'Tis the season when unusual but affordable gifts can be found in art galleries and cultural organizations on the South Fork.
Two Sag Harbor galleries, Grenning and Romany Kramoris, embrace the holiday spirit every year, the former with its annual "Gems of the Grenning Gallery," which features a selection of gallery artists including Ben Fenske, John Morfis, Hunt Slonem, and Darius Yektai. It will be on view through Jan. 7.
Across the street at Kramoris, the annual "Small Works Holiday Invitational" has work by more than 40 local artists, many 20 by 20 inches or smaller (the works, not the artists). On view through Jan. 21, the show includes work by Linda Capello, Christopher Engel, Barbara Groot, Ruby Jackson, Peter Lipman-Wulf, and Christina Schlesinger. Open house receptions will be held every Saturday through the holidays, from 1 to 6 p.m.
Haubrich Art at 39 Isle of Wight Road in Springs is featuring "Framed/Unframed," a show of images on paper, many unframed and most of them small. The artists are John Haubrich, Denise Gale, Christa Maiwald, Mark Perry, Adriana Barone, and Anthony Allison. The exhibition will be up through Jan. 1, by appointment through [email protected]. An open house will happen from 2 to 4 p.m. on New Year's Day.
With works by 100 East End artists, it's safe to say there's something for every taste at the Lucore Art Gallery in Montauk. Its "Holiday Show Bonanza" is on view through Dec. 30.
For those doing their shopping in Manhattan, Victoria Munroe Fine Art at 67 East 80th Street has "small PAINTINGS," with works by 20 artists including Pat Adams, Jennifer Bartlett, Jake Berthot, Kathryn Lynch, and Adrian Nivola. The show will be on view through Saturday, and then from Jan. 3 through Jan. 13. Ms. Munroe is the co-founder with Emily Goldstein of the Drawing Room in East Hampton.
The Neo-Political Cowgirls dance theater collective suggests giving "the gift of creative play to a woman you love": a four-hour workshop where "creative play is re-ignited" as participants respond to prompts through writing, drawing, clay sculpting, movement, and collective storytelling. Set for Jan. 13 at the Springs Presbyterian Church, the workshop fee, which includes all materials, is $90.
The shop at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill is the place for unusual books, handcrafted creations, and art-inspired goods. There is no admission fee to visit the shop, which is open during regular museum hours.
Not to be outdone, the Sag Harbor Cinema has an online shop selling water bottles, pompom beanies, coffee mugs, hoodies, wine tumblers, even a holiday tree ornament, all featuring the cinema's iconic neon sign logo. Gift cards are also available.
For bibliophiles as well as art lovers, Harper's Books has ephemera, framed items related to art, photography, and modern literature, as well as, of course, rare books. Among the relatively affordable offerings are a first edition of "Albert York," the first survey of work by the famously reclusive East End artist, for $250; a signed first-edition copy of Annie Leibovitz's "Pilgrimage," a photographic tour of homes of the famous, also $250; a first edition of Martin Kippenberger's "Forgotten Interior Design Problems at Home," an exhibition catalog from 1996, for $150, and the first edition of "Peter Doig," the catalog from the artist’s retrospective at Tate Britain, for $200.
Finally, one gift that keeps on giving, while at the same time supporting a worthy cause, would be a membership to one of the region's many nonprofit cultural organizations.
