Arts

Living the Abstract Life

    “Life in the Abstract,” a group show featuring work by Bob Bachler, Dru Frederick, Barbara Groot, John Haubrich, and Fulvio Massi, will open on Saturday afternoon at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. 

    Mr. Bachler is a ceramist inspired by Asia. Ms. Frederick is a painter of landscapes in an abstracted impressionist style, Ms. Groot’s abstraction is inspired by nature. Mr. Haubrich’s abstraction comes from his inner life. Mr. Massi’s focus is on line.

   It was a short red carpet that led into Guild Hall on Saturday night in East Hampton. Our Home, Sweet Home squatted next door to the 300-year-old buildings of the Mulford Farm just down the street in the gloaming. This was not Hollywood, not the “fishbowl” Richard Gere would tell the audience he disliked about the left coast.

    In his opening remarks as master of ceremonies for the Hamptons International Film Festival’s Golden Starfish Awards ceremony, Alan Cumming quipped that “Golden Starfish sounded like an S.T.D. It seems a little dirty.” Yet the ceremony was an overall sober affair that recognized and expressed gratitude for the festival’s 20th year while bestowing the traditional honors and several new awards for this year.

‘Kook’ Surf Film Wins

    Danny DiMauro and Tin Ojeda have won best short film and viewers choice for short film for their movie “Kook Paradise,” about the insane popularity of Montauk’s Ditch Plain as a surfing destination despite its inconsistent surf conditions.

    The film and its makers were featured in The Star in August.

Return of the Met

    Guild Hall will begin its fall program of simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a screening of a new production of Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’Amore.”

   The Round Table Theatre Company and Academy, a new classical theater ensemble, will hold its first staged reading on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at LTV Studios in Wainscott. A full production of “Macbeth” is planned for January.

    With outdoor summer productions of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by the Hamptons Independent Theater Festival and Naked Stage, and the Green Theater Collective doing its own pared down Shakespeare performances, there is an embarrassment of riches after a very dry period for the Bard on the East End.

    Anyone who followed the story of the grisly murder of Ted Ammon and its aftermath had to wonder at one point: “What happened to the children?”

    Mr. Ammon was bludgeoned to death in his East Hampton house at 59 Middle Lane in October 2001. Generosa Ammon, his estranged wife at the time, married Daniel Pelosi, the man who was ultimately convicted of his murder. They eventually split up and a month later, in 2003, she died of breast cancer.

Sainz at Ashawagh

    Francisco Sainz will be featured in an exhibition this weekend at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. Beginning tomorrow, the artwork of Sainz, who died in 1998, will be shown with that of Susan Bradfield, Jennifer Cross, Monica Enders, Lily Kot, Teri Kennedy, Christine Newman, Maria Pessino, Gabriele Raacke, and Athos Zacharias.

   Stevie Nicks charmed a capacity audience at the Bay Street Theatre on Sunday, where she discussed “In Your Dreams — Stevie Nicks,” documenting the making of her 2011 album. The film premiered at the Sag Harbor Cinema following the talk as part of the Hamptons International Film Festival.

    Ms. Nicks is best known for the stratospheric success of Fleetwood Mac and subsequent hits as a solo artist including “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” “Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove),” and “Stand Back.”

    The Watermill Center has announced its Fall 2012 residency artists. Each year, the organization invites artists to use its buildings and grounds as a laboratory for their visual and performance art practice and projects.

    “Local food, spoken word, and foot-stomping music” will take over the fields at Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor Educational Farm this weekend. Barn dancing, storytelling, and theater will also be part of Saturday’s attractions at the Plant and Sing Festival, as will all things organic, from planting to harvesting to culinary delights.

Perlman in Fall

    The Perlman Music Program on Shelter Island will present alumni recitals and works-in-progress concerts in the program’s Kristy and James H. Clark Arts Center this fall. The alumni recitals will be on Saturday and Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. This week’s concert will feature Molly Carr on viola and Yannick Rafalimanana on piano performing works by Rebecca Clarke, Edward Elgar, and Franz Schubert. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

   A concert featuring the Gawler Family and Bennett Konesni of Shelter Island’s Sylvester Manor will take place on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the meetinghouse of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork in Bridgehampton.

   The Gawlers, who hark back to folk traditions from throughout the world, are known for their ballads and more raucous fiddle tunes. Edith Gawler has brought her new husband, Mr. Konesni, to the group. He plays ancient work songs on his banjo and guitar.

    With so many films to choose from, how does one make a choice among the smaller, independent films that may never make it to distribution? The following is an opinionated sampling of the feature films available for preview before the festival.

“Big Boys Gone Bananas!*”

Fredrik Gertten

Southampton, Saturday, 1:45 p.m.; East Hampton, Monday, 8:45 p.m.

