With 2018 nearing completion, it's a perfect time to remember the year. Readers turned out in record numbers to read Hamptons Art Hub's art reviews, art fair coverage, exhibition previews and feature stories.

We've compiled the most popular 2018 stories with readers and present them for your reading pleasure. All stories on this year's list were written and published in 2018.

15.  ART REVIEW: Elizabeth Osborne Solves Riddle of Abstract/Figurative Balance

Elizabeth Osborne’s Self Portrait in Studio (1965), at the season-opening exhibition at Danese Corey Gallery in Chelsea, does not look at all like the 50-year-old canvas its label affirms. For a variety of reasons—not the least of which is how the work harmonizes with the more recent paintings that comprise the rest of “Elizabeth Osborne: People and Places”—this early painting appears as fresh as if it were completed last week. Its vibrant and pristine condition, a credit to Osborne’s skill as a builder of painted surfaces, is impressive, but so too is the painting’s very contemporary feel.

Despite the show’s retrospective reach, all the work on view sings with one voice, the voice of a painter concerned for decades with how pictures are constructed, how they hold together visually. With so many today struggling with the abstract/figurative riddle, “Elizabeth Osborne: People and Places” advances the work of an artist that suggests the secret to solving this perennial modernist puzzle is to avoid overthinking it.

Click here to continue reading the review by Peter Malone.

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"Maine Portrait" by Elizabeth Osborne, 2016. Oil on canvas diptych, 54 x 54 inches. Courtesy of Danese/Corey and the artist.

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14.  ART REVIEW: Artist Collaborative Spirit Infuses All Female Show on the North Fork

At Castello di Borghese Vineyard on the North Fork, a large window divides the entryway of the tasting room from a barn-like rear gallery. Currently obscuring the view through the glass is an artwork by Chamberlin Newsome that consists of a number of extracted book pages. Painted over messily in a mix of different colors, the pages hang suspended by paper clips from three tiers of thread. Titled The Host, and originally dating to 2017, this site-specific version of the work at the Cutchogue, NY vineyard was installed by artist-curator Kara Hoblin.

On entering the gallery the appropriation of religious iconography by this iteration of The Host becomes apparent, for its placement below a light-filled arched window and behind a table transforms the work into an altarpiece. That the double pages are arranged in three tiers, alluding to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, further emphasizes the installation’s devotional nature.

Click here to continue reading the art review by Sally Grant.

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Chamberlin-Book-Pages_Courtesy_Anne-Sherwood-Pundyk

"The Host" by Chamberlin Newsome, 2018. Installation View, Acrylic and Oil on Book Pages. Image courtesy of Anne Sherwood Pundyk.

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13.  Art Review: A Cy Twombly Odyssey of Pictorial Exploration at Gagosian

“In Beauty it is finished: Drawings 1951-2008,” the Cy Twombly exhibition currently on view at Gagosian on West 21st Street, is an appropriately expansive tribute to one of the great, and most abstruse, artists of post-war American abstraction.

A career-spanning installation, the show is presented in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Cy Twombly (1928-2011), and of the completion of the eight-volume Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings. To this end, the vastness of Gagosian’s 21st Street gallery is a fitting space in which to encounter the work of an artist deeply influenced by the storytelling richness of ancient epic and myth, and to be swept along on Twombly’s own odyssey of pictorial exploration.

Click here to continue reading the review by Sally Grant.

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CY TWOMBLY, "Untitled (In Beauty it is finished)," 1983 - 2002 (detail). Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book, 36 pages. Each page: 22 3/8 × 15 3/4 inches (56.8 × 40 cm). Collection Cy Twombly Foundation. © Cy Twombly Foundation. Courtesy Gagosian.

CY TWOMBLY, "Untitled In Beauty it is finished," 1983 - 2002 (detail). Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book, 36 pages. Each page: 22 3/8 × 15 3/4 inches (56.8 × 40 cm). Collection Cy Twombly Foundation. © Cy Twombly Foundation. Courtesy Gagosian.

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12.  CRITIC’S VIEW: Politics, Strangers & Art Not to Miss at Spring/Break 2018

Spring/Break Art Show returns to the former Condé Nast building in Midtown Manhattan for its 2018 edition. Even before gaining entrance to the elevators that whisk upward to the 22nd or 23rd floor where the art fair was held, it was easy to expect some weirdness. After all, unexpected experiences and unusual sensations are bound to happen when you're a Stranger in a Strange Land (to quote the title of the 1961 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein).

