Hamptons June/July 2023

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Live on the world’s most private island. Estate-style homes on Fisher Island’s pristine shoreline, steps from the Spa Internazionale, racquet club, and award-winning golf course. The Residences’ unprecedented amenities and white-glove service set a new standard, with five-star dining, resort-style pools, and a waterfront lounge. It’s the pinnacle of coastal living, minutes from Miami but a world away.

FOUNDER | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SARAH G. HARRELSON

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

TALI JAFFE MINOR

CREATIVE PRODUCER

REBECCA AARON

ART DIRECTOR

ALEXANDER WOLF

SENIOR EDITORS

MARGARET CARRIGAN, MARA VEITCH

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ELLA MARTIN-GACHOT

COPY EDITORS

ELIZABETH GALL, HEIDI JACOBS

JUNIOR ART DIRECTOR

HANNAH TACHER

INTERNS

ISABELLA BARADARAN, AMELIA STONE

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

CARL KIESEL

PUBLISHER

LORI WARRINER

Artist communities are rare, beautiful, ephemeral things. They lend context, offer support, encourage collaborative approaches, and empower new forms of creative elasticity and individual expression. Wherever they emerge they deserve our attention. In February, during Frieze Los Angeles, while swaddled in Joel Mesler’s now trademark embrace, I had the idea to invite the dealer-turned-painter— whose life and work have intersected with so many of the great artists of our time—to guest-edit this special-edition Hamptons Summer issue.

Joel’s compassion is effusive, and as a tour guide through the rich cultural landscape of the Hamptons, he excels. While I knew working with him was going to be fun, I really had no idea it was going to be this fun! Our Zoom calls were punctuated with fits of laughter, and the pages that resulted from our many brainstorms couldn’t make me happier. For our cover story, Joel brought together an incredible group of creators on a Sunday morning in May at Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian’s house to celebrate their shared affection. Could there be a better pool-party crew than this: Hank Willis Thomas, Sanford Biggers, Mary Heilmann, Sarah Aibel, Eric Fischl, Hovsepian, Johnson, and Mr. Mesler?

Also for this issue, I ask my good friend Casey Fremont to interview her dad, Vincent, about Andy Warhol’s heyday in Montauk, we visit Robert Longo’s studio, talk sourdough with Cindy Sherman’s chef, highlight the can’t-miss pop-ups, preview the new John Steinbeck residency, and get the inside scoop on Shelter Island from design couple Christine and John Gachot.

I am so proud of this issue and excited to see you out East!

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DULY NOTED

Five art shows not to be missed this summer.

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IN GRATITUDE

Joel Mesler shares how Rashid Johnson changed his life.

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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

A peek inside the studio (and mind) of Joel Mesler.

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GIMME SHELTER

Christine and John Gachot share their insider’s guide to Shelter Island.

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RISKY BUSINESS

Harper Levine is an art-world outsider no longer.

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INSIDER TRADING

We asked 11 East End experts to share their summer musts.

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ANDY’S MONTAUK

Casey Fremont sits down with her father, Vincent Fremont, to revisit the days of Eothen.

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LEAVE IT TO THE KILN GODS

Even though her meticulously sculpted works might suggest otherwise, artist Sarah Aibel finds peace and serenity in relinquishing control.

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IT’S A SUMMER THING

The new shops, pop-up eateries, and retailers that are here for the season.

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IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Eight artists reflect on their chosen community.

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DRAWN TO THE LIGHT

We visit with three artists whose work and careers have been informed by the East End.

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FIELD STUDY

What happens when two artists go out in search of the perfect pool?

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ARTIST’S CHOICE

Sam Moyer and Nina Yankowitz reflect on their selections for the Parrish Art Museum’s current exhibition, “Artists Choose Parrish.”

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KILL YOUR DARLINGS

Sarah G. Harrelson Founder and Editor-in-Chief @sarahgharrelson Follow us | @cultured_mag

ROBERT

LONGO’S LONG ISLAND

Robert Longo reflects on the politics and privilege of being an artist.

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Sag Harbor—based writer Susan Scarf Merrell takes us inside the region’s expansive literary community.

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COLLECTOR’S QUESTIONNAIRE

THE

COMMUNITY KITCHEN

Arden Chapin drops off heaps of cakes at farm stands and caters for Cindy Sherman.

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THREE DESIGN DESTINATIONS NOT TO BE MISSED

What’s new and on view at LongHouse Reserve, Jeff Lincoln Art + Design, and 1818 Collective.

Neda Young considers her collection her life story, each work a marker of time and place.

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WOMEN’S WORK

With Onna House, Lisa Perry is working harder than ever, and couldn’t be happier about it.

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EAST OF EDEN

John Steinbeck’s indelible footprint on the East End continues with a new residency program.

From far left: Behind the scenes with our cover stars; Reminder, 2023, by RJ Messineo; a group photo with Vincent Fremont on Dick Cavett’s lap and Andy Warhol, center.

Photography by William Jess Laird

Cover customization by Joel Mesler

On the cover (from left): Artists Hank Willis Thomas, Sheree Hovsepian, Joel Mesler, Mary Heilmann, Sarah Aibel, Sanford Biggers, Rashid Johnson, Eric Fischl. Special thanks to Maggie Merrell.

Sarah Harrelson at last year’s CULTURED Hamptons Summer issue kickoff event in Water Mill.

DULY NOTED

It might very well be cliché, but it’s true: There’s no place like the Hamptons during the summer, particularly if you’re an art lover. As a relatively fresh Hamptonite—who purchased a countrified escape and fell for the East End’s art scene in 2020—I can vouch for the potent year-round cultural backdrop here, anchored by institutions like Guild Hall and The Church, long after the crowds migrate home. To jump-start Cultured’s first Hamptons issue of 2023, this month’s Duly Noted brings you the guide to the must-see artists on the South Fork.

THE ONE-STOP OPTION

If you only have time for one art stop on your Hamptons getaway this summer, make it Renee Cox’s exhibition at the newly renovated Guild Hall in East Hampton. Organized by curator Monique Long, “Renee Cox: A Proof of Being” is a survey of the Jamaican-born, New York–based artist’s magnificent oeuvre, from 1993 to the present, that affords a rare, compact opportunity to sample the singular vision that Cox has brought to the representation of Black bodies, using self-portraiture to upend Western narrative and embody Afrocentric superheroes

“I have a long history of what I call flipping the script,” Cox says of her work. “I studied art history in Italy as an undergraduate. ‘Wait a minute. All of this that’s being shown to me is supposed to be great art, but I don’t see any people of color here.’ So I decided to insert myself into these historical paintings.” On view: The artist’s glorious 12-foot-long photograph The Signing (2017) supplants Howard Chandler Christy’s signing of the Constitution of the United States, replacing the Founding Fathers with stylishly subversive, present-day subjects of color. “I decided that I needed to create The Signing to show Black people taking their own initiative and writing their own path with their own Declaration,” she explains. Also, do not let the opportunity pass to experience Cox’s threedimensional sculptural collage Ajak Infinite Spirit (Black Girl Magic), 2016, part of her larger fractals-and-sacredgeometry-focused series Soul Culture. “ Renee Cox: A Proof of Being” is on view July 2 through September 4, 2023 at Guild Hall.

ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

This tandem show is for you whether you venture out East for July or relish the city as artscape this month. Unfurling over two uniquely suited architectural spaces, The Church in Sag Harbor and the FLAG Art Foundation in Chelsea, “Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” gathers a deep roster of contemporary heavyweights across mediums, including Robert Mapplethorpe, Carroll Dunham, Lonnie Holley, Rashid Johnson, Andrea Bowers, and Carrie Mae Weems. Over a hundred works are on view, with newly commissioned pieces for each location. The sweeping exhibition sparks an intense visual dialogue about boxing as metaphor for interpersonal battle, perseverance, and cultural identity—with some brilliant curatorial surprises. For instance, Muhammad Ali’s cultlike status is embodied in Vincent Valdez’s series of large-scale oil portraits Dream Baby Dream (2017–18), which captures Ali through the eyes of others and the cacophony of television coverage after his death.

