5 Must-See East End Art Shows, May 15-17

East End art events and exhibitions are popping up all over the Hamptons and North Fork, but it’s not always easy to see them all. Here are our top five must-see art shows to see this weekend, May 15–17.

Use the exhibitions below to start your local art adventure, then visit our online events calendar at events.danspapers.com and find many more options to carve your own path through our cultural landscape.

1. East End Collected at Southampton Arts Center (illustrated above)
25 Jobs Lane, Southampton, 631-283-0967, southamptoncenter.org
This large, eclectic group show reflects artist and exhibition curator Paton Miller’s vision of this area as an ideal environment for artists to create work. The East End has a long tradition of fostering creative talent and continues to serve as a home for artists—as described by Miller, the region provides artists with the freedom to remain meditative, given the natural surroundings, while granting them the opportunity to receive feedback from an ever-growing artistic community. A great picture of the state of local art on the East End.

2. Jonathan Beer | Memory Palace at Tripoli Gallery Southampton
30A Jobs Lane, Southampton, 631-377-3715, tripoligallery.com
Jonathan Beer’s first solo exhibition at Tripoli Gallery Southampton is an immersive environment of paintings, sculpture and installation elements using a mix of traditional and unexpected materials. The result is a contemplative selection of works that play daringly with expressive painterly applications, kitsch, religion and advertising and landscape tropes that are sure to get viewers thinking and talking about what they see and feel—be it humor, nostalgia or longing. The exhibition will be on view through May 25.

Also don’t miss Tripoli Gallery East Hampton‘s last weekend of Felix Bonilla Gerena’s For Lisa. 87 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, 631-324-0149.

3. 77th Annual Artists Members Exhibition at Guild Hall
158 Main Street in East Hampton. Call 631-324-0806, guildhall.org
Now in its 77th year, the Guild Hall Artist Members Exhibition is considered by many to be the opening of the art season on the East End. Guild Hall’s exhibition is the oldest non-juried museum exhibition on Long Island and one of the few non-juried exhibitions still offered. This lively and vibrant show features works in a variety of media from more than 400 of Guild Hall’s artist members. Winner of the Top Honors award receives a solo exhibition in Guild Hall’s Spiga Gallery.

4. Scott Bluedorn Message on a Bottle at Greenport Harbor Brewing
234 Carpenter Street, Greenport, 631-477-1100, haborbrewing.com
Features sketches that led up to the brewery’s surreal new labels on their recently released bottled beer, this show will also include prints of East Hampton artist Scott Bluedorn’s original label art, design sketches and other works unrelated to the labels. Bluedorn is one of the East End’s artists on the rise. Go now and and get in on his work before the world catches up. The exhibition will be view through July 20. A special artist reception with Bluedorn is scheduled for Saturday, May 16th from 6-9 p.m.

5. Chuck Close Photographs at the Parrish Art Museum
279 Montauk Highway, Water Mill, 631-283-2118, parrishart.org
This comprehensive survey explores how Chuck Close—perhaps one of the most important figures in contemporary art—has stretched the boundaries of photographic means, methods, and approaches. The photographic origin of each Close painting is well known; however, Close’s exploration of the medium extends far beyond the use of photographs as a programmatic tool. For the first time in his extensive exhibition history, this project delves into the full range of his photographic works, presenting some 90 images spanning 1964 to the present, ranging from straightforward black and white portraits to monumentally scaled, composite Polaroids to the intimately scaled daguerreotypes.