There are a number of films this year made or contributed to by South Fork natives or part-timers

    There are not many pieces like “Dandelion Clock” to be seen around the South Fork, and that is both too bad and kind of wonderful. The reason it is wonderful is that the “interactive immersive installation,” in the words of the artist, John Carpenter, remains on view at the Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton through this weekend, and it would be a good idea to see it.

Artists Alliance at Ashawagh

    The Artists Alliance of East Hampton, which was founded in 1984 in honor of Jimmy Ernst, will show art by more than 50 of its members at its “Fall Art Exhibit” at Ashawagh Hall in Springs this weekend. Paintings, drawings, sculpture, mixed-media works, and photographs will be on view through Monday. An opening reception will be held on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Copyright for Artists

Sometimes, late is much better than never. Such is often the case with the last-minute additions to the Hamptons International Film Festival, which can end up being some of the most talked-about films of the year.

Ivories Tinkling

    On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., Anne Tedesco will return to the Montauk Library to perform a concert of classical works for the piano by Bach, Gliere, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Schumann, and Chopin. 

    Ms. Tedesco has taught music history, theory, classical piano, and fine arts since 1982 at St. John’s University in Queens. She and her husband own a house in Montauk.

Nova’s Ark Project wants you.

   The late Nova Mihai Popa — sculptor, painter, thinker — created an open-air museum on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton, and “he badly wanted the community to enjoy the beauty of the art in this glorious setting,” said Tundra Wolf, the project’s executive director, who, with her partner Luna Shanaman, is picking up where Nova left off.

   An abundant harvest of South Fork food, beer, wine, history, art, music, and other entertainment will fill Southampton this weekend during the village’s SeptemberFest, which will kick off with a concert by New Life Crisis under a tent in Agawam Park tomorrow night.

Eric Brown: In Transit

    Glenn Horowitz Bookseller will present “In Transit,” a solo exhibition of paintings, sculpture, and works on paper by Eric Brown, beginning Saturday through Nov. 4.

   On a recent Friday, the new Parrish Art Museum space in Water Mill was a study in contrasts. Completion of the interior was continuing apace, but many discrete spaces already revealed their final state.

    There were soaring side galleries, like chapels, set along a more human-scaled nave-like central hall or spine. Some of these areas looked pristine, white, and ready, while others were still dusty, dirty, and littered with the tools of construction.

National Theatre Live

    Guild Hall will have its first fall presentation of the National Theatre Live series with “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” on Saturday at 8 p.m. The play, which was recorded recently in London, is based on a novel by Mark Haddon and stars Sophie Duval, Nicola Walker, Rhiannon Harper Rafferty, Nick Sidi, and Howard Ward.

   The Hamptons International Film Festival opens its box office today for advance sales of individual tickets. While a program was not available by press time, the festival has announced that it will honor Richard Gere with the Golden Starfish Award for Lifetime Achievement in Acting on Oct. 6.

    The festival, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, will run from Oct. 4 through Oct. 8 in East Hampton and other venues on the South Fork.

   The Sag Harbor American Music Festival is now officially an annual event, after the resounding success of the inaugural event last year. Live music will again fill the streets, restaurants, galleries, shops, and historic spots throughout the village beginning on Friday, Sept. 28, and continuing with free shows the next day. The number and variety of musicians and venues have taken a huge jump, with more than 20 musical acts scheduled to perform outside, all with contingency plans should rain overcome shine.

Business of Art Returns

    Jane Martin’s popular four-part seminar, “The Business of Art,” will return this week beginning Monday with “The Professional Artist,” part one of the discussion, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

    The series deals with learning how to operate as a professional artist, offering a primer on consignments, contracts, marketing, invoicing, resale certificates, Web sites, databases, catalogues, crowdfunding, pricing, social media, press coverage, galleries, and studio visits.

“The Long Island Express: Rare Photographs of East Hampton Town After the 1938 Hurricane” will be on view through Oct. 8 at Clinton Academy.

Montauk Music’s Back

    Music for Montauk will return for its 21st season with a concert at the Montauk Library on Saturday at 7 p.m. Orion Weiss and Anna Polonsky, who are pianists, will present a program of works by Schubert, Ravel, Schumann, and others.

    Mr. Weiss has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and several other major orchestras and has received several awards for his work. Locally, he has performed at Pianofest and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

Next for Ille Arts

     Ille Arts, a relatively new gallery just off Amagansett’s Main Street, will open “Raw,” a show of work by four artists, with a reception on Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. Taking part in the exhibit are Andrew Guenther, whose paintings, often in almost primary colors or black and white, can evoke either the Abstract Expressionist period or outsider art, and Jose Lerma, whose recent work has been nightmarish pen-and-ink portraits of bewigged faces, some layered with what appears to be cut and restitched fabric, giant heads, and multilayered installations.