The Art Scene 05.19.16

Sag Harbor’s Story

“Every Village Has a Story,” an exhibition of work by nine Sag Harbor artists, will open at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum on Saturday and run through June 27. A reception will be held on May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m.

The exhibition has been organized by Elise Goodheart, a Sag Harbor resident and former gallery owner, who invited the artists to explore the working class roots and underpinnings of the village’s past through its buildings and places, and to reflect on how those parts of the village inform its present.

Contributing artists are Reynold Ruffins, John Capello, Paul Davis, Erica Lynn Huberty, Joan Tripp, Scott Sandell, Peter Solow, Carolyn Conrad, and Michael A. Butler. 

Mixed Media at Ashawagh

“NextActArt,” a mixed-media exhibition of work by nine retired or semi-retired women, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a reception set for Saturday from 6 to 8.

The artists, who have shown in solo and group exhibitions but never together, met several years ago in a weekly class in collage and mixed media.  The exhibition celebrates their friendship and artists who have embraced art as a career later in life.

Participants are Barbara Brier, Rena Diana, Madeline Farr, Madlyn Goldman, Ronnie Grill, Judy Kaplan, Patricia Miller, Stephanie Suskin, and Sheila Wolper. Photographs, fragments of paintings and drawings, found and homemade papers, lace, ironwork, broken jewelry, recycled wood, and tools, are some of the items repurposed in their work.

New Work by Paton Miller 

Paton Miller, the Southampton artist whose work reflects his extensive travels and his admiration of such Spanish artists as Goya, Velazquez, and El Greco, will show new paintings at the Monika Olko Gallery in Sag Harbor from tomorrow through June 13. A reception will happen May 28 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Miller arrived here in 1974 to study at Southampton College, and except for a three-year stint in Hawaii, where he grew up, has divided his time between the South Fork and Costa Rica ever since. His work, which draws on his adventurous life and personal experiences, ranges from the exotic to the surreal to the whimsical.

Rudolph Serra in Manhattan

“Handmade,” a two-artist exhibition at the Christian Duvernois Gallery in Manhattan, will include recent terracotta sculptures by Rudolph Serra, an artist with studios in Sag Harbor and SoHo, through July 6. In addition, Mr. Serra’s “Bottom Turn” has been purchased by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and will be on view from today through June 12 in the academy’s exhibition “Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards.”

Mr. Serra, inspired in part by the dunes and tidal pools of Northern California, where he grew up, transforms the earthly material of clay into organic, animated forms whose folds and contours give the impression of temporarily suspended motion. 

Sea and Sky in Southampton

“Beach Light,” an exhibition of large-scale landscape paintings by Eileen Dawn Skretch, will open tomorrow in the Sayre Barn at the Southampton Historical Museum with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. It will continue through Oct. 23.

The images in the exhibition, which focus on the beaches and sky of the East End, were first created en plein air on a small scale, then re-created on massive wood panels in the artist’s Southampton studio. Ms. Skretch feels the wood surface lends a glow to her subjects that cannot be matched on plain white canvas.

New Gallery in Village

Like SoHo’s West Broadway in its heyday, Newtown Lane has become the village of East Hampton’s gallery row, with yet another venue, Art Space 98, set to open Saturday at — you guessed it — 98 Newtown Lane. Devoted to contemporary art in a variety of mediums by local and visiting artists, the gallery has been founded by Thomas Buehler and Rosemarie Schiller, Swiss-born artists who now divide their time between New York City and Montauk.

The inaugural exhibition, “People and Lost Traces,” which will open Saturday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m., will include paintings by Mr. Buehler and clay assemblages by Ms. Schiller. It will continue through June 20. Subsequent exhibitions will feature Camille Perrottet of East Hampton, Michael Oruch, and Dennis Snyder.

Mr. Buehler’s vividly colored abstract paintings have been influenced by his frequent travels, especially to the deserts of the western United States. Ms. Schiller’s sculptures explore the interconnectedness of the human and natural worlds. 

Phyllis Chillingworth in Chelsea

“Currents,” a solo show of work by Phyllis Chillingworth, will open today at the Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. and continue through June 11. The paintings capture the impressions and rhythms of Montauk, where she lives, as well as her recent travels to Nova Scotia, Cape Cod, and Montana, in a personal, expressionistic style, reflecting her belief that content, which includes her feelings and ideas, is more important than straightforward subject matter.