'Living Sculpture' Workshop
Benjamin Keating, a sculptor and bonsai artist, will conduct "Bonsai as Art," a hands-on workshop, on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton.
Mr. Keating is known for seamlessly combining molten bronze with living trees to create "living sculpture." Workshop participants will work with the artist on carving lava rock and attaching steel to act as a container for a bonsai tree. All materials will be provided, no experience is necessary, and each piece can be taken home.
Mr. Keating operates his own foundry in New Jersey, where he casts works for both his own pieces and for prominent artists. His bonsai sculptures have been featured in The New Yorker and exhibited at Tripoli Gallery in Wainscott.
The cost is $225, $200 for members.
Three Sculptors
Coming to the Bridgehampton Museum is "Heads Are Round So Our Thoughts Can Change Direction," a three-artist exhibition curated by Bonnie Rychlak. The show will open Friday with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
The forms in the show, by Brian Gaman, Curtis Mitchell, and Michael McKeown, are "blurry, flat, bulbous, ugly, anonymous, plebeian, personal, grand, pretty, and small," according to Ms. Rychlak.
Gaman, who died in 2014, is represented by iron and steel globes mounted on steel rims and armatures that reinforce the sense of the spinning globe motif. Mr. Mitchell's portrait heads reflect the artist's interest in the synthesis between the human body and the manufactured object. Mr. McKeown's works are from his "Hudson River Marbles" series, which consists of chunks of polystyrene and other trash collected from the river's banks and transformed in the studio.
Montauk Artists at The Depot
Up next at Montauk's Depot Gallery is "Together Again," a show of work by Joel Casserly, Maura Donahue, and E. Smyth McCarron that opens Thursday and will continue through Oct. 6.
A former fishing captain, Mr. Casserly selects found objects for their flat printable surfaces, and uses pigments and painterly techniques to arrange them into finished works on canvas. Ms. Donahue was working in restaurants in Montauk when she saw an ad for pottery lessons. After 26 years at the Dock, she now concentrates on her pottery creations. Inspired by the beauty of nature, Ms. McCarron is now showing large, bold paintings with a message.
A reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Night and Day at Grenning
Bretzke | Elkins, a show of work by two contemporary realist painters, is at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor through Oct. 13.
Both Carl Bretzke and Terry Elkins are masters at observing their surroundings, says the gallery. The exhibition includes several new nocturnes by Mr. Bretzke, set in the village of Sag Harbor. His subjects include Division Street at night, the lobby bar of the American Hotel, and Main Street after dark.
Mr. Elkins captures the land and waterscapes of the East End, including olive trees in Wainscott, dunes on Napeague, sunset in Sagaponack, and the Kennedy house in Wainscott.
Workshop and Lecture
Barbara Thomas, an artist and educator, will launch Sketchbook Club, a monthly workshop, at Third House in Montauk Friday from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Each participant will use a sketchbook of his or her choice to capture flora and seasonal colors. A list of suggested supplies will be given on registration. The cost is $50 per session. Registration is by email to [email protected].
Also at Third House, on Saturday at 5 p.m., Ms. Thomas will present Sea Painting on the East End: History and Technique, a lecture and demonstration on sea painting from its beginnings to today. A technique demonstration will follow the talk, which is free. Reservations are by email to the address above.
New Gallery in Southampton
Slattery Gallery, a new exhibition space founded by John Slattery, a native of Ireland and a new resident of Southampton, has opened at 30a Job's Lane there.
The inaugural exhibition, "Stillness in Motion: Seeing Light Anew," on view through Oct. 13, features paintings by Gerard Byrne, a contemporary Irish impressionist painter, that were created en plein air on the East End in July, as well as nature, still life, and city scenes.
Directed by Damien Roman, the gallery focuses on Irish and American contemporary art as well as exceptional postwar and modern art.
