Guild Hall Opens Three Art Exhibitions This Weekend

A trio of new art exhibitions open at East Hampton’s Guild Hall this Saturday, February 24 and run through Sunday, March 25. A private, members-only opening for all three shows is scheduled for Sunday, February 25 from 2–4 p.m. The exhibitions are free to visit, thanks to grants from BNB and Landscape Details.

In the Woodhouse Gallery, East Hampton–based artist Alice Hope’s installation of site-specific works (see above) featuring Minimalist materials—can tabs, ball chain, steel shot, neodymium magnets, Tyvek parts associated with industrial/consumer functions. The artist’s found objects are transformed into opulent large scale works through repetitious pattern. Numeracy looms large in these installations—work hours, number of parts, weight, distance—creating a hybrid aesthetic. Hope will be giving a gallery talk on Saturday, March 24 at 2 p.m.

Sculptures, prints and a major new work created specifically for this exhibition by the Japanese artist Hiroyuki Hamada will be on view in the Spiga Gallery sponsored in part by Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, with additional support from Bookstein Projects. This show is an exploration of conflicting textures, contrasting layers, light and space that find narrative as ethereal non-representational forms, which juxtapose nature and science. These three-dimensional works further engage the viewer by contrasting smooth and manipulated surface layers. Hamada will give a gallery talk on Saturday, March 10 at 2 p.m.

Meanwhile, in the Moran Gallery, artist Bryan Hunt has curated the first in a new series of exhibitions in which invited collection artists select artworks from Guild Hall’s permanent collection and then work with the Museum’s curatorial staff to organize innovative shows, which aim to encourage critical thinking about the interpretation and installation of the works.

This exhibition, Toward Abstraction, features paintings and works on paper that demonstrate the path an artist takes from representation to abstraction. Spanning genres and generations, Hunt’s choices offer the viewer an opportunity to examine the process of abstraction. While some artists approach this undertaking reductively, distilling the subject to its essence, others choose a more expressionistic path, or even a conceptual one. Some straddle multiple methodologies, defying categorization altogether. Using figure and landscape as bookends, the selection follows the formal trajectory from these foundations “toward abstraction.” Jess Frost, Associate Curator/Registrar of Permanent Collection, will give a gallery talk Sunday, March 18 to discuss the inspiration behind this new series, and give insights into the selection process.

Guild Hall is located at 158 Main Street in East Hampton. 631-324-0806, guildhall.org