East End Gallery Guide Spotlight: The Lucore Art

Showcasing the work of owner Christopher Lucore, as well as the East End’s established and emerging artists, The Lucore Art in Montauk is a unique gallery that’s well worth a trip to The End. On view now is the Double Stroke Roll exhibition, which runs through June 21, and there’s plenty of exciting shows planned to follow throughout the year. Here, Lucore share his thoughts on this summer’s shows, the art he’s creating and the joy of working with artists to display their work.

What makes Haim Mizrahi’s Double Stroke Roll show a fitting way to kick off summer 2022 at The Lucore Art?

It’s as if I said to Haim, “Drum roll, please!” What better way before a big reveal than a drum roll? It’s perfect really! The Lucore Art is committed to showing both established and emerging local artists, and Haim really stood out to me as an established artist with deep roots in his community. Haim has fostered a wide array of ways to connect with his community, whether it be through his radio show “Hello Hello” on LTV, curating art shows, his own art, his music, his businesses or his family.

In the first discussion I had with Haim about his art, he described to me the process of fixing a problem in one of his paintings on the drums with music. This really stood out to me, as it showed Haim’s understanding of the interconnectivity of all the different parts of our lives. Haim’s work appears to me as both an explosion of activity and a carefully considered layering of order and disorder. I find this duality very powerful.

Tell us about the following exhibition, Summer Dreams.

Summer Dreams is a show of the wild and wonderful imagination of Montauk local surrealist Lori Campbell. Lori has sharpened her skills to the point where she truly has the freedom to bring her ideas to life. Lori recently had a pop-up show of small works in the East Hampton Gardens, and walking through it was like stepping into a fantasy and going searching for the magical creatures of the garden. Lori’s paintings bring plants, flowers, sweaters and chairs to life and presents them like never before. The show here at The Lucore Art will be an opportunity for Lori to bring out some of her larger canvases and for visitors of the gallery to venture into a whole new land of “summer dreams.” Summer Dreams will run from June 23 through July 14, and the opening reception will be Saturday, June 25 from 4–7 p.m.

What other exhibitions does The Lucore Art have planned for the summer and 2022?

The Lucore Art will have a new show every three weeks all the way through December. After Lori Campbell’s show, I will take one week to hang up some of my own work and really dive in, using the gallery as a studio and paint big! Then from July 20 through August 10, I will welcome photographer James Katsipis, born and raised right here in Montauk, to help bring the town’s natural beauty to light. Following that, East Hampton artist Anne Raymond and I will debut new works in late August. The Wednesday Group, a wonderful group that all go out and paint local scenes plein air will have the floor in September. John Tuttle and Sophia Louise Smith will usher in the fall with impressionistic scenes, and the Montauk Artist Association will cap off the year with a holiday group show. Stay tuned to The Lucore Art Gallery Instagram @thelucoreart for updates and exact show dates.

What series of your own work can be found at the gallery now and in the coming weeks?

My work is ever evolving with my time here at The Lucore Art, but presently it is splitting into two separate series. The dividing line between the two series is mostly the technique used to create them. One series involves the inclusion of pieces made separately with liquid acrylic and introduced to the composition in a separate process once the paint has dried. I sometimes refer to this series as my “circles” although I am branching out to include more freeform shapes. My other series involves hard-edge, nonobjective, geometric abstractions created with layers of acrylic medium and brushwork to impart heavy impasto. Working in these two separate processes keeps me engaged as they each take a different type of focus, and when I grow exhausted from one I can flip to the other. In the coming weeks, I expect that I will try to apply a greater degree of color sensitivity when executing these techniques and perhaps even try to start to blur the lines between them.

Looking back on the last year, what has been the most exciting or rewarding aspect of opening your Montauk gallery?

For me, as curator of the shows, the most rewarding aspect has been bringing the artists back in to see the full show on display. Generally, I’m asking my artist to put a lot of trust in me. They bring me all of their babies and pieces of their soul and drop everything off, and my job is to take it and bring it into the light for everyone to see. Display it and display it right. Hanging a painting is more than just wall, hammer, nail. There is an art to displaying art. Their work and my gallery should work together as one big composition. When the artist comes in and says, “Wow, my art never looked so good,” that really means something to me.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I just want to thank the community for the support that everyone has shown my gallery since I opened. My dream for this gallery is for it to be a fun community spot and a destination for people visiting Montauk. It has been inspiring to see the community and the artists of the East End rally behind me to make my dream a reality. Art is an essential part of our lives and wouldn’t be possible without the collectors who curate incredible personal collections to spark discussion and inspiration, or the artist who create fearlessly and seek to go where no one has gone before! So thank you to all of you, and come visit The Lucore Art.

The Lucore Art is located at 87 South Euclid Avenue, Montauk. For more information, visit @thelucoreart on Instagram and Facebook, and to see more of Christopher Lucore’s work, visit thelucoreart.com.