The Art Scene: 04.20.17
Three at Halsey Mckay
The Halsey Mckay Gallery in East Hampton is presenting two concurrent exhibitions through May 14. “Eights” is Elise Ferguson’s third show at the gallery. Steven Cox, a painter, and Sarah Peters, a sculptor, are paired for the second show.
Ms. Ferguson’s work in both two and three dimensions engages issues of perception. Using pattern and color, she often bases her paintings on mathematical puzzles and geometric variation. However, irregularities in the paintings’ surfaces create a tension between the illusionism of the patterns and the physicality of the built-up surfaces.
Both Ms. Cox and Ms. Peters exploit classical techniques, mastery of craft, and motifs from the canon to address contemporary concerns in painting and sculpture.
Mr. Cox explores the possibilities of the linear stripe through horizontal and vertical repetition of color pattern, and layering, while Ms. Peters subverts ancient and classical figuration and their permutations over different styles and periods.
Greener Pastures
The Art Hamptons art fair, originally scheduled to open on June 22 in Bridgehampton, has been postponed. A note was put on the fair’s website last week with no further information. According to an article on the Blouin Artinfo website, a representative of Urban Exhibitions, the company that owns the fair, confirmed that it had been canceled, with more information to come.
Rick Friedman, a Southampton resident who founded the fair and several others around the country, sold the whole group of fairs to the Georgia-based company in 2015. The company reported a 50-percent drop in attendance at the Bridgehampton fair last year from 2015. Other fairs on the company’s roster in Aspen, Chicago, and Palm Springs appear to be going ahead as scheduled.
Schneemann Wins Lion
Carolee Schneemann, whose most famous performance piece was presented at Ashawagh Hall in Springs in 1975, will be honored at the Venice Biennale with the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement on May 13.
“Interior Scroll” was part of “Women Here and Now,” a show of visual art and performance work organized by Joyce Kozloff and Joan Semmel. The artist painted her naked body and stood on a table, extracting a paper scroll from her vagina and reading the text aloud. The work has become a textbook example of feminist art of the time.
Other participants in that exhibition included Miriam Schapiro, Audrey Flack, Elaine de Kooning, Jane Freilicher, Hedda Sterne, Jane Wilson, and Perle Fine.
Nightingale in Flower
“Open Garden,” a group exhibition of flower paintings and other mediums with floral motifs, will open at the Sara Nightingale Gallery in Sag Harbor with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. and remain on view through May 22.
Participating artists are Marissa Bridge, Anna Church, Rossa Cole, Elisabeth Condon, Peter Dayton, Cara Enteles, Emily Filler, Theresa Hackett, Bruce Lieberman, Christa Maiwald, Judy Mannarino, Steve Miller, Robin Rice, Wendy Small, Donald Sultan, Suzanne Unrein, Ross Watts, and Michelle Weinberg.
In honor of Earth Day, a percentage of sales will be donated to the Perfect Earth Project.
For Earth Day
“EarthHamptons 2017,” a celebration of Earth Day featuring artworks, panel discussions, and talks, will take place Saturday and Sunday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Athos Zacharias will have a special selection of work displayed. Anahi DeCanio, Peter Gumpel, Phyllis Chillingworth, Lori Horowitz, Alyssa Peek, and Lisa Petker Mintz are among the other artists who will be represented.
On Sunday at 1 p.m., Pamela Willoughby, an independent curator, who organized the show, will lead a panel discussion featuring Katie Baldwin and Laura Rose Dailey of Amber Waves Farm; Ella Snow, and Scott Bluedorn. A light lunch will be served.
Mystery Art Sale
The Springs Mystery Art Sale, which will return to Ashawagh Hall after a one-year hiatus, has issued a call for artists willing to donate one to three 5x7-inch artworks in any medium to be exhibited from May 11 through May 13. The deadline for submissions is May 1.
As in past years, the pieces will be displayed anonymously and sold for $20 throughout the weekend. Some artworks will be selected for a silent or live auction. More details and submission guidelines are available at springsmysteryartsale.com.
Art for the Retreat
The RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton will present “In the Mix,” the eighth annual Hamptons Juried Art Show to benefit the Retreat, from Saturday through May 16. An opening reception will be held Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Nine finalists were chosen for the exhibition from among more than 200 artists. They are Suzanne Anan, Donna Bates, Lani Emanuel, Miles Jaffe, Shana Levenson, Rachael Linnemeier, Alexis Martino, Erin Milan, and Jean Sbarra Jones.
Audrey Flack in Chelsea
“Audrey Flack: Master Drawings From Crivelli to Pollock” will open today at the Hollis Taggart Galleries in Chelsea with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. and continue through May 26.
The new body of work from the artist, who has a studio in East Hampton, marks a return to two dimensions after nearly three decades of working exclusively in sculpture. The drawings combine imagery from Renaissance and Baroque paintings, rendered in the style of those periods, with images from the 20th-century canon.
North Fork Residency
The William Steeple Davis Trust is now accepting applications for an artist residency at its house and studio in Orient for the period of Nov. 1 through Oct. 1, 2018. Previous residents have included painters, photographers, writers, sculptors, poets, and musicians.
More information and applications, which are due by June 15, are available by email to [email protected].