The Art Scene

By Janet Goleas

The Figure At Surface Library
    Seven artists present interpretations of the human form in “Figuratively Speaking,” an exhibit of drawings, paintings, photography, and sculpture, which opened Saturday at the Surface Library Gallery in Springs. The show, curated by James Kennedy, connects the divergent artistry of Eunice Golden, Abby Abrams, Ann Brandeis, Thomas J. Shelford, Barbara Groot, Richard Macdonald, and Jerry Schwabe, whose works range in focus from the classical tradition to aspects of social activism.

    The feminist movement provided a backdrop for Ms. Golden’s 1970s series, “Garden of Delights,” in which she frankly examined the sexuality of the male form. Ms. Golden’s work has been exhibited widely and is included in the Elizabeth Sackler Collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

    Sculptures by Mr. Schwabe evoke the sinewy elegance of a Degas ballerina, and Mr. Shelford’s sensitive treatment of the human form recalls an Ingres portrait.

    Photographs by Ms. Brandeis, who recently received several Lucie awards at the International Photography Awards, are included, along with Ms. Abrams’s treatment of the figure, which reveals both personality and a sense of place.         The show is on view through Nov. 2.

Rizzie Rules At Spanierman Modern
    Paintings, collages, and works on paper by Dan Rizzie will be featured at Spanierman Modern in New York City. The exhibit opens next Thursday.

    Mr. Rizzie, whose signature style hovers between abstraction and representation, employs imagery from English botanical studies, antique books and lettering, ornamental ironwork, and all forms of graphic design to create works that are distinctly reductive yet filled with flourish at the same time.

    The artist, a resident of Sag Harbor, uses eclectic techniques to impart a sense of premature aging to his works, including layers of newspaper, wax, and dirt, and mixing coffee grounds into his paints.

    A catalog by Robert Hughes, the art critic at Time magazine and author of several acclaimed books, will be available.

    The exhibit can be seen through Nov. 15.

Flower Power At East End Books
    East End Books in East Hampton will present “Contemporary Botanical Artists,” an exhibit based on selected limited-edition prints by several artists, Carolyn Cappello, Libby Kyer, Margaret Best, and Rose Pellicano, among others.

    The show, mounted in conjunction with the publication of “Today’s Botanical Artists” by Cora B. Marcus and Libby Kyer, celebrates new traditions in plant portraits that include digital imagery, colored backgrounds, photorealism, and macro-photo flower portraiture. These new approaches to botanical art have reinvigorated the considerable energy that drives this field.   

    The show opens Saturday and is on view through Oct. 30.

Poetry and Minimalism At Hampton Road Gallery
    Abstract paintings by Barbara Press are on view at Hampton Road Gallery in Southampton through next Thursday. The show includes mixed media, collage, and works on paper. The title of each piece is based on the first lines of poetry of Emily Dickinson. The works use limited color and pared-down forms, inviting a visual exploration of a decidedly minimalist structure.

    One of the founders of Graphic Eye Gallery in Port Washington, Ms. Press has been included in exhibits at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut, the Heckscher Museum in Huntington, and the National Arts Club in New York City, among others.

Kluglein Wins Best in Show
    Karen Kluglein, a watercolorist, won best in show honors at the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Horticultural Society of New York’s annual international juried exhibit. Two of her paintings, “Paperwhite” and “Autumn Oak Leaves,” were among 40 artworks selected for an exhibit showcasing the evolving field of botanical art.

    Both works, painted on calfskin vellum, sold soon after the show opened on Sept. 17. They will be on view through Nov. 25 at the Gallery at the Horticultural Society’s headquarters at 148 West 37th Street in Manhattan.

    Concurrently, Ms. Kluglein will exhibit her watercolor painting “St. George” at New York’s National Arts Club through Wednesday. A lifelong resident of the East End, the artist learned an appreciation for the natural world from her late mother, June Klug­lein, also an artist.

Pornography of Consumerism At Merge Gallery
    Emanuela Gardner, an East Hampton artist, has located her muse at the juncture of the visual commotion and social complexity of New York’s legendary Times Square.

    An exhibit of her work, “The New Times Square, The Pornography of Global Media,” will open at Merge Gallery in New York City next Thursday. Ms. Gardner has her eye on the lost Time Square as it slowly relinquishes its former glory and grit to international media conglomerates, fast-food restaurants, and upscale hotel chains. Her subversive photographs depict rampant consumerism, which the artist sees as a threat to the cultural history of Times Square.

