The arts: gallery hopping
RVS
RVS has a decidedly international approach to art and its presentation. The clean-lined, museum-styled space in an old building at 20 Job’s Lane in Southampton fittingly looks out to the sculpture garden of the Parrish Museum across the street. This could be a setting on that certain charming side street in Paris or Milan or Madrid. Indeed, at an opening at RVS, you will almost certainly hear several languages spoken.
Owner Roberta von Schlossberg is equally at home in Paris or Southampton, so it is only logical that the gallery features important European and American contemporary artists—proving that in art, if not in politics, we are a global village. The current show features Paris-based painter, Philippe Friedberger, and New York sculptor, Carole Feuerman.
Mark Humphrey Gallery
Mark Humphrey Gallery did it the unusual way: it expanded from what was primarily a framing shop to include a gallery, and it physically expanded from 95 Main Street in Southampton to Madison Avenue in New York. Owner Mark Humphrey, a longtime Southampton resident, also offers residential and commercial art consulting services.
Both locations show a range of original drawings, paintings and photographs, by artists from the Hamptons and New York City. Current selections include still lifes, local landscape paintings, abstract drawings, and historic French posters.
Elaine Benson Gallery
If a gallery could be said to be beloved, it would be the Elaine Benson Gallery. Now 34 years old, it is the mother of all galleries in the Hamptons, and the oldest commercial art gallery on Long Island. The annual “Creatures” show, for example, goes back to Charles Addams’ time at the gallery. In a series of group shows each summer (the barns are unheated) the gallery exhibits a large number of emerging as well as established artists. Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, Roy Lichtenstein and Lee Krasner, among many others, have been shown here over the years. Because of “low overhead” young artists find opportunities here.
With deep roots in the community, the gallery has helped raise more than one million dollars for local causes through its well-known Friday evening preview benefits. Run by Elaine Benson and daughter Kimberly Goff, the gallery is located at 2317 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton.
International Art management
Three year old International Art Management is in the Wainscott Village Center, but it’s definitely not mall-like. The gallery, open year-round, ranges far in its concepts and aesthetics, and takes chances with a broad range of adventurous work: painting, photography, sculpture, and, in the current exhibition, some intriguing collage by Star Black.
Maggie Nolan switched from representing artists and getting them into galleries to exhibiting them and owning a gallery. Born in England and trained in Belgium and Holland, she has an international eye and shows both European and American contemporary art. New shows take place every three weeks at 354 Montauk Highway in Wainscott
Elise Goodheart Fine Arts
Elise Goodheart Fine Arts is a gallery that was born and raised in the Hamptons. Goodheart started the business in Noyac five years ago, converting part of her home into exhibition space, and inviting people in to see the art. It’s now morphed into a professional space at 108 Main Street in Sag Harbor. Small and focused, the gallery specializes in contemporary painting, works on paper, and sculpture, in abstract and figurative styles.
Like the owner, the artists, many of whom are internationally recognized, reflect a concentrated personal vision. Currently showing lush and colorful works on paper by Xavier Salvador.
Vered Gallery
Some of the biggest names in modern and contemporary art may be found at the Vered Gallery. Co-directors Vered and Janet Lehr curate shows aimed at an international clientele, and they are right on target. Currently exhibited are paintings and works on paper by Marc Chagall, and sculpture by Louise Nevelson. To be shown this summer are works by Matisse, Picasso. Avery, Hopper and Steiglitz, among others.
After twenty-five years at the same location (68 Park Place Passage, East Hampton), and open year-round, Vered Gallery has become a destination for collectors, and an important presence in the community. On July 10th Alec Baldwin, Peter Stone and Spaulding Gray host a benefit at the gallery for the South Fork Groundwater Task Force.