. It will remain on view through June 5.
Oscar Molina is a painter and sculptor who left war-torn El Salvador with his family at the age of 16 and settled in Southampton. His “Children of the World” series is inspired by his vivid memories of their journey through the desert.
A Canadian artist who divides his time between Nova Scotia and Maine, John Neville’s paintings chronicle the daily lives of the fishermen and women from his childhood village.
Born in Michigan of Venezuelan parents, María Schön paints landscapes inspired by her deeply felt relationship to the tropics of Venezuela.
New at Firestone in NoHo
The Eric Firestone Gallery has opened “I Wish You Bluebirds,” its first solo show of recent paintings by Huê Thi Hoffmaster, at its 40 Great Jones Street space in NoHo.
Mr. Hoffmaster’s paintings reflect his mixed-race, multicultural Vietnamese-American identity. Made in his studio in Weston, Conn., they are abstracted, calligraphic depictions of flowering branches and thickets, growing against grounds that alternate between raw canvas with inky wash underlayers or tightly painted grounds.
The artist grew up in a blue-collar area of Pennsylvania, where many neighbors were Vietnamese refugees. As a child he recognized the racial difference between himself and his Vietnamese mother and American father, and he eventually changed his Western given name to Huê Thi, his mother’s name.
The show will continue through June 14.
Mary Abbott Retrospective
“Mary Abbott: To Draw Imagination,” a major retrospective devoted to the pioneering Abstract Expressionist, will open Friday at the Schoelkopf Gallery in SoHo and run through June 28.
Highlighting Abbott’s bold exploration of color, form, and media, the show traces her development from early figurative works and Surrealist influences to later large-scale Abstract Expressionist paintings, collages, and experimental works on paper. It includes more than 60 works spanning 1940 to 2002.
Abbott (1921-2019) studied with George Grosz, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Robert Motherwell, and had close connections to Grace Hartigan, Jackson Pollock, Frank O’Hara, and Willem de Kooning, among others. She had a home in Southampton for almost 70 years, from 1950 until her death, except for a period when she taught in Minneapolis.
Painting Spring Blooms
Barbara Thomas, a Springs painter with extensive teaching experience, will lead two workshops this weekend. The first, Spring Flora Plein-Air Painting, will take place Friday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Third House Nature Center in Montauk. With their mediums of choice, participants will work outside, overlooking early spring blooms. The cost is $75; registration is by email to [email protected].
On Saturday, same hours, Ms. Thomas will be at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton for Painting Spring Buds and Flowers. Paints and flowers will be provided. The cost is $85, $75 for members. Sign-up is on the LongHouse website.
