The Art Scene: 01.12.17
Online Gallery Goes Live in Sag Harbor
ArtUNPRIMED, an online art gallery and consultation service specializing in emerging and mid-career artists from the East End, will mount three exhibitions at 7 Main Street in Sag Harbor, beginning Saturday with an opening reception for “Water,” a group show, from 6 to 8 p.m. The shows will take place in Addo Women’s Clothing Collective, which is closed for the season.
“Water” includes paintings by Bruce Lieberman, a large wave drawing by Scott Bluedorn, photographs and paintings by Dalton Portella, photographs by Jane Martin, and paintings by Christian Little, among other works.
ArtUNPRIMED is owned by Casey Dalene, who lives in East Hampton and has a background in art history, studio art, and textile design. Ms. Dalene was creative director of textiles for Elizabeth Dow Ltd. from 20006 to 2011, when she founded artUNPRIMED.
“Water” will remain on view through Feb. 7.
De Kooning and Zao
Imagine the challenge of finding a new context for the art of Willem de Kooning, whose work has appeared in thousands of exhibitions worldwide over the past 70 years. Lévy Gorvy, a new Upper East Side gallery, has done just that with its first show, “Willem De Kooning and Zao Wou-Ki,” which will open Wednesday and remain on view through March 11.
Although contemporaries, the two artists never met, and the exhibition marks the first time their work has been presented together. With more than 20 paintings, from the late 1940s through the early ’80s, the show intends to establish a conversation between them by means of their work, specifically their abstract landscapes.
According to the gallery, Zao, who was born in China in 1920 and immigrated to Paris in 1948, abandoned the subject that was so fundamental to the Chinese tradition of landscape painting and instead sought to express a transcendental quality in his abstract landscapes through the use of color, line, and scale. De Kooning arrived at the abstract landscape through a desire to do justice to the female form beyond the confines of the nude.
The gallery is a partnership between Dominique Lévy, a prominent Swiss art dealer, and Brett Gorvy, the former chairman and international head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s. The exhibition will later travel to Hong Kong.
RJD Gallery to Reopen
Richard Demato, the proprietor of RJD Gallery, which was destroyed during the recent fire in Sag Harbor, has announced plans for a new facility on Main Street in Bridgehampton, which he hopes to open in mid-March. The new gallery will have more than twice the floor space of the Sag Harbor location, as well as a separate upper studio.
Mr. Demato noted that while a number of works were lost, the gallery has a large storage facility offsite with many additional pieces, which can be seen by appointment by calling him at 631-725-1161.