Greenport Gallery Reopens

After three years traveling the world completing artist residencies, during which Cindy Pease Roe built massive one-of-a-kind sculptures from plastic collected on beaches, the up-sculpting artist is reopening the doors of her Greenport art studio and gallery found in historic Hanff’s Boatyard, but this time she’s got a crew of two like-minded artists sharing the space with her. 

Pease Roe first connected with North Fork Art Collective co-founder Kara Hoblin and bayman/photographer Chris Hamilton through NFAC art openings, and the trio’s passion for cleaning the water and keeping it that way led to her approaching the two other local artists about getting involved in the reimagining of the industrial gallery on Sterling Street.

“As soon as I walked in, I said, ‘Um yeah, I think I can do this,’” Hamilton said. “It fits perfectly for the stuff that I shoot and we have a lot of similar goals with what we do with our art and who we are as people.” Hamilton’s photography captures crisp images of the oft under-documented world of local commercial fishing, to which he has gained unique access while working with his father, Captain Bob Hamilton. His photos will be exhibited alongside Hoblin’s work at the Cindy Pease Roe Studio and Gallery.

“We’re all very marine-focused and into environmentalism, keeping the beaches clean and involved in the Surfrider Foundation, so we have very similar values, not only in the marine environment around Greenport, but the natural environment as a whole,” Hamilton added.

Hoblin, who will be curating the space to give the gallery a fresh face for every month’s First Friday Greenport Gallery Walk, spoke about the studio not only as an exhibit space, but one where she can grow as an artist. “Even before the opening this June, this is the place where I would come to draw, de-stress, and just be,” she said, adding excitement won’t just be found on the First Friday night of every month. “We are going to do a Collective pop-up, which is a bunch of new people, including South Fork artists, some of whom weren’t in the collective last year, and we have a couple of other ideas brewing as well.”

Pease Roe said she couldn’t be more excited about showcasing other artists, a trending approach she said has been spreading like wildfire in the Greenport Village art gallery world.

“After 2008, Greenport got hit on the galleries front and a lot of people pulled out, but there’s new people coming now in all the time,” Pease Roe said on what is quickly becoming the new normal in North Fork gallery life. “I feel like I hit the refresh button on my gallery; VSOP Projects is showing really cutting-edge things and representing a lot of different kinds of people.” She pointed to other local businesses, like Kate’s Cheese Company, which showcases artists and offers up “different people all the time. It is bringing in a really awesome, diverse group of people to look at art.”

The next Greenport Gallery Walk takes place from 6 to 9 PM on Friday, July 5, and a map of the event can be found at many businesses and all participating art galleries. For more about the gallery on Sterling Street, visit www.cindypeaseroe.com.

gianna@indyeastend.com