“The sport can be a metaphor for a number of struggles that we have,” says FLAG director and Cultured Curator Jonathan Rider. “The show is an interesting navigation of classic imagery that underlines so much of the physicality and brutality of the sport. But then there are a lot of pieces that throw off those ideas in beautiful ways.”

“ Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing” is on view through September 4, 2023 at The Church and through August 11, 2023 at t he FLAG Art Foundation

NO PASSPORT REQUIRED

Austrian sculptor extraordinaire Erwin Wurm is having a major global moment, with parallel shows at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, in West Bretton, U.K But Hamptons visitors are in luck: Wurm’s genius is on full display at the Peter Marino Art Foundation in Southampton, which serves as a peek inside Marino’s esprit créatif. On view are 14 works by Wurm, including examples from his legendary Melting Houses series, as well new paintings, which the artist—in perfect encapsulation of Wurm’s aesthetic—calls Flat Sculptures. “At first I wanted to be a painter, but the university rejected my application and sent me to sculpture class instead,” Wurm says. “I guess this is one of the reasons I always questioned the limits of sculpture so strongly.” Not to fear though, if you miss Wurm on your travels East, the Peter Marino Art Foundation has a blockbuster exhibit of Israeli video artist Michal Rovner on tap. Her work is nothing short of mesmerizing: What appear to be abstract forms or swarms of tiny people reveal themselves upon closer inspection, expressing soulfulness of the human condition.

“ Erwin Wurm” is on view through July 8, 2023 and “Michal Rovner” is on view July 15 through September 30, 2023 at the Peter Marino Art Foundation.

greatest Abstract Expressionists, including Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner, who were captivated by the East End. Carrying that legacy forward with a 21st-century take is RJ Messineo, whose exhibition “Me in Meadow” recently opened at Canada gallery in East Hampton. Painted on plywood and wood panel, Messineo’s textured, washy canvases feel particularly apt for warm, languid afternoons, while the punchier grids are pure Color Field. An added bonus: Canada is the most eclectic, disarming space I’ve seen yet in the Hamptons. With creaky floorboards and genuine charm, the gallery is an East Coast version of some of my favorite spots in Marfa or the hotel room–cum–booths of the Felix Art Fair at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

“Me in Meadow” is on view through July 23, 2023 at Canada, East Hampton.

MOMENT IN THE SUN

RJ Messineo, Sun & Shade, 2019.

THE COOLEST PLACE IN TOWN

The ocean, light, and farmland of Long Island notoriously influenced some of the

Hauser & Wirth is on a strata of its own. With the recent announcement of its third gallery in New York, this one on Wooster Street in Soho, and its spectacular West Hollywood addition, the powerhouse is the place to see significant artists of our time. Fortunately, even as full-time city living resumes, Hauser & Wirth’s Southampton programming remains stellar, albeit in a homier, more relaxed version of the gallery’s pilgrimage-worthy Downtown LA and Menorca settings. This month you’ll find me returning several times to contemplate the 12 new watercolors by conceptual maestro Charles Gaines, whose Numbers and Trees paintings break images into individually numbered, graph-like squares of color and challenge our minds to imbue meaning synchronously from abstracted and figurative pattern.

“ Charles Gaines—Numbers and Trees: The Arizona Watercolors” is on view July 1 through July 30, 2023 at Hauser & Wirth Southampton.

JACOBA URIST SHARES THE FIVE BEST SHOWS OF THE HAMPTONS HIGH SEASON.

Charles Gaines, Numbers and Trees: Arizona Series 2, Tree #4, Kanab, 2023.

Renee Cox, Miss Thang, 2009.

Carrie Mae Weems, White Patty Don’t You Shine, 1987-88.

Erwin Wurm, Bar, 2019, Schwer, 2021, and Disruption, 2012.

GRATITUDE IN

RASHID JOHNSON MAY HAVE SAVED JOEL MESLER ’S LIFE. HERE, MESLER SHARES HOW THE SUPPORT OF A DEAR FRIEND LED HIM TO A LIFE OF SOBRIETY AND PEACE—AND A PERMANENT HOME IN THE HAMPTONS.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

IN 2016, I found myself at yet another bottom. Most people pay attention to warning signs, but for reasons I don’t have the word count for, I never had. This time around was different. Maybe it was age, maybe it was having three children under the age of 3, maybe it was because I had the unwavering support of a dear friend, or maybe it was that I was finally ready and could stay still just long enough to listen and see the signs, and maybe, just maybe, it was all of those things.

Now, at this moment in 2016, the dear friend I mentioned earlier had been encouraging me to try some time off the booze. Funnily enough, I really hadn’t ever considered this to be an option. Since I was 16, drinking had become synonymous with living, my go-to for everything. From boosting confidence and celebrating life milestones to simply just drinking to keep busy, alcohol was an ever-present feature of life. Now, when one has spent nearly 30 years using a bottle as their higher power, it’s not so easy to just put it aside. Never mind the physical dependency, but the spiritual and psychological components really threw me. Returning to sobriety found me as an emotionally stunted 16-year-old boy in a man’s body with a wife and three young children. This was understandably unpleasant and uncomfortable, to say the least. The only person I thought really understood me was this dear friend I’ve been mentioning, Rashid Johnson (quite the hero in his own story, too).

So anyway, around this time I had also been making some doodles at night, post-bedtime. Adam Abdalla, the PR maestro, took an interest in these doodles and

suggested I up the ante and put some of my ideas on canvas. Once he realized I wasn’t about to embarrass  myself or him, he finagled a show of a few paintings at the Surf Lodge in Montauk. I didn’t know much about the Hamptons, but I knew this was a good opportunity. For me, as for most people, a mention of the Hamptons conjured up visions of summer, of wealth, of large homes with swimming pools, and of leisure. My only experiences out East had been attending this or that gala or fundraiser during the summer, because if you were raising money, that is where you wanted to be, for obvious reasons. But I didn’t actually know anything about the Hamptons, and without any additional knowledge of what I was getting myself into, I agreed to the exhibition.

Quickly, problems began to present themselves. Where was a struggling family man trying to kick a drinking problem going to stay when the average cost for a weekend bungalow out East approached my monthly rent in New York City? Well, my friend Rashid once again extended his hand to me and my family and invited us to stay with him for a week. Now, this story might seem pedestrian to some of you readers, but when you are kicking booze and drugs after 30 years, it’s like a rebirth. Everything is fresh, and my reality and senses were just getting ignited. It was like I was experiencing life again for the first time. As you can imagine, this was good, but a lot of times it felt BAD. But Rashid kept saying it was going to get better, and I trusted him. He and his family welcomed us into his home like it was ours. When it was time to go to my opening, like the

dear friend he is, he wanted me to look good. So he gave me one of his outfits and let me drive his car to really experience that moment. When you are drunk most of the time, being present with yourself and others is a challenge; but when you’re sober, scared, and vulnerable, the desire to connect with others and be present with them becomes its own safety net. And who knew? It was a magical night for me and my family. And as I lay in bed that night, reflecting on the evening (because I could—that was a new one), I was taken aback by how different my experience was from what I thought it was going to be. Was it the air? Was that what was so different from the city? Why did I feel like I was in a place of healing, of calmness and reflection? I was grateful I was able to recognize it.

Rashid saw my peace and sent me to his real estate agent. Not a year later, my wife and I moved our family to the Hamptons. As a by-product of moving out here, I have truly found my serenity. I have located my voice artistically—and as a father, a husband, and a man. I understand why others before me have wanted to find their place out here. Aside from the light (which is truly extraordinary), the secret of the Hamptons is that it’s a place where one can almost magically recalibrate oneself if one is in need of a recalibration. Over the past five years, I have found myself connected to and connecting with so many people, artists and others, in very substantial ways that give my life meaning. From the outstretched hand of love and support from my friend Rashid, I was able to recenter myself and land in this place that I call home.

“THE SECRET OF THE HAMPTONS IS THAT IT’S A PLACE WHERE ONE CAN ALMOST MAGICALLY RECALIBRATE ONESELF.”

Rashid Johnson Joel Mesler

GIVENCHY POP-UP AT TOPPING ROSE HOUSE BRIDGEHAMPTON

“Hello, and welcome to my neighborhood. My name is Joel Mesler, and this is my art studio, where I work and make art. Come on in and let me show you around.”

WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

A PEEK INSIDE THE STUDIO (AND MIND) OF GUEST EDITOR JOEL MESLER

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNY GORMAN

“On this particular day in my art studio, I received a phone call. It was Sarah Harrelson. She was calling to invite me to guest-edit the Hamptons issue of Cultured magazine.”

“I headed to my special space, where I like to lie down, take off my shoes, pull a blanket over my body, and let my mind drift. But today was different. I had a magazine to edit. What would it be about? I had to get to work. I love to work. So, I pulled out my books and started to draw and sketch ideas. Nothing was coming easily. I had to surrender. I wanted this magazine to be honest and real and not make-believe.”

“And then suddenly there was a knock on my studio door. It was my dearest friend, Rashid Johnson. And that’s when it hit me: I wanted this issue of Cultured to be about the people, the artists who live here, who work here, like I do now. This is a magical place, and in many ways it has helped me find my way back to myself. So, thank you for listening and being here, and I hope you can enjoy it. You deserve great things!”

SHELTER ISLAND LIKE A LOCAL

Breakfast: Skip breakfast, check out the Shelter Island Reporter, and hit the local yard sales. Treasure hunting is always fun on an island!

Dinner: Head to Sunset Beach for rosé, branzino, and fries, of course. Vine Street Café for the market salad, fried chicken, and the mâche. The Caesar salad and wood-fired steak at Léon 1909 is not to be missed. Chez Marie at Shelter Island House is new and super cute. The Tavern at the Chequit is great for families, plus it has a pool table.

Sunset: Crescent Beach has the most incredible sunsets. Stop by the mid-deck at Sunset Beach, and with a cocktail in hand, kick back as the DJ sets the vibe with Balearic sounds.  Beach: Hay Beach is hands down our favorite beach.

Breathtaking views of Gardiners Bay and the Long Beach Bar Lighthouse (lovingly known as “Bug Light”) can be seen from this super-quiet beach.

Hike: The trails at Sylvester Manor; download the “Sylvester Manor Walking Tour” app for a self-guided tour of the grounds.

Ice Cream: The Tuck Shop for ice cream; the Whales Tale for frozen yogurt and miniature golf.

Book Store: Black Cat Books for a variety of vintage and rare books; Finley’s Fiction for hot-of-the-press bestsellers and puzzles.

Wine Shop: Shelter Island Wine & Spirits (aka Manikas Liquor Shop) for the best selection of summer-ready wines.

Best Farm Stand: Havens’ Market at the Shelter Island Historical Society is open every Saturday over the summer, starting at 9 a.m. The best source for fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, cheese, fish, meat, bread, and everyone’s favorite pickles are available for sale at this seasonal market.

GIMME SHELTER

DESIGN DARLINGS CHRISTINE AND JOHN GACHOT HAVE DEEP TIES TO THE HAMPTONS’ LOW-KEY NEIGHBOR TO THE NORTH, SHELTER ISLAND. HERE, THEY TELL US ABOUT THEIR FAMILY HOME AND SHARE AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO THEIR BELOVED TOWN.

BY RIMA SUQI PORTRAIT BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

“I THINK PEOPLE COME HERE to get away from the bustle—it’s pretty sleepy,” says Christine Gachot when asked about the appeal of Shelter Island, an 8,000-acre enclave nestled between the north and south forks of Long Island and accessible only by ferry or seaplane. Gachot and her husband, John, founded their eponymous design studio 11 years ago; some of its recent projects include the Pendry Manhattan West hotel, the Shinola Hotel in Detroit, and the buzzy Pebble Bar at Rockefeller Center.

The couple, who met while working at Studio Sofield in the ’90s, bought their first home on Shelter Island— John’s family had vacationed there for generations— shortly after their first son was born (their second was born five years later). It was a 900-square-foot Cape Cod–style cottage just up the hill from Crescent Beach; her young sons could run unaccompanied to the Sunset Beach hotel, where a doting staff would ply them with ice cream and French fries.

In 2017, Christine got an alert that a Dering Harbor home John had long been eyeing was for sale. It was a 1932 center-hall colonial enviably positioned on an acre and a half of land, with a carriage shed turned studio and pool. “I called the broker that minute and said, ‘We’ll take it.’” The couple became only the third owners of the home, which Christine describes as “pretty crispy, with black shutters and covered porches.”

Often referred to as the anti-Hamptons, Shelter Island has long attracted the creative set, including the late artist John Chamberlain, world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman, and photographer Bruce Weber. The island maintains a charming small-town vibe. No traffic jams (except perhaps the line of cars that forms for the ferry), no party houses, no deluge of Instagrammers, no Starbucks. “Having raised two sons out here, they were allowed a freedom from a very early age that they were never afforded in the city,” Christine says. “And that is the true luxury of it.”

Recreation: A round of golf at the public course at the Shelter Island Country Club, also known as Goat Hill, paddleboarding on Crescent Beach, windsurfing on Hay Beach, a kayaking tour on the Peconic Estuary Moussa Drame Tennis Academy is for serious tennis players—people come from all over to take tennis lessons from this legend. And bike everywhere!

Bird-watching: Shelter Island is on a migratory path and provides a summer home for an array of bird species, from bald eagles and ospreys to piping plovers and hummingbirds. Look up!

Music: The Perlman Music Program! Itzhak Perlman founded the summer residency program for young string players from all over the world. They put on FREE concerts throughout the season. We have had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Perlman perform with students many times. GO! This is a life-changing experience.

Shops: Marie Eiffel Not only does Marie own the best gourmet market on the island, but she is also the amazing curator behind this French-inspired boutique, and recently opened a new concept store, Merci Marie. (Does she sleep?) Sunset Beach Boutique

A beautiful assortment of clothing, gifts, swimwear, and beach accessories overseen by Liliane Jossua of Montaigne Market. Her shop selections will transport you straight to Saint Barts. Ram Design Lovely and unique home goods. Dworkin & Daughter

One of my favorite spots. Leslie is a dear old friend and has the most wonderful treasures in her antiques store. I always find something special for John’s birthday here. Marika’s Eclectic Boutique An amazing collection of antiques, mid-century modern pieces, and outdoor furniture. If you love it, then buy it. Items don’t stay in the shop for long. The Toy Store at Jack’s A unique mix of toys, hardware, and marine supplies means that you can always find something to entertain children (and adults) of all ages.

Pure Soul Boutique It has a great mix of resort-style clothing, accessories, and artisan-made home goods. Owner and designer Sylma Cabrera has made Pure Soul a beloved shopping destination on Shelter Island.

Christine and John Gachot at their Dering Harbor home.

RISKY

BUSINESS

HARPER LEVINE ’S LONG ISLAND STYLE MADE HIM AN ART-WORLD OUTSIDER. NOW HE’S INSIDE—AND MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN EVER.

BY TAYLOR DAFOE

PORTRAIT BY MARYAM EISLER

FOR YEARS, HARPER LEVINE’S success was tied to his outsider relationship with the art world. His cultish East Hampton bookstore evolved into a gallery almost by accident, and even as it became a buzzy destination for beach-bound New Yorkers, the spot never felt commercial or institutional. His was a gallery that embodied all the laid-back elegance of its East End location—and people loved it for that reason.

But Levine is no longer on the margins looking in. With five outposts in New York and one in Los Angeles, the dealer is now officially an art-world insider. It’s kind of freaking him out.

“Honestly, it has completely changed,” Levine says when asked if the rapid maturation of his gallery has altered the way he feels about what he does. “I definitely feel like that outsider label, for better or worse, has been shed. I think that’s the central tension in what I’m doing now.”

As he speaks, Levine is sitting in an office in one of two galleries he owns on West 22nd Street in Manhattan. The 55-year-old sounds enthusiastic and energetic, which comes as a mild surprise, considering that he has just wrapped up back-to-back fairs on opposite sides of the world: Taipei Dangdai in Taiwan and NADA in New York.

It’s the new norm for the dealer, who has spent the last three years aggressively growing his once humble gallery. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, he opened locations in New York, Los Angeles, and then New York again, respectively. During that time his footprint tripled, his roster of artists increased to 21, and his staff ballooned to 16.

