“Sagg Swamp,” an exhibition of photographs and textile works by Laurie Lambrecht, will open at the Bridgehampton Museum’s Nathaniel Rogers House with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. It will continue through Nov. 8. The works were executed in and around Sagg Swamp, which the museum calls one of the South Fork’s most ecologically diverse wetland preserves.
For more than a decade, Lambrecht has returned to the swamp to walk its paths and photograph its trees, vines, water, lichen, and dense undergrowth. Looking closely at the patterns, textures, and color she found there led her to respond through knitting, weaving, and other forms of handwork.
Some of the handmade pieces were taken back into the swamp and placed temporarily on trees, fallen branches, and grasses to be photographed. In addition, some of the photographs became material to transform by printing them on linen, stitching, embroidering, or combining them with woven elements.
Photography and handwork have their source in Lambrecht’s earlier work. During the 1980s, she focused on fashion and textiles and became known for her hand-knit women’s sweaters.
In 1990 she shifted to photography, and began her two-year stint as an assistant to Roy Lichtenstein, the renowned Pop artist. While there, and with the artist’s encouragement, she photographed him working on two series of paintings, and also documented his career for a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum by photographing scrapbooks, sketchbooks, and other archival materials.
Those photographs were published in 2011 by the Monacelli Press as “Roy Lichtenstein in His Studio” with a foreword by Dorothy Lichtenstein and an essay on Lambrecht’s approach by Edward Robinson, who was at the time an associate curator of photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She also photographed chairs from the collection of Robert Wilson, the founder of the Watermill Center, as well as the artist Esteban Vicente in his Bridgehampton studio.
Nature became her subject when from 2012 to 2014 she worked on a documentary project for the Rauschenberg Foundation in Captiva, Fla. While there she photographed the property’s flora, vines, and environment and experimented with new mediums, including cyanotypes and screenprinting. The experience led to the introduction of handwork into her practice.
“Sagg Swamp” consists of works made since 2012. Bark, tangled branches, reflections, lichen, and dense growth became a vocabulary of lines, patterns, and textures that reappears throughout her work, according to the museum. The artist grew up near the swamp, and it has been a sanctuary and a source of inspiration for her.
