The Art Scene: 04.16.15
“Down” at Harper’s Books
Harper’s Books in East Hampton will open its 2015 exhibition season on Saturday with “This Side Down,” an exhibition of paintings and photographs by Matthew King that will run through June 2. A reception will take place Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Working with shaped panels of pressed wood and squares or rectangles of aluminum, Mr. King creates objects that straddle painting and sculpture, abstraction and representation, the industrial and the handmade. Bold geometrical zigzag patterns that suggest both Minimalism and Op Art are crossbred with fragments of images from vintage advertisements, newspapers, and magazines.
During the run of the exhibition, a video installation by Clark McLean Graham, an artist with whom Mr. Smith has collaborated, will be on view in the front window.
Open Rehearsal at Watermill
The Watermill Center will hold an open rehearsal of work by Kristen Foote, a former resident artist at the center, on Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. Ms. Foote, who is based in New York City, is a principal dancer with both the Limon Dance Company and Dance Heginbotham and has also performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Riedel Dance Theater, and the Radio City Rockettes. She has extensive teaching experience, having conducted Limon master classes at colleges and dance companies throughout the U.S. and Canada.
The event is free, but reservations are required.
The center has also announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2016 residency program, which gives artists the opportunity to utilize the center as a home and a workshop to create and develop their work. More information, applications, and reservations are available on the center’s website.
Pollocks in Venice
Two Jackson Pollock-related exhibitions will open at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice on April 23. “Jackson Pollock’s ‘Mural’: Energy Made Visible,” organized by David Anfam, an authority on Abstract Expressionism, centers on “Mural,” commissioned by Guggenheim in 1943.
The largest painting Pollock ever created, it anticipated the artist’s classic poured abstractions. The exhibition, which will be on view through Nov. 16, will also include Pollock’s newly restored “Alchemy” and works by Lee Krasner, David Smith, and Robert Motherwell.
“Charles Pollock: A Retrospective,” which will be open through Sept. 14, documents the career of Jackson’s oldest brother, who died in 1988 at the age of 86. Organized by Philip Rylands, director of the Guggenheim Collection, it will include artwork and documents from the Charles Pollock Archive in Paris and other public and private collections. Early letters, photographs, and sketches will document the relationship between the two brothers.
Nature Preserves on Canvas
The Wednesday Group, plein-air painters who meet every Wednesday to work outdoors on the East End, will exhibit paintings of Nature Conservancy preserves from Shelter Island to Montauk on Saturday and Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Participating artists are Bobbie Braun, Anna Franklin, Peter Gumpel, Jean Mahoney, Deb Palmer, Alyce Peifer, Gene Samuelson, Christine Chew Smith, Frank Sofo, Pam Vossen, and Dan Weidmann. A portion of all sales will be donated to the Nature Conservancy.
New Bridgehampton Gallery
Bridgehampton is home to a new art gallery. The White Room Gallery is to some extent an evolution of the Crazy Monkey Gallery, the Amagansett cooperative that closed last year. The White Room’s founding partners, Andrea McCafferty, Sally Breen, and Daniel Schoenheimer, were members of the co-op.
The new space will exhibit an eclectic blend of contemporary art by both well-known and emerging artists. A group show, which includes work by Jim Gingerich, Barbara Groot, Richard Mothes, Kat O’Neill, and many others, will remain on view through April 28, with a grand opening scheduled for May 9.
Down Under Out East
Sara Nightingale Gallery will present work by two Australian-born artists living in New York in “Conditional/Return” beginning tomorrow with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
Zev Jonas and Simone Douglas examine relationships among humans, objects, animals, and their surrounding environments. Mr. Jonas works in nature photography using themes of isolation and connection. Ms. Douglas will present a nautical sculpture referencing an upcoming Australian desert installation on a larger scale, involving melting ice and a wake of wildflowers.
The Australian Consulate in New York City has donated Australian beverages for the opening. The exhibition will be on view through May 18.