The Art Scene: 03.06.14
Paper and Canvas
Ille Arts in Amagansett will reopen Saturday with “Paper and Canvas in Conversation,” an exhibition curated by Denise Gale that will remain on view through April 5. Work by Eugene Brodsky, Don Christensen, Mary Heilmann, Anne Russinof, Arlene Slavin, and Ms. Gale will be included in the show.
According to Ms. Gale, “After seeing painters work on canvas and paper, and using both materials myself, I have become intrigued by the different approaches artists take to these surfaces.” While some of the artists in the exhibition approach the surfaces in different ways, for others works on paper are primarily studies for larger paintings on canvas.
An opening reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Edgar’s Abstract Journey
“Natalie Edgar: Abstract Journey,” a solo show of work by the painter, who lives in New York City and Springs, is on view at the Woodward Gallery in New York through April 26. A member of the second generation of the New York School, Ms. Edgar studied with Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko and has been exhibiting her work since the 1960s.
Color plays a dynamic role in Ms. Edgar’s paintings, whose interlacing components convey a sensation of velocity and struggle. Though abstract, her work often makes reference to landscape, a reflection, in part, of her having spent many summers hiking and drawing from nature in Northern Italy.
A recipient of a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Ms. Edgar has taught art at the City University of New York and the New School, published art criticism, curated exhibitions, and edited “Club Without Walls,” selections from the journals of her husband, Philip Pavia, a sculptor who died in 2005.
Rosset’s Images of China
Barney Rosset made publishing history as the owner of Grove Press and editor in chief of Evergreen Review. Prior to his career in publishing, Rosset served with the Army Signal Corps in China toward the end of World War II. In 1945 he undertook the photographic documentation of Chinese and American soldiers in combat, the devastation caused by the largest Japanese land campaign of the war, the Japanese retreat, and the signing of surrender in Nanking.
An exhibition of approximately 100 of Rosset’s China photographs is now on view at the Kunming City Museum in Kunming City, Yunnan, China. The exhibition has been organized by Bob Bergin, a former U.S. foreign service officer; Astrid Rosset, the publisher’s widow, and Karla Nielson, curator of literature at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
For those unable to travel to Kunming City, an online version of the show can be accessed at exhibitions.cul.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/rosset. The images in the exhibition come from the Barney Rosset Papers held by the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Perhaps best known for fighting censorship laws and risking prison to publish D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer,” Rosset, who lived in New York City and East Hampton, introduced to an American audience the work of dozens of political and avant-garde writers, among them Samuel Beckett, Malcolm X, Allen Ginsberg, Harold Pinter, William Burroughs, Jean Genet, Che Guevara, Eugene Ionesco, and Pablo Neruda.
Aycock on Park Avenue
“Park Avenue Paper Chase,” a series of seven sculptures by Alice Aycock, will be on view on Park Avenue in New York City from Saturday through July 20. Six works will occupy the medians between 52nd and 57th Streets, and a seventh will be installed in front of the Park Avenue Armory at 66th Street. The aluminum and fiberglass sculptures range in size from 12 to 27 feet high and 18 to 70 feet long.
According to Ms. Aycock, who lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, “I tried to visualize the movement of wind energy as it flowed up and down the avenue creating random whirlpools, touching down here and there, and sometimes forming dynamic three-dimensional massing of forms. The sculptural assemblages suggest waves, wind turbulence, turbines, and vortexes of energy.”
The Ashawagh Three
“Three,” an exhibition of work by Marcie Honerkamp, Annie Sessler, and John Todaro, will be on view Saturday and Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. For the past 15 years Ms. Honerkamp has been working in mosaics. She will be exhibiting sculptures whose substrates of carved Styrofoam or found objects are covered in mosaic designs.
Ms. Sessler works in the Japanese craft tradition of gyotaku, or fish printing. Using fish, octopuses, squid, and other natural objects, she prints in ink on a variety of surfaces. Mr. Todaro is a photographer whose work has been widely published and collected. The exhibition will include a broad selection of new work with an emphasis on black-and-white or monochromatic images.
A reception will be held Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.
Working the Ground
“No Ground but Say Ground” is the intriguing title of the group show now on view at the Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton through March 30. The phrase is a line from “Worstward Ho,” a short prose piece written by Samuel Beckett in 1983. According to Joe Fyfe, an artist and critic who has organized the show, the exhibition was inspired in part by the recent publication of Beckett’s letters, in which he revealed his enjoyment of gardening when at his house in the French countryside.
Mr. Fyfe selected artists who in some way work with the ground of the picture the way Beckett dug into not only his garden but also language itself. The artists represented in the exhibition are Bianca Beck, Lisa Beck, Josh Blackwell, Josh Brand, Patrick Brennan, Cheryl Donegan, Michael Goldberg, Kim Gordon, Rob Halverson, Robert Janitz, Linda Matalon, Ray Parker, Patricia Treib, Julia Rommel, Yorgos Sapountzis, and Valerie Snobeck.
Now at Crazy Monkey
Two guest artists, Sam Schoenheimer and Susan Gentile Hackett, are featured in the current show at the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett. It will remain on view through March 30. Art by the gallery members Andrea McCafferty, Daniel Schoenheimer, Jim Hayden, Barbara Bilotta, Lance Corey, Ellyn Tucker, June Kaplan, Mark E. Zimmerman, Bobbie Braun, Beth O’Donnell, Bo Parsons, Melissa Hin, and Richard Mothes will also be on view.
A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. The winners of the gallery’s 2014 art competition will be announced at that time.