The 19th edition of the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, the only international art fair on the East End, kicks off next Thursday with two V.I.P. opening previews, and will continue through July 13. The fair brings over 120 galleries and exhibitors from more than 20 countries and across the United States to a 70,000-square-foot complex on the Southampton Fairgrounds.
The first preview will be held from noon to 5 next Thursday, to benefit Guild Hall. The second, set for 5 to 9:30, will benefit the Parrish Art Museum. Tickets to each are $200. Day passes for Friday, July 11, through July 13 are $70.
Galleries from the South Fork include Sag Harbor’s Grenning Gallery, which will focus on the paintings of Hunt Slonem. The J. Mackey Gallery in East Hampton will show work by Phyllis Baker Hammond, Eliza Geddes, Arthur Pinajian, William King, Ellen Ball, Johanna Palmieri, Valerie Leuchs, Alyssa Fortin, and Andréa Keys Connell.
Southampton galleries include Martinez Art, with the work of Oscar Molina and Lucy Cookson; the Slattery Gallery, representing Kevin Sharkey, and Ric Michel, new to the South Fork, with a group exhibition.
Of particular note is Projects 28, helmed by Matthew Shamnoski, which will have an especially deep representation of notable Hamptons artists, including William Tarr, Herman Cherry, William King, Connie Fox, John Little, Dan Christensen, Charlotte Park, Wilfrid Zogbaum, Willem de Kooning, and Esteban Vicente. Tarr will be represented by a seven-foot-tall welded steel sculpture from 1960, a cast bronze maquette from the early ‘60s, and an oil painting from 1959.
Also of note: Ted Hartley and Hammond are the two 2025 inductees to the Hamptons Artists Hall of Fame.
Among the themed booths, one, called Dripping in Style, has a curious East Hampton connection. The booth features works by Mark Grimaldi, who has long been inspired by the paintings of Jackson Pollock. It will include a 1969 MGB automobile from the St. Louis Car Museum, which Mr. Grimaldi has festooned with bands of paint that replicate Pollock’s 1953 painting “Convergence.” (The car is the same length as the original painting.}
The Hamptons Fine Art Fair is presented by ShowHamptons and Rick Friedman, an event producer and one of the first to bring an art fair to the South Fork. Mr. Friedman and his partner, Cindy Lou Wakefield, are also collectors, whose holdings were featured in the 2023 exhibition “Heroines of the Abstract Expressionist Era” at the Southampton Arts Center.
The fair’s website is the place to go for tickets and more details about the galleries and events.
