Skip to main content

The Art Scene: 04.02.15

"Misty Morning" by Jerry Schwabe, left, and "Low Tide Pool, Wainscott" by Kirsten Benfield will be on view at Ashawagh Hall this weekend as  part of "Duo Tuo."
"Misty Morning" by Jerry Schwabe, left, and "Low Tide Pool, Wainscott" by Kirsten Benfield will be on view at Ashawagh Hall this weekend as part of "Duo Tuo."
Local art news
By
Mark Segal

Talk at Parrish

The next installment of “Brain Food,” the Parrish Art Museum’s lunchtime series of illustrated talks, will feature Scott Howe, the Parrish’s deputy director, who will discuss the museum’s landscape design and its connection to the geology and history of Long Island and to the artists inspired by the natural beauty of the East End. Tickets cost $10, free for members, students, and children.

Free Admission

Guild Hall has announced that all of its museum exhibitions and opening receptions will be free through April 2016, thanks to funding from Suffolk County National Bank and Donald and Barbara Zucker.

Coming up are the 77th annual Artist Members Exhibition, which will open May 2 and remain on view through June 6, and “Selfies and Portraits of the East End,” which will include work by Ross Bleckner, Chuck Close, John Hardy, William King, Joan Semmel, and Cindy Sherman, among many others. “Selfies” will open June 20, as will solo exhibitions of work by Hal Buckner and Nicole Bigar.

Calls for Artists

Two upcoming exhibitions are now accepting entries. The deadline for submissions to the Springs Mystery Art Sale, which supports the school’s Visiting Artists Program, is April 12. Interested artists who have not received application packets by mail have been asked to email [email protected]. Information is also available on the Springs Mystery Art Sale Facebook page.

For the first time, Guild Hall will not be mailing application packets for its upcoming members exhibition. All members wishing to participate can apply online at guildhall.org. Registration must be completed by April 20.

Spring Exhibit at S.C.C.

The Southampton Artists Association will hold its spring art exhibition at the Levitas Center for the Arts in the Southampton Cultural Center from today through April 12. An opening reception will happen Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m.

The exhibit will include photography, paintings, pastels, drawings, sculpture, and three-dimensional constructions. The association, which includes artists from Remsenburg to Montauk, holds four membership exhibitions each year and conducts classes, workshops, and other programs.

Full Day at Watermill Center

An exhibition of “Draped, Hollow Figures,” a site-specific work by Daniel Arsham, will open at the Watermill Center on Saturday at 4 p.m. and remain on view through June 7. The opening reception will be part of Saturdays @ WMC, an occasional series that opens the center for a full day of public programs and activities.

Mr. Arsham’s work straddles the line between art, architecture, and performance. He has created environments with eroded walls and stairs going nowhere, landscapes where nature overrides structures, and seemingly flat walls that morph into three-dimensions.

According to Robert Wilson, artistic director of the center, “Arsham challenges our perceptions of physical space in order to make architecture perform the improbable.”

Other programs on Saturday will include a puppet workshop with Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; tours of the building, grounds, and collection from 12:30 to 1:30 and 3:30 to 5; a picnic lunch on the grounds at 1, weather permitting, and Performance Art 101, a workshop conducted by Kembra Pfahler, from 2 to 3:30.

Ashawagh Duo

“Duo Tuo,” an exhibition of paintings by Jerry Schwabe and Kirsten Benfield, will take place tomorrow through Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Schwabe is a painter, photographer, and sculptor who will be represented in the show by watercolors, oils, and acrylics, including a new series of watercolors, “Wet Pavement,” which features soft, muted colors.

Born in New Zealand, Ms. Benfield came to New York City at the age of 26 and now lives and works in East Hampton. Her paintings are inspired by the region’s oceans and bays and informed by her study of color. 

The gallery will be open tomorrow from 1 to 7 p.m., Saturday from noon to 8, and Sunday from noon to 4.

Pollock-Krasner House

The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center will reopen on May 1 with an exhibition of sculpture by Neil Noland (1927-2013), who had a studio in Amagansett for many years. The season’s second show will be “Elaine de Kooning Portrayed,” which will feature portraits of her by such friends as Arshile Gorky, Ray Johnson, Fairfield Porter, Robert De Niro Jr., and her husband, Willem de Kooning. It will open Aug. 6.

The 2015 John H. Marburger III Memorial Lecture will take place at Guild Hall on July 26. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, a filmmaker, will preview and discuss her latest film, “Peggy Guggenheim: Art of This Century.” Ms. Vreeland directed “Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel,” a cinematic portrait of her grandmother-in-law.

The Lichtenstein lecture series will take place on Sunday afternoons in July and August, and “Artists on Film” will return on Friday evenings in September.

Although the Pollock-Krasner House is currently closed, its membership drive is on all year. Membership supports public programs, educational activities, and museum operations. One project under way is the renovation of the garage to accommodate a handicapped-accessible office and restroom. In addition to new members, the organization is always looking for volunteer docents.

More information can be found at sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/pkhouse.

 

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.