A New Yet Familiar Art Annex
Although absent from the Main Street scene of Southampton Village for some time, Stephan Keszler is back at the old power plant on North Sea Road, where he presented the street artist Banksy in 2011.
Back then, the property was extremely raw and reminiscent of the untouched gallery spaces in old warehouses and facilities in Manhattan’s West Chelsea. It has been cleaned up a lot as the new Keszler Annex, but the interior retains the industrial feel that made it an ideal backdrop for the gritty and controversial wall pieces of Banksy.
Only a couple of those works remain (the others were sold over the past year) and they will be on view along with a new show of large sculptures by Alexandre Arrechea from his “No Limits” series. If the work seems familiar, it is because it was installed up and down Park Avenue in New York this spring. Many of the works are already visible outside the gallery on newly sodded lawns, put in just last week along with other landscaping.
The show officially opens Saturday night with a reception from 6 to 9. Presented in conjunction with Magnan Metz Gallery in New York, it will also include watercolors, lithographs, and reduced-size pieces of the monumental works.
Mr. Arrechea, who was born in Cuba, attempts to subvert “traditional concepts about icons and their function in society,” according to the gallery.
His architectural pieces appear to melt and bend as if elastic. He chooses some of New York’s most iconic structures as his subjects and bends them to his will, keeping their features recognizable while creating something entirely new, resembling a tool or a snail or something else out of the artist’s imagination.
The sculptures may be set on tops that turn with the touch of a finger. Mr. Arrechea’s buildings’ ability to move and change forms is a metaphor for the lack of foundation in the economy and the uncertainty that continues to plague society in these volatile times.
The artist represented Cuba in the 2011 Venice Biennale.