'East End Collected 8' Highlights the Work of Artists at SAC

More than a decade ago, artist Paton Miller was invited to a meeting to help chart a course for the creative future of Southampton Village. The topic of conversation was the village-owned property at 25 Jobs Lane — the original home of the Parrish Art Museum, which had occupied the space for more than a century.

At the time, the Parrish had recently relocated to its brand new facility on the highway in Water Mill, and elected officials and concerned citizens were left trying to come up with a plan for how the village might use the now vacant museum building.

“[Southampton philanthropist] David Bohnett hosted an event and asked me to come along to give an artist’s point of view,” recalled Miller in a recent interview. “They said, ‘What do you think?’ At the time, the idea of an arts center had been floated, but it was not a done deal.

“I said, ‘To do an arts center you have to be loved. The way you do that reflects what’s happening here and now,’” Miller explained. “A couple months later, I was asked to curate a show to reflect that idea.”

That idea was embodied in “East End Collected,” an exhibition that highlighted the work of a wide cross-section of artists living and working in the area. Miller assumed the show was a one-off. But it turned out to be the first iteration of an exhibition that has since become a recurring feature at the Southampton Arts Center.

Miller is still the exhibition’s curator. In order to highlight as many artists as possible, the parameters dictate that no artist who has appeared in a previous incarnation of “East End Collected” may show work in a subsequent one.

Offered initially as an annual installation, in recent incarnations “East End Collected” has been presented every other year in a biennial show. This Friday, “East End Collected 8” (or “EEC8” for short) opens at SAC; in addition to a full slate of artists that are new to the show, also new this year is SAC’s director Christina Mossaides Strassfield who is a co-curator of the exhibition.

“This is the first time we’ve curated together,” Miller explained. “I work alone a lot in the studio, so to collaborate with Christina is a joy. It’s kind of like going to a theme park together. We’ve had a good time doing it. It was really easy.

“As far as the drudge work goes, that’s also been a lot easier for me,” he laughed. “The shows are biennial, but it is still a lot of work. It’s not like a convention of accountants. We’re dealing with artists and they forget to do this or that, and we still end up with a great show.

Strassfield, who just marked the end of her second year at the helm of SAC, is an ideal curating partner. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this project. For nearly three decades, she was with Guild Hall in East Hampton and for 20 of those years, served as the facility’s museum director and chief curator. Among the many strengths that Strassfield brings to the process is her deep and thorough knowledge of the artists who live and work on the East End as well as her extensive experience installing gallery shows.

Needless to say, after working solo on this show for so many years, Miller is enjoying having a collaborator in the process.

“No matter how right you think it is, there’s always a different way,” Miller said. “So for an artist and one who works by himself, it’s great collaborating … this is a joy.”

“In the dialogue of the show, we could prove, discuss and explain why this looks better or that,” Strassfield said. “I think the same dialogue carried over in bringing the artists forward and which ones we liked and why.”

“Curation is a mixture of everything — happenstance, serendipity, based on an artist’s reputation,” Miller noted. “It’s not about what I want or I like. Sometimes the work is not work I’m particularly into, but the person is active in the arts scene. Being part of this community is a big part of being an artist. Being an artist in this community is a privilege. I’ve lived in places before where if you’re an artist, you’re a nut or an outlier. Here, they embrace you.”

“This community welcomes artists,” Strassfield added. “There is lots of camaraderie and artists also get to know each other.”

“A place like the East End allows a young artist to develop from a position of optimism and inclusion,” Miller said. “It’s a great incubator.”

There are 28 artists represented in “EEC8” and Strassfield explained that the amount of work each artist is showing depends on size and scale. So rather than being given a specific number of pieces they can show, it’s more about the amount of wall space that an artist’s work will take up.

“It a bit of a mystery because this place is big and it soaks up art like crazy,” Miller said. “Every year, I wonder if it’s enough and think, ‘Gee, I hope so.’ It’s big in the best possible way. They just don’t make buildings like this anymore. I think I’m so used to being here, I forget what a special place it is.”

“We had the floors done recently and seeing it without any artwork, you realize what a massive space it is,” Strassfield added. “From floor to ceiling, side to side, it’s classical proportions. New spaces don’t typically have that.”

One important way that Miller has learned to fill the SAC space is through the use of sculptural elements throughout the galleries.

“Sculptures are important,” Miller said. “Without them, you just have work on the walls and wide open spaces in between. I think sculptures are the connecting rods for art on the walls. For sculpture in this show, there’s Bill Albertini; he’s had a really strong career as an artist from the North Fork. John Battle has also been around for a long time too, he’s a sculptor too.”

“We also have Allan Wexler, another sculptor from the North Fork,” Strassfield added. “What’s also fun is we were able to put in artists who we’ve known a long time, like Amy Zerner, who I had in a show at Guild Hall. Paton hadn’t included her yet in ‘East End Collected.’”

“She’s such a special artist and amazing,” added Miller.

This is typical of the pair’s curatorial relationship — because Strassfield spent so many years working with artists in East Hampton, with this show she’s been able to introduce Miller, who is based in Southampton, to artists he is unaware of.

“Setha Low, I included in this show — Paton didn’t know her, but at the Guild Hall members show I got to know her,” said Strassfield. “Also Sutton Lynch from Amagansett — I kind of knew Sutton, but it was great to include him in this show.”

Lynch is the only photographer in “EEC8” and will be showing his still and video work of marine life shot just off the coast, including aerial imagery of sharks and eels. Other artists include Isabella Rupp, who works in glass, and East Hampton’s Nishan Kazazian, who creates plexiglass pieces.

“The quality is what we keep going back to,” said Strassfield when asked if there’s a unifying theme in the art. “We wanted it to be work that was important and had a statement for us.”

In bringing the show to life, it also helps that Stassfield is a whiz when it comes to the art of mounting an exhibition.

“One of my specialties is that can I hang a show,” Strassfield said. “I can assess a room and what works we have to hang, so I can visualize it and don’t have to sketch it out. At the Guild Hall members show, I would place 100 pieces of art in a couple hours.”

“Hanging is a subjective thing,” added Miller. “Two artists in the show, Gary Chiappa and Brendan H. Johnston, they couldn’t be more different. But when you put them together, it all works, the quality makes it relevant. I love the way that art can do that.”

“The quality has to be there if you put two pieces next to one another. Otherwise it won’t work,” Strassfield said. “The puzzle pieces have to fit. I find there has to be a flow, energy, all the work moves from one piece to the next piece and at same time, it’s making the room and the galleries work together. It’s so important and it is complicated, but when it does happen, it seems organic.”

“East End Collected 8” opens with a reception on Saturday, February 1, at 5 p.m. and runs through May 4. Miller and Strassfield will lead a tour of the show on Sunday, February 23. Artist panels will be presented on four Saturdays, March 1, March 15, March 29 and April 5. The featured artists are: William Albertini, John Battle, John Philip Capello, Linda Capello, Gary Chiappa, David Corgliano, Eva Faye, Robin Giannis, Carly Haffner, Robert Harms, Samuel Havens, Mary Jaffe, Brendan H. Johnston, Nishan Kazazian, Joyce Kubat, Stephen Laub, Setha Low, Sutton Lynch, Mica Marder, Richard Mothes, Isabella Rupp, Georgia Suter, Deirdre Swords, Aurelio Torres, Allan Wexler, Steven Zaluski, Amy Zerner and Susan Zises.

For information on the exhibition and related programming, visit southamptonartscenter.org. Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton.