Perspectives: Sara Nightingale And Crazy Monkey Exhibits

It’s likely a testament to the continued vibrancy and energy of the East End artist community that, even midst a seasonal landscape more reminiscent of an Ingmar Bergman film than an actual place of human habitation, the local art scene continues unabated in new exhibitions at Sara Nightingale Gallery in Bridgehampton and The Crazy Monkey in Amagansett.

Having previously left her space in Water Mill and decamped to Shelter Island, Sara Nightingale has now reopened her gallery in its new space (in a venue she will share for the winter with the New York dealer Kathryn Markel) with an exhibition that entertainingly blurs the painterly and conceptual distinctions between abstraction and figuration.

Featuring artists from both within as well as outside these rather rarefied environs, perhaps the most common theme that resonates throughout the exhibition follows the painter Walter Darby Bannard’s observation that the relationship between realism and abstraction “are often parallels brought about by processes in painting which echo processes in nature.”

This is most immediately apparent in works by Joseph Stabilito, which use highly organic abstract forms that seem to float on various indeterminate levels; the relationships between the shapes creating a highly atmospheric ambiance that is decidedly flowing and gentle. At the same time, the artist nevertheless introduces subtle aspects of tension in the composition in the manner he juxtaposes intense colors in the foreground that are seemingly shadowed by the ghostlike silhouettes and painterly washes that float effortlessly in the backdrop.

This use of contrast is also apparent in Maggie Simonelli’s mysteriously layered work, while Janet Goleas’s “Orchard” (gouache on paper) uses a frenetically rhythmic layer of linear components that accentuates the soft hues that glow from within the piece.

Somewhat similarly, in works such as such as “Ice” or “Pebbly Beach” (both oil on canvas) Sue McNally uses distinctly simplified organic forms in the foreground that are carefully choreographed to emphasize a measure of scale and grandeur that is further underscored by the gentle coloration that leads deep into the canvas. Eric Dever, on the other hand, completely erases any hint of a horizon—although he is still able to create a strikingly subtle sense of depth in his arrangement of simple geometric forms, matched with a highly refined use of an almost monochromatic color scheme in paintings such as “Ivory Black Greyscale #2” (oil on burlap).

Meanwhile, a few miles across the frozen tundra, the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett is currently featuring its second annual “Salon des Refuses.” This current show is based on the famous 1863 French exhibition of the same name that was created by Napoleon III to offer works, such as Manet’s “Dejeuner sur l’Herbe” and Whistler’s “Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl,” to the public that had been rejected by the official Paris Salon.

Perhaps the most dramatic difference between the two shows, however, is that while the original exhibit presented works that were deemed stylistically inappropriate in their bent toward either impressionism or realism (as well as many turned down because they were simply bad), in this incarnation, the criteria for inclusion is turned more in the direction of the sexually suggestive (which explains the “viewer discretion advised” warning at the door to the gallery).

As a result, rather than the original Salon des Refuses, this exhibit is more closely related to the early days of Dada, where shocking the viewer and making socially disreputable statements were the most important curatorial and artistic priorities. But the thing is, in these days of the licentious having already been granted some degree of social acceptability, the ability to shock has been dramatically diminished.

So that while Jim Gingerich’s “Sensation in Soho” (oil on canvas) or Karyn Mannix’s “Envy” (mixed media) are probably inappropriate for younger viewers, their imagery is seen as nowhere near as immoral as Manet’s masterpiece was when it was being viewed by an audience in hoop skirts and stiff-necked collars.

Nevertheless, there are a number of thought-provoking works in the exhibition of note: specifically Samantha Ruddock and Nate Best’s video installation “Cock A Doodle Doo,” Len Bernard’s “Wrapped up in Passion,” Ellen Dooley’s “L,” Andrea McCafferty’s “Heads or Tails,” E.E. Tucker’s “Deconstructing the Nude,” Lance Corey’s “Blondes Have More Fun” and Claire and Dan Schonheimer’s “Bud I” (which has totally altered forever the way I will look at an amaryllis).

The current exhibition at Sara Nightingale Gallery in Bridgehampton continues through the middle of February. “Salon des Refuses” continues at Crazy Monkey in Amagansett through January 30.