The Vineyard’s fine arts scene is warming with the weather, as seasonal galleries open their doors and year-round establishments introduce new artists.
The Field Gallery in West Tisbury has added several new artists including photographer Jim Marshall and textile artist Jennifer Brown, gallery director Jennifer Pillsworth said this week.
Mr. Marshall’s rock and roll portraits of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and other 20th-century stars will be the subject of a show from July 10 to July 21, but a number of his works are hanging in the gallery now along with photographs by Michael Stimola and paintings by Traeger di Pietro, Susie White and other Island artists.
On June 26, the Field Gallery opens a show of new work by painter Rachel Cassiani, jewelry designer Kenneth Pillsworth and painter Jhenn Watts.
At Michael Johnson’s gallery in Vineyard Haven, the photographer is celebrating his 10th season with new work that captures the Gay Head Cliffs and other Island landscapes frosted with fresh snow.
“It’s a whole different place in the winter. And the light! The light here is stellar, and I’m all about the light,” said Mr. Johnson, speaking with the Gazette Wednesday at his indoor-outdoor gallery off Main street.
“For a long time, it was a dream to come back to the Island in the wintertime,” said Mr. Johnson, who divides his off-season months between San Francisco and Arizona.
This year, he finally made the trip, and was rewarded with late January’s storm — though he had to extend his stay to catch it, Mr. Johnson said.
“I was out shooting night shots in the snow, in 50-mile-an-hour winds … I went up and down the Island photographing the snow,” he said.
Mr. Johnson’s panoramic Island views also include autumn shots of Chappaquiddick and his photographs of the Oak Bluffs Polar Bears swimming club. On June 22, the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse will open a lobby show of his work, Mr. Johnson said. Tucked behind jeweler Claudia, across the alley from Nat’s Nook amid a garden of lush perennials, his gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Columbus Day.
Continuing along Main street, Louisa Gould Gallery and Night Heron Gallery are open much of the year and represent scores of artists, in many media, between them. Ms. Gould is an artist and marine photographer whose multi-room gallery is packed with contemporary art: paintings, photographs, sculptures and ceramics, fine art jewelry and mixed media works by artists from the Vineyard and beyond.
“We just rehung the gallery right before Memorial Day,” Ms. Gould said, estimating that she’s added 100 new works for this season.
This Sunday afternoon, the gallery is hosting a meet-the-artist reception with painter Linda Besse, whose oils include both Island landscapes and images from African safaris. Through June 20, the gallery is showing more than a dozen of Ms. Besse’s safari paintings as part of a wildlife-themed group show called It’s Wild, Ms. Gould said.
The Louisa Gould Gallery currently is open Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment.
Nearby Night Heron Gallery passed a milestone this year, member artist Kathleen Tackabury said. For the first time, the cooperative gallery has 11 members instead of 10. The newest member, Cynthia Parejo of Hypatia Book Arts, creates hand-bound journals using ancient bookbinding techniques. Her books join ceramics by Washington Ledesma, jewelry by Ms. Tackabury and Diana Stewart and textiles and tiles by Belden Radcliffe, among other Night Heron members.
The gallery also has wall pieces and jigsaw puzzles by cut-paper artist Taylor Stone, including a 285-piece puzzle of the ArtCliff Diner as well as puzzles of the Edgartown Light and the sea monsters of Farm Pond.
Ms. Tackabury, whose cast-silver horseshoe crabs and skate-egg cases are perennial best-sellers, has introduced a series of small repoussé (reverse-hammered) silver hearts and other images, framed in wood, that can hang or stand.
“These pieces are for the altar or the wall,” she said.
Galleries in Oak Bluffs on Dukes County avenue are joining forces in a new, collaborative organization.
“We have formed something called Arts in OB,” said photographer Michael Blanchard, whose Crossroads Gallery is one of eight in the group.
Dukes County avenue neighbors Alison Shaw Gallery, Knowhere Art Gallery and Galaxy Gallery — another artists’ cooperative — are also members, along with Cousen Rose Gallery and Craftworks Gallery on Circuit avenue, Center of Nowhere on upper Circuit and Featherstone Center for the Arts on Barnes Road.
The new collaborative has a website detailing all its member galleries at artsinob.com.
Edgartown’s long-established art scene, including the venerable Old Sculpin Gallery and the year-round Christina Gallery and North Water Street Gallery, has had several injections of new energy in recent years.
The Winter Street Gallery is back for a third season of contemporary art, beginning with an exhibition of three internationally-known painters under the age of 50: Carlos Reyes (born 1977), Enrique López Llamas (1993) and Nana Wolke (1994). Titled Fields of View, the show closes Sunday.
Also back for another summer on Dock street, Untameable Gallery is a showcase for photographer Lucy Dahl’s work, along with a quirky selection of jewelry, ceramics and gifts.
Photographer L.A. (Lisa) Brown and her niece Gareth Brown opened their gallery Kin last summer on Kelley street and have since moved to a vintage building on North Water street, where L.A. Brown’s prints share space with Gareth Brown’s repurposed necktie pieces and other handcrafted apparel.
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