The Power of Art
“Clearing the Air,” an exhibition that examines the healing and transformative power of the arts, will open tomorrow at the Southampton Arts Center and continue through Jan. 2, 2022.
Organized by Jay Davis, an artist and the curator of the ambulatory care arts program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the show ranges from site-specific installations to audio and video work, supplemented by films, talks, workshops, and other events. Ten of the 40 artists are or have been patients at Sloan Kettering or other hospitals.
Mr. Davis, who will lead a tour of the show on Saturday at noon, has characterized art as “something that can help strengthen, sustain, [and] provide inspiration and growth.” For some of the artists, art has been a personal tool to recovery, “while others have used their art to nurture, elevate, and expand what it means to function as ‘healing art.’ ”
The exhibition is presented by Primary Care and Reproductive Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian.
Rugs Repurposed
“Wearing,” an exhibition of work by Elizabeth Duffy, will open at the Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs with a reception on Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. It will be on view through Oct. 23.
Ms. Duffy creates installations and objects that allude to the apparent comforts of home, to reveal their contradictions, pathos, and humor. In the “Wearing” series, she unravels braided rugs made from worn blankets and clothing, presses the cut strips, and sews them into cloth. The fabric is then repurposed into wearable clothing, installations, upholstery -- even a tent, originally installed outdoors in Wyoming and now the centerpiece of the Duck Creek exhibition.
Color and Surface
“Night and Day: The Art of Don Swanson” is on view at J. Mackey Gallery in East Hampton through Oct. 5. Throughout his long career as chief of collections preservation and graphic designer at the Frick Collection in Manhattan, Mr. Swanson pursued his passion for painting.
The paintings in the “Night and Day” series are abstract compositions whose biomorphic forms seem to swirl energetically across the surface. Mr. Swanson has said his work celebrates the joy of color and surfaces, achieved by layers of glazes whose “finished effect creates a sense of depth and ambiguous space.”
Defiling the Sacred
“Forbidden Fruit,” a group exhibition of work by Peter Saul, M. Louise Stanley, and Robert Williams, consisting of parodic paintings of historical scenes and imagined narrative tableaux, is on view through Oct. 10 in the West Barn at the Ranch in Montauk.
Coming of age during the counterculture of the 1960s, each artist developed a style that deployed gutter humor and biting wit to engage with such issues as war, capital punishment, and environmental catastrophe. Among the perverse renditions of sacred subjects are Eve “on a bender” in a lowbrow Eden in Ms. Stanley’s “Snake Oil,” and Mr. Saul’s “Jesus in an Electric Chair.”
Parisian Surrealism
The Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and the Stony Brook Southampton Library will present “The ABCs of New York Surrealism in the 1930s,” on Tuesday at 6 p.m. via Zoom.
Lewis C. Kachur, an art history professor at Kean University, will discuss the initial reception of Parisian Surrealism from the early '30s, with Salvador Dali’s paintings and persona cited as an important aspect. Jackson Pollock’s awareness of Dali will be considered, as will institutional backing for the movement. The talk is free, but registration on the study center’s website is required.
Longo in Chelsea
“I do fly / After summer merrily,” Robert Longo’s first exhibition with Pace Gallery, is on view at the gallery’s 540 West 25 Street location through Oct. 23.
The show features the final installment of the artist’s “Destroyer Cycle,” a series of new works that examine ideas of American power, violence, and mythmaking.
“Present History,” a new documentary about Mr. Longo, will have its digital premiere on YouTube on Sept. 26 at 6 p.m.
Three at Ashawagh
“Autumn 2021,” an exhibition of work by Paul Pavia, Dennis Lawrence, and Michael Cain, can be seen at Ashawagh Hall in Springs tomorrow through Sunday, with a reception set for Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Mr. Pavia is showing several welded bronze sculptures as well as five small acrylic paintings on wood paneling with extrusions. Mr. Lawrence is represented by oil paintings; Mr. Cain shares a selection of steel sculptures. The gallery will be open tomorrow from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday from 9 to 7, and Sunday from 11 to 4.
Inspired by Nature
Paintings by Chris Lucore and Anne Raymond are on view at Lucore Art in Montauk through Oct. 18. The work of both artists is inspired by sky, water, and motion. In Ms. Raymond’s work, glazes of translucent color and expressive drawing suggest nature and the transitory character of light.
Mr. Lucore’s paintings, which layer acrylic paint, gloss medium, and modeling paste, explore depth and composition by manipulating color, shape, line, and texture. His gallery is at 87 S. Euclid Avenue.
Life During Wartime
While serving as a military police officer in Vietnam, John Melillo took photographs of the people there, who, he has said, were all trying to “survive, feed their families, be successful, and have a happy life.” Even in war, “people still have to live.”
“Life Goes On!,” an exhibition of paintings and photographs by the Eastport artist, will open tomorrow at the Southampton Cultural Center and continue through Nov. 3. In addition to images from Vietnam and a video presentation in which Mr. Melillo discusses his work, the show includes paintings inspired by his family heritage. The artist has lived on the East End since the 1950s.
Like a Rainbow
“Historic Rainbow,” an exhibition of new paintings by Mairikke Dau, will open on Tuesday at Harper’s Apartment, 51 East 74th Street in Manhattan, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
Ms. Dau’s paintings bring together dissimilar things, among them tree stumps, a lightbulb, and an athletic trophy, all of which seem to fit together as naturally as puzzle pieces. The forms, some abstract, others recognizable, are clearly delineated by hard edges and solid, vibrant colors. The gallery likens the artist's technique to “the way a rainbow divides the color spectrum.”
The exhibition will continue through Oct. 16.
Watson in the City
Essex Flowers Gallery on the Lower East Side is presenting “Guardian,” a two-person show of work by Claire Watson of Water Mill and Ester Partegas, through Oct. 2. Ms. Watson’s pieces transform used leather garments by cutting them into pattern pieces and reassembling them into abstract compositions. Both artists, said the gallery, join and mend fragmentary materials to refresh the viewer's perception of familiar objects.
Bateman's Weather
A show of abstract paintings by Roisin Bateman is opening today at Sag Harbor's John Jermain Memorial Library, where it will be on view through Oct. 31. The artist has said that her paintings and pastels “explore the metamorphic effects of weather upon the land, sea, and sky.”
A reception will be held on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.
