2013 In Review: Top Exhibitions In the Hamptons | Hamptons Art HubHamptons Art Hub

DISPATCH - DEC 31, 2013

EAST END, NY-

There's no time like the present to scroll through 2013 and consider East End exhibitions that made a lasting impression. Hamptons Art Hub staff put on their thinking caps and selected their favorite shows from 2013. The only caveats were the exhibition had to be presented on the East End of Long Island and was viewable during 2013.

Presented in no particular order, the exhibitions on our "Best Of" List for 2013 unfold by the selecting writer.

GABRIELLE SELZ

I joined the Hamptons Art Hub this year, and with that step, the whole experience of viewing, thinking and writing about the art being created on the East End of Long Island, popped into high relief for me. I’m not a fan of bests, so instead I’ve put together a few of my favorites and highlights of 2013.

Jack Youngerman - Multiple Venues

From lyrical, organic abstractions to radiant geometrical designs, this was Jack Youngerman’s year, with simultaneous shows at the Washburn Gallery in New York, six new black and white sculptures on view at LongHouse Reserve, the installation of Conflux II, a bright orange wood relief at the Parrish Art Museum, and a small gem of a retrospective of his works on paper at The Drawing Room in East Hampton, NY.

RELATED: "Art Review: Jack Youngerman at Washburn Gallery " by Gabrielle Selz, Art Review: Jack Youngerman's Visual Language" by Gabrielle Selz and "LongHouse Reserve Opens Season with New Sculptural Exhibitions" by Pat Rogers.

"Green/Orange/Blue" by Jack Youngerman, 2010. Gouache on handmade Japanese paper, 13 x 11 5/8 inches. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy of The Drawing Room.

Almond Zigmund's "Interruptions Repeated" - Parrish Road Show Exhibition at Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum

Two large bisected L-shaped sculptures of raw plywood that inhabited the Greek Revival parlor room of the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum like a giant beached whale. Half solidly opaque, half transparently latticed, Zigmund's form was site-specific at its best, fussing the organic and architectural motifs her installation/sculpture was both fully integrated and unique, like a boat in its berth, the space and the object defined one another.

RELATED: "Art Review: Almond Zigmund's Interruptions Repeated" by Gabrielle Selz and "Parrish Road Show Returns" by Pat Rogers.

"Interruptions Repeated" by Almond Zigmund, 2013. Courtsey of the Artist.

"Angels, Demons and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio and Dubuffet" - Parrish Art Museum

Presented at the Parrish, the exhibition was a rare exploration of the cross-cultural exchange facilitated by the angelic Ossorio between Pollock, an artist haunted by demons, and the “savage” Dubuffet. Alfonso Ossorio’s luminous Victorias Drawings were the standout surprises of this extraordinary exhibition.

"Reforming Figure" by Alfonso Ossorio, 1952. Ink, wax, and watercolor on paper, 60 x 38 inches. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Ossorio Foundation, 2008.

Additionally…Sanford Biggers’ synergistic pieces that incorporate politics, African spirituality, and urban culture on repurposed historical quilts at Eric Firestone Gallery. LAT. 41° 7' N., LONG. 72° 19' W, the whimsical installation from Martos Gallery, a pervasive, sprawling assortment of site-specific works out on the North Fork that perfectly captured the art-is-everywhere vibe of a summer in the Hamptons.

And, finally, in honor of the first summer the new Parrish Art Museum was open, one of my all time favorite activities took place after viewing art, when lounging on the deck, sipping wine, I listened to jazz with friends as the sun folded into the fields.

JAMES CROAK

James Croak picked four shows for his favorites in 2013.

“Hope’s Journey”: A Solo Show by Jeanette Martone - RJD Gallery

The solo show of drawings by Jeannette Martone was presented at RJD Gallery from April 26 - May 8, 2013. Martone was awarded the show after winning First Place in The Retreat's Juried Art Exhibition held at the gallery in 2012. Her work was selected by exhibition jurors Christina Mossaides Strassfield, Museum Director and Chief Curator of the Guild Hall Museum, and Kathryn Markel, owner of Kathryn Markel Fine Arts of Bridgehampton and Chelsea, NY.

