The Art Scene: 05.29.14
Schnabels at Fireplace Project
The Fireplace Project in Springs will open its 2014 season tomorrow with “Picture of Lola,” an exhibition of self-portraits by Lola Montes Schnabel and portraits of Lola by Julian Schnabel, her father, that will remain on view through June 23. Father and daughter have never before exhibited together.
Ms. Schnabel graduated with a B.F.A. from Cooper Union in 2008. Her work spans various mediums including film, photography, printmaking, and painting. She has exhibited both locally and internationally and her work has been included in solo exhibitions at Tripoli Gallery in Southampton, Ace Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Hole in New York City.
Mr. Schnabel, who has had a house in Montauk since 1983, is an artist and film director who emerged as an important figure in the art world with his first solo show at Mary Boone Gallery in 1979. His films include “Basquiat,” “Before Night Falls,” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best director.
An opening reception will take place Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Entwining for Peace
The first exhibition in the United States of “NAWA Axis for Peace — Project 2014” will take place at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The all-day installation event is a project of Mariyo Yagi, a Japanese environmental artist who works in a variety of mediums and at varied scales.
Nawa is the Japanese word for rope, whose spiral form symbolizes interconnectedness and the binding together of diverse people. During the event, more than 100 hands will work together, twisting the monumental rope column and ceremoniously raising the 30-foot-tall symbol of peace and harmony in the LongHouse sculpture garden. The sculpture will remain on view at LongHouse through 2017.
Also at LongHouse, a trunk show and sale of clothing, jewelry, and accessories from Asiatica will be held tomorrow from 5 to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Two at Harper’s Books
An exhibition of recent work by Sadie Laska and Jesse Littlefield, organized by Eddie Martinez, will open Saturday at Harper’s Books in East Hampton and remain on view through July 1.
Both Ms. Laska and Mr. Littlefield explore the possibilities of contemporary painting, combining geometric motifs with elements of Art Brut and integrating such varied collage elements as painted muslin, paper plates, ribbons, and flip-flops.
A recent graduate of Bard’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Ms. Laska has exhibited internationally while maintaining a career as one-half of the band I.U.D. Mr. Littlefield worked primarily as a graffiti artist before developing his studio-based practice.
A reception will take place Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Pintauro’s “Arcadia”
“Arcadia,” an exhibition of photographs by Joe Pintauro, will open at Peter Marcelle Projects in Southampton Saturday and remain on view through June 14.
The photographs are inspired by both Miltonian illusions in “Paradise Lost” and Arcadia, an idyllic, mythic vision of unspoiled nature. Mr. Pintauro, who is also a playwright and novelist and lives in Sag Harbor, focuses in these images on the effects of time on both nature and architecture.
“Time humbles material things,” Mr. Pintauro has written, “including mankind and his works, making for opposing notions as to what nature gives to art and what it takes away. This is the subject of my recent photographic work.” He cites the Corinthian capitals of the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum, carved from a once-living tree, their paint now cracked and peeling, as exemplifying a poignant grace and elegance even as they fall apart.
“Nunc et Semper,” a limited edition book of Mr. Pintauro’s photographs of Piazza San Marco in Venice, was published last year by TSR Editions. His play “Men’s Lives” was revived in 2012 at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, and a revised version of his play “Snow Orchid” was presented at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York earlier this year.
An opening reception will take place Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Photography at Ashawagh
The East End Photographers Group’s spring exhibition will open Saturday at Ashawagh Hall in Springs and remain on view through June 8. Elena Prohaska Glinn and Marilyn Stevenson have organized the exhibition, which will include images by Burt Glinn, a noted Magnum photographer who, during a long career, covered the 1956 Sinai War, the 1958 U.S. Marine invasion of Lebanon, and Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba in 1959.
Work by approximately 30 East End photographers using traditional, digital, and alternative photographic processes will be on view. An opening reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. A closing reception is scheduled for June 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. Gallery hours will be 1 to 5 p.m. on weekdays, noon to 5 on weekends.
Award for Parrish Curator
Andrea Grover, the Parrish Art Museum’s curator of special projects, was awarded a 2014 Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award to organize “Radical Seafaring,” which will be presented at the museum in 2016. Only three exhibitions received the biennial award, which acknowledges innovation and experimentation at the curatorial level.
“Radical Seafaring” will survey the practice of artist-initiated projects on the water from its roots in conceptual and performance art in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent site-specific works that relocate the studio or the performance space to the water. The exhibition and accompanying publication will feature approximately 25 artists.
Johnsons Honored
Bebe and Warren Johnson, owners of Pritam & Eames in East Hampton, have received the Furniture Society’s 2014 Award of Distinction. The award recognizes the Johnsons’ overall contribution and longstanding commitment to the American studio furniture movement.
The Johnsons will receive the award at a ceremony during the Furniture Society’s 18th annual conference, which will take place in Port Townsend, Wash., on June 21. The Award of Distinction program was initiated in 2001 to honor individuals who have had a profound influence on the field of studio furniture.
Feminine Fantasy
“Transcendental Feminine Fantasy,” an exhibition of paintings by women whose subject is “the complex female mystique,” will be on view at Richard J. Demato Fine Arts in Sag Harbor from Saturday through June 27.
Teresa Elliott, Haley Hasler, Pam Hawkes, Anne-Marie Kornachuk, Andrea Kowch, Katie O’Hagan, Margo Selski, and Pamela Wilson are the featured artists. An opening reception will take place Saturday evening from 6:30 to 9:30.
Visions of 0
“Nature: Variations on the Theme,” an exhibition organized by Arlene Bujese, will open Tuesday at the Levitas Center for the Arts at the Southampton Cultural Center and run through July 12. An opening reception will take place June 7 from 4 to 6 p.m.
The exhibition features the work of five East End artists inspired by the natural world. Deborah Black has been captivated by the cedar trees framing her walks through Maidstone Park in Springs, while Mary Daunt, who lives in Montauk, finds inspiration in the Napeague Dunes.
Karen Kluglein works with watercolor on paper or calfskin vellum to create meticulously rendered botanical specimens, while Lucy Cookson’s watercolors capture fleeting moments in the lives of plants and animals. Working from memory, Janet Jennings of Amagansett creates unpopulated landscapes ranging from serene wetland views to stormy skies.