But more than the numbers, it was the speed of it all that proved to be the most surprising. Up to that point, Levine’s evolution had been slow and organic; it was part of his charm.

In 2001, just a month after 9/11, Levine and his wife moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota, from where he sold rare books online, to the Hamptons. In 2005 he moved Harper’s into the storefront where it exists today, sharing the site with another antiquarian; by 2010 he owned the location outright. During that time he went from specializing in literary first editions to photo books and, eventually, prints. His first exhibition, a presentation of work by photographer Matt Weber, came in 2007 and was only a modest financial success. It did, however, catch the attention of one important buyer: the artist Richard Prince.

Levine and Prince struck up a friendship that remains strong today. In Prince, Levine found his biggest fan. “Richard is basically responsible for my whole career,” the dealer says, still

buoyed by the confidence the artist instilled in him 15 years ago. “If Richard Prince thought what I was doing was cool, then… it must’ve been cool,” he recalls thinking at the time.

But Prince gave the dealer something else pivotal, too. In 2014, after an artist abruptly canceled plans to show at Harper’s, Levine was in dire need of a replacement. In came a one-word text from Prince: “Figgis.”

Levine’s friend was referring to Genieve Figgis, a then-unknown Irish painter whom Prince had discovered on Twitter. On a lark, Levine threw together an exhibition of Figgis’s mordant, neo-Rococo portraits. To his surprise, the show was a word-of-mouth hit. It sold out and launched the artist—who at that point was a full-time mom painting in her Dublin kitchen—into art world stardom. It also put Levine’s gallery on the map.

“That really changed the trajectory of how I was looked at and what I was doing,” he says. Soon after, business boomed, and by 2016 he opened Harper’s Apartment, a salon-style gallery space in a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

When asked about his decision to further expand in 2020, when the pandemic deflated real estate prices and allowed him to scoop up discounted properties, Levine mentions his admiration for Prince, Figgis, and other artists associated with Harper’s. For him, the connection is not what these artists do for his business, but what they’ve taught him through their own success.

“The thing that makes a successful artist is acceptance of risk,” Levine explains. “Every good artist takes risks by definition. So I felt like I had to take a risk too. The risk-taking was, in a sense, the project for me.”

Levine recalls going on long runs through the East End in the spring and summer of 2020, that moment of existential alarm. “I had a lot of time and was thinking about my life and understanding that I wasn’t getting younger,” he says. “I realized that if I wanted to really make a dent as a gallerist, I was going to have to do it then.”

Harper Levine and Joel Mesler at Harper’s East Hampton where Nick Lowe’s “Scattered,” pictured above right, is on view through July 12.

INSIDER TRADING

WE ASKED 11 EAST END EXPERTS TO SHARE THEIR SUMMER MUSTS. READ ON FOR AN UNOFFICIAL CHEAT SHEET TO MAKING THE MOST OF THE SUMMER .

EDEN WILLIAMS

ART ADVISOR, SAG HARBOR

Is there an off-the-beaten path art space you would recommend?

I especially love getting away from the frenzied pace every once in a while and going to one of these unique and tranquil places: the Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs and the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack. Why the Hamptons?

RUSSELL BARONE

HAYGROUND BMX, SAG HARBOR

What sounds, colors, or smells do you most strongly associate with the Hamptons?

Seagulls, white pants, green grasses, the ocean.

What do the Hamptons need more of?

Affordable housing, access to beaches without a permit, and a little more grit.

Which cultural venues are you planning to explore this summer?

The Monday drum circles at Sagg Main Beach, if that counts.

Which local philanthropic, charitable, or social-change organizations do you champion?

The Surfrider Foundation; Hayground School.

Have any local figures played a significant role in shaping your career?

Jon Snow, who is a founder of Hayground School and is one of the reasons our bike-and-skateboard program is around. He is so full of knowledge, especially in plants and gardening, that you can get lost in his words when he talks about a tree for an hour.

What are your favorite beaches?

Shadmoor and Shinnecock East.

What’s your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant?

Tricolor salad and penne at Tutto il Giorno. How does your personal rhythm change when in the Hamptons?

Well, I feel that when driving around the Hamptons, I don’t get mad, because there is beauty all around. So the rhythm is a constant smile.

What is one song on your summer playlist?

“Everybody Loves the Sunshine” by Roy Ayers.

It’s an ideal place to work in the arts. First off, it’s breathtakingly beautiful. It’s a hub of all things art, from galleries and auction houses to incredible museums, and cultural institutions like The Church in Sag Harbor, Southampton Arts Center, and Guild Hall in East Hampton. It’s a true melting pot of cultures and has been the breeding ground for iconic contemporary artists of the past, present, and future.

Which event at The Church have you reserved tickets for?

“Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing.”

Which artists have been capturing your attention lately?

Rozeal [Brown], who is best known for her narrative canvases fusing Japanese and hip-hop cultures. Her work is uniquely captivating.

Which art show are you beelining to this summer?

The Rosalind Letcher exhibition at Keyes Art. She was one of the key members of a vibrant group of Black artists called the Eastville Artists Association based in Sag Harbor—a community drawn together by their social ties rather than an aesthetic program. What sound or smell do you most strongly associate with the Hamptons? The smell of the ocean and the sounds of the waves to me define the Hamptons over the summer, but also the smells of wood burning in the fall and winter. What’s on your summer reading list? I read all summer long! I’m about to start The Last Kings of Shanghai, about the history of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families in China.

Which local philanthropic, charitable, or social-change organizations do you champion?

I’m involved in the new East Hampton Emergency Department, which was very badly needed in our town, and I’m the honorary chair of the East Hampton Historical Society’s Antiques & Design Show Preview Cocktail Party this

summer on July 14.

What do you love most about your iconic home?

The gardens for sure! Even when I’m inside, I feel the magic of all the flowers and trees. I also grew up in the Georgica area, so its specific location in East Hampton feels like home to me.

Are you hands-on in the garden? If so, what’s blooming this coming season?

First up will be our peonies, followed by the roses that grow on our house and garage and the wisteria on our pergola. All other flowers bloom later. I love harvesting all the vegetables we grow in our kitchen garden.

What is your favorite beach?

Georgica, for sure. Our back driveway is practically beach parking. But I also love to walk all the streets around our house.

Russell Barone

Eden Williams

Liz Lange

LIZ LANGE

FASHION DESIGNER, EAST HAMPTON

ZÖE BUCKMAN

ARTIST, BROOKLYN

How does your personal rhythm change when you’re in the Hamptons?

Everything breathes. The air, nature, climate, and sea, the quiet: It’s like putting down a backpack full of stones that you didn’t even know you were carrying.

What brings you to the Hamptons this summer?

I’m coming to the Hamptons because I have work included in a group show at The Church, and on Friday, July 14, I will be doing a talk there.

What positive change have you recently seen in your community?

I think the museum art shows and public programming have become a lot braver and more in tune with the current conversation.

How do you hope to see the community in the Hamptons change?

I’d like to see it become less posh and white! I’d like to see more of a queer scene and way more diversity of race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomy. I feel so lucky that I sometimes get to go to the Hamptons, but it also makes stepping off the Jitney back in Manhattan kind of amazing.

Have any local figures played a significant role in shaping your career? If so, how?

Yeah, I’m really lucky to have been welcomed in by a group of phenomenal artists whom I adore. They also happen to be badass women and mothers, and I really appreciate their wisdom and insights. That crew includes Toni Ross, Alice Hope, and Almond Zigmund.

ANDY BARAGHANI CHEF, BELLPORT

What’s your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant?

Really anything Mason Lindahl cooks up at Léon 1909, but it’s the trofie pasta with black trumpet mushrooms, along with the chicken-liver mousse, that I can’t get out of my head.

Best at-home meal advice?

A few things to keep in mind when entertaining this summer: 1. Remember, your home is not a restaurant and you should not feel pressured to make it one. Use all and any imperfections to your advantage. Mismatched linen napkins?

So what? Martinis in tumbler glasses?

It’s okay! 2. Let your guests contribute. Have them bring ice or set the table, or even better, let them make dessert. 3. When it comes to the food, I try to prep as much as possible and limit myself to making just one hot thing in the summer months and keeping the rest of the dishes cold or room temp. That way I am not spending so much time by the grill or stove and more time with my friends.

