The second annual "Salon on the Lawn" celebrates the arrival of summer with a benefit party and curated show of emerging artists over Memorial Day Weekend. The fun takes place on Saturday, May 26, 2018 from 5 to 7 p.m. and features live music, open bar, passed food and a special outdoor art installation by three artists.
Admission is free for first-time 2018 LongHouse members; $50 for established members and $75 for non-members. In case of rain, the event will be held on Monday, May 28, 2018. The outdoor exhibition event benefits LongHouse Reserve's programs and ongoing commitment to art, horticulture, design and emerging artists.
Presented and organized by LongHouse Reserve's Junior Council, this year's theme “The Curator’s Collection” is curated by Southampton gallerist Tripoli Patterson who selected art by Benjamin Keating, Quentin Curry and Aakash Nihalani.
The trio of artists all share the medium of sculpture but their art is remarkably diverse from each other. “I wanted to have artists’ works that didn’t compete with each other,” Patterson said in a recent interview, adding that works by these three artists “live well together, while also having a completely different feeling.”
Brooklyn native Benjamin Keating uses metal-casting to create furniture-inspired art. He reimagines such ordinary household items as dining chairs and frames by assembling them in stacks as broken pieces. Keating’s bronze renderings of colliding objects from the home evoke an almost post-apocalyptic living room.
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Benjamin Keating, Artist Studio Installation, 2017. Photo by Robert Banat, Courtesy of the Artist and Tripoli Gallery Southampton, © Benjamin Keating.
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Quentin Curry, who lives and works in New York City and on the East End, explores a freehand approach with painting and mark making in his sculptural work. Inspired by ancient pictographs, he etches, draws and splashes bright paints on natural forms, such as leaves or rocks, that he constructs from foam.
“Curry has a primal feeling to his work,” Patterson said, “There is simplicity in his rocks … they don’t interfere with Keating’s work; they’re so different.”
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"Prometheus" by Quentin Curry, 2016-2017. Foam, polyurethane, saw dust, gesso, acrylic, and spray paint. 50 x 50 x 50 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Tripoli Gallery Southampton, © Quentin Curry.
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"Bounty" by Quentin Curry, 2017. Foam, polyurethane, saw dust, and spray paint. 40 x 40 x 40 inches. Courtesy of the Artist and Tripoli Gallery Southampton, © Quentin Curry.
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New York City native Aakash Nihalani was awarded a residency at the Willem de Kooning studio in East Hampton in 2012. It was at that time Patterson was first introduced to the artist’s minimalist and geometric style. Nihalani is a street artist by origin; his street installations are identifiable from strips of fluorescent tape he uses to playfully add dimension and movement to two-dimensional surfaces. His shapes also extend to canvas, employing mixed-media such as wood, magnets, and corrugated plastic.
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Rendering for "Over" by Aakash Nihalani, 2018. Installation at LongHouse Reserve. Courtesy of the Artist and Tripoli Gallery Southampton, © Aakash Nihalani.
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Nihalani visited LongHouse to directly explore and interact with the landscape that will inform the original art he is creating for this year’s Salon. “Find the space, then go and attack,” Patterson said of Nihalani’s approach. “He’s the most spontaneous.”
In 1991, designer Jack Lenor Larsen turned his home, collections, 16 acres of property and sculpture garden into LongHouse Reserve: a unique cultural institution open to members and to the public for a small fee. Part home, part immersive experience, LongHouse invites visitors to engage with art in all its forms, most notably at the Reserve in sculpture and horticulture. Permanent outdoor installations are on display throughout, including work by Willem de Kooning and Buckminster Fuller, alongside temporary exhibits.
The curated grounds of LongHouse Reserves presents a unique opportunity for curators and artists to present art that intersects with sophisticated and nuanced landscape design.
“I’m obviously limited in a gallery, and to showcase the three artists’ work in such a beautiful setting is why I was so excited,” Patterson said of the opportunity to serve as the curator for this year’s Salon on the Lawn. “I think LongHouse is the most beautiful setting I’ve ever seen.”
Still, curating at LongHouse is no easy feat. “I am going to create the exhibit based on the landscape and think about the location and what is the best way for their work to be shown,” Patterson said. He added that it’s “much harder to plan something outside versus in a white walled gallery. The backdrop is Jack Larsen’s view. To take that on is a challenge.”
For Patterson, showing Keating, Curry and Nihalani’s work in tandeum with "incredible sculptures and sculptors from the past” is part of a bigger story of contemporary art, he said. “For me it’s about learning from the past and also being involved with the unfolding of what’s to come in the future. I want to put my energy toward work that’s everlasting, a story that will continued to be told way after we’re gone.”
Patterson has a clear objective for those who turn out to see this year’s Salon on the Lawn. “I hope they can take away that there’s a way for everybody to be a part of the art community out here,” he said. "LongHouse shows and encourages youth that the things we create in our minds can come to life.”
Quentin Curry and Aakash Nihalani’s work will remain on view through Memorial Day Weekend. Benjamin Keating’s installation continues through June 16, 2018.
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BASIC FACTS: "Salon on the Lawn" will be held on Saturday, May 26, 2018 from 5 to 7 p.m. and features live music by Hot Club of Montauk, open bar, passed food and a special outdoor art installation by three emerging artists. Admission is free for first-time LongHouse members who have joined in 2018 prior to the event; $50 for established members and $75 for non-members. Tickets can be purchased here. To become a LongHouse member, click here.
LongHouse Reserve is located at 133 Hands Creek Rd, East Hampton, NY 11937. Rain date is Monday, May 28, 2018. Sculpture by Benjamin Keating will be on view at LongHouse Reserve May 26 to June 16, 2018; works by Quentin Curry and Aakash Nihalani will be on view May 26 and 27. www.longhouse.org
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Dakota Arkin Cafourek is a member of LongHouse Reserve's Junior Council and is a staff writer for Hamptons Art Hub.
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