Artists Choose Artists: Where Challenge Meets Connection

As ironic as it might sound, limitations frequently lead to freedom for artist Judith Hudson. Having to work around a problem, to figure out how to make her vision come to life inside a set of given rules, actually adds to the work.“Oftentimes, when you have restrictions, it’s very liberating,” the part-time Amagansett resident said during a recent telephone interview. “It pushes you to think. It frees you up to let you go. It doesn’t make sense but it’s true.”

In her most recent paintings, the challenge she set before herself was to show a fresh perspective on romantic love and sexual entanglements, and the possible fallout from both. Selections from two of her most recent series—the “Unrequited Love Series,” which are studies of various crying images, and the “Midsummer Night’s Dream Series,” which “combines humor with imagery to hopefully achieve some resonance,” she said—are now on view in the “Artists Choose Artists” exhibit at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

Ms. Hudson, one of the seven jurors responsible for choosing 14 artists to show in the exhibit, is also drawn to the work of others who can successfully overcome challenges. Her two selectees—Christine Sciulli and Don Christensen—have done that, and more, in their pieces that are now on view in “Artists Choose Artists.”

“I responded to her ability to give structure and rigor to fluid and fugitive images,” Ms. Hudson said of Ms. Sciulli’s work. “I also chose Don Christensen, who makes abstract painting feel fresh and alive.”

Mr. Christensen’s “Top 40—2013,” where he has taken the painting off the canvas and onto a collection of outward-facing tables is one such example. His career might well be considered another. Before becoming an artist in 1990 at the age of 40, he was a professional musician. His second act came after he became inspired by the work of outsider artist Emery Blagdon, whose life’s work he was instrumental in saving.

“When one really connects with an artwork or art experience they are transported into a universal space that is restful and restorative,” he wrote of his inspiration in his artist’s statement.

For Ms. Sciulli, an Amagansett resident, the challenge in her work has been in capturing the qualities of luminosity.

“Catching light has been a lifelong passion of mine,” she said during an email exchange last week. “I have chosen to focus on the projection potential of straight lines and circles of light.”

Not an easy task to begin with, the restrictions of showing her installation-based work in a museum environment added to another layer of complication.

“She’s used to doing the work outdoors and she had to figure out a way to contextualize the work,” said Ms. Hudson of Ms. Sciulli’s “Engulf”—a two-channel HD video projection on view in the Parrish exhibit. The installation, which allows the viewer to see circles of light as they expand and contract in place as they are projected onto an 8-foot-by-8-foot-by-6½-foot-wide panel of nylon mesh, according to the artist, lives in a giant “box” in the middle of one of the Parrish’s galleries. It’s a definite conversation piece and was one of the most talked about at the exhibit’s opening reception on Friday, November 8.

“It’s great that she came up with her own little world,” said Ms. Hudson of Ms. Sciulli’s installation. She added that the entire concept of the annual “Artists Choose Artists” exhibit is exceptional.

“Terrie [Sultan, the museum’s director] and Alicia [Longwell, the museum’s chief curator] have given a platform for all this talent that’s out there,” she continued. “It elevates the whole East End in terms of art and the artists’ community.”

Ms. Longwell said that it’s the thrill of pairing up more established artists, such as Ms. Hudson, with emerging artists, such as Ms. Sciulli and Mr. Christensen, for example, that makes “Artists Choose Artists” such a successful exhibit.

“It’s this sortee into the unknown territory that makes it so exciting,” she said during an interview earlier this month at the museum as the show was being hung.

During the selection process the jurors, or “selectors,” as Ms. Longwell said she prefers to call them, are tasked with choosing their fellow artists from a pool of vetted applicants. After viewing the submissions online, the jurors then make studio visits to determine their final choices.

The connections—a common theme in “Artists Choose Artists” as well as in this year’s newest installation of the permanent collection—are invigorating for Ms. Sultan.

“It’s almost like walking through a garden and stopping along the way at various interest points to see these connections between all the artists ... a legacy of the artists of the East End of Long Island,” she said during a recent interview. “It’s really special.”

Ms. Hudson agreed.

“I liked almost every single piece in the exhibit. They did a great job of pulling it all together,” she said. “This makes me feel so good about being an artist. You step back, you look at the work, and then you might get inspired by what you see. I just like to be around other artists. They always make me want to take what I do and make it better.”

“Artists Choose Artists” is now on view at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. Those showing in the exhibit include: Laurie Anderson with Elizabeth Dow and Mary McCormick, Judith Hudson with Don Christensen and Christine Sciulli, Mel Kendrick with Elise Ansel and Eva Faye, David Salle with Carol Hayes and Virva Hinnemo, Ned Smyth with Koichiro Kurita and Rick Liss, Keith Sonnier with Rossa Cole and Brian Gaman, and Robert Wilson with Tucker Marder and Ezra Thompson. The work will remain on view through January 19. For more information, visit parrishart.org.