What’s your greatest seasonal culinary indulgence?

Homemade strawberry ice cream sundaes with burnt honey and salted pistachio crumbles. It’s become an annual summer tradition these last few years.

What’s your favorite beach? Two Mile Hollow Beach. I’ve spent so many lazy afternoons there.

What’s your No. 1 packing essential for heading out East? Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen (I’m a sunscreen fanatic) and black Stone Island swim trunks. Which East End art show are you skipping the beach for this summer? Object & Thing’s “A Summer Arrangement” at LongHouse Reserve. Have any local figures played a significant role in shaping your career? I would like to take this moment to shout out Ina Garten, whom I love and has inspired me for so many years. I was lucky enough to interview her about her new book last fall—her 13th!

ALINA CHO JOURNALIST, BRIDGEHAMPTON

Describe an early Hamptons memory that brings you great joy.

My late father loved the East End. I have a great photo of my parents sitting on a bench in front of Sag Harbor Cinema, before the fire. My mother has her head thrown back in a fit of laughter. It’s so joyful and one of my life’s greatest memories.

What’s your favorite farmers market or local grocer?

Pike’s for peaches and tomatoes. Halsey Farm for dill pickles. Loaves & Fishes for deviled eggs. Round Swamp Farm for spicy Thai noodles. How does your personal rhythm change when you’re in the Hamptons?

I always say that I breathe easier and sleep more soundly at the beach.

What is your theory on the best time to leave and return to the city?

Thursday-morning departure; Mondaynight return.

If you could interview anyone of Hamptons fame (past and present), who would it be and why?

Jackson Pollock. Isn’t it obvious?

How do you like to end your day?

The best days start and end at the beach.

What’s your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant?

The lobster roll at Duryea’s is hard to beat; so is the view. A close second is the soppressata pizza at Moby’s.

“REMEMBER, YOUR HOME IS NOT A RESTAURANT AND YOU SHOULD NOT FEEL PRESSURED TO MAKE IT ONE. USE ALL AND ANY IMPERFECTIONS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. MISMATCHED LINEN NAPKINS? SO WHAT? MARTINIS IN TUMBLER GLASSES? IT’S OKAY!

—ANDY BARAGHANI

“I ALWAYS SAY THAT I BREATHE EASIER AND SLEEP MORE SOUNDLY AT THE BEACH.”

—ALINA CHO

Zöe Buckman

Andy Baraghani

EDWINA VON GAL ARCHITECT, FOUNDER OF PERFECT EARTH PROJECT SOUTHAMPTON/NORTH SEA

Describe an early Hamptons memory that brings you great joy. The fields full of great old cedars and shadscale that we could buy and move to clients’ properties so they could make aplace feel natural. Now they are all filled with mansions and “foreign” landscapes that have little relationship to the place. So it is a memory of joy mixed with some sadness.

AMY ASTLEY

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, NORTH FORK

Describe an early East End memory that brings you great joy?

Back in the day, I passed two maternity leaves at home on the North Fork. My first daughter was early spring, and my second was summer. It was blissful to spend three months in nature watching the seasons change, with my babies!

What is one song that your summer playlist always includes?

I’m into SZA right now. SOS is such a great album.

Do you have a favorite local garden or park that you frequent?

LongHouse Reserve is a garden and a house that exemplify a life informed by nature and design lived in harmony. The Walking Dunes in Montauk are an environment unique to this one place, with knockout views mingled with tiny moments of joyful beauty.

Numner one thing every Hamptons visitor (and resident) should do to exist more sustainably?

Of course that is my favorite question. It is what the Perfect Earth Project is all about. There are so many easy things one can do, but top of the list is to stop using toxic chemicals, especially spraying for ticks and mosquitoes. Pesticides are bad for us and are decimating our pollinator and firefly populations. Even organic ones kill bees and butterflies. No sprays are particularly effective and none is solving the Lyme disease issue. It is much safer to spray yourself, check yourself. Check out Perfect Earth for lots of options for making beautiful gardens that are tranquil refuges from eco-anxiety. How has the local terrain affected your work as a landscape designer?

It tells me what to do. It is so beautiful here that there is no reason to try to do something other than replicate nature as well as I can.

What’s your favorite farmers market or local grocer?

White Flower for very beautiful, special flowers from Nathaniel Savage. Also the Southold Fish Market, a local legend. Which young architects have you been tracking lately?

Lina Ghotmeh, who was commisioned to design this year’s Serpentine Pavillion; Dong-Ping Wong of Food; Christian Wassmann.

Which cultural events are flagged on your calendar this summer?

Landcraft Garden Foundation in Mattituck, with a Virginia Overton “Sculpture in the Garden” show curated by Ugo Rondinone. Last summer Ugo curated the show featuring Sam Moyer and Eddie Martinez.

How does your personal rhythm change when on the North Fork?

I really slow down and avoid being “scheduled” the way I am in NYC. Here, it’s about lots of time outside looking at the water, swimming, smelling the air, appreciating nature—and my good fortune to have a retreat from the city. We spend a lot of time with our friends and their kids here. It is super casual.

No need for outfits or makeup. I love it.

What’s your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant?

A lobster roll with fries and iced tea at Southold Fish Market, outdoors on a picnic bench. Heaven.

JASON WEINER

FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE CHEF, ALMOND, EAST HAMPTON

Which ingredients do you most look forward to working with in the summer? Oh, man, summer is a big word. So many things coming out of the ground. Amber Waves’ Romanesco Costata squash is pretty great in June. Then you have Jim Pike’s oh-so-different white corn. But there’s Marilee’s insane tomatoes on the first of August. And of course there’s the September pepper season, when we make gallons and gallons of harissa and sriracha. You champion local producers of all kinds. Please share a few. We have so many awesome people bringing us awesome stuff. So lucky for that. Marilee Foster, Mecox Bay Dairy, Pike Farms, The Milk Pail, Green Thumb, Stone’s Throw Farm, Amber Waves, Bridge Lane, Balsam Farms, Mimi Adelman, Sag Harbor Honey, Jonathan Bernard, Paul Rogers, Quail Hill Farm. Any new restaurants you’re looking forward to visiting?

Our buddy Jeremy recently opened a spot in Montauk called Mavericks. Totally amped for that.

Which local wines do you recommend? Actually, I don’t drink much wine, but Christopher Tracy at Channing Daughters makes the best pét-nat. Those I drink. What’s your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant (other than your own)?

Out here? It’s got to be the duck fried rice at Coche Comedor in Amagansett.

In what ways does Almond serve as a community hub?

Well, I don’t know. It’s not for me to say, and we don’t like to toot our own horn and stuff, but after 22 years we’re kind of muscle memory for people. People come to our place because of the people who come to our place. That’s why we do it.

What do you listen to in the kitchen?

I recently finished the audio version of the Robert Caro LBJ books.

What’s your go-to at-home meal for the family?

I started cooking for my older brothers when I was around 10 years old. The go-to thing then was spaghetti and meat sauce. The crazy thing is, it kind of still is.

What positive change have you recently seen in your community?

Incredibly, relationships between farms and restaurants barely existed when we first came out here. That’s definitely not true anymore. Almond was a big part of that shift.

DAVID NETTO INTERIOR DESIGNER, WRITER, AMAGANSETT

How has your own home changed since its completion about a decade ago?

I love it more and more. My own daughter pointed out it’s getting to the point where we need to do a little thinning of books. I pointed out her Peloton in response. How has the local landscape affected your work?

It’s more the light than the landscape for me. I find I have a great emotional reaction to the beauty of the changing light, and it teaches me to set up rooms in a way that respects that, with places to watch what’s going on outside and the means of lighting them that won’t overwhelm what goes on out here at the blue hour. Do you have a favorite project in the Hamptons?

