There's plenty of art news to report from The Hamptons art scene and North Fork. In this edition, discover a new Hamptons gallery, a benefit reconfigured, an art fair sold, Thomas Moran painting news, artist awards, artist exhibitions, and more art news to know.
Rick Friedman's fair production company Hamptons Expo Group has been sold to Urban Expositions for an undisclosed amount. Urban Expositions will continue to produce all four of Hamptons Expo Group's art fairs including ArtHamptons, ArtAspen, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair and Houston Fine Art Fair. Friedman continues as a consultant to ensure the transition is a smooth one. By all accounts, the change is a win-win for all parties.
The Birdhouse Auction benefiting the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Southampton Hospital has morphed into the "Trash to Treasure Auction" featuring recycled, repurposed and redesigned objects made by local artisans, craftsmen and builders. The benefit will be held on Thursday, September 24, 2015 from 6-9 p.m. at the Southampton Social Club, 256 Elm Street, Southampton. Tickets are $40 in advance or $50 at the door and can be purchased by clicking www.luciasangels.org/t2t.
Artist Sydney Butchkes died on August 10, 2015 at his home in Sagaponack. He was 94 years old. Butchkes's art is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and others. In the Hamptons, he exhibited at Elaine Benson Gallery, Arlene Bujese Gallery and, most recently, Surface Library gallery in Springs. His commercial career included being a designer for Columbia Records and the art director for Craft Horizons magazines, according to the New York Times. Butchkes lived and worked in Sagaponack since the early '60s.
Greenport artist Dorothy Russo's painting Out Back won the 2015 Thomas Currie-Bell Memorial Purchase Prize in the North Fork Annual juried art exhibition held at the Southold Historical Society’s Reichert Family Center. The painting depicts the Moore outhouse & garden. A typical farmer’s outhouse from the late 19th century, the outhouse is an original to the Thomas Moore House site of the Southold Historical Society Museum Grounds.
If you've spied hyperealism sculptures by Carole A. Feuerman while stuck in traffic on Montauk Highway in Water Mill, then you've seen the most obvious sign of a pop up gallery in the Water Mill Plaza. Installed by the new Nicole Ripka Gallery, the gallery hosted an indoor exhibition of pop culture photography by Bonnie Lautenberg (fans of Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga are in luck). The two-person exhibition opened on August 22 and the exhibition (and gallery's run) has been extended from September 20 to mid-October. The gallery is located at 760 Montauk Highway Water Mill, N.Y. 11976. Open Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. www.nicoleripka.com
The Watermill Center announced its new artist in residence line up and open house schedule. Taking place from September 2015 through January 2016, selected artist are Oliver Beer, Amy Khoshbin, Cirkus Cirkör, Manuela Infante with Teatro de Chile, and Carlos Soto. The first artist-in-residence coincides with an Open House on September 26, 2015. Click here for details.
David Salle was selected to design the 2015 poster for the Hamptons International Film Festival. It's now installed all over The Hamptons. Click here to see this year's poster and others by Hamptons artists including Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Eric Fischl, Julian Schnabel and others.
Thomas Moran's oil on canvas Two Women in the Woods (1870) was acquired by Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA ) as part of an effort to continue strengthening its renowned collection of American art. Other recent purchases include Albert Bierstadt's Niagara (1869); William Frederick de Haas' Biddeford Beach, Coast of Maine (1875); ; Katherine Bradford's Approaching Ship (2013); Sue Coe's The Tragedy of War (1999-2000); David Maisel's The Lake Project 15 (2001); and David Lynch's Six Men Getting Sick (1967).
Five sculptures by Hans Van de Bovenkamp of Sagaponack have been added to a Sculpture Stroll in Rockford, IL as part of the city's public art program. Along with four sculptures by Boaz Vaadia, the art works will remain on view through May 2016. To see the work, click here.
Shelter Island artist Janet Culbertson has art exhibited in the group show "The only home we have" at the Pelham Art Center in Westchester, N.Y. The show is on view from September 11 through October 24, 2015. The show has another East End connection: Cara Lynch. Lynch created the site-specific installation Revival for the Pelham Art Center. She recently participated in East End Art's JumpsART program and created a site-specific public art mural in Riverhead. Both installations were inspired by the neighborhood where the pieces were installed.
East Hampton-based choreographer Kate Mueth and her Neo-Political Cowgirls brought “Eve” to Off-Broadway. The production premiered September 9 with performances running through October 1, 2015 at The Gym at Judson, 243 Thompson Street in New York. Tickets are $35 and can be ordered at brownpapertickets.com. The music-dance-art-performance piece has audiences moving through an 11-room set to experience the theater piece. "Eve" has been performed in East Hampton previously.
Christopher Knowles, a frequent collaborator with Robert Wilson, presents an exhibition "Christopher Knowles: In a Word" at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia from September 18 to December 27, 2015.
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