By Elise D’Haene
(01/28/2010)
Face Explorations
At Mayfair Gallery
The Mayfair Gallery at 73 Main Street in East Hampton, which has been organizing exhibits since November in a space donated by Dan Kulchinsky and Mayfair Rocks Jewelry, will feature six emerging artists in its next show, “About Face.” It opens on Saturday from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
The focus of the exhibit is the artists’ interpretations of face, figure, and mind. “From the inner psyche to the candid camera,” a release said.
Gabriela Trueba, who has shown at the Mosquito Hawk Gallery on Shelter Island, explores expression through prints and paintings. Graham Loper, who is based in Baltimore, will show works that reflect his “keen interest in history and enigma.”
Leat Klingman, from Israel, mines the “juxtaposition between her simple, childlike technique” and harsher modern concerns. Molly Morgan Weiss, a Sag Harbor-based artist who has curated shows for the Bonac Tonic collective, uses “visual metaphors to explore human relationships,” while Lauren Wilde Acquino of East Hampton will show photographs that study “the links between identity and materialism.” Photographs by Heather Whelan, who lives in Sag Harbor, will also be on view. In them she questions and studies human behavior.
At the reception, food and drinks will be served and Andrina Smith will perform at 6:30 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Haitian Relief Fund.
The show can be seen through Feb. 14.
Auction for Haiti
In Manhattan
Karen Boltax, who owns an eponymous gallery on Shelter Island, has gathered a group of artists and the resources to hold an auction tonight benefiting Partners in Health, a health care services organization that has been providing medical care in Haiti for 20 years.
She has received donations of 27 artworks from international artists such as John Abrams, Rafael Bueno, Nuala Clarke, Steven Corsano, Louise Crandell, Don Florence, Sylvia Hommert, Charlotta Janssen, Mary Larsen, Marla Lombard, Kathryn Lynch, Harald Marinius, Andrew Nash, Pilar Olaverri, Vickie Pierre, Juan Torcoletti, and Suzanne Unrein. There are also three Haitian artists participating. “It’s a good mix,” she said on Friday.
Ms. Boltax hopes to raise $100,000 in the effort. She said that all donations of art as well as services in kind would go straight to the charity and that those who want to participate in the auction directly or buy a paddle for a $100 donation should make their checks payable directly to the organization. Its Web site is pih.org.
The auctioneers, who are also donating their time, are Alasdair Nichol of Freeman’s Auctioneers and Nicholas Lowry of Swann Auction Galleries.
The event will take place tonight with a cocktail party preview from 6:30 to 7:30 and the auction beginning at 7:45 at Norwood at 241 West 14th Street in New York City. Those who wish to go to the auction but will not bid have been strongly encouraged to purchase a paddle and make a reservation at frontdesk@norwoodclub.com. Internet bids will be accepted until 3 p.m. today.
Judah Mahay’s
Watermill Fairy Tale
Judah Mahay, an artist in residence at the Watermill Center, will present his fairy tale “The Watermill Grimoire” on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The term “grimoire” generally refers to a manual of black magic for invoking spirits and demons.
Mr. Mahay has spent each day of his residency writing vignettes about the art and artifacts he has come across at the Watermill Center. He will thread these writings together into a longer narrative that will be published. As part of his public presentation, he will lead a tour of the center while reading from his work.
He was born in Talkeetna, Alaska, where he spent most of his time working for his father’s business, Mahay’s Riverboat Service, a fishing and sightseeing outfit. After college, he “went to be a pirate on a four-masted schooner out of Chicago,” according to his page on Facebook.
His writings have been published in New York Twist, The North Shoreian, and Mississippi Crow. His story “Lord of the Dome” was made into a short film.
Reservations have been recommended.
James Salomon’s
“Out of the Woods”
James Salomon, who has opened a second location of Salomon Contemporary at 526 West 26th Street in New York City, an addition to his gallery in East Hampton, has co-curated an exhibit at the Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects space in the city.
“Out of the Woods,” which opens on Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., will feature works by Michael Combs, Adam Fuss, Sarah Anne Johnson, Justine Kurland, Ryan McGinley, Laurel Nakadate, Roxy Paine, Tokihiro Sato, Ned Smyth, Michelle Stuart, Kunie Sugiura, Meg Webster, and Lawrence Weiner.
“We have escaped a dangerous moment in our lives. Vulnerable to nature’s whims and snares, unable to see the forest through the trees, we were lost, and now we are found,” Mr. Salomon wrote in a release.
The exhibit is an homage of sorts to the “beautifully dangerous wooded landscape,” the release said. “We will never be out of the woods,” Mr. Salomon wrote. The show can be seen through March 6.
At his Manhattan gallery, “Ned Smyth: Drawings and Sculpture” is on view by appointment through March 6.