I love to work out here, and it may be I actually have done most of my work out here. I always try to add something to the story, you know? Not just repeat the received style. I just finished something great on Meadow Lane with Gil Schafer and Miranda Brooks, and this will be the first summer that house is finished and

Jason Weiner

Edwina von Gal

David Netto

Amy Astley

in use. The new project I’m most excited about out here, though, is Reed and Delphine Krakoff’s new house on the ocean near me in Napeague. It’s modern, but like an Antonioni movie. There’s never been another house like it here. What smells or sounds do you most strongly associate with the Hamptons? Brine! Nobody remembers now, but the overpowering smell of duck poop in the

LILI BUFFETT

WEALTH ADVISOR, NEW YORK

Describe an early Hamptons memory that brings you great joy?

My favorite and definitely most special memory that I have in the Hamptons is taking my son, Thomas, to see the ocean for the first time. Getting to experience some of the best parts of life through your child’s eyes again is indescribable. Favorite fitness studio?

Tracy Anderson. I love how the class begins as a challenge with a new routine each week and gradually becomes second nature as the end of the week nears. I also love the community that the method brings.

What’s on your summer reading list?

early 1970s was a sign you were getting close… However, those duck farms were all gone by the end of the ’70s. The best part of living on the ocean is the sound. You are never alone with that sound. If you could live in the Hamptons during another period of time, when would it be and why?

I’d live in Sagaponack in the 1960s, become mayor, and just landmark and preserve everything. Failing to do that has been our greatest loss. For fun, I’d like to be here around 1940 and meet Black Jack Bouvier.

On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen is at the top of my list. It explores how women have been defined throughout history and challenges those norms.

What’s your favorite beach?

Georgica Beach! I love going with my son and reading a good book, if he lets me.

“THE BEST PART OF LIVING ON THE OCEAN IS THE SOUND. YOU ARE NEVER ALONE WITH THAT SOUND”

— DAVID NETTO

Lili Buffett

ROBERT LONGO’S Long Island

KNOWN FOR HIS LARGE-SCALE, POLITICALLY CHARGED DRAWINGS, THE ARTIST HAS CALLED LONG ISLAND HOME MORE THAN ONCE. HERE, HE LOOKS BACK ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS MULTIDISCIPLINARY WORK, HIS TEENAGE SURFING DAYS, AND THE POLITICS AND PRIVILEGE OF BEING AN ARTIST.

BY MARGARET CARRIGAN PORTRAIT BY RYAN PLETT

You are well known for your charcoal drawings, and you return to this medium often—what draws you to it as a form of expression?

For many years, I never really liked charcoal. I found it to be so imprecise and messy. In 1999, during Christmas time, I didn’t have any graphite pencils, but I found a box of old charcoal and I used it to make my first wave drawings. Then my work really took off. Drawing has a unique intimacy of notation and arduous mark-making that begs the viewer to slow down, to look closer at images.

That’s not to say you have been limited to charcoal, since your practice spans film, photography, and music. Is there a through line that connects all of these different types of media for you?

In the beginning, shifting mediums was a way of testing if an idea was strong enough. If it was strong enough, it could shift from medium to medium. My work is conceptually based; regardless of the medium, it is motivated primarily by a moral imperative—to report on what it means to be alive right now.

When working with images that are recognizable for their historical weight

or political content, do you approach them differently in any way?

I think making art is an inherently political act. Freedom of subject matter is the basis of modern art. Sometimes I have an image in my mind that I want to make, and then I try to find it in the world, often piecing together different images from TV, newspapers, magazines, Instagram, etc., to form what I envision. A lot of my work is based in frustration and an appeal to the viewer to take a position. I am grateful every day that I have this opportunity and privilege to be an artist, and with that privilege I feel a responsibility.

As a musician as well as a visual artist, does music play a role in your practice? Music has always been the engine of my work. It’s always playing in the studio.

I listen to a range of music while working: Yo-Yo Ma, Nick Cave, John Coltrane, Jay-Z. I’m jealous of musicians because I think music can generate pictures with no physical pictorial form. You’re indelibly part of the Pictures Generation legacy, but what does it mean to you to be a part of the East End artist legacy as well?

My family moved to Long Island when I was 2 years old. I grew up surfing—I was obsessed with it, the whole culture of it. Now I consider it to be my home base. My wife, documentary filmmaker Sophie Chahinian, brought me back out there and reminded me how beautiful it is.

I’m inspired by the rich history of artists making work in response to this place, and I’m grateful to be a part of the continuation of that dialogue.

Robert Longo photographed in his New York studio.

“I THINK MAKING ART IS AN INHERENTLY POLITICAL ACT. FREEDOM OF SUBJECT MATTER IS THE BASIS OF MODERN ART.”

Artist’s Conceptual Rendering

Your health has a new address

THE WELL Bay Harbor Islands is more than a high-end home. It’s 400,000 square feet of spaces and services surrounded by tranquil beauty to help you live a healthier, balanced everyday—It’s fresh-pressed juice at your doorstep, a weekly massage in your living room, yoga on the terrace, workouts in your private gym, a breakthrough session with your nutritionist, restored sleep, new meditation practices, fitness in body, mind and spirit—your home for personal wellness.

Residences from $1.5 M

EXCLUSIVE SALES BY DOUGLAS ELLIMAN DEVELOPMENT MARKETING

THE WELL GALLERY NOW OPEN 1160 Kane Concourse, Bay Harbor Islands, FL THEWELLBayHarbor.com 305 351 0584

This project is being developed by 1177 Bay Harbor Islands LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Developer”), which has a limited right to use the trademarked names and logos of Terra and THE WELL. Any and all statements, disclosures and/or representations shall be deemed made by Developer and not by Terra or THE WELL, and you agree to look solely to Developer (and not to Terra, THE WELL or any of their affiliates) with respect to any and all matters relating to the marketing and/or development of the project. The Terra and THE WELL groups of companies are each comprised of several separate companies that are legally distinct. Reference to Terra and THE WELL is merely for convenience and should not be relied upon for any other purposes. Oral representations cannot be relied upon as correctly stating the representations of the developer. For correct representations, make reference to this brochure and to the documents required by section 718.503, Florida statutes, to be furnished by a developer to a buyer or lessee. These materials are not intended to be an offer to sell, or solicitation to buy a unit in the condominium. Such an offering shall only be made pursuant to the prospectus (offering circular) for the condominium and no statements should be relied upon unless made in the prospectus or in the applicable purchase agreement. In no event shall any solicitation, offer or sale of a unit in the condominium be made in, or to residents of, any state or country in which such activity would be unlawful. All images and designs depicted herein are artist’s conceptual renderings, which are based upon preliminary development plans, and are subject to change without notice in the manner provided in the offering documents. All such materials are not to scale and are shown solely for illustrative purposes. Renderings depict proposed views, which are not identical from each residence. No guarantees or representations whatsoever are made that existing or future views of the project and surrounding areas depicted by artist’s conceptual renderings or otherwise described herein, will be provided or, if provided, will be as depicted or described herein. Any view from a residence or from other portions of the property may in the future be limited or eliminated by future development or forces of nature and the developer in no manner guarantees the continuing existence of any view. Furnishings are only included if and to the extent provided in your purchase agreement. The project graphics, renderings and text provided herein are copyrighted works owned by the Developer. All rights reserved.

The Community Kitchen

BY ANA ALTCHEK PORTRAIT BY JENNY GORMAN

How did your love for cooking begin?

My mom was an amazing pie baker. We would all get in the car and go out north of Denver, Colorado—where I grew up—to the fruit stands and buy tons of peaches, and plums. It was very much like what farm to table is now. When I graduated from college, I moved to Europe for three years, and that was the first time I was exposed to a more international way of cooking. You’ve had a few careers. When did you turn to cooking as a profession?

In the early aughts I was living in San Diego and spent several years assisting a friend who was a chef. Eventually I started cooking professionally, mostly for events. When I moved to New York five years ago, I started a little underground bread-making business out of my house. Then the pandemic hit, and my bread business took off—people were eating massive amounts of sourdough! I felt super connected to my customers; sometimes I was the only person they would see in a day. I would show up with these gifts for them, which was really special.

Your bread has been described by some as “lifechanging.” What’s the secret?

Meet

Sushi by Bo ū, Southampton

Omakase lovers can sidle up to the cocktail bar at Blu Mar Southampton, Main Street, for Sushi by Boū’s popular prix fixe sushi menu. In the dining room, opt for izakaya bites and sample a sake (or two) from its robust menu.

