Couples Squared Exhibition Launches at Southampton Arts Center

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning. Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. These are among some of the most iconic and revered artistic couples in history. In addition to these well-known names, there have also been countless couples that have arisen throughout the history of art. Couples in art can result in either collaboration of two great minds or serving as each other’s muses, creating particularly inspired art in the process.

The work of couples is on full display at the Southampton Art Center’s “Couples Squared” exhibition on view now at SAC’s gallery on Jobs Lane in the heart of Southampton. The exhibition opened on July 27 and will feature the work of couples on display until September 14.

Christina Strassfield, SAC’s executive director, said that this is an exhibit she has wanted to put together for a while. Since she didn’t have time to curate the show herself, she brought in Phyllis Tuchman, a longtime art critic and curator whom she worked with before, to curate the show, noting the close pulse that she has on the modern art scene.

“I really like her, her professional eye and I think she really understands the whole art world,” said Strassfield. “She’s been involved with the art world for a number of years and she’s very active even today with all the contemporary artists.”

“Couples Squared” showcases the work of several different artist couples from the East End to New York City. Strassfield explained that while the couples may not necessarily directly work with each other or offer input into each other’s work, the support the couples offer one another still comes through in the art.

“When you hear couples, it’s not necessarily that their work plays off each other, but I think it tends to be that the artists are supporting one another in whatever style that they’ve individually chosen to work with,” she said.

The exhibition features a blend of both abstract art that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s with more modern art that fits more in the realm of figurative work, a juxtaposition that Tuchman said she has been more and more interested in exploring.

“I’m fascinated because I’m older and I matured with abstract art,” she said. “But there is so much figurative art today, figurative representational landscape and it’s very interesting how these two worlds, or rather two generations, are colliding.”

The show also combines different forms of art and media, including paintings, sculptures and photography, creating a vivid sensory blend for the viewer, something that Strassfield said makes for a more exciting exhibition.

“I feel that it’s always wonderful when you have all different types of media together,” she said. “It really allows people to go back and forth. And I think that’s always intriguing, because sometimes you go to a show and it’s just photography or it’s just painting. But having all the different media together and interplay with one another is very exciting.”

Among the pairs featured in “Couples Squared” are Fiona Waterstreet and John Alexander. Waterstreet, a ceramic sculptor, and Alexander, a painter, split their time between their loft in SoHo and their barn studio in Amagansett. The couple works in separate adjacent studios in both locations, though Waterstreet admits she was skeptical of how much she could get done due to the size constraints of the barn when they were considering setting up shop in Amagansett.

“We have our studios side by side in the city, but I was incredibly reluctant to have a studio out here because it’s just a little too close to his studio,” she said. “But as it turns out, we both get so focused on our work that I don’t even notice that he’s in his studio.”

Alexander explained that while he and his wife don’t work together, they have influenced each other in both the content of their work and how they work. Alexander said that Waterstreet’s work ethic has been specifically inspiring to him.

“I’m certainly influenced by her work ethic, she’s very disciplined,” he said. “I’m much more scattered. I often jump around, work on drawings in the morning and then move to a different painting in the afternoon.”

Waterstreet also said that they look at each other’s work and offer feedback, though she and her husband have a different approach to it.

“I think John’s my biggest cheerleader and I’m probably his biggest critic,” she said with a laugh.

For this exhibition, Waterstreet contributed a new, spiky ceramics piece titled “Black Bowl” that is representative of the abstract work she has focused on in her career. She described the spiky piece as “just me wanting some kind of abstraction and roughness in my piece outside of formality.”

Meanwhile, Alexander contributed a painting he made in 1991 titled “Developer’s Dream.” The painting was inspired by the changes that he has witnessed since arriving on the East End in 1977, noting that the area became much more developed as the 1980s progressed. Specifically, he was inspired by a particular piece of land in Amagansett that stuck with him.

“There’s this beautiful piece of land where the barns are and I just marveled how gorgeous the trees were and how it looks like old-growth forest,” he explained. “But I just kept thinking, it’s not going to be long before this is all going to be houses. So I just kept thinking that land that I like so much was a developer’s dream.”

The couple explained that they have both featured environment-related themes in their work over the years, a prime example of how they influence each other in their separate work.

“Couples Squared” attendees get to see the work of Waterstreet and Alexander alongside the work of numerous other paired artists, allowing them to be introduced to artists they aren’t familiar with and expand their horizons, said Strassfield.

“I think they’ll really be exposed to a lot of artists that they probably aren’t familiar with,” she said. “And that’s something that we taking pride in: introducing artists that are not just local artists to the community, but expanding their knowledge of what’s happening both in the New York art world and the art world in general.”

Artists featured in “Couples Squared” are: Derrick Adams, John Alexander, Carl Andre, Sebastien Blanck, Ross Bleckner, Michael Chuapoco, Paula Deluccia, Roy Dowell, Austin Eddy, Eric Fischl, Hermine Ford, Eric Freeman, John Giorno, April Gornik, Todd Gray, Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Nancy Holt, Shara Hughes, Bryan Hunt, Melissa Kretschmer, Matvey Levenstein, Rima Mardoyan, Eddie Martinez, Robert Moskowitz, Sam Moyer, Bruce Nauman, Lari Pittman, Larry Poons, Ugo Rondinone, Susan Rothenberg, Kyungmi Shin, Robert Smithson, Ned Smyth, Fiona Waterstreet, Lucy Winton and Lisa Yuskavage.

The “Couples Squared” exhibition is running at the Southampton Arts Center through September 14. Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane, Southampton. For more information, visit southamptonartscenter.org.