As the season of exhibitions at commercial galleries winds down, the need for enriching visual engagement becomes more demanding over the thick heat of the summer months. Out of the way for viewers and gallery dwellers, there are some noteworthy exhibitions that take place outside the boroughs of New York City that are worth noting and can easily be missed if you were not looking or aware. A good point of example is Hesse Flatow East. Karen Hess-Flatow has launched a unique exhibition at their Amagansett space, nestled on the east end of Long Island in the Hamptons, a location that adds to its allure.
During the start of the pandemic in 2020, the Hamptons saw an uptick in New York City commercial galleries relocating themselves with new temporary spaces. As the actor Lee van Cleef said on-screen, ‘You go where the work is..’ which was the right-minded impetus for many of the temporary transplanted galleries. Canada, Jack Hanley Gallery, the Hole, and Pace are a few names that gave it a reasonable attempt to run spaces outside of their flagship venues in NYC. As the pandemic moved to the rearview, many of the galleries decided to close their temporary spaces and get back to basics.
There are several highlights of Hesse Flatow’s exhibition space in Amagansett. The first is that it is also part of Karen’s home. Karen Hesse Flatow, an artist herself, understands the rigors and importance of multi-tasking at every turn. It is with that enthusiasm that she is offering her summer program. The dealer and her husband purchased the once studio and summer home of Donald Baechler and utilized his former studio into the now exhibition, artist residency, performance, special events, and food-related space in the hope of reaching a wider audience. The other outstanding element of the exhibition space is its scale. The current exhibition, a grand showcase of over 20 works of art, allows each piece to breathe and hold its own without being too cramped, a testament to the spaciousness of the gallery.
The first exhibition for this summer opened on June 22 with a group show of seven female artists, curated by artist Kirsten Deirup. Reverse Cascade, the exhibition title, attempts to address the complicated task of juggling and uses it as a jumping-off point in organizing the seven artists and their work. The process of reverse cascade makes for an interesting premise when it comes to painting and working in a studio. The juggling act requires the individual to reverse the repetitive cycle by overthrowing an object within the sequence of an interval cycle, leaving no place for error.
The exhibition consists of all figurative paintings or figuration elements, with the exception of Bridget Caramagna, whose work comes out of an optical geometric abstraction. While retaining a ridged grid, Caramagna’s organization of color and gradient leaves one swooning by the optical qualities of color and a precise gradient which suggest atmospheric light but is seen through the mechanically controlled process.
In contrast, Chie Fueki’s world seems a little more chaotic and addresses the theme of juggling in a more direct manner of organized chaos. Fueki gives us a view of an artist at the helm, both through an image of a silhouetted figure and its multi-layered surfaced painting. Delphine Hennelly’s paintings of still-life bouquets pull into question image and surface, pattern and organic form, painterly applications, and the phenomenon of the brushstroke’s abilities.
Then we have Grace Rosario Perkins; the gallery’s website indicates she is a self-taught painter belonging to Diné/Akimel O’odham (a Native American group that primarily lives in central and southern Arizona). Her paintings consist of gestural marks, which begin to form a broken circular motif. As a result of the process, other linear shapes begin to form. Painted in a diagonal in all caps, the word “WALLFLOWER” reveals itself; resembling something out of a Jasper John’s painting. It is hard to imagine an artist born and formally educated in the late 20th century to be self-taught regardless of style. To a degree, an artist arriving at a mature state in their practice is self-taught, in so far as one constantly refines their process and imagery for their own need, so in a way, most mature artists are essentially self-trained regardless of their educational background. Nonetheless, Perkins’s work takes on all the formal elements in a painting by balancing them and inserting language as a device.
Hope Gangloff’s work focuses on everyday, non-descript subjects, including a still life on a window sill, a barn, and a shed building. However, Gangloff manages to define her subject using high-key pulsing color, which gives specificity to otherwise generic objects and places.
Sophie Larrimore’s large-scale paintings with customized frames balance elements of textile repetition, color, and hieroglyphic-like imagery with a pop sensibility into tightly packaged paintings that strongly echo elements of the French artist Henri Rousseau.
Kirsten Deirup inserts her work as part of the theme with images that are at first romantic, then ironic, with present-day objects to reference time rather than timelessness.
All the works in the show seem to manage several references in their making, a balancing or juggling act as it would be. It would seem that Deirup’s process of curating such a large number of artists and their work comes to the fore in any group exhibition, let alone outside of the major city in a very rural environment—excellent job to Deirup on managing the artists’ work and installing an exciting and provocative exhibition.
Hesse Flatow East- Reverse Cascade Curated by Kirsten Deirup Bridget Caramagna, Kirsten Deirup, Chie Fueki, Hope Gangloff, Delphine Hennelly, Sophie Larrimore, and Grace Rosario Perkins June 22 – July 13, 2024
About the writer: Artist and educator Riad Miah was born in Trinidad and lives and works in New York City. He has exhibited in the Tri-state area and abroad. He has contributed to Two Coats of Paint, the Brooklyn Rail, Vasari 21, and Art Savvy.