Those seeking respite from frenetic Hamptons crowds would do well to repair to East Marion where independent curator Bob Nickas has organized the fifth iteration of Martos Gallery’s seasonal East End exhibition. An extravaganza of contemporary art situated in and around some 10 acres of lush, green landscape on the North Fork, Martos Gallery's “Another, Once Again, Many Times More” opened on July 12 and remains on view through Sept. 1, 2014.

The property, owned by New York gallerist Jose Martos and his wife, artist Mary Servane, is comprised of woodlands and open meadows, various outbuildings, and the couple’s summer home: a 19th century Victorian that serves as ground zero for a broad selection of art works. Flanked by Dam Pond and Orient Bay, the site alone is something of a rural paradise. Now combined with the innovations and works of over 70 artists, this will be considered the season’s “must-see” exhibition.

This year, Nickas split the responsibility for curating the show: Nickas and Virginia Overton curated the outdoor installations; in the house, Walead Beshty and Kelley Walker organized the ground floor; Carol Bove was in charge of the second floor; and Ryan Foerster selected artists  to be shown in the garage and cellar. Each component installation has its own sense of aesthetic logic, with plums tucked inside closets, in the sky, among the copses and all throughout the geography. 

Anchored at the entrance, three sculptural installations augur the visual bonanza to come. Jim Kanter and Lisa Ward’s …above water is a meditation on diminishing water supplies and the advent of climate change. Three saltbox homes float above ground level, each one elevated by a single steel rod, like a cluster of aviaries. The houses are too high for humans to reach and too big for birds, and they seem to hover as if whirled into flight. 

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"...above water" by Jim Kanter and Lisa Ward, 2014. Wood, steel, dimensions variable.

"...above water" by Jim Kanter and Lisa Ward, 2014. Wood, steel, dimensions variable.

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Nearby, Kelly Parr’s Full Scale Model is an accordion gateway, its translucent rib work illuminated by the sun. Holding court in the near distance, Lisa Beck’s Threshold frames the house and the phenomenon of sight with a combination of industrial finesse and skillful observation. Like an upturned Hoover Dam, the u-shaped structure acts as a portal through which it seems a wholly different experience awaits. Its cutaway rimmed in mirror, the doorway seems to announce there is a thin line between here and there. To the east, a cluster of Beck’s mirror-finish spheres reinforce the other-worldly atmosphere.

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"Full Scale Model" by Kelly Parr, 2014. Steel and cast plastic, dimensions variable. Photo by Janet Goleas.

"Full Scale Model" by Kelly Parr, 2014. Steel and cast plastic, dimensions variable. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Threshold" by Lisa Beck, 2014. Wood, oil paint and mirror-finish stainless steel, 120 x 120 x 11 inches.

"Threshold" by Lisa Beck, 2014. Wood, oil paint and mirror-finish stainless steel, 120 x 120 x 11 inches.

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"These VI" by Lisa Beck, 2012. Stainless steel and aluminum rods, 61.5 x 38 inches.

"These VI" by Lisa Beck, 2012. Stainless steel and aluminum rods, 61.5 x 38 inches.

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The gateway to last summer’s exhibition was deftly supplied by Jason Metcalf, whose signage at the entrance referenced the Orient Focus People, the area’s original inhabitants. His homage continues this year with Orient Focus People Artifacts, an immense vitrine in which carved rocks and hammered brass amulets symbolize the earliest forms of communication and trade that might have existed here. This enchanting, ongoing body of work presupposes a fully developed cultural life dating to 1000 B.C. with a dreamy National Park Service sort of façade.  

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"Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet.

"Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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Detail of "Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet.

Detail of "Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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Detail of "Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet.

Detail of "Orient Focus People Artifacts" by Jason Metcalf, 2014. Wood, brass, copper, engraves stones and seashells, sea glass, 8 x 8 x 8 feet. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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All throughout the grounds, visitors are bewitched by works that spring from trees or seem to sprout from the ground. Chuck Nanney’s Is It My Body? blossoms like fungi from the wall of a tall tree; Greely Myatt’s Pie in the Sky floats in mid-air like a glider; Wayne Gonzales’s Untitled converts the wall of a shed into a dense Sherwood forest; and The Foolish by Ugo Rondinone stands like a sentry at the cusp of Dam Pond.

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"Is It My Body?" by Chuck Nanney, 2014. Ccrylic on Birch plywood, 9 x 11.5 inches.

"Is It My Body?" by Chuck Nanney, 2014. Ccrylic on Birch plywood, 9 x 11.5 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Pie in the Sky" by Greely Myatt, 2008 - 2014. Steel and air, 4 x 14 x 7 inches.

