Dash at Madoo
"Robert Dash: Work/Play," an exhibition of paintings of Sagaponack from the 1970s by the founder of the Madoo Conservancy in that village, can be seen there through Dec. 31.
As the show's title suggests, the paintings juxtapose the two worlds that inhabited the South Fork even 50 years ago. One, privileged leisure, is captured in three paintings of the tennis courts of the Georgica Association. Two paintings of Sagaponack street scenes with work trucks refer to the workers (unseen) who maintain the landscape and architecture.
Cheng's Insights
Up next in the Insight Sunday series at The Church in Sag Harbor is a talk by Philippe Cheng, an artist and photographer with studios in Bridgehampton and New York City, on Sunday morning at 10:30.
Mr. Cheng, whose work is included in The Church's current exhibition, "RE:CYCLE—The Ubiquitous Bike," has photographed everything from the light and spirit of the East End to inner-city children growing up in Coney Island.
His most recent work, “Continuance I," inspired by the trees and the ivy in the Leiber Collection's sculpture garden in Springs, is a single piece of steel cable connecting trees to the earth that reflects barely visible rays of light beneath the understory.
Fifteen at Ashawagh
"Ephemeral Echos," a group exhibition organized by Niki Aarons and Molly Morphew, will open at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Saturday, with a reception from 4 to 9 p.m. It will continue on Sunday from 11 to 2.
Participating artists are Bonny Aarons, Mark Wilson, Suzannah Wainhouse, Marianna Rothen, Nathalie Shepherd, Brent Richardson, Jitka Exler, Gabe Aiello, Zander Perez, Meghan McGinley, Gayle Postal, Stuart Adam, Elizabeth Blake, Niki Aarons, and Ms. Morphew.
The reception will include a music performance by Joe Coss and Niki Aarons.
Linear Abstractions
Continuing its focus on historically significant work by artists underrepresented in the historical record, East Hampton's Eric Firestone Gallery will open "Elise Asher: The Vintage Years, Paintings of the 1950s and '60s" at 40 Great Jones Street, its NoHo outpost, with a reception on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.
Asher (1912-2004), who was a poet as well as a painter, incorporated calligraphic handwriting and text into her abstract "clouds of color and brushwork," says the gallery. The personal style of her linear abstractions was her unique contribution to postwar abstraction.
While her calligraphic paintings are suggestive, not literal, she did cite from a variety of sources, including Yeats, Keats, and Blake, as well as her husband, Stanley Kunitz, who was twice appointed Poet Laureate.
The exhibition will continue through Dec. 22.
Distorted Portraits
In the late 1980s, Linda K. Alpern of Sag Harbor embarked on a series of photographs of artists and friends using reflective Mylar backdrops. Her subjects included John Chamberlain, Christophe de Menil, Larry Rivers, Mabel D'Amico, Chuck Close, and Billy Sullivan.
An exhibition of photographs from that series can be seen at the Monira Foundation in Jersey City, N.J., through January 2024. The images, according to the foundation, combine a narrative component, determined by the photographer's relationship to her subjects, with their often distorted shapes, which vary with the camera angle, perspective, and light.
Collectors' Perspective
Cindy Lou Wakefield and Rick Friedman, whose art collection is the source of "Heroines of the Abstract Expressionist Era," now at the Southampton Arts Center, will be there on Sunday at 2 p.m. to talk about how they formulated their collection and how it has evolved over the years.
Tickets are $10, free for members.
Say Cheese
Those looking for the kind of "star treatment" given to the likes of Christopher Walken and Steven Spielberg, can book a 30-minute portrait sitting (for $750) with Rick Wenner at the MM Fine Art gallery in Southampton this weekend. The cost includes an online proof gallery to review and two retouched digital files -- a clear step up from a selfie -- from the New York-based photographer whose clients have included The New York Times, Conde Nast, Universal Music Group, and HBO.
Prints and additional photographs are extra. Sessions can be scheduled by emailing [email protected].