Martone spends time volunteering with humanitarian groups assisting communities in need around the globe. Her drawings depict people in the developing countries that she visits.

RELATED: "Fragility Rendered in detailed Drawings by Jeanette Martone" by Pat Rogers.

“Imagining” by Jeanette Martone. Graphite and ink on paper, 41 x 26.5 inches.

"Chuck Close: New Work" - Guild Hall

Chuck Close had many compelling portraits in his solo exhibition at Guild Hall, including one of the (now) late Lou Reed, said Croak. The work in "Chuck Close: New Works" hit on all cylinders, making it one of my favorites for 2013.

"Lou" by Chuck Close, 2012. Jacquard tapestry, 94 x 76 inches. Edition 2 of 6 Edition of 6 + 2 Aps + 2 Studio Proofs + 1 Trial Proof. Courtesy of Pace Gallery. Photo by Gary Mamay. Courtesy Guild Hall Museum.

“Summer Smorgasbord” – DIRT GALLERY pop up in Wainscott

Summer Smorgasbord” exhibited works by 24 artists at the East Hampton Airport that aimed to present a thick slice of contemporary art. The show was a fun, fun uber-hip scene and a send up of Gagosian by locating it at the airport. The show was held from July 27 to Aug. 31, 2013.

Michelle Stuart: Drawing from Nature – Parrish Art Museum

The exhibition suffered from poor lighting but was fascinating. Especially since Stuart (b. 1933) is not well-known yet the many artists that followed are.

"San Juan Ermita Chiquimula" by Michelle Stuart, 1978. Courtesy Parrish Art Museum.

PAT ROGERS

I picked four shows whose chords reverberated for me throughout 2013.

Frank Wimberley - Guild Hall

Frank Wimberley's solo show at Guild Hall opened in 2012 but was on view for five days in 2013. Even with all the exhibitions that followed, his exhibition stayed with me and remained a strong one. Wimberley (b. 1926) won the 2010 Guild Hall Artist Members Exhibition and his Guild Hall exhibition was the prize for being awarded Top Honor.

Wimberley's show was curated by Christina Mossaides Strassfield and supported by two curator talks. What struck me was the artistic journey portrayed in the selections. Culled from a spectrum of years, Wimberley's evolution as an abstract painter was set before me on four concise walls. Wimberley is a heck of a painter. He continues to push boundaries and all of the work in the show engaged me for different reasons.

RELATED: "Abstraction-Then and Now-Opens at Guild Hall" by Pat Rogers.

“Jonathan” by Frank Wimberley, 1987. Acrylic on canvas, 34 x 34 inches. Courtesy of Spanierman Gallery LLC.

“Pop Up 1: MONTAUK” – Wooded Parcel in Montauk

"Pop Up 1: MONTAUK" was presented by Fabiola Beracasa and Art Production Fund in association with Gary Carrion-Murayari and Joyce Sitterly of the New Museum. The summer-only show featured three site-specific works by three artists.

When I visited the outdoor installation, it was a perfect summer day. This enhanced the joy of stepping away from hectic Hamptons villages to meander around secluded grounds to discover edgy contemporary art installed amid trees, branches and, sometimes, along a cultivated path circling the vacant wooded property. Each artwork harkened to a part of Montauk’s history or culture. The result was a show that boiled down to an installation of sublime salt licks, a broken-down truck filled with symbolism, and clothes lines with billowing printed fabrics that recalled handmade clothes and wash days from a bygone with a serious twist.

Fabric Paintings by Anya Kielar installed in Pop Up 1 Montauk. Photo by Pat Rogers.

July Group Show at Southampton Center

Southampton Center opens its doors for the first time this season with back-to-back group shows that presented contemporary art with an environment connection. The second of these exhibitions knocked me out. The show was made up of a series of installations that were connected to either the Hamptons specifically or water, in general. Both summer shows were curated by Zannah Mass of Brooklyn. She is the founder and director of Red Engine Creative.

It was impossible to have a favorite piece–each installation was a winner.

Walking through the new art venue, visitors were created by Aurora Robson’s dangling plastic installations that conjured suspended jellyfish or deep-sea creatures and then encountered Tempest by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, which was an oversized paper installation that conjured a Moby Dick-sized wave and directly inspired (and made for) the Hamptons.