"Pie in the Sky" by Greely Myatt, 2008 - 2014. Steel and air, 4 x 14 x 7 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"The Foolish" by Ugo Rondinone. Bluestone and steel, 75 x 21 x 18 inches.

"The Foolish" by Ugo Rondinone. Bluestone and steel, 75 x 21 x 18 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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The residence itself—transformed into an ersatz museum of sorts—houses works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Marcel Broodthaers, Martin Kippenberger and Harry Smith, as well as a bevy of artists who are still very much alive. The show’s title, “Another, Once Again, Many Times More,” is a tribute to Hudson, the beloved director of Feature Inc., a champion of artists, whose death earlier this year sent shock waves through the New York art community. His presence is somehow manifest here, among these artistic leaps of faith, innovations, independent projects and expansive aesthetics. The concept of presence/absence, for example, is made palpable by Stephen Prina in Untitled/Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet 235 of 556; ‘Bob’, Chien Griffon (‘Bob,’ a Rough-haired Terrier), as it hugs and does not hug Wade Guyton’s Poster.

Guyton\Walker, the collaborative New York artist team, nearly bisect the dining and sun rooms with a long table abstraction that slices across the ground floor. Perched at the far end of Halfzebra_Red_Table, a single crushed Coke can bobs inside a clear acrylic cube, preserved in perpetuity. Hans Peter Feldmann’s installation of silkscreen prints, Sontagsbilder (Sunday Images), dominates the living room. Upstairs, the works range from seashell arrangements to neon clam shells to shells packaged in brown boxes, ready for UPS.  Batik is a rollicking assortment: glittery, stripy, fuzzy fabric shards by Katherine Bernhardt and Youssef Jdia—a luscious and painterly diversion, along with other textile collages by these collaborators. 

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"Halfzebra_Red_Table" by Guyton Walker, 2012. Table, 94 x 30 x 12 inches.

"Halfzebra_Red_Table" by Guyton Walker, 2012. Table, 94 x 30 x 12 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Halfzebra_Red_Table" by Guyton Walker, 2012. Table, 94 x 30 x 12 inches.

"Halfzebra_Red_Table" by Guyton Walker, 2012. Table, 94 x 30 x 12 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Sonntagsbilder (Sunday Images)" by Hans Peter Feldmann, 1976-77. 16 screenprints from portfolio of 21, overall approx 6 x 16 feet.

"Sonntagsbilder (Sunday Images)" by Hans Peter Feldmann, 1976-77. 16 screenprints from portfolio of 21, overall approx 6 x 16 feet. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Batik" by Katherine Bernhardt and Youssef Jdia, 2013. Fabric on canvas, 72 x 72 inches.

"Batik" by Katherine Bernhardt and Youssef Jdia, 2013. Fabric on canvas, 72 x 72 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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Janice Turner’s complex tapestry, Labyrinth, splays a long umbilical cord across the cement floor of the garage, while Chip Hughes’s hypnotic, ornamental abstractions seem to vibrate on either side. The vault-like cellar—awash in dim light, water tanks and paint cans—houses some of the most beguiling works in the exhibit including Shawn Kuruneru’s Untitled (East Marion), a rectangle of loose ink beads resembling a prayer rug, and a stretchy square of incremental LED lights by Lukas Geronimas called Custom-Framed Dust Drawing.  

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"Labyrinth" by Janice Turner, 2014. Tapestry, 238 x 64 inches.

"Labyrinth" by Janice Turner, 2014. Tapestry, 238 x 64 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Untitled" by Chip Hughes, 2014. Oil on canvas, 17 x 13 inches.

"Untitled" by Chip Hughes, 2014. Oil on canvas, 17 x 13 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Untitled (East Marion)" by Shawn Kuruneru, 2014. Ink beads on floor, dimensions variable.

"Untitled (East Marion)" by Shawn Kuruneru, 2014. Ink beads on floor, dimensions variable. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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"Custom-Framed Dust Drawing" by Lukas Gerimonias, 2014. Wood, plexiglas, LED strip light, rubber, dust, fasteners, 58.5 x 37.25 inches.

"Custom-Framed Dust Drawing" by Lukas Gerimonias, 2014. Wood, plexiglas, LED strip light, rubber, dust, fasteners, 58.5 x 37.25 inches. Photo by Janet Goleas.

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Rochelle Goldberg’s ceramic vessels, not yet titled, appear timeless, as if they had been sitting on this warped basement shelf since time immemorial, a fitting finale to this invigorating exhibition, which remains on view through September 1.

BASIC INFO: “Another, Once Again, Many Times More” remains on view through September 1, 2014 at Martos Gallery's North Fork pop up, 12395 Main Road, East Marion, NY 11393. www.martosgallery.com.

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