Perspectives: Shows at three Shelter Island galleries

In 1947, the Shelter Island Conference on Quantum Mechanics gave the island township a brief bit of notoriety. But, in the 50-plus years since, the island hasn’t earned much of a reputation for its contributions to contemporary culture.

In fact, despite the impressive roster of artists who have lived there—such as John Chamberlain, Alan Shields and Joel Shapiro—it has always seemed to play “Mayberry RFD” to the rest of the Hamptons’ “Beverly Hills 90210.” That is, until now.

Today there are three serious gallery spaces on the island: Mosquito Hawk, Boltax Gallery, and the recently transplanted Sara Nightingale Gallery. And it now appears that the commercial art world has established what could pass for a firm foothold in what might once have been considered a blissful backwater.

At Boltax Gallery, Eric Blum’s mysteriously luminescent paintings share space with recent works by Pilar Oliverri, a jewelry artist whose return to sculptural form is highlighted by powerful contrasts in metal and wood, conjuring dynamic relationships between man-made and organic materials.

Mr. Blum has stated his works strive to “grasp at that which cannot be possessed,” and I would suggest that he should be congratulated for reaching his goal. He uses beeswax and watercolor on silk for compositions that offer a sense of great depth yet also seem to exist without an instantly recognizable foreground, leaving the viewer constantly attempting to discern imagery that shimmers in and out of focus, a landscape of dreams that reverberates more with ambiguity than clarity.

In “#573” (watercolor, beeswax, silk on panel), for example, an indeterminate image shimmers in the middle distance, visually alternating between an accumulation of primitive architectonic forms and a kind of stylized cubist still life. Still, the work’s impact derives from a murky veil covering the surface of the painting that, in its partial opacity, mysteriously clouds the image and forces the viewer to interpret the forms rather than just “seeing” them.

Pilar Olaverri’s sculptures, on the other hand, offer specific spaces determined by the planar interactions that result from her juxtapositions of highly polished wood and metal surfaces. Through their manipulation of the arrangement of geometric forms so that the balance of planes activates the empty space between them, the works are elegant in their restraint yet exuberant in their tendency to create streams of motion that ebb and flow in various directions simultaneously.

Interestingly, James Kennedy’s new paintings at the Sara Nightingale Gallery right next door also lean heavily on arrangements of planes configured so as to create interaction in form and movement. Titled “Vector Work Paintings,” these pieces suggest a certain relationship to abstract expressionism in its energetic approach to surface composition, but there are also elements of both cubism and surrealism in the use of thin linear components that create a sense of structure through which gently colored geometric planes float effortlessly.

In “Choreography 3” (gouache and mixed media on birch), for example, the composition adopts aspects of cubist deconstruction along with the sensation of mellifluous and dreamlike movement that arises from its horizontal configuration and delicate lines, generating both internal rhythms and an implied sense of depth.

While the two artists are stylistically dramatically dissimilar, one can also see an interesting use of planar distinctions in works by Juan Bejar, who also has work on view at Sara Nightingale. A Spanish artist whose paintings are reminiscent of American folk portraiture, Mr. Bejar uses the relationships between foreground and background as areas of containment in which the central figures feel almost imprisoned by their surroundings and atmosphere.

Atmospheric elements also play a dominant influence in the exhibition at Mosquito Hawk Gallery, although these arise more from psychological and internal forces than from mere pictorial construction. Titled “Inner Beast” and featuring three members of East Hampton’s Bonac Tonic art collective—Carly Haffner, Charles Ly, and Molly M. Weiss—as well as Shelter Islander Mary Larson and Brooklyn-based Reyna Hoffman, the exhibition offers, for the most part, whimsical manifestations of dark aspects of the human psyche, with occasional turns toward slightly more degenerate and depraved impulses.

Ms. Haffner’s “Fuzz Family” series, for example, could be perceived as nightmarish, but only for those afraid of giant pink Twinkies, while another work, “Bananarific,”seems to deal at least indirectly with issues of cannibalism, but in this case the image of a large, extremely happy banana about to eat a smaller one that looks significantly less sanguine about the situation.

Charles Ly’s small paintings are also somewhat capricious, although, in works such as “Tapeworm” and “Playtime Before Dinner,” the ambiance takes a decidedly more visceral and emotional turn.

This kind of shift is also apparent in Reyna Hoffman’s paintings, which derive from a science fiction approach to surreal imagery. Meanwhile, Molly Weiss and Mary Larson are significantly darker in both their use of imagery and in the narrative frameworks of the works themselves.

Ms. Weiss’s “The Three Graces (Layoff Breakup Heart Attack),” for instance, uses figurative posture contrasting with negative space to reflect emotional turmoil, while Mary Larson’s pieces, such as “Very Ugly Baby” and “Ode to a Dirty Old Man” are provocatively shocking and satirical but absent any measure of overt vulgarity.

All three exhibitions—at Boltax Gallery, the Sarah Nightingale Gallery, and Mosquito Hawk Gallery—continue through August 3.