    A reception for the artist will be held next Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m., and the show can be seen through Nov. 22.

Bonne Nuit Hosts Sylwia Pydych
    An exhibit of works by Sylwia Pydych will be held on Sunday at the Bonne Nuit boutique in East Hampton from 7 to 9 p.m.

    A figurative artist, Ms. Pydych is a recent graduate of the Colorado Academy of Art in Boulder. A native of Poland, the artist has studied with Ron Hicks, Robert Liberace, Hung Nian Zhang, and David Leffel. She cites classical artists such as John Singer Sargent, Andres Zorn, and Rodin, as major influences. This is her first East Coast exhibit.

Gornik Landscapes
    On Friday, Oct. 17, the Danese Gallery in Manhattan will launch a new exhibit of works by April Gornik, a landscape painter who lives in Sag Harbor. The artist, known for her visceral landscapes, shifted her focus earlier this year from the turbulent skies and diminishing vistas of the East End to the African wilderness, desert terrain, and luscious plains typical of that country. Ms. Gornik attributes this shift to her concerns about species extinction and biodiversity.

    A reception for the artist will be held next Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., and the show will be on view through Nov. 15.

Longmire Keeps Time At Seaport Museum
    At the South Street Seaport Museum’s Melville Gallery in New York City, the exhibit “Keeping Time in Sag Harbor — The Other Port of New York” by Stephen Longmire will open tomorrow and can be seen through Jan. 4, 2009.

    Inspired by the work of William Wallace Tooker, a 19th-century Sag Harbor historian and photographer, Mr. Longmire, a North Haven resident, undertook a photo survey of historic houses and landmarks in the village, then compiled his photographs for the exhibit, which was on display at the Whaling Museum last year.

    The show of large-format color photographs explores the ties, past and present, between New York’s historic ports of entry. Mr. Longmire’s photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the country, including Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography, Guild Hall, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

1960s Algiers By George Balasses
    Balasses House Antiques, a fixture in Amagansett since 1962, will present an exhibit of photographs by George Balasses. Mr. Balasses has lived on Fresh Pond Road for over 60 years. He and his wife, Teda, who died this year, also kept a “summer home” on Outlook Avenue in Springs.

    Mr. Balasses took the photographs in the 1960s. They depict “life on the Casbah of Algiers,” one of many places the couple took in during their travels. The legendary hillside quarter of Algiers, a web of mysterious alleys and cul-de-sacs, attracted artists, writers, and photographers, such as Bruno Barbey and Nicolas Tikhomiroff.

    The show opens Saturday and will be on view through Oct. 30.

Art of Politics At Ashawagh Hall
    “War & Peace . . . Just in Time for the Election,” a group show at Ashawagh Hall in Springs curated by Karyn Mannix, brings together a roster of South Fork artists “speaking their minds” about the country’s current political turmoil and its involvement in the war.

    The open call put out by Ms. Mannix drew an enthusiastic response from artists: Abby Abrams, Annette Heller, Carlos Ferrer, Catherine Silver, Craig Banks, Frank Sofo, Gabriele Raacke, Geralyne Lewandowski, Gerry Giliberti, James DeMartis, Joe Eschenberg, Len Bernard, M.E.L., Maeera Mougin, Margaret Weissbach, Maria Pessino, Mariann Megna, Marilyn Stevenson, Michael Knigin, Molly Weiss, Monica Banks, Rosa Hanna Scott, Rosalind Brenner, Ruth Nasca, Setha Low, Steve Romm, Susan Rockford, Tom LaGrassa, and Trish Franey.

    An opening reception will be held Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m., and the show is on view through Monday.

Charles Cowles At the Parrish
    Charles Cowles, a gallery owner, collector, and former curator whose art career coincided with photography’s struggle for acceptance as art, will give a talk about his personal collection and the many photographers he has met over the years. The talk will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton.

    Mr. Cowles’s interest in photography emerged when he was an intern working in the editorial offices of Look magazine. He began collecting when he became chief curator of art at the Seattle Art Museum in 1975.

    Eventually, his collection came to incorporate works by such artists as Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, William Klein, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol.

    His talk is being given in conjunction with an exhibit, “Modern Photographs: The Machine, the Body, and the City: Selections From the Charles Cowles Collection,” which can be seen at the Parrish through Nov. 30. Admission to the lecture costs $10, $5 for Parrish members.