Shows at Demato and Crazy Monkey galleries

Even while allowing for the plethora of accomplished artists working and exhibiting on the East End, a writer can still fall prey to a certain ennui in the repetitiveness of viewing and reviewing the usual suspects over and over again. As a result, it can be a refreshing surprise to cover exhibits such as the current offerings at Richard Demato Fine Arts in Sag Harbor and the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Amagansett and see the work of artists who have not yet been shown around these parts.

This is why it was particularly gratifying for this reviewer to consider “The Muse and The Music,” an exhibition of works by Michael Carson at Demato Fine Arts Gallery in Sag Harbor. The Minnesota art school graduate is showing work reflecting an exuberance created by both his energetic brush work and the lush tonality of his palette. At the same time, there is also a certain measure of restraint and contrived structure in the compositional configurations of the works themselves as the artist carefully arranges his figurative subjects for the maximum emotional and pictorial impact.

Interestingly, despite the painterly textures conjured by Mr. Carson’s expressive use of brushes and palette knives, one nevertheless senses almost cinematic echoes in the manner the tableaus are presented as narrative moments defined by the way his figures physically interact with each other.

In “Yellow Blessings” (oil on canvas), for example, the posture of the Billie Holliday-like singer that dominates the central focus of the composition is all blues wail, while balance is achieved by a circular group of listeners whose facial expressions reflect the exuberance of the music as much as the singer herself.

This element of structure defining narration is also apparent in both “Basement Music” and “Catholic Guilt” (both oil on canvas), the latter in particular gaining its greatest impact less from the carnal aspects of the woman undressing in the foreground than from the restrained and shamed expressions on the faces of the three men viewing her as she disrobes.

In the final analysis, the works create an interesting mix of painterly approaches that seem to take elements from various artists to achieve the end result: one can sense influences as diverse as George Bellows and other Ashcan School painters as well as Norman Rockwell in the care and attentiveness devoted to structure in defining the story line.

The exhibition of paintings by Michael Carson continues at Richard J. Demato Fine Arts in Sag Harbor through June 17.

At the Crazy Monkey Gallery in Sag Harbor, the featured artist is Daphne Stern, who, to the best of my recollection, is new to exhibiting at the area’s oldest operating co-op gallery. Perhaps most interesting in considering her mixed media works and digital prints is the drastically different atmosphere and tone she strives to achieve in the separate mediums.

In the mixed media pieces, Ms. Stern follows a path associated with outsider art in the darkly energetic yet still child-like use of figurative imagery, bright coloration, and flat perspective. Even so, the works are nevertheless subtle at times in their use of imagery, as in the collaged shadows in “Dreaming with a Purple Feather” or the abstract flow of musical notes superimposed over the figures in “Conversation I.”

In the artist’s digital prints, by contrast, the ambiance is significantly more restrained, even elegant at times, as evidenced by her use of shadows and angles in “Disney Symphony Hall, L.A.” or the contrast in tones and textures in “Pier Wheel 2, NYC.”

There is also a rather surprising element of restraint in works by Eileen Hickey-Hulme, especially in comparison with her “Bang Bang” series of girls with guns. Also done in her signature painterly application of nail polish on canvas, these older works are still vibrantly colored, but they rely on mathematical patterning that conjures rigid structures within their rhythmic, Mattisse influenced arrangements.

Also on exhibit at the Crazy Monkey are photographs by Daniel Schoenheimer and Andrea McCafferty. The exhibition continues through May 31.