Tomashi Jackson at the Parrish and Amazing Art & Design Out East

Preview for "Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim" at the Parrish Art Museum (All photos by Paul Laster)
 

By PAUL LASTER, July 2021

Traveling Out East on a sunny Saturday for the preview of the exhibition “Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim” at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, independent curator Renée Riccardo and I stopped in Southampton to see a compelling group of current shows at Hauser & Wirth, Sélavy, Phillips and the Southampton Arts Center and explore the newly opened Peter Marino Art Foundation and Christie’s Southampton. 

Christie’s teamed up with the international design gallery Carpenters Workshop to present “Out East” as its first exhibition in a former auto repair shop that was built in an Art Deco style in 1951. The 5,600 square-foot art glass-front building provided the perfect setting for standout artworks by Abstract Expressionist painters, Pop Art icons and current artists related to the East End—including Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Roy Lichtenstein and Eric Fischl—paired with dynamically designed avant-garde furnishings by Wendell Castle, Vincent Dubourg and Atelier Van Lieshout.

  Paintings by Willem de Kooning, Eric Fischl and Helen Frankenthaler in the exhibition "Out East" with Wendell Castle's sculptural chairs from Carpenters Workshop Gallery at Christie’s Southampton
 

Fischl, who recently co-founded with his wife and fellow artist April Gornik The Church, an arts organization in a former church in Sag Harbor, also curated the spirited group show WHIMSY, presenting such artists as Mel Kendrick, Alice Aycock, David Salle and Larry Rivers in the surrounding gardens of the Southampton Arts Center. Meanwhile, in the center’s galleries the exhibition EARTH - ARTISTS AS ACTIVISTS, curated by former SAC Artistic Director Amy Kirwin, who recently joined East Hampton’s Guild Hall as Chief Creative Officer, featured artworks in a variety of media and styles by more than 30 contemporary artists engaged in environmental conservation and activism.

  Larry Rivers' sculpture in the exhibition "WHIMSY", curated by Eric Fischl, at the Southampton Arts Center

Steve Miller's installation of painted surfboards with a painting in the exhibition "EARTH - ARTISTS AS ACTIVISTS" at the Southampton Arts Center
 

Next door to SAC, architect Peter Marino recently transformed the former Rogers Memorial Library into the new home for the Peter Marino Art Foundation, which features an 8,000 square-foot exhibition space for his collection of classical, modern and contemporary art and design objects. Imaginative portraits of Marino by Francesco Clemente, Wim Delvoye and Erwin Wurm are mixed with important paintings and sculptures by Georg Baselitz, Johan Creten, Anselm Kiefer, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Tom Sachs and Andy Warhol. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed indoors, but the guided tour of the collection made it worth the $20 (by appointment) entrance fee.
 

 Peter Marino Art Foundation in Southampton
 

Across the street from the foundation on Jobs Lane, Sélavy, a jewel-box of a space dynamically displayed with a combination of art and design gems, was offering the exhibition “BLACK | WHITE | IN BETWEEN.” Arresting bronze sculptures by François Xavier Lalanne and Alexander Archipenko shared spaces with paintings and works on paper by George Braque and Pablo Picasso, and a stunning side cabinet by Paul Evans held sculptures and objects by John Born, Kyohei Fujita and Archipenko, which was just a sampling of the show-stopping art and design objects on view.

 Georgia O'Keeffe's painting and Alexander Archipenko's mixed-media collage with sculptures and objects by John Born, Kyohei Fujita and Alexander Archipenko on a cabinet by Paul Evans in the exhibition "BLACK | WHITE | IN BETWEEN" at Sélavy in Southampton
 

Crossing Jobs Lane once again, the recently opened Lex Weill Gallery had works by Jordan Casteel juxtaposed with pieces by Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, while Hauser & Wirth was highlighting new paintings and sculptures by Henry Taylor. Taylor brought issues of inequality to the home turf of the wealthy community with works based on archival photography of country clubs and horse races dating back to the 1920s that reference the role of Blacks as caddies and jockeys in the predominantly white and racially exclusionary games. A colorful group of small abstract sculptures by Phyllida Barlow caught the eye in a back gallery, while a painting by George Condo and an early photomontage by Cindy Sherman stood out in the second-floor offices and viewing rooms.
 

 Installation view of "Henry Taylor Disappeared, but a tiger showed up, later" at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton
 

Before heading to the Parrish Art Museum, we dropped into Phillips for the exquisite exhibition “Milton Avery: A Sense of Place,” curated by the artist’s grandson, Sean Cavanaugh, and art advisor Waqas Wajahat. Focusing on the different locations that served as the artist’s inspiration, including a number of sublime seaside locales, the show featured some 50 paintings and works on paper spanning three decades of Avery’s career, with a number of works coming directly from the Milton Avery Trust.
 

 Milton Avery at Phillips Southampton
 

At the Parrish, patrons of the museum and friends of the artist gathered to celebrate Tomashi Jackson’s new body of work focused on the historic and contemporary lived experiences of Indigenous, Black and Latinx families on the East End of Long Island. Featuring a multi-channel sound work composed from interviews, a mural-size photographic installation, seven large-scale paintings made with research imagery and a study room with archival photos used by the artist in her paintings and drawn portraits of the interviewees by catalogue contributor Martha Schnee, the meaningful show sheds light on local problems of gentrification, which have sadly been plowed under for generations. WM

 Tomashi Jackson at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill

 Installation view of "Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim" at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
 

Tomashi Jackson at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
 

  Installation view of "Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim" at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
 

  Tomashi Jackson at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill

 Family portraits from the collaborating subjects in "Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim" at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill

Tomashi Jackson at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
 

 Martha Schnee portraits of the collaborating subjects in "Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim" at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill
 

 Installation view of Tomashi Jackson: The Land Claim at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill

 Christie’s Southampton
 

 Larry Rivers in "Out East" at Christie’s Southampton
 

 Vincent Dubourg's bronze credenza from Carpenters Workshop Gallery with a painting by Roy Lichtenstein in "Out East" at Christie’s Southampton

 Atelier Van Lieshout's sculptural lamp from Carpenters Workshop Gallery at Christie’s Southampton
 

 Henry Taylor at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton
 

 Installation view of "Henry Taylor Disappeared, but a tiger showed up, later" at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton
 

Phyllida Barlow in the viewing room at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton
 

George Condo and Cindy Sherman in the viewing room at Hauser & Wirth in Southampton

 
 Jordan Casteel at Lex Weill Gallery in Southampton
 

 Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst at Lex Weill Gallery in Southampton
 

 Hans Hartung and Pablo Picasso above anonymous chairs and a Jean Prouvé table in the exhibition "BLACK | WHITE | IN BETWEEN," plus a Piero Manzoni in the back office, at Sélavy in Southampton

  Bronze sculpture by François Xavier Lalanne with works by Nuvolo, George Braque and Lucio Fontana in the exhibition "BLACK | WHITE | IN BETWEEN" at Sélavy in Southampton

 Mixed-media painting on a cabinet door by Pablo Picasso and Alexander Archipenko's bronze in the exhibition "BLACK | WHITE | IN BETWEEN" at Sélavy in Southampton