The Art Scene: 08.03.17
Postwar Abstraction at Firestone
The Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton will open “Montauk Highway: Postwar Abstraction in the Hamptons” with a reception tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition will continue through Sept. 17.
“Montauk Highway” takes a close look at the intellectual and aesthetic landscape of the East End after World War II, when many artists migrated to the beaches, bars, and studios of the Hamptons, bringing their commitment to abstraction with them.
The show aims to paint a more complete picture than others that have focused on a few major figures, by including work by more than 25 artists, among them Norman Bluhm, John Ferren, Perle Fine, Audrey Flack, Allan Kaprow, John Little, Charlotte Park, and Jack Tworkov. Documentary photographs by Hans Namuth and Tony Vaccaro will also be on view.
Joe Zucker at Drawing Room
“Neo, Neo, Neoclassicism,” a focused exhibition of work by Joe Zucker, will open tomorrow at the Drawing Room in East Hampton and remain on view through Sept. 4.
Throughout his five-decade career, Mr. Zucker has broadened the meaning of painting through the use of unconventional materials and a refusal to settle into a signature style.
The exhibition includes a group of small gypsum and watercolor panels inset to the surface of the gallery’s walls. Created with watercolor on 12-inch-square sections of wallboard, the “frescoes” of ships and architectural motifs reflect his interest in mosaic.
Two at Ille Arts
Sculpture by John Crawford and paintings by Eva Faye will be on view at Ille Arts in Amagansett from Saturday through Aug. 23, with a reception set for Saturday evening from 5 to 8.
After art school, Mr. Crawford apprenticed for 10 years to Italian smiths at a forge in Tuscany. He continues to work in forged steel, creating imagined organic forms, some of which call to mind to the farm tools he made in Italy.
Ms. Faye paints on vellum, a transparent material she perforates, removing what she feels is unnecessary and leaving rhythmic patterns whose often-organic negative spaces complement the positive forms of Mr. Crawford’s sculpture.
Benefit Show in Gansett
The Amagansett Historical Association will open its sixth annual art show with a reception at the Jackson Carriage House on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. A benefit for the association, the exhibition will continue through Sept. 3.
Organized by Elena Prohaska Glinn, Jeanie Trusty Stiles, Nina Gillman, and Isabel Carmichael, the show will include work by Rossa Cole, Lacy Cookson, Elliott Erwitt, Burt Glinn, Sue Heatley, Alice Hope, Vincent Longo, Christa Maiwald, Claire Nivola, Ray Prohaska, Susan Richardson, and Michelle Stuart, among many others.
American Modernism
Janet Lehr Fine Arts in East Hampton will present the 2017 iteration of its annual show of American Modernists from Saturday through Aug. 23. A reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
The show includes paintings, photographs, and works on paper by Milton Avery, Man Ray, Marsden Hartley, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Arthur Dove, among many others whose styles range from the moody realism of Albert Pinkham Ryder to the precisionist works of Charles Demuth and Frank Stella to the Abstract Expressionism of Perle Fine and Willem de Kooning.
Invitational Exhibit at CMEE
The Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton will present an invitational exhibition of work by more than 50 East End artists from Saturday through Sept. 5, with an opening reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
The show was organized by Kimberly Goff, who cast a wide net that captured artists from Montauk to Shelter Island to Southampton, including Linda Capello, Janet Culbertson, Eric Ernst, Janet Goleas, Carol Hunt, Susan Lazarus-Reiman, Dave O, and Hans Van de Bovenkamp, among many others.
Folioeast Alights Again
Folioeast will return this weekend to the barn behind Golden Eagle Arts at 144 North Main Street in East Hampton with a show of painting, sculpture, and photography by John Haubrich, Jane Martin, David Rufo, Matt Vega, Charles Waller, and Amy Wickersham, and outdoor sculpture by James DeMartis, Donna Green, and Dennis Leri.
The show will be open tomorrow night from 5 to 7, Saturday from noon to 8, with a reception beginning at 5, and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Ben Fenske at Grenning
A solo show of paintings by Ben Fenske is on view at the Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor through Aug. 13, with a reception set for Saturday from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The exhibition includes paintings made during Mr. Fenske’s extended stay in Sag Harbor this summer, including views of Long Beach, Main Street, and the corner of Sage and Madison Streets. His use of short, quick brushstrokes results in impressionistic canvases whose subjects are defined more by color than line.
Four at White Room
“Flux,” an exhibition of four artists united by their use of movement, color, energy, and flow, is on view at the White Room Gallery in Bridgehampton from today through Aug. 20. A reception will be held Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Barbara Bilotta considers herself an Abstract Expressionist, though her forms are inspired by a love of nature. Sally Breen’s paintings are also steeped in nature, steering a course between abstraction and representation.
Anna Fenimore’s wildly colorful mosaics juxtapose various kinds of glass, including Baccarat, Swarovski, and Murano, often with other materials. Mark E. Zimmerman’s abstract paintings combine swirls of color and crisscrossing black lines.