Artists Explore Path Unravelled

Iron Gate East presents its spring exhibition “Unravelled Beauty” on view now through June 17 at The Spur, located at 280 Elm Street in Southampton, with a special artist reception on Saturday, May 19, from 5 to 7 PM.

Southampton’s newest art exhibitor, described as “a gallery without walls,” features works by East Hampton artist Sydney Albertini alongside Brooklyn artists AM DeBrincat and Anthony Heinz May.

Albertini is a multi-media artist working in both 2D and 3D forms, using charcoal and oil for large drawings and quilted work in knitted pieces, textile sculptures, and weavings. DeBrincat combines oils and acrylic paints on canvas, tying in pieces of gold leaf, flash, and colored pencil. Heinz May’s unique artistic approach involves using dead trees, specifically dead ones and their waste.

The Independent sat down for a quick chat with each of the artists.

Sydney Albertini

What inspires your work?
My work is me. An essential output like talking. A constant narrative of thoughts, reactions to my surroundings, and feelings shaped by my aesthetics.

How did you become an artist?
There was no decision. Since the age of nine, I have always transformed and created to satisfy my eye. It is my full-time life, as well as working with others on special commercial projects.

Do you see yourself in any particular image you’ve created?
I see myself in every one of them. They are the record of an infinite slice of time and reaction that was.

Am Debrincat

What inspires your work?
So many things fold into my work and inspire it. I’m very interested in how we navigate our online lives versus our offline lives, and how these lives meet and merge.

I like to combine digital and analog media like pieces in a visual puzzle and use this language to examine how we create identity and a sense of self in the digital age.

What does ‘unravelled beauty’ mean to you?
I love this phrase because it’s so elastic, expansive, and open to interpretation.

My work deconstructs found images and reconstructs them into figures that examine what it means to live in our contemporary world. The process of unraveling images and spinning these parts into a new whole is central to my work.

Describe yourself in a single image.
Instead of expressing myself in one fixed image, I’m much more interested in images that express moods, mind-states, or momentary feelings.

I like images to read like poetry, with different viewers bringing their own interpretation to each piece based on their own personalities and experiences. I like the imagery to remain open to different interpretations.

Life motto?
An amazing mentor, who is an accomplished sculptor, once told me, “Fear living a life that’s not your own. That’s the one true mistake.” I’m so grateful that this piece of wisdom came into my life relatively early. Absolutely words to live by.

Anthony Heinz May

What inspires your work?
Trees have a high quality of existence and life. They provide so much for such a biodiverse range of species. I think people could learn a lot from trees and their natural cycles, but humans are largely losing touch with their own importance in cycles of nature on Earth.

The cliffs of constructed artificiality that makes up modern human existence separates us further from natural connections we once held. I think this is clinically problematic as it promotes collective amnesia and loss of nostalgia. This is key and inspirational for my visual art practice.

What does ‘unravelled beauty’ mean to you?
Nature is the only true beauty that exists. A beauty that appears to be unraveling. Catching those moments in time that depict unraveled beauty look to me like transitions from natural to the artificial.

The focus of nature repurposed from its decaying state should feel nostalgic but displayed in such a way it reveals the human condition as unraveled beauty.

“Unraveled Beauty” is on view seven days a week 10 AM to 5 PM by appointment at 280 Elm Street in Southampton. Visit www.irongateeast.com to learn more.

@NikkiOnTheDaily
Nicole@indyeastend.com