The Vineyard’s visual arts scene is reaching its peak this month, with seasonal galleries joining year-round stalwarts in a profusion of summer shows and special events.

While Island landscapes and sea scenes are perennially-cherished themes, adventurous art lovers will find a wide variety of other experiences on view, from new work by women working in textiles to an Old Master portrait from the early 17th century. Pieter de Grebber’s Mary Magdalene, painted between 1630 and 1650, is the focal point of a small but powerful exhibition at the Winter Street Gallery in Edgartown through August 27.

To literally set the scene for the show’s exploration of loss and longing, the gallery has been repainted by a professional set designer to appear smoke-damaged, as if it survived a fire. Titled Widow’s Walk, the evocative show also includes Art Nouveau ceramics and furniture, a Surrealist portrait and contemporary works such as Eli Ping’s alabaster-like sculpture of canvas and resin, Mote.

Just across Winter street, the Christina Gallery — an Edgartown institution for more than 30 years — overflows with painting, prints and vintage maps. Island painter Marjorie Mason, known for her colorful Vineyard landscapes, is one of more than two dozen artists represented at the Christina, which also sells a wide range of prints by modern masters such as Mary Cassatt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Maurice Utrillo.

The gallery’s second level features a collection of historic maps and navigational charts and prints of fish and flowers, grouped around a capacious leather couch where shoppers can give their feet a break while continuing to feast their eyes.

Walk either way on Winter street to find more galleries on North and South Summer streets, North Water street and Dock street at the harbor’s edge, where the Old Sculpin Gallery features Island artists in an historic boatbuilder’s shop that was copied for Quint’s shack in the movie Jaws.

In Oak Bluffs, the art scene has expanded to create two distinct gallery zones: the designated Arts District on Dukes County avenue and a cluster of showrooms on the upper end of Circuit avenue, where the long-established Cousen Rose Gallery abuts the newer Center of Knowhere with the Mariposa Museum and World Culture Center a few doors away.

Unlike other Island art spots, the Mariposa charges adults to view its collection of quilts created by a South African community of families affected by HIV/AIDS, who receive support from gallery admissions. But children are admitted free to the center, which offers an activity room complete with art supplies — and even a puppet theatre — to enliven rainy days.

The quilts themselves, which combine words and images to impart lessons about space, science and civilization, offer many an opportunity for parent-child conversations.

The Mariposa also shows scrap sculptures by Kevin Blythe Sampson, and its free-to-enter gift shop offers comics and artwork by Danny Simmons, block prints of Black American spirituals, children’s books and other goods.

Since founding Cousen Rose in 1980, owner and curator Zita Cousens has developed the cottage-like gallery into a vibrant summer arts venue that’s hosting artist receptions every Saturday this month as well as a midweek series of talks with Black intellectuals including Charlayne Hunter-Gault and David Steele.

Upcoming events at Cousen Rose include an August 5 reception for textile artists Poppy Milner and Gail Willett, who collaborate on miniature African clothing designs, one on August 12 for collage artist Ekua Holmes, and one on August 19 for painter Paul Goodnight.

Island artist Brique Garber is also represented at Cousen Rose, which shows both her collages and her ceramics. Ms. Hunter-Gault speaks at the gallery August 10 about her book My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives and Mr. Steele appears August 24 to discuss his book It Was Always a Choice: Picking Up the Baton of Athlete Activism.

Next door to Cousen Rose, Center of Knowhere is the second location of Valerie Francis’s Knowhere Art Gallery on Dukes County avenue. With Knowhere marking its fifth year in business this month, Center of Knowhere is holding a group show of nine returning artists and six who are new to the gallery.

On August 5, the Circuit avenue location will host an all-day anniversary celebration, followed by an evening reception on its streetside patio.

Knowhere, on Dukes County avenue, is currently showing Fibers of My Soul, a group exhibition of women textile artists that includes new work by Islanders Martha Mae Jones and Daryl Royster Alexander.

The nonprofit Galaxy Gallery, also on Dukes County avenue, brings together an array of Island artists working in multiple media: painting, drawing, assemblage and even fine woodworking. This summer, the Galaxy is scheduling new, themed group shows every two weeks, with Farm to Table running through August 16 and Nightfall beginning August 17.

Knowhere, Galaxy and the other Arts District galleries — photographers Alison Shaw’s and Michael Blanchard’s among them — also host monthly summer art strolls, with the next coming up on August 12 from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Vineyard Haven Harbor Cultural District holds its monthly First Friday Gallery Stroll August 4, Sept. 1 and Oct. 6, also from 4 to 7 p.m. Stops on the stroll include small, artist-owned galleries such as Miner Family Gallery and 51art Gallery on Beach street extension. Painter Craig Miner’s exuberant acrylics and his son Avery Miner’s sculptures share the one-room space, where visitors may well find themselves meeting the artists who created the work. The gallery also offers an eclectic assortment of boutique goods.

At 51art, photographer Teresa Kruszewski has a sideline as well. In addition to showing her black and white images from the Vineyard and New York City, Ms. Kruszewski operates the Island’s only custom framing shop. And in a sideline to her sideline, Ms. Kruszewski also sells bouquets of fresh flowers and bunches of lavender from her garden.

Two more grassroots galleries rub elbows on nearby Beach Road: Althea Designs, where printmaker Althea Freeman-Miller sells works as small as stickers and as large as wall pieces, and The Workshop, where several Island artists have their studios and share a display space.

On Main Street in Vineyard Haven, Louisa Gould Gallery is one of the Island’s largest, representing more than 50 artists from the Vineyard and beyond, year-round.

Nearby Blue Fathom Gallery has taken the place of the former cooperative Night Heron Gallery and is showing some of the same artists, including West Tisbury jewelry designer Kathy Tackabury and Oak Bluffs ceramist Washington Ledesma.

Up-Island galleries are fewer in number and more spread out, nestled into the rural landscape with outdoor sculptures often dotting the grounds.

West Tisbury’s year-round Granary Gallery and seasonal Field Gallery are siblings to Edgartown’s North Water Gallery, all three owned by Chris and Sheila Morse.

A West Tisbury icon for generations, with its playful white Tom Maley lawn sculptures catching the eye from State Road, the Field Gallery shows contemporary work with an emphasis on Island artists.

The sprawling Granary, on Old County Road, adds historic art and photography, antiques, textiles, crafts and fine jewelry to the mix, making the gallery a worthy stand-alone destination as well as a must-see stop on any Island art tour.

West Tisbury has a pair of artist-owned galleries as well. Revered painter-farmer Allen Whiting shows his work at the Davis House Gallery on State Road, weekend afternoons through Sept. 3 and by appointment, and painter Mitch Gordon recently opened Turpentine Gallery on State Road closer to Vineyard Haven.

In Menemsha, painter Colin Ruel and his wife Nettie Kent, a jewelry designer, share the Ruel Gallery on Basin Road, where they also sell swordfishing hats, kids’ T-shirts and Martha’s Vineyard secession flags.

But the largest gallery of all on the Island is created during a one-day show, when the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs hosts the All Island Art Show. This year the 64th annual show will be held August 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (rain date August 8).