Hamptons-Based Gallery Enlists Local Artists To Co-Curate “As The Crow Flies”

When formulating As the Crow Flies, Sara Nightingale Gallery owner/director Sara Nightingale found inspiration from another local, triennial exhibition.

“The exhibition is intended to parallel the Parrish Art Museum’s Artists Choose Artists show, which opened last weekend,” Nightingale explained.

Similar to the Parrish’s juried exhibition, which commemorates the area’s artists and champions fellowship among the East End’s sensational multi-generational artists, Nightingale enlisted three artists for As the Crow Flies, who in turn each recruited an artist that they admire to be showcased.

“I selected three local artists, Janet Goleas, Laurie Lambrecht and Ross Watts, and tasked them each with inviting one other artist to participate in the show. The parameters were that the artists had to be local and had to be people who had never shown at the gallery before,” Nightingale noted.

As the Crow Flies will open on Thursday, November 14 and remain on view through Monday, December 16.

“Janet Goleas selected Priscilla Heine, who is represented by Findlay Galleries; both have work currently on view in the Parrish’s Artists Choose Artists show. Laurie Lambrecht, who shows with the Drawing Room in East Hampton and just completed a Parrish Road Show project at Madoo Conservancy, selected Virva Hinnemo,” Nightingale said. “Virva’s husband is organizing a group show at Julie Keyes’ gallery across the street from me, which will open on Thanksgiving weekend. Ross Watts, who is an alumnus of Artists Choose Artists (2011), selected Jeremy Grovesnor, who has shown with Tripoli Gallery.”

Goleas, a writer, educator and curator, received a BFA and MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work revolves around “…issues that are often in direct conflict with one another such as depth and flatness, nature and artifice, expression and precision, and spheres and circles.” Goleas’ pieces have been shown at the San Francisco Art Institute, Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery and Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, NV, Artists Space, NY, East Hampton’s Guild Hall, Springs’ Ashawagh Hall, Sag Harbor’s Sara Nightingale Gallery, Bridgehampton’s Kathryn Markel Gallery, and Galerie Muhlenbusch-Winkelmann, Germany.

Ross Watts, infinite.4332, Tarpaper, burlap,plaster on wood panel, 36″ x 36″. (Courtesy Photo)

Heine, who lives and works in East Hampton, studied at the Arts Students League, Bennington College, Parsons School of Design at the New School, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. She has been featured in solo and group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the School of Visual Arts, Emily Harvey Gallery, and Wally Findlay Galleries, NY, Heckscher Museum of Art and Islip Art Museum, Long Island, NY, Ashawagh Hall, Springs, Guild Hall, East Hampton, and Boston City Hall.

Lambrecht, a Bridgehampton native, works in photography and fiber. Her works have been highlighted in solo exhibitions in the U.S. and globally. Her photographs can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, D.C., and the Parrish Art Museum. When Lambrecht served as the administrative assistant to Roy Lichtenstein in the early 1990’s, she photographed the artist and his process. The result, Roy Lichtenstein in His Studio, was published by Monacelli Press in 2011. Lambrecht has participated in artist residencies at the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts and Vermont Studio Center, and the Rauschenberg Foundation in Florida. She is also a longtime collaborator of The Watermill Center founder Robert Wilson. In the spring, she will partake in an artist in residence at The Watermill Center.

Hinnemo, who is based in Springs, was born in Helsinki, Finland. She studied at The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and continued her education earning a certificate of painting from The Nyckelvisks School of Art in Stockholm, as well as a BFA in painting from Parsons School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Boston, Provincetown and Stockholm, and featured in The New York Times, Time Out New York, The New Yorker, and The New York Sun.

Watts, who calls Sag Harbor home, received a BFA from The University of North Carolina and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. His “minimal, conceptual paintings, sculptures, and installations” have been exhibited nationally and is also represented in countless private collections.

Grovesnor, who is based in Sagaponack, has been highlighted locally at Tripoli Gallery, as well as at the Hawaii International Film Festival, Millennium Film Archive, Anthropology Film Archives, and It Doesn’t Not Work.

An opening reception for As the Crow Flies will be held on Thursday, November 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.

“I am thrilled with the works that will be in the exhibition: Priscilla Heine’s fantastic over-sized flower sculptures, A video and painting by Ross Watts with a mathematical concept behind it, Laurie Lambrecht’s ‘knitted rocks’ – among other conceptually interesting and visually compelling works,” Nightingale reflected.

Sara Nightingale Gallery is located at 26 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, visit www.saranightingale.com.