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While recent balmy temperatures are undoubtedly early harbingers of the coming seasonal intensity here on the East End, another indicator is to be found in current exhibitions at galleries such as Pamela Williams in Amagansett and Mark Borghi in Bridgehampton. With winter devoted primarily to large group shows that are only occasionally rotated, one sure sign of spring is when space is cleared at local art venues and more focused exhibits with distinctly heightened curatorial intent begin to make their appearance.
At the Mark Borghi Gallery, a space that is singularly interesting for its mix of exhibits featuring both modern masters and established contemporary artists, the current offering pays specific homage to the season of sun and sand in recent surfboard motif works by Peter Dayton.
The founder in the last century of the now legendary Boston punk band La Peste, Mr. Dayton has always followed a painterly path marked by distinctly Warholian influences, particularly in his past series of collaged flower paintings. This influence is further accentuated in recent works consisting of rectangular surfaces finished as shiny surfboards, in no small part due to the conceptual framework established by Warhol and other pop artists who viewed essentially utilitarian and everyday objects as aesthetic entities in and of themselves.
Interestingly, Mr. Dayton matches these elements with the incorporation of techniques that reflect the post-painterly ruminations of the art critic Clement Greenberg, an early exponent of abstract expressionism (although he eventually decried it as “cultural propaganda”) who later championed color field painters for their greater emphasis on the flatness of the picture plane.
What is particularly entertaining in this regard, though, is that the late Mr. Greenberg was, in fact, no great fan of Warhol and the pop art aesthetic, asserting in his 1964 essay, “Post Painterly Abstraction,” that pop art was unable to “really challenge taste on more than a superficial level.”
Mr. Dayton reconciles this conceptual divide by paying homage to icons of Mr. Greenberg’s post-painterly universe, such as Kenneth Noland and Barnett Newman, while at the same time acknowledging that their specific styles of painting have become as much recognizable commodities as the soup cans immortalized by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein’s comic strips, or Jasper Johns’s bronzed beer cans.
Appealing for their polished and highly finished veneer, the works might appear to someone not schooled in iconographic names from the art world as actual surfboards, with the logo of “Gene Davis Custom Surfboards” serving, at least to the uninitiated, as a reference to some obscure surf champion. This illusion, it should be noted, would be even more immediate if the works were actually shaped like surfboards, but, presumably, Mr. Dayton is more interested in commenting on the subtle relationships between art and culture than in merely producing functioning surfboards that are fraught with ironic intent.
The current exhibition at the Mark Borghi Gallery in Bridgehampton featuring recent works by Peter Dayton continues through the end of April.
At the Pamela Williams Gallery in Amagansett, the gently cluttered cacophony of gallery owner’s annual winter group show has given way to a show featuring paintings and sculptures by Charles Waller and David Suter as well as photographs by Ken Robbins and small collage works by Ilie Wacs.
Of particular note are two large constructions by Mr. Suter that conjure delicate rhythmic configurations from the contrapuntal patterning of the incised wood grain and the artist’s delicate and sensitive use of color. “Tribute” is especially interesting for its use of subtle Egyptian motifs, while “Rubicon” is powerful for its use of space and the abstract narrative derived from the juxtaposition of materials.
Also included are a number of Mr. Suter’s whimsically engaging small sculptures, which create images from paradoxical frameworks that are refreshingly entertaining as visual puns, in much the same way as many of his drawings and well-known graphic works.
Also on exhibit are recent works by Mr. Waller that carry airs of irony at a slight remove similar to Mr. Suter’s, yet are more overtly sentimental in the artist’s use of imagery. This is apparent in the image of a bleeding heart in the extremely poignant “Eau de Vie,” while in “See No Evil,” on the other hand, the same elements of sentimentality and nostalgia are more barbed and the work, while still capricious and quirky, carries an edge that is intensely charged.
This is also true in some of Mr. Robbins’s photographs, such as “The Infinite Regress of Reality and Entertainment” and “Carnival, Missoula, Mt,” while other works, like “Winter Tulips” and “Orient Lighthouse,” feature more overtly stylized and gently bucolic imagery.
The exhibition at Pamela Williams Gallery continues through May 10.
on Apr 16, 2010