The Art Scene 10.20.16

Approaches to Landscape

“Land/Sea,” an exhibition of work by John Todaro, Phyllis Chillingworth, and Annie Sessler and Jim Goldberg, will be on view at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Saturday and Sunday, with a reception set for Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Mr. Todaro will exhibit recent color and black-and-white photographs of the South Fork landscape. The natural world figures in the paintings of Ms. Chillingworth, who translates the energy of land, water, and sky into oil paint and watercolors.

For Ms. Sessler and Mr. Goldberg, who are married and live in Montauk, fishing and making art are intertwined. They practice the Japanese craft tradition of Gyotaku, making relief prints on fabrics using inks and freshly caught fish. 

Negroponte in New York

“Gravel Road,” a solo exhibition by the Springs artist George Negroponte, is on view at the Anita Rogers Gallery in SoHo through Nov. 30. Mr. Negroponte’s recent work uses pre-mixed hardware store paint and pieces of discarded cardboard that are stacked, superimposed — “just like laying bricks right on top of each other,” according to the artist — and affixed to the wall with pushpins. 

Writing about their blunt physicality, Mr. Negroponte sees them as “artifacts, set apart, self-sufficient, and speaking on their own terms . . . rooted in the real, the non-manipulated, and the not-over-parented.”

Since 1980, Mr. Negroponte has had 18 solo shows at galleries in New York City and abroad. His work has been included in numerous museum shows, among them the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ned Smyth Sculpture

“Ned Smyth: Moments of Water,” an exhibition of large sculptures, photographs, and smaller installations, will open on Sunday at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J., where it will be on view through April 2.

Mr. Smyth, a pioneer in public art who lives and works on Shelter Island, developed a fascination with stones when young. For many years, his large architectural constructions and installations were influenced by classical architecture, but more recently he discovered a cache of stones he had collected for 35 years and began creating and photographing massive sculptures inspired by them.

The exhibition includes eight of the sculptures and a selection of large-format black-and-white photographs that express his obsession with definition, texture, and scale.

Messinger at Javits

John Messinger, a former Ross School instructor and Watermill Center resident artist who now lives in California, will have his work on view at the PhotoPlus Expo this weekend at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Fuji Film has commissioned three original works from the artist, which the company will present along with a brief video describing his practice and process. 

The fair is open today through Saturday. Mr. Messinger will be a featured speaker on the fair’s main stage today at 11 a.m. and tomorrow at 4:15 p.m.