Mavericks, Montauk

Nestled on the banks of Fort Pond, surf-and-turf steakhouse Mavericks boasts locally caught seafood, regional produce, and floor-to-ceiling sunset views.

Enchanté Bistro, Southampton

Escape to Paris and Nice—via Hampton Road—when you visit Enchanté Bistro, a delectable French-inspired eatery serving the essentials: escargots,

Niçoise salad, and its custom-blend burger, to name a few.

The key to my sourdough is that it’s truly small-batch. In a week, depending on my availability, I make upwards of 10 loaves, and all my bread is a minimum 36-hour fermentation. I do it all by hand, I don’t use any machinery, and each loaf is cooked one by one in my 1950s Garland oven. I think that’s what makes it special. People also seem to love my berry cakes, which is a cake that’s just stuffed with raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries, and I usually travel with whipped cream or a cashew cream to top them off.

What are your favorite summer flavors?

Cooking out here in the summer is so different from any other time of year because we have beautiful tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and all the greens, and the farm stands are amazing. I really like to do Mediterranean-inspired food with what’s available in the Hamptons. I make roasted cauliflower that I dust in curry and top with muhammara sauce, walnuts, cilantro, and pomegranate seeds. I like to use lots of herbs and try to keep everything really light. And I love the brightness of good citrus. Every time I go to California, I fill my suitcase with Meyer lemons, squeeze them, and put the lemon juice in my freezer.

Where do you source your ingredients?

Marilee’s Farmstand in Sagaponack, for which I also bake pastries. I also go to Balsam Farms [in Amagansett] because they have a really great selection. I go to Cavaniola’s Gourmet [in Sag Harbor] for cheese. I try to make everything I possibly can from scratch with the freshest ingredients I can get.

You bring a lot to the table—literally. What does cooking bring to you?

The best reward when I’m working is at the end of the night, when people are super happy and appreciative. It can be really high-stress, but when it’s all over and it went great, it’s an amazing feeling. And it’s just fun! Cooking is kind of what I do instead of going out.

to the East End Food Scene

Fini Pizza, Amagansett

On the days when you just need a NYC slice, head over to Fini Pizza on Main Street in Amagansett. Try the grandma or white slice, and finish off with a well-deserved lemon ice.

Talya Restaurant, Montauk

A ceiling full of plants and disco balls set the perfect Mediterranean party mood, at Talya, whose menu focuses on locally-sourced, updated Greek dishes like beef tartare dolmades.

Sag Harbor Kitchen, Sag Harbor

You’d be remiss not to delight in the olive oil-poached codfish at Sag Harbor Kitchen on Bay Street. Snag a fireside table where you can enjoy a cool evening on the dock while keeping toasty.

 Vin sur Vingt, Sag Harbor

Already beloved in the city, wine bar and restaurant Vin sur Vingt is making its Sag Harbor debut. You’ll come for the formidable rotating wine list, and you’ll stay for the light-fare menu—branzino, scallops, or perhaps a croque madame.

Carissa’s, Sag Harbor

Treasured bakery Carissa’s has just opened their third location, on South Fork’s Bay Street. All day fare means a baguette for breakfast, a jambon buerre for lunch, and a whole roast chicken with tahini and harissa for dinner.

 Leon 1909, Shelter Island

Cozy up to Leon 1909’s open-fire hearth, where chefs grill up a robust menu of Provençal fare crafted from regional ingredients. Indulge in the sea bass a la nage and end the night with their lemon cream tart.

 Christian’s by Wölffer Estate, Amagansett

Christian’s entire menu is an homage to the East End, with North Atlantic seafood and produce from Long Island farms. Enjoy herb-crusted Montauk tuna at dinner or a live DJ at the Vinyl Brunch on Saturdays, when the tunes are just as fresh as the catch.

Arden Chapin with a basket of her highly coveted loaves.

ARDEN CHAPIN DROPS OFF HEAPS OF CAKES AT FARM STANDS AND CATERS FOR CINDY SHERMAN. HERE, SHE SHARES WHAT INSPIRES HER IN-DEMAND MEALS, INCLUDING EXACTLY WHY SOME HAVE CALLED HER SOURDOUGH LIFE-CHANGING.

Jeff Lincoln Art + Design presents a collaborative show by the Japanese painter Yuka Kashihara

and the Korean ceramic artist Hun-Chung Lee

Hun-Chung Lee sees his large-scale ceramics as landscapes—or maybe more accurately, seascapes—of the mind. “I have very powerful memories [from childhood] of being with my father on boats and the vastness of the ocean,” Lee, 56, says. “In Korean this is known as bada, and all my work is based on my memories and the landscapes they conjure in my imagination.”

Over the last three decades, Lee, who splits his time between studios in Los Angeles and Seoul, has become known for his monumental, genredefying glazed ceramics that include surreal-looking chairs, desks, tables, and stools, all fired in a hand-built kiln. A selection of his work, alongside

Object & Thing returns to the Hamptons with a site-specific installation at LongHouse Reserve.

The late textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen believed that the highest form of art appreciation was not to stick an object in a museum but to live with it, and his East Hampton case study home served as his proof of concept. This summer Larsen’s ethos will be further exemplified in an exhibition of around 100 works by 34 artists installed at LongHouse—his former house and sculpture garden—and curated in collaboration with the art and design fair Object & Thing.

“Larsen was a master of the subtle art of arrangement,” says Glenn Adamson, LongHouse curator-at-large, who co-curated the exhibition with Object & Thing founder Abby Bangser. “This project simply continues that practice, while also giving an impression of what Larsen might be looking at and collecting if he were still with us today.”

“A Summer Arrangement,” which runs through September 3, brings together contemporary works and site-specific commissions by artists and designers including Alma Allen, Megumi Shauna Arai, Sonia Gomes, Rashid Johnson, Wyatt Kahn, Jennifer Lee, Sam Moyer, and Frances Palmer, alongside works from Larsen’s collection. Colin King, author of the recently released book Arranging Things, designed the installation. Spanning the living room and gallery of the four-floor house, the exhibition will also extend to the guest level of LongHouse, which will be open to visitors for the first time. —M.C.

Alma Allen, Not Yet Titled, 2023; a site-specific wall shelf by Joseph Walsh for LongHouse, Enignum Shelf XXXVI 2019, at Object & Thing

.

dreamy vistas by the Japanese artist Yuka Kashihara, is on view in the exhibition “Imaginary Landscapes” at Jeff Lincoln Art + Design in Southampton through July.

In addition, “Geotex, Abstract Geometry in Textile Art,” on view through September 15, is an exhibition of textile-based works featuring geometry in abstraction by artists including Tanya Aguiñiga, Samantha Bittman, Toni Ross, Laurel Sparks, Brent Wadden, Sarah Wertzberger, and Kristine Woods. And in the gallery’s outdoor space, a series of sculptural works form “Nadia Yaron: Ghosts of a Flower, Works in Stone,” which runs through October 15. —MARGARET CARRIGAN

A CENTURIES-OLD SAG HARBOR HOME BECOMES A PLACE TO DISCOVER VINTAGE AND CONTEMPORARY DESIGN.

“We wanted to tell the story of this very special building,” says 1818 Collective cofounder Analisse Taft-Gersten, who along with Kristin Fine, opened the Sag Harbor retail concept last May. The circa 1800 house is a place that encourages discovery—custom lighting, globally sourced textiles, vintage furniture and contemporary designs mingle throughout.

An installation view of “Imaginary Landscapes.”

AH OUTDOOR SERIES

BY ALFRED HOMANN

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Andy’s Montauk

I’VE ALWAYS LOVED HEARING ABOUT EOTHEN, Andy Warhol’s Montauk compound where my father spent long nights partying and hosting weekend guests like Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Radziwill, Mick Jagger, and so many other icons. Where my parents were engaged and ultimately celebrated their elopement (following the surprise ceremony under a tree at the East Hampton courthouse). Where my infant sister slept on Halston’s bed while the night carried on.