Continuing onward, visitors encountered the immersive (and imaginative) water world created by the video and mixed media work Water Will Be Here by Eric Corriel.

Once outside the Southampton Center, visitors could discover the subtle sound installation positioned in a shrubbery in the garden by artist Krista Dragomer. Where the Wild Things Were tied bird twitters to cell phone songs and was inspired by Hamptons wildlife (both human and birds). The site-specific interactive eight-channel sound installation featured interactive programming by Bob Pritchard.

RELATED: “Summer Art Memories” by Pat Rogers.

“Water Will Be Here” by Eric Corriel. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“Jack Youngerman: Black & White” at LongHouse Reserve

Walking among black and then white sculptures by Jack Youngerman was wonderful. Each work conjured the sensation of being around thick folded paper that towered yet bent gracefully by some twist of magic. The “two rooms” of installed sculpture complimented the manicured grounds of LongHouse and the color block experience was heightened by the backdrop of green.

Sculpture by Jack Youngerman installed at LongHouse Reserve.

Other exhibitions on my list include two separate installations by Aurora Robson. The first installation was exhibited at Silas Marder Gallery and the second at the Southampton Center. Sited performance art during the Watermill Center benefit (and Open House) was another favorite. So was the group show “Women Painting Women” at RJD Gallery.

SANDRA HALE SCHULMAN

Grant Monahan - Outeast Gallery

Grant Monahan's solo exhibition “View From the Window” doesn’t get any more Hamptons than this. A Long Island native, Monahan spends his summers in his family’s Ditch Witch beach food truck. He started taking pictures of the diverse characters that came to his tunnel vision window, and soon had a juicy slice of what makes up the East End – everyone from millionaire artists to little kids to the Rasta guy. Monahan held a Kickstarter campaign to help with printing and framing and is also publishing a book of the series.

Says Monahan: “The service window of the Ditch Witch served as a pseudo photo booth, and allowed for the subjects to open up easily because many were already familiar with me and the surroundings. This project is my attempt at capturing the simplicity and beauty of Montauk, and all I have ever known.”

"Julian Schnabel" by Grant Monahan.

"Poets and Painters" - Permanent Collection Exhibition at Parrish Art Museum

The newly installed Poets and Painters works culled from the Parrish’s permanent collection has a particular standout – a painting/poem called Oriane by Darragh Park (July 24, 1939-April 17, 2009) of a sweet faced dog.

This American artist was perhaps best known for his book cover illustrations, but Park painted landscapes and cityscapes and was the literary executor of the estate of Pulitzer-prize winning poet James Schuyler. Combining one of Schulyer’s poems with a portrait produced a piece that looks like a journal entry, the soul of this supine canine shines through as he basks on the sunny porch of a house.

"Aph poem" by James Schuyler. Oil on paper, 38 x 29 inches.

MIKE SOLOMON

Staying concise, Mike Solomon presented a list of six favorite shows without further comment. All of the artists in his selections are / were based in the Hamptons. In nearly all cases, Solomon reviewed the exhibitions for Hamptons Art Hub.

Solomon's picks are: “John Chamberlain: It Ain’t Cheap” at The Dan Flavin Art Institute; “Sydney Albertini: Stuffed and Other Feelings” at ILLE Arts; “Charlotte Park: The 1950s” at Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center; "Chuck Close: Recent Works” at Guild Hall; Nicolas Carone's exhibition “The East Hampton Years: Paintings from the 1950s” at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center and “Of Mees and Mim” featuring the art of Marcie Honerkamp and Adrienne C. Mim at Ashawagh Hall.

"Parade" by Charlotte Park.

NOTE: This story was compiled by Pat Rogers with each writer contributing to their specific section.

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Have a favorite exhibition presented in the Hamptons in 2013? Let us know about it! Email your favorite show and why it was your top pick to [email protected].

The deadline for submissions is January 14, 2014. We'll publish a list of exhibitions selected by our readers at HamptonsArtHub.com by January 31, 2014. Please include your name and location (town, state and country) with your submission.

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RELATED: “2013 In Review: History & Location Combine in Contemporary Art Exhibitions" by Pat Rogers.

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