In general, the 2018 edition felt stronger than last year with variations on the theme to be found in every office and cubby that stretched across nearly every square inch of two floors, now filled with edgy contemporary art. Politics of national or international scales were prominent throughout the fair. And, yes, Donald Trump was either directly or indirectly referenced in multiple artist presentations.

Click here to continue reading an assessment of Spring/Break Art Show by Pat Rogers.

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Artwork by Argus Paul Curated by Valery Jung Estabrook at SPRING/BREAK 2018. Photo: Samuel Morgan Photography. Courtesy of Valery Jung Estabrook.

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11.  Art in Neon Lights Up the Neuberger Museum of Art

PURCHASE, NY—Neon gets its due as a medium for art in two exhibitions opening at the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College in Westchester, NY. Opening are "Stephen Antonakos: Proscenium" and "Bending Light: Neon Art 1965 to Now." Both exhibitions are on view from January 28 to June 24, 2018. 

"Bending Light: Neon Art 1965 to Now" presents the work of 12 artists who explore neon as material as well as their close collaboration with skilled glass-benders. The exhibition considers the line between commercial and fine art as well as examines the interplay among light, chemistry and artistic vision as artists experimented with the form.

Click here to continue reading the preview story by Hamptons Art Hub Staff.

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"Proscenium" by Stephen Antonakos, 2000. Neon and painted raceways, overall 20 feet 6 inches x 189 feet. Collection of the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY. Photo: Jim Frank.

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10.  Three Art Fairs Return to The Hamptons with Expanded Editions

Don't believe it when you hear there's only one art fair in The Hamptons this summer. There are actually three. Flying in the face of the notion that art collectors aren't buying enough art to support viable Hamptons art fairs, three art fairs are returning to present expanded editions.

The lineup is Market Art + Design (July 5 to 8, 2018); the Upstairs Art Fair (July 13 - 15, 2018) and The Bridge (September 14 - 16, 2018). Market Art + Design adds an additional 10 exhibitors for 2018, building upon last year's expansion. The more intimate Upstairs Art Fair and The Bridge have also both expanded for 2018 with Upstairs Art Fair boosting its gallery rooster from 12 to 14 and The Bridge doubling the number of exhibitors from 6 to 12 galleries.

Click here to continue reading the news story by Pat Rogers.

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Market Art + Design 2017. Courtesy of Market Art + Design.

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9.  ART REVIEW: Offbeat “Cheese Ball Challenge” in Southold Makes Art Lovers Smile, and Think

As a museum director and itinerant art critic, I hit openings all too often. The old joke about Andy Warhol being ready to go to any opening, any time, even the opening of a window, could be slapped on me as well. But I have never, in all my many years of occasionally feigning fascination in exchange for mooching a few glasses of wine, had more fun at an opening than on October 6, 2018 when the “Great Cheese Ball Challenge” pop-up show made its debut, complete with live music and its own theme song, at the Glen Hansen Studio in Southold, NY on the North Fork.

This utterly ridiculous group show of work by 17 East End artists, accompanied by a mini literary festival, was curated by Glen Hansen, a talented painter whose works are in The Met's collection and had recently hung in the Nassau County Museum during a trompe l’oeil show. The “Great Cheese Ball Challenge” show was presented in his spiffy, well-lit studio and featured a few of his works, including a genuinely terrific abstract painting, Chernobyl Cheese Ball, made under a nomme de plume, which reminded me of the work of Nicolas de Stael.

Click here to continue reading the art review by Charles A. Riley II.

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"Holy Cheese Ball!, Batman" by Adam Straus, 2018. Oil on brass leaf on plywood, 24 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

"Holy Cheese Ball!, Batman" by Adam Straus, 2018. Oil on brass leaf on plywood, 24 x 24 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

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8.  INFLUENCER: Rina Carvajal Is Remaking a Miami Museum, Inside and Out

Miami, FL—Miami's infamous traffic jams don't stop Rina Carvajal from forging connections with art.

