By Courtney M. Holbrook
In any art form, necessity of similar style can often clash with the need to be unique. One wants to find their niche, while standing out from the crowd. Whether in writing, acting, style or painting — the battle of artistic individuality comes not with ideas, but with creating a new presentation in the face of the similar works from the past.
But sometimes, that battle between kinship and individual struggle can blossom into a harmonious relationship. On the East End, that blend of style and unique substance can be found in the “Artists Choose Artists” exhibition which opens this Sunday at the Parrish Art Museum.
“This show offers a strong, diverse amount of work,” said Mark Segal, the director of the Parrish. “Yet, all the art works come together in a cohesive whole that’s exciting and invigorating to see.”
“Artists Choose Artists” was first developed in 2009, in a show entitled “Mixed Greens.” The concept draws artists from the East End together, creating a “community of togetherness among artists,” according to Segal.
For the show, the members of the administrative and the curatorial boards at the Parrish came together to select seven artists whose career had landed them at the top of the art world, both locally and nationally. However, artists could not just be well known for their art.
“We worked to select artists who had a history of giving back to the East End art community,” said Andrea Grover, the associate curator of the “Arists Choose Artists” exhibit. “This was a project that could be quite grueling. We needed to make sure we had people who were willing to put in the time and energy.”
Those selected artists became jurors, who would review artwork from more than 200 artists. All submissions were conducted under an anonymous, online process, where the juror saw only four art slides and an artists’ statement.
“My choices were not based on the person I knew, but on what I saw,” said Dan Rizzie, a painter based in Sag Harbor and one of the jurors. “It was an extraordinarily involved process.”
After the jurors made selections online, they traveled to the artists’ studios. One requirement for the exhibit was that each artist live or work part-time or full-time on the East End. Still, for some jurors, this meant long drives up-Island to see the artist in their studio. In one month, each juror would visit a studio two or three times. For Rizzie, such an experience was “groundbreaking … there’s always an interest in seeing an artist in their element. And then when you see the work in person, it’s so different from judging based on a jpg online.”
According to Grover, the travel and community aspect of the exhibit’s preparation was essential. The purpose of the exhibit itself was to “bring art and people together.” Grover noted the community influence for the Parrish was an almost natural outcome for the jurors due to the fact that the artists shared East End locations.
“Most of the artists have chosen the East End of Long Island for full or part time residence because of the contemplative nature of life here, and access to the natural environment,” Grover said. “It is reflected in some of the work, either directly (images of the landscape) or indirectly (abstraction that deals with light).”
This “contemplative” life on the East End binds the show’s many artistic works, despite the disparity in medium. Each juror chose two artists — an increase from the one choice in the 2009 show. Although it would seem jurors would be drawn to artists in mediums similar to their own, this was not the case. According to Grover, this kept the show itself representative of a “well-rounded cross section of artists working in the region.”
Rizzie chose artists who, while abstract — like his own work — had quite different styles. His two choices were Ross Watts and Tad Wiley. Watts’ work uses a great deal of white in pictures of almost-gridlike structures. Deceptively simple, Watts’ minimalist work pops out when the viewer least expects it. Rizzie was drawn to Wiley because of his “use of color and method of layering on paint and scraping it away and producing a surface.”
Rizzie discussed the “kinship” he felt toward these artists. That sense of familiarity with another artists’ work is what Grover said drew many of the jurors to their artistic selections. Despite medium differences, each juror seems to align with their artist, providing “a social aspect” to the exhibit.
“I related to them … I was drawn to works with a similar sensibility,” Rizzie said. “Though their work is not like mine, I just felt attracted to them.”
The Parrish considers this showcase different from anything they have done before. This will be the first time they have created an online archive of the collection, acknowledging that “artists today rely more on the Internet for the dissemination of their work than print materials,” Grover said.
At the end of the day, each artist, curator and juror seems delighted for this approaching exhibit. “Artists Choose Artists” will run from August 21 to October 9.
“This is the second in what we hope will be an ongoing process,” Segal said. “Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, every artist knew each other. Now, that’s not the case. So, this [exhibit] is bringing young artists and established artists together. It’s exactly our mission at the Parrish.”
