When it comes to sheer size, this is probably the biggest news on the Martha’s Vineyard gallery scene: David Phelps’s Pastoral Dreamer has left the plaza in front of Edgartown’s Eisenhauer Gallery.
For the past several years, the Oklahoma sculptor’s multi-part, much-larger-than-life bronze of a lounging boy whose upper body and lower legs emerged from the pavement, as if through the surface of Huck Finn’s favorite swimming hole provided a whimsical moment for countless passers-by.
Now sold, Pastoral Dreamer has been replaced on the plaza by a pair of smaller, Cubist-inflected bronzes of a guitar player and a nude woman, both by Wayne Salge.
“They’re more representative of what’s inside the gallery,” said manager Amy Cash this week.
New artists at the Eisenhauer in 2019 include Leslie Barron, whose colorful mixed-media portraits reveal a love of birds, Surrealism and Frida Kahlo. Another is Alison Haley Paul, who layers, scrapes and scribbles wax and graphite along with pigments in landscapes like her dramatic view of the Gay Head cliffs.
“There’s a lot of dimension to her work,” Ms. Cash said.
Returning artist Anne Harney showed at the gallery last year, but has changed her style completely since then, Ms. Cash said.
Instead of her previous still life and landscape paintings, Ms. Harney has gone completely abstract with colorful, flowing works covered in a shiny layer of resin. They’re different from, but akin to, established Eisenhauer painter Chase Langford’s sinuous waterscapes.
Sculptor Stanley Bleifeld (1924-2011), an Eisenhauer artist before his death, is represented in the gallery by several 20th-century bronzes that were recently consigned by his widow, Ms. Cash said.
Among the most striking small-scale Bleifelds are images of men at work or anticipating play: his forceful The Baker (1968) and contemplative Liberty Hound, also known as Lone Sailor, from 1988.
Eisenhauer Gallery openings begin June 27 with a reception for Mr. Langford and painter Ilya Volykhine from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with music by Mike Benjamin & Friends.
In West Tisbury, the Granary and Field galleries also are introducing new Island artists this year.
The Granary has added painters Dan VanLandingham, a Martha’s Vineyard native whose work could be described as Island luminism, and Cuttyhunk-based landscapist Tamalin Baumgarten. Wampum mosaic artist Frank Rapoza also makes his Granary debut this season, while the Field Gallery welcomes painters Rachel Cassiani and Susie White.
Beyond the walls of the Granary, Field and North Water (Edgartown) galleries, co-owner Chris Morse is assisting the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in its upcoming exhibition of Vineyard-themed paintings by Thomas Hart Benton, which he said will include works loaned by Granary patrons from their private collections.
A Benton painting unrelated to the Island—but of deep interest to fans, collectors and railroad enthusiasts—was scheduled to return to the Granary Gallery Thursday night. Last summer, the gallery purchased Benton’s Going West (1926) after it had spent close to 35 years in the collection of Bill and Camille Cosby of Connecticut.
A rare subject for the Missouri-born, Vineyard-linked artist, Benton’s dynamic portrait of a steam train in full flight hung for part of the Vineyard’s off-season in Palm Beach, Fla., as the key painting in a career survey featuring more than 65 of his works at the Surovek Gallery.
This week, Going West is “coming back to the station,” Mr. Morse said with a smile, as he sat with business partners David Wallis and Wendy Whipple at a round table in their rambling, many-roomed gallery on Old County Road.
In Vineyard Haven, Main street’s Louisa Gould Gallery has about 90 new works by returning artists and newcomers alike. One of Ms. Gould’s most intriguing projects has been working with paintings from throughout the career of 90-year-old Island impressionist Nancy Furino. Some of the earlier canvases have never been exhibited before, Ms. Gould said.
With their saturated colors and swirling vegetation, Ms. Furino’s paintings link to Benton’s—and Van Gogh’s—as easily as they do with the still-popular West Coast plein aire style.
There’s even a whisper of Japanese wood-block artistry in some of her sun and shadow-struck works, whose subjects include beloved Island sights both natural (Golden Rod in Vineyard Field) and human-made (The Reading Room).
Among the many contemporary artists at the Gould Gallery, Islander Jennifer McCurdy stands out with her hand-carved porcelain pieces, some gilded from within.
During Vineyard Haven’s monthly First Friday showcase July 6, Ms. Gould’s gallery will celebrate the work of minimalist landscape painter Christie Scheele, whose canvases breathe Island air. Also in Vineyard Haven, Night Heron Gallery, the artists’ co-operative on Main street, has accepted painter and printmaker Elizabeth Whelan and woodworker Paul Farrington, whose burlwood constructions include some Island trees.
To find out about gallery openings, artist receptions and other cultural events on Martha’s Vineyard, please visit the Gazette calendar and sign up for the Island Time newsletters.
Comments (1)
Comments
Comment policy »