New York Foundation For The Arts East End Studio Tour Returns

New York Foundation for the Arts will once again host its annual East End Studio Tour featuring the work of four renowned artists, led by Guild Hall Museum Director and Chief Curator Christina Mossaides Strassfield.

This summer marks the tour’s fifth year, and NYFA Executive Director Michael Royce believes the event gets better every year. It sold out last year, and continues its popularity in 2017. Hopefuls can join a waiting list if they missed the chance to purchase a ticket to the tour on Friday, August 4.

“It’s a very special day for the guests to experience the studio visits,” Mr. Royce said.

The intimacy of a private studio tour allows for the artists to share their thinking and creative process on how they go about their works, which generates a unique experience. Conversations around the art will be varied, and topics can range from the humanity of a single individual, to the different ideologies of civilization around the world, to the objects of beauty, to the disruption of the norm, Mr. Royce said.

NYFA Leadership Council member Carol Ross is tasked with inviting artists to be featured on the tour. Every year she selects a combination of artists, in hopes that their work and conversations with the guests will offer a rare experience.

Donald Lipski, one of this year’s featured artists, will welcome the tour to his quaint home and studio in Amagansett.

“It’s a tiny little house, my wife and I sleep in a screened in porch,” he said. “This will be, I think, our 29th summer in a row here.”

However, the size of his studio was a point of concern for Mr. Lipski after Ms. Ross contacted him to participate in the tour. Both he and his wife, painter Terri Hyland, have areas around the home set up as studios. Ms. Hyland works on the side of the house, under an awning, while Mr. Lipski takes to a disaster relief tent.

“It’s going to be quite a job fitting the 25 people who are coming to that event into my tent but we’ll make it work somehow,” he said.

Visitors can expect to see examples of Mr. Lipski’s past work as well as more recent projects. He will start by showing part of his exhibition “Gathering Dust,” which was featured at the Museum of Modern Art when his career was first taking off. It is made up of little sculptures he has made his entire life.

From there, he will move on to newer works like “The Cloud,” a public art installation that was commissioned by the City of El Paso Museum and Cultural Affairs Department. The piece, which Mr. Lipski worked on last year, is situated in a Texas traffic circle, known as the Spur 1966 roundabout, which has been sunken into the ground, and also acts as a pedestrian underpass. It is made up of a big tripod, with the legs each holding three billboard-sized clouds made from thousands of hinged, enameled, stainless steel flaps that move in the wind. Mr. Lipski’s son, Jackson Hyland-Lipski, made a short three-minute film about the piece, which will be shown at the studio.

Public art installations, he said, have been his focus over the last couple of decades. In New York, he has two public artworks, “Sirshasana,” located in Manhattan’s Grand Central Market, and “La Guardia Suite,” above the entrance to the concert hall at Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

Even with art displayed across the country, Mr. Lipski still feels nostalgic about the East End. “This is a second home to me, and in some ways it’s my first home,” he said. “From all the years living out here, I have so many good friends who are artists. It’s a special place, it’s special in its history in art, and my own private history.”

Arlene Slavin is excited to discuss her art with visitors, and help them view it.

She is a multitalented artist, producing sculptures, paintings and prints. Like Mr. Lipski, she also creates large-scale public art commissions. Her work has been seen at Guild Hall, where she has had installations in the windows and sculptures on the grounds.

“In the gallery the artists don’t get to see people looking at their works,” she said. “In the studio, people get to see the process and the materials. People feel more comfortable.”

Ms. Slavin’s catalog of works features woven sculptures, which look like stained glass but are actually colored strips of polymer, as well as pieces that highlight her interest in color and light.

While other tours have passed through her studio in Wainscott, this is the first time she will participate in NYFA’s event.

“It is an excellent organization that really supports artists of all types, so I’m happy to open my studio,” Ms. Slavin said.

The group will visit the studios of Quentin Curry, an abstract artist who usually creates large-scale landscapes, and sculptor Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas as well. At the conclusion of the tour, guests will enjoy a lunch with the four artists, which will be served at a private home in Bridgehampton. Ms. Silverman and fellow board member J. Whitney Stevens host the tour alongside Ms. Ross. Proceeds will benefit NYFA’s programs for artists throughout Long Island and New York State. NYFA works to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives, which is done through exhibitions, fiscal scholarships, grants and public programs.

The Friday, August 4, tour is open to the public and will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. General admission tickets are $300. Contact Ellen Claycomb at eclaycomb@nyfa.org or 212-366-6900, extension 207.