5 Photos
Viktor Butko, “Summer Evening Over the Harbor,” 42" x 50." COURTESY GRENNING GALLERY
Amy Florence, “Poppies,” 2025. Oil on panel, 11.8” x 15.7.” COURTESY GRENNING GALLERY
Amy Florence, “Horse Sketch 2," 2024. Oil on linen, 11.8" x 15.75." COURTESY GRENNING GALLERY
Rolf Hellem, “Fisherman in Giovinazzo” 2025. COURTESY GRENNING GALLERY
Melissa Franklin Sanchez, "Self Portrait in My Garden (Fireflies)," 2025. Oil on copper, 27.55" x 39.37." COURTESY GRENNING GALLERY
The Grenning Gallery will host “In Light of Tumbleweeds: Autumn Group Show,” an exhibition featuring new works by contemporary painters Viktor Butko, Amy Florence, Rolf Hellem, Mathias Meinel and Melissa Franklin Sanchez. The show opens with a public reception Saturday, October 18, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and remains on view through Sunday, November 16.
The exhibition explores themes of off-season life on the East End, after the busy summer months have passed. Through a range of perspectives and mediums, the artists reflect on labor, landscape, and quiet reflection, with a particular focus on local communities whose work often goes unseen.
Viktor Butko contributes a series of landscapes, including “Summer Evening Over the Harbor,” which depicts a quiet sea at the foot of a hill, and “Sunset at Dering Harbor,” which captures a vivid sky of pink and purple as day meets night. Rolf Hellem presents two oil paintings, one showing a marina at rest in the evening sun and the other depicting a fisherman working intently with a net in a small boat. His earlier painting “Fisherman’s Fight” also returns to the gallery.
Amy Florence exhibits her signature floral still lifes, featuring centrally arranged wildflowers, along with several paintings from her Equine series. The series depicts horses in natural routines, informed by the artist’s months of anatomical study and observation on a working farm. Florence also presents several recent paintings of Sag Harbor.
Melissa Franklin Sanchez contributes introspective works such as “Self Portrait in My Garden,” a landscape that subtly incorporates the artist into the backyard she shares with her children. Her interior scenes include carefully composed still lifes and domestic vignettes, including a view of her husband playing violin at the top of a tiled staircase.
Mathias Meinel, who debuted at the gallery in autumn 2024, returns with a new series of “wetscapes” from his native Germany. These works examine flooded fields and muddy puddles, offering honest and intimate views of natural surfaces and reflections.
The Grenning Gallery is located at 26 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, call 631-725-8469 or visit grenninggallery.com.
Staff Writer on Oct 15, 2025