"I'm super interested in public space and art that happens in the city," said Carvajal, executive director and chief curator of the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College (MOAD). She's currently presiding over a massive reset of the museum, which had been closed for a year. "I always feel like we don't have public squares here, where people can connect to meet each other. You do everything in a car."

Housed in downtown Miami's iconic 1925 Freedom Tower, MOAD reopened April 7, 2018 with ambitious exhibits and city-wide programs. Its 17,000 square feet of gallery space has been transformed, although that's not immediately apparent.

Click here to continue reading the feature story by Elisa Turner.

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Portrait of Rina Carvajal. © Amalia Caputo, 2009.

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7.  Paintings by Taylor White: A Stream of Consciousness Made Visible

Taylor Anton White's solo show in Bellport, Long Island began as an Instagram sighting. MARQUEE PROJECTS gallery director Mark Van Wagner noticed White's artwork online and decided to make a purchase. After a second art purchase, Van Wagner knew he had found an artist worth representing. The Virginia-based artist's second solo show with the Long Island gallery, "1991 Plymouth Voyager, Like New,” opened on July 28 and runs through August 26, 2018. Afterwards, his art becomes part of a group show G Gallery in Seoul. His work then travels to Berlin for a solo show at Galerie Kremers from September 26 to October 28, 2018.

"In 2016, I noticed his work on a social media art site," Van Wagner said in a recent telephone interview. "So I went ahead and bought a piece, and when it arrived I was so thrilled. It was so much better in person than what I'd seen online. So, I bought another one … I knew Taylor was one artist I wanted to snag."

Click here to continue reading the artist feature by Mary Gregory.

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"Mom Combs My Hair, Mom Buys Me Rustlers" by Taylor A. White. 2018 Acrylic, oil, charcoal, spray paint, airbrush, stitching on canvas, 61 x 65 inches. Photo by Mark Van Wagner.

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6.  Chelsea Hotel Doors of Famed Creatives Auctioned to Benefit City Harvest

If you ever wanted to own a piece of Chelsea Hotel history, now is your chance. On Thursday, April 12, 2018, an unusual auction takes place at Ricco/Maresca Gallery and Flowers Galleries in Chelsea, courtesy of Guernsey's. Collectors have the chance to acquire wood or metal doors that opened into rooms where famed artists, authors, musicians, actors and activists made their home.

There are 55 doors in the auction with around half connected to specific creative stars who live there. With a few doors leading into rooms occupied by more than one star, the list includes Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Janis Joplin, Tennessee Williams, Janis Joplin, Humphrey Bogart, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Bob Marley, Bon Jovi, Jack Kerouac, Dylan Thomas, Isabella Rossellini, Leonard Cohen, WEB Du Bois, Iggy Pop, Bette Davis, Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, Liam Neeson, Quentin Crisp, Joni Mitchell, and Herbert Huncke.

Click here to continue reading the auction story by Pat Rogers.

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Chelsea Door belonging to Jackson Pollock. Courtesy of Rubenstein Public Relations.

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5.  Tony Oursler Unveils New Video Work in October in Riverside Park

Tony Oursler debuts a larger-than-life video work in New York's Riverside Park on the Upper West Side of New York next month. Commissioned by Public Art Fund, Tear of the Cloud, 2018, will be projected onto the historic West 69th Street Transfer Bridge gantry, the Hudson River, and the surrounding landscape. The cumulative effective will be a dramatic visual and auditory experience inspired by what Oursler describes as the “the mnemonic effect of the river and the many intertwined tropes associated with the Hudson Valley region.”

On view from October 10 to 31, 2018 from 7 to 10 p.m. daily (except Mondays) in Riverside Park South, located between 68th and 70th streets near Pier I , Tear of the Cloud is an orchestrated, immersive work that will illuminate the park with a roving cast of characters and iconography, referencing the Hudson River School (the country’s first regional artistic movement which gave birth to the initial land preservation movement).

Click here to continue reading the preview story by Pat Rogers.

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"Tear of the Cloud" by Tony Oursler, 2018. Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Lisson Gallery, New York.

"Tear of the Cloud" by Tony Oursler, 2018. Courtesy of the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Lisson Gallery, New York.

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4.  Governors Island Art Fair Opens Labor Day Weekend, Presenting Installations & Solo Exhibitions

Governors Island Art Fair (GIAF) opens its 11th edition Labor Day Weekend, featuring a diverse range of emerging, lesser-known and mid-career artists that are both national and international. Opening Saturday, September 1, 2018, GIAF presents the work of hundreds of artists installed in eight historic homes on Colonels Row on Governors Island in New York. The art fair continues through September 30, 2018 and is open weekends only.

Each exhibiting artist is given an entire room or connective space to present their work. Presenting either immersive installations or mini-exhibitions, the dedicated space results in a fair where visitors can experience the distinct approach and techniques by each artist.

Click here to continue reading the art fair preview by Pat Rogers.

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"Paper Caves" by Samuelle Green, 2017. Installation Detail. Paper and wire, 2200 sq ft installation. Courtesy the artist and Governors Island Art Fair.

"Paper Caves" by Samuelle Green, 2017. Installation Detail. Paper and wire, 2200 sq ft installation. Courtesy the artist and Governors Island Art Fair.

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3.  Creativity & The Law: Collage and Fair Use under the Copyright Laws

Collage is by its very nature an assemblage, compilation or collection of forms to create a new whole. Oftentimes, artists will use an existing work or a portion of an existing work in their collage that may be protected by U.S. Copyright laws. In the case of previously existing works that are considered to be in the public domain, the artist is free to use that work without concern.

Works that are in the public domain are those that are no longer protected by copyright because the copyright expired. Copyright protection does not last forever, and the term of a copyright depends upon when it was first created. Anyone can use a work that is in the public domain without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.

Click here to continue reading the story by Kathryn Dalli of Twomey, Latham, Shea, Kelley, Dubin & Quartararo, LLP.

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Kathryn Dalli.

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2.  Have an Invite? The Bridge Car Show Presents Over 150 Rare Cars and an Intimate Art Fair

The Bridge car show returns to the private golf club in Bridgehampton, NY on Saturday, September 15, 2018, set on site of the historic Bridgehampton Race Circuit. Paying tribute to the club’s racing heritage, the invite-only event will present over 150 ground breaking cars as well as a few private planes for the invited to peruse. Growing from 100 cars displayed at last year's presentation, the car show is presented by Swiss watch manufacturer Richard Mille who will sponsor the elite event through 2020.

The only event of its kind, The Bridge (taking place at The Bridge golf club) quickly gained acceptance as a "must-attend" event among auto enthusiasts and automakers in the luxury market, some who are now launching new designs or choreograph special experiences at The Bridge. This includes Terrafugia who will demonstrate their new Transition prototype, the world’s first practical flying car, and Karma Automotive who unveils a new special edition, hand-painted Verbicky Art Car. Richard Mille will debut a never-before-seen limited edition watch for the Americas.

Click here to continue reading the story by Pat Rogers.

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The Bridge, 2018. Photograph by Robin Trajano. Courtesy of Douglas Elliman.

The Bridge, 2018. Photograph by Robin Trajano. Courtesy of Douglas Elliman.

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1.  ART REVIEW: Carnality and Culture, Part II: Jenny Saville at Gagosian

Two of the most important painters of the human figure working today are currently exhibiting new works at two of New York City’s powerhouse galleries. Both shows engage with the carnal body and with cultural memory and myth. This review, of Jenny Saville’s “Ancestors” at Gagosian in Chelsea, is being published in tandem with last week’s review of the Marlene Dumas “Myths & Mortals”exhibition at David Zwirner.

At the beginning of her novel “How to Be Both”—an inventive double tale that celebrates art’s potency and the layers of life—Scottish author Ali Smith includes an epigraph quoting Hannah Arendt:

“Although the living is subject to the ruin of the time, the process of decay is at the same time a process of crystallization, that in the depth of the sea, into which sinks and is dissolved what once was alive, some things ‘suffer a sea-change’ and survive in new crystallized forms and shapes that remain immune to the elements, as though they waited only for the pearl diver who one day will come down to them and bring them up into the world of the living –  ”

Click here to continue reading an art review by Sally Grant.

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"Vis and Ramin I" by Jenny Saville, 2018. Oil on canvas, 98 1/2 x 137 7/8 inches. © Jenny Saville. Photography by Mike Bruce. Courtesy Gagosian.

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