The Art Scene: 10.12.17
New at Art Space 98
“Elemental Forces,” an exhibition of three-dimensional monochrome canvases and colorful oil paintings by Thomas Buhler, will open at Art Space 98 in East Hampton with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. and continue through Nov. 12.
Mr. Buhler’s oil paintings hint at figuration — a mummy in one instance, a yellow bike in another — but their expressive, intensely colored slashes of paint push them in the direction of abstraction. The mixed-media canvases, which present bold fragments of limbs in relief, suggest uncovered archeological remains or, in the artist’s words, “mummies of the past or modern hieroglyphs of the present.”
The artwork of the Swiss-born Montauk resident has been influenced by his passion for nature and his frequent travels to the Sonoran Desert in Baja California, Mexico.
Water, Water, Everywhere
“Water II,” a show of work by four photographers, will open at the Tulla Booth Gallery in Sag Harbor with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. and remain on view through Nov. 30.
Stephen Wilkes’s “Day to Night” series captures sites throughout the world, among them the crowded beaches of Coney Island and Santa Monica, Calif. Daniel Jones’s new photographs, the “Seaside Expressions” series, take a painterly approach to the medium.
Herbert Friedman’s beach scenes are packed with bathers and their accouterments, including colorful umbrellas. Blair Seagram’s images of surfers are inspired in part by “their keen sense of timing catching a wave then riding across it.”
Syd Solomon in Chelsea
“Syd Solomon: Time and Tide,” a centenary exhibition of paintings by the influential Abstract Expressionist, will open tonight at 6 with a reception at the Berry Campbell Gallery in Chelsea. It will run through Nov. 11.
After serving as a camouflage painter during World War II, Solomon and his wife, Annie, settled in Sarasota, Fla., where the Ringling Museum of Art began to collect his paintings at the suggestion of Alfred Barr of the Museum of Modern Art. The Solomons visited East Hampton for the first time in 1955 and within four years were dividing their time between Florida and the Hamptons. They were integral to the art communities of both locales.
A retrospective of Solomon’s work will open next fall at Guild Hall and travel to the Ringling.
On Abstract Expressionism
Issues raised by the exhibition “Abstract Expressionism Behind the Iron Curtain,” which is on view at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs through Oct. 28, have inspired a panel discussion to be held at the Dedalus Foundation in Manhattan on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
The speakers are David Anfam, Joana Grevers, Charlotta Kotik, and Michael L. Krenn. Helen A. Harrison, the director of the Pollock-Krasner House, will moderate. Admission is free, but registration is required. A reception will follow the discussion.