“Never the Less” by Ross Bleckner
Where: Guild Hall, East Hampton
When: Aug. 9–Oct. 25
Why It’s Worth a Look: This exhibition highlights a lesser-known aspect of Bleckner’s practice. Before he makes a composition, the artist tests handmade paints on black paper, gradually moving up in size before crafting his large-scale works. Here, these studies are placed alongside the final products.
Know Before You Go: Over the course of his career, Bleckner has produced and kept thousands of these studies, which also show the artist testing experimental brushstrokes and new styles.
“The Disappearance of Landscape: Oakleyville, 1964–2022”
Where: The Watermill Center, Water Mill
When: Aug. 29–March 20, 2027
Why It’s Worth a Look: To continue the Peter Hujar and Paul Thek craze that just won’t stop this year, this exhibition examines the work of the duo alongside the work of photographers Sheyla Baykal and Matthew Leifheit. All four artists spent time in the intimate Fire Island community of Oakleyville, a hub for queer artists dating back to the 1960s.
Know Before You Go: These days, sea level rise threatens Oakleyville. Experts anticipate that the area will be inaccessible within the next 30 to 50 years, bringing another layer of imminent danger to a community already living through a turn toward anti-queer totalitarianism nationwide.
“Robert Nava”
Where: Peter Marino Art Foundation, Southampton
When: Through Oct. 3
Why It’s Worth a Look: The creatures in Nava’s paintings are monsters in the classical sense, hybrid forms and chimeras rendered in acrylic, spray paint, and grease pencils. His rough gestures (and the head-spinning speed at which he paints) animate the 10 large-scale canvases on view at the Peter Marino Art Foundation, which feature geese, dragons, hydras, and other fantastical beings that push the boundaries of taste as far as they can go.
Know Before You Go: Nava’s style may defy conventional art-world sensibilities, but his proponents remain deeply embedded in it. His first New York solo was at Vito Schnabel’s Chelsea space, and the Mugrabi family has been known to collect his pieces.
“The Synchronicity Talisman: An Ancient Future Amulet Feast” by Angelbert Metoyer
Where: Tripoli Gallery, Wainscott
When: Through Aug. 3
Why It’s Worth a Look: Metoyer, who splits his time between Houston and the Netherlands, presents an Afrofuturist vision rooted in mythology derived from across the ancient world. New works explore the talisman as an object of remembrance, connecting communities to their ancestors through time and space.
Know Before You Go: Through his work, Metoyer presents a vision of time that is circular rather than linear, weaving Black identity into threads of ancient histories and imagined futures.
“Summer Programming”
Where: Shooster Arts & Literature, Sag Harbor
When: Open through the season
Why It’s Worth a Look: Many museums couldn’t unite works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claes Oldenburg, and Jenny Holzer under one roof—but this Sag Harbor whaler’s cottage can. This summer, Shooster will also present photography from Helmut Newton, New York’s Marcia Resnick, and German artist Werner Rohde, alongside European design objects such as a pine sofa by Uno Kristiansson and collectibles by Jean Prouvé.
Know Before You Go: The fine art, design, and antiques dealer’s star-studded curation is complemented by a conversation series featuring artists, curators, and writers Max Blagg, Bill Fine, Camille Okhio, Sasha Bonét, Eliot Duncan, Norman Scherer, and David Fishkind.
“LA Monumental”
Where: The Ranch, Montauk
When: Through Nov. 15
Why It’s Worth a Look: Los Angeles, with its urban sprawl and vast industrial spaces, has long beckoned artists interested in scale and possibility. Three artists with deep Angeleno roots—Matt Johnson, Nancy Rubins, and Paul McCarthy—bring the city to Montauk with three behemoth statues on view all summer and beyond.
Know Before You Go: Johnson, who works out of an indoor-outdoor studio by the Pacific, offers a vast configuration of shipping containers. Rubins, who lives and works out of Topanga Canyon, crafted a silver supernova out of reclaimed boats. And McCarthy, who houses decades of his work in a vast industrial compound in East LA, presents a 40-foot-wide bronze cast of a bacchanalian riff on Disney’s Snow White.
“Halo in a Haystack” by Michael Bühler-Rose
Where: Halsey McKay, East Hampton
When: Through Aug. 10
Why It’s Worth a Look: What do a rare Minor Threat 7-inch record, a gleaming ghanta, and an Anish Kapoor monograph all have in common? This artist may very well collapse them into a single frame using the proto-Photoshop method of wood intarsia.
Know Before You Go: Bühler-Rose’s collections draw upon the ephemera accumulated across the communities he frequented growing up: the Hare Krishna movement, punk and hardcore music scenes, and academia.
“Tony Bechara: An Artist of Many Worlds”
Where: Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill
When: Through Nov. 1
Why It’s Worth a Look: In the first-ever comprehensive survey of Bechara’s work, viewers can trace the late Puerto Rican artist’s life through his vibrant abstract paintings and sculptures. See his pixelated pointillism—rendered on circular, triangular, and square canvases—inspired by everything from fifth-century Byzantine mosaics to Georges Seurat to nascent digital technology.
Know Before You Go: The show is part of the museum’s yearlong program devoted to exploring America’s history and ever-developing identity. The Bechara show is presented alongside a solo from Sanford Biggers and ahead of upcoming presentations on Abstract Expressionism and American Impressionism on the East End.
“Bound by Wire and Time” by Pam Brown
Where: The Arts Center at Duck Creek, East Hampton
When: Aug. 22–Sept. 27
Why It’s Worth a Look: The origins of the material used in Brown’s skeletal metal sculptures are as important as the structures themselves. For her latest show, the Long Island artist employs scrap metal and other salvaged material to create animal-like forms derived from the very detritus that threatens their habitats.
Know Before You Go: Brown also uses meticulous sewing and other craft techniques that blend domestic labor with industrial manufacturing practices.
“Hedges and Edges: Barbershops, Community Gardens, and the Architectures of Care” by Damien Davis
Where: Southampton African American Museum
When: Opening July 18
Why It’s Worth a Look: In this sculptural site-specific series, Davis investigates spaces of ritual, care, and community gathering by pulling from the museum’s own history as a Black barbershop serving the Southampton community.
Know Before You Go: Large-scale mirrored acrylic works dot the space, joined by sculpture and live barbers cutting hair. A portion of the project’s funding will also go toward the creation of the Hamptons Black Arts Council’s community garden on museum grounds.
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