The Art Scene: 11.01.12
Facing the Portrait at Ross
The Ross School gallery in East Hampton will exhibit contemporary portrait paintings in a show opening tomorrow with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m.
“Face Off” will feature the work of Sydney Albertini, Jack Ceglic, John Hardy, Christa Maiwald, and Christina Schlesinger. The show was organized by students in Jennifer Cross’s museum studies class — Julian Fava, Rebecca Hamilton, Jeheli Odidi, Hongjie Zhu, and Sun Zhehai.
The artists were chosen for their somewhat traditional to more unorthodox approaches to depicting the human face. Subjects may include the artists themselves, famous faces such as Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, local personalities such as Philip Schultz and Bill King, and friends and family of the artists. There will also be a selection of portraits by art teachers, current students, and recent graduates of Ross.
The show will remain on view through Dec. 15.
Jackson to Retire at Parrish
The Parrish Art Museum has announced that Anke Jackson, its longtime deputy director, will retire in mid-November.
Scott Howe, who joined the staff at the beginning of October, will replace her.
Ms. Jackson was born in Germany and immigrated to New Orleans with her parents in 1953. She attended Louisiana State University as an undergrad and continued her post-graduate studies at Rice University in Houston. She joined the Parrish in 1977 as an education coordinator and press officer and was associate director for budget and operations from 1981 to 1989, when she became deputy director.
Ms. Jackson was instrumental in building a permanent collection vault on Job’s Lane in 1986 and in the process that resulted in the museum’s new building in Water Mill, serving as the “owner’s representative” on the project since 2009.
Mr. Howe was previously associate director of UrbanGlass, an open-access glass studio in Brooklyn. Prior to that, he was director of education and public programs at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Va. He served in the Peace Corps/Cameroon and has advanced degrees in art history and art education from the University of Texas at Austin and Teachers College at Columbia University.
Harms in Connecticut
Robert Harms is exhibiting “Little Fresh Pond: Selected Works” at Brick Walk Fine Art in West Hartford through Dec. 1.
Mr. Harms takes his inspiration from his pond-front house and studio in Southampton, drawing from seasonal changes and differing light to make abstract, but evocative, watercolors and paintings.
In an article in The Star from 2009, Mr. Harms said the pond and the paintings that result from it are “not just subjects, but also moods. On a gray day it’s more effort to paint. I’m more energized when it’s sunny.”
The article noted that “his meditations allow for an aesthetic experience that can be quite literal to those who know the subject and a beautiful abstraction to those who don’t. ‘I don’t take the beholder out of the equation. It’s like when people read a book, it changes in our minds. It’s different for each person reading it.’ ”
New Show at Drawing Room
The Drawing Room gallery in East Hampton will present paintings by Sharon Horvath and ceramics by Diane Mayo tomorrow through Jan. 6.
In her latest paintings, Ms. Horvath interprets the experience of space whether on the expanse of beach or collapsed into a rearview mirror using pigments ground from minerals and suspended in polymer that she then draws over in ink.
Ms. Mayo is a longtime resident of Montauk and is inspired by Cypriot pottery in her own ceramic sculptures. The recent work mixes her own inventive shapes with Bronze-Age forms: low-handled bowls have asymmetrical elements, a tall column has a biomorphic base. The pieces are brightly colored in her signature raku glazes.
Ashawagh Benefit Show--POSTPONED
Due to the aftermath of the storm, “Small Works/Big Views,” an exhibition of work by six artists scheduled for this weekend has been postponed until some date to be announced in 2013.