The Art Scene 12.10.15

“Winter Salon” at Drawing Room

“Winter Salon,” an eclectic installation of contemporary works by gallery artists juxtaposed with works on paper from the 18th and 19th centuries, will open Saturday at the Drawing Room in East Hampton and remain on view through Jan. 31.

Among the 26 gallery artists are John Alexander, Jennifer Bartlett, Jane Freilicher, Bryan Hunt, Laurie Lambrecht, Vincent Longo, Fairfield Porter, Raja Ram Sharma, Alan Shields, and Jack Youngerman. The older works include natural history drawings, European plein-air studies, decorative arts design, herbaria, and Beaux Arts watercolors.

The pairing of traditional art forms with contemporary work, central to the gallery’s program since its founding in 2004, invites viewers to look beyond conventional divisions in mediums and genres.

David Slater at Marcelle

“Dreams, Ghosts, and Blue Moons,” an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by David Slater, will open Saturday at the Peter Marcelle Project in Southampton with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show will run through Jan. 3.

The exhibition will include works from Mr. Slater’s “Blue Moons” series, in which he starts a painting of the view from his house every time there is a “blue” moon, or roughly every three years. He has been working on the series since 1999.

Regarding the “Ghosts” series, Mr. Slater, who lives in Sag Harbor, said, “I live in a building built in 1890, and there are ghosts in this house.” In fact, he said, almost all the houses in his Rum Hill neighborhood have ghosts, some of whom, he speculates, might be found in a photograph of his building and its inhabitants from 1890.

New Lecture Series 

The Watermill Center has announced “Viewpoints @ 29th Street,” a new series of programs for artists and art enthusiasts that will take place at the New York City loft of Robert Wilson, the center’s founder and artistic director.

The initial program, “Off the Easel: Mitchell, Pollock, Rothko,” will bring together Christophe de Menil, Helen Harrison, and Laura Morris to discuss the works of the three pioneering artists next Thursday at 7 p.m. Christopher Stackhouse will moderate.

A designer, artist, and art collector, Ms. de Menil will discuss the work of Mark Rothko. Ms. Harrison is director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs. Ms. Morris is archivist for the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Mr. Stackhouse is a writer and artist who is an adjunct professor in the Curatorial Practice M.F.A. program at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Due to limited seating capacity, advance reservations have been encouraged.

Pollock’s Black Paintings

“Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots,” an exhibition of the artist’s black paintings, is on view through March 20 at the Dallas Museum of Art. The show includes 31 of the approximately 50 black paintings Pollock produced between 1951 and 1953.

According to Phyllis Tuchman, an art historian and critic, Pollock’s black paintings have been overshadowed by his monumental poured canvases but “are finally getting their time in the limelight. . . . Pollock rightly suspected the black paintings wouldn’t get their due.” 

In 1951, he wrote to Alfonso Ossorio, his friend and fellow artist, “I’ve had a period of drawing on canvas in black — with some of my early images coming through — think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing — and the kids who think it’s simple to splash a Pollock out.”

Robert Mehling at S.C.C.

The Southampton Cultural Center is presenting a retrospective of work by Robert Mehling, a painter who lives in Riverhead, through Dec. 28. Mr. Mehling, who holds an M.F.A. from C.W. Post College, paints primarily still lifes. While meticulously rendered, they are not without eccentricity and wry humor.

In one painting, a piece of cake, a couple of oranges, and a Wild Turkey figurine share a table with a Crock-Pot. In another, an Osterizer blender is rendered with the same care as less mundane subjects, and skulls figure in many of his paintings. In a statement on his website, Mr. Mehling writes, “I paint real things to reveal unseen essences, making selections to evoke memories and induce introspection in the viewer.”

Freilicher in Manhattan

The Tibor de Nagy Gallery in Manhattan will present “Jane Freilicher: Theme and Variations,” her first show at the gallery since her death last year, from today through Jan. 30. A reception will take place this evening from 6 to 8.

The gallery’s selection of paintings and works on paper will feature the subjects with which the artist is most closely associated — the views from her Greenwich Village apartment and her studio in Water Mill — as well as a selection of still lifes. According to the gallery, the paintings “act as a record of the ever-changing New York skyline and the disappearing open fields of the Long Island landscape.”

Craft Show at Ashawagh

“By Hand,” a show of work suitable for holiday gift-giving by 14 artisans, will be on view Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Ashawagh Hall in Springs.

The show will include pottery, jewelry, candles, watercolors, toys, felt hats, soaps and body lotions, wood carvings, baskets, and fiber art. There is no formal reception, but complimentary food and drinks will be available.