Public Reception for Parrish Road Show

[caption id="attachment_67417" align="alignnone" width="800"] “Hold Your Horses,” Auto Body installation at Bush Farms.[/caption]

The Parrish Art Museum invites the public to a free opening reception of “Parrish Road Show,” featuring the Bellport-based artist collective Auto Body, on August 12 from 3 to 5 p.m., at Bush Farms and Museum in Brookhaven. The closing reception is on August 27 from 5 to 7 p.m., outdoors at the Parrish.

This event, free and open to the public, will give guests a chance to meet members of the artist collective Auto Body, tour Bush Farms and Museum and have beverages and light fare like locally sourced roasted corn, peaches and cheeses.

Originally a dairy farm converted into a duck farm in the 1940s, Ron Bush has owned Bush Farms and Museum for almost 40 years.

His collection of farm tools, equipment, trucks and tractors in eleven buildings on the five-acre property can be explored, along with a display of custom footwear by his aunt, Elizabeth Katz, who designed shoes for first ladies and movie stars.

“Parrish Road Show” is a creative off-site summer series with the Parrish. This year, Auto Body has transformed common roadside signage into public art through text-based artworks positioned along a 35-mile span of Montauk Highway. The exhibit is on view August 1 through September 4.

The project serves to enhance the perception of Montauk Highway, one of the oldest and most scenic roadways on Long Island, from a utilitarian thoroughfare to a space for viewing art. Drivers are encouraged to stop and discover something new in the area.

Several local businesses along the highway collaborate by offering their property as sites for the artworks, which consist of nature-themed colloquial phrases painted on wood boards. Attached to each signpost are small plaques that highlight a nearby natural site like a bird sanctuary, hiking trail or scenic outlook with informational material and maps.

This year’s installations include “Happy as a Clam,” at Varney’s Restaurant in Brookhaven, “Hold Your Horses” at the Ronnie Bush Farm and Museum in Brookhaven, “It Takes Two to Canoe” at Carman’s River Canoe and Kayak in Brookhaven, “Reap What You Sow,” at the Mustard Seed Café in Center Moriches, “High and Dry” at the Easterner Motel in Southampton, and “Red Right Return,” at the Parrish Art Museum.
Founded in Bellport in 2014, Auto Body has long relied on the Long Island environment as a source of inspiration, resource and venue for innovative “actions.”

Originally based in a self-renovated auto body shop on Main Street in Bellport Village, the group has since expanded beyond its physical space to produce installations on locations including landscapes, rooftops, attics, ferry boats, farms and beaches.

The group’s eight practicing artists and designers include Tyler Healy, Johnny Knapp, Aria McManus, Claire Read, Georgia Read, Will Rose, Quinn Sherman and Charlie Stravinsky who all have history on Long Island. Auto Body operates as a collective producing work collaboratively and as curators organizing projects and exhibitions. For more information, please visit autobodybellport.com.

Bush Farms and Museum is located at 2948 Montauk Highway in Brookhaven and the Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, please visit parrishart.org.