LongHouse Reserve Opens Season with Rites of Spring

[caption id="attachment_37214" align="alignnone" width="450"] Takashi Soga: Eye of the Ring, 2007, bronze sheet, painted steel, 109”x 122”x 98”[/caption]

LongHouse Reserve will open its season on April 35 from 2 to 5 p.m. with Rites of Spring, featuring the work of Kiki Smith, Takashi Soga, Grace Knowlton, Sui Jianguo and Ronald Bladen on its East Hampton grounds.

LongHouse welcomes back Takashi Soga back to LongHouse with his Eye of Ring. Mr. Soga’s kinetic sculptures defy gravity, disrupt expectations and are a delight for youngsters and adults alike. Living in Utica, New York, Mr. Soga was born in Osaka, Japan, graduating from the University of Art there in 1975. He is the recipient of a number of awards and honors including the Grand Prize at the 13^th International Art Exhibition in Japan in 1980, the Nagano Prize in 1995 and the Pollack Krasner Grant in 2005.

American-born sculpture Grace Knowlton will expand her collection at LongHouse this year with Spheres; orbs created, in her words, by “the laying on of hands.” These sculptures, the artist’s concept of “painting in the round,” are of graduated sizes and textures, punctuating LongHouse’s gardens. A graduate of Smith College, Ms. Knowlton earned her Masters in Art and Education from Columbua University and taught at the Arts Student League. Internationally recognized, the artist is represented in many public and private collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sui Jianguo’s The Mao Suit 2002 will also join the collection at LongHouse this season. Praised by critics for being a “pioneer venturing to the farthest reaches of Chinese sculpture, Mr. Jianguo’s Mao Suit depicts the oversized personality of the leader while the empty shell is seen by some critics as representative of Mao’s empty promises. Upon completion of the piece, the artist said, “I’m putting him to rest. This way I can grow up.”

Host of the Ellipse 1981 by Ronald Bladen also graces the garden this year. A pioneer of minimalism, Mr. Bladen’s evolving interest in art was nurtured at the Vancouver School of Art and the California School of Fine Arts. Co-founder of the Brata Gallery, his use of industrial materials and hard-edged forms grew after honing his aptitude as a shop welder when he was declared unfit for service during World War II. The artist would go on to teach promising artists as a guest lecturer at Columbia University and the Parsons School of Design.

Born in 1954 in Nuremberg, Germany, artist Kiki Smith grew up in New Jersey, assisting her father—artist Tony Smith—by making cardboard models for his own geometric sculptures. The training in formalist systems, combined with her Catholic upbringing, would resurface in her sculptures, drawings and prints. Life, death, and resurrection are thematic in many of Ms. Smith’s installations and sculptures.

Ms. Smith received the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 2000, the Athena Award for Excellence in Printmaking in 2005, and the 50^th Edward MacDowell Medal in 2009. She has participated in the Whitney Biennial three times and in 2005 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, among others.

The artists’ work will remain on view at LongHouse Reserve, 133 Hands Creek Road in East Hampton, through October 10. Attending Saturday’s opening will cost $10 per person, but is free for members of LongHouse. For more information, visit longhouse.org or call (631) 604-5330.