As the onetime manager of Andy Warhol’s studio and cofounder of the Andy Warhol Foundation, my father dedicated his professional career, and really his life from age 18, to Andy Warhol, and Andy’s Montauk home was often my father’s responsibility. It’s clear that he’s still in awe of what he experienced during those summers. Despite all that has changed, the East End of Long Island continues to be a sanctuary for my father and so many people in the creative community. It’s still a place where no matter who you are, you can escape the expectations of the city and indulge in magical summer nights.

After years spent in Montauk, Shelter Island, and Southampton, we’re all grateful (most of all, my father) that my mother finally convinced him they should buy their own tiny Bridgehampton farmhouse 20 years ago. It’s easy to see how he changes when he gets to Long Island. It’s the only place he doesn’t wear his suit jacket, and occasionally on really hot days, he will even allow himself to wear shorts. He swims in the ocean almost every afternoon but never the pool, and he is always the first to refill a glass and the last to leave the porch, telling unbelievable stories—including those of his years spent in Montauk.

Casey Fremont: A father-daughter interview. This is so exciting! Let’s set the scene.

Vincent Fremont: It was 1971, and I think it was probably Paul [Morrissey] who pushed Andy to buy a place out in Long Island. Tina Fredericks, the art director who actually gave Andy his first job in the 1950s at Glamour in New York, was a real estate agent at that point. She took Andy and Paul out to Montauk to see this property called Eothen.

CF: Paul and Andy bought it together?

VF: Paul and Andy were 50/50 partners. So the summer of ’72 was the first summer that all of us, meaning all of us at Andy’s studio and Paul, went out to Montauk. That first year

VINCENT FREMONT TELLS HIS DAUGHTER, CASEY FREMONT, ABOUT ENDLESS DINNER PARTIES, WIFFLE BALL WITH ELIZABETH TAYLOR, AND A SECRET SERVICE DETAIL TO THE ICE CREAM STAND DURING MONTAUK SUMMERS AT ANDY WARHOL’S EOTHEN COMPOUND.

Lee Radziwill rented the main house and then Andy and the rest of us stayed at the Boomhauer Cottage and the second cottage, which were adjacent to the main house, and that is when the magic started.

CF: How was it decorated? Did Andy and Paul make any major renovations after they bought it?

VF: No, there were no renovations. We wanted to keep the original ambience of the houses—a cozy and comfortable, albeit masculine, summer fishing lodge, with stuffed striped bass on the walls and shelves full of old books on each side of the large fireplace. But when Halston rented the main house in 1977 or ’78, he insisted that we install a Vulcan professional stove in the kitchen, and he changed the decor of the house to a chinois style and had a mosquito-net cover installed over the bed in his bedroom.

CF: Was the house rented often?

VF: Renting the main house helped defray the costs of running the compound. We, people like Andy’s boyfriend Jed Johnson, and Bob Colacello, stayed in the other two cottages. So did Tom Cashin and Jed’s brother Jay. Lee would have late-afternoon cocktail parties that summer, and she actually had a good French rosé, as opposed to the Portuguese Mateus rosé that was really sweet and that was all you usually could find. Truman Capote and Peter Beard were regular guests for cocktails. That’s when I first really got to know Peter. We had dinner parties at the two cottages for Andy and Fred’s guests. Lee had her own dinner parties that Andy, Jed, and Fred would be invited to join. She also gave Andy, as a birthday gift, the flagpole that remains to this day. We put up the flag every morning and brought it down every evening.

CF: So was there more to the daily routine?

VF: When we were not renting the main house, I was shopping in town at the Amagansett farmers market for food to feed our weekend guests. The kitchen was a gathering place, and we all chipped in cooking and cleaning the dishes. When Lee rented the house, she had a maid and someone to cook, that was a different setup. I made sure the house was fully stocked with wine, champagne, vodka—all from White’s Liquor Store. We shopped at Herb’s Market and had charge accounts for both places. In the summer when we had no

one renting, I organized the guest rooms and who would be sleeping in which bedroom, so I was very popular in the spring because I knew who was coming and decided who was going to sleep where.

CF: Would you all eat together?

VF: Oh, yeah. It was a big eat-in kitchen. There was a living room area where we hosted dinner parties that was opposite the big overstuffed chairs and couch facing the fireplace. On any given weekend, no one knew who was going to be there, but there were always interesting and fascinating people.

CF: Would people go swimming? Was it possible to swim there?

VF: Yes, in the 1970s there was a small sandy beach to the right of the main house. I used to surf off that beach with surfboards I always believed were left over from Andy and Paul’s film San Diego Surf. One true story: One summer, Fred Hughes came back from the beach, and Andy and I were in Boomhauer Cottage, and Fred said, “Oh, Andy, Dick Cavett is naked on the beach,” and we were, like, “Oh, not possible.” And this is the height of his stardom as a talk show host. So we went down to the beach toward the bluff where his house is. And there’s Dick Cavett wearing only a hat and a scarf and sandals. Totally naked.

CF: Did you pretend you didn’t see?

VF: No, we all talked to him. Andy turned red.

CF: Okay, next question. Did you ever leave the compound? Tell us a little more about what Montauk was like then.

VF: Well, Montauk in the early ’70s was still a sleepy fishing village. A few surfers and middle-class families vacationed there; there were cheap motels. No one wanted to go past Amagansett in those days, so you were kind of in your own world. No one came out there unless you were invited.

CF: Wasn’t there one great story of Elizabeth Taylor going into town?

VF: Ah, the Elizabeth Taylor weekend…. Firooz Zahedi, who began his photography career taking photos for Interview magazine, arranged for Elizabeth to come out to Montauk. She arrived with her hairdresser, Arthur, and she had this tight T-shirt with Botswana written on the front, and she had this headlight-size diamond ring on her finger. Andy and Fred had to go to Paris for business, so I was the host taking care of the house. Halston had rented Peter Beard’s place up the road, and we all got together and went to Gosman’s. As we walked into the restaurant, Paul Simon was there, as were a couple other celebrities, but the whole restaurant turned around because it was Elizabeth Taylor. We took two tables, sat down, and I was sitting with Elizabeth, Halston, Firooz. Somehow the conversation changed to an affair she had, and she started crying and got really upset. Halston turned to me and said, “Do you have a car?” Our table stood up, headed to the parking lot—everyone was watching this—and my car is an Avis rent-a-car. So Elizabeth and Halston are in the back seat, and she was crying and speaking about Richard Burton. We drove to Peter’s property, and there were these chaise longues facing the ocean. And before everyone else followed us, I laid

down in a chaise lounge next to Elizabeth, Halston, and Arthur, and we lit a joint and all smoked and looked up at the sky. She calmed down then. And that was the beginning; the weekend was just like that. It was that intimate. She was actually on my Wiffle ball team that weekend, and we played against the production crew from [the film] Bad, and we won.

CF: Even the biggest celebrities seemed to have this feeling of anonymity when they were in Montauk. Like they could almost blend in… There is a great story you have told my whole life about when the Kennedy kids visited.

VF: That old story. Okay, so that story would be in 1972 or 1973, when Jackie Onassis visited her sister. Lee had Anthony and Tina, her son and daughter, with her, and Jackie brought John Kennedy Jr., and Caroline. I was around 22 years old, and the kids saw the youngest person around, and they convinced me to take all four of them, in my little renta-car, into town to get ice cream. No one recognized who they were. They were delighted and hung out, had some ice cream, and then I got them all back in the car and drove them back to the compound. Later in the day, Jackie asked if I would come to the main house. And that’s when she admonished me in a very sweet but firm way because what I did was a security breach. Meanwhile, I later learned the Secret Service had been following me the whole time.

CF: I know everyone likes to think they knew Andy and can predict how he would react to things, which annoys you, but I feel like you’re one of the few who really did know him. So do you ever consider what Andy would think about Montauk now?

VF: I think he would accept it. He probably would still would have the property.

CF: Do you think that part of the magic, like you said, was its being so remote, and now Montauk feels so populated and so popular?

VF: Well, yeah. I mean, Andy and Peter were responsible for attracting other well-known people to buy homes in Montauk, like [Richard] Avedon and Paul Simon. Now it’s hipster land. There’s nothing wrong with that. I still think Montauk is wonderful, but it really has changed in that sense. Back in the ’70s, the local people didn’t really like people from Manhattan coming in, but the Eothen group was sort of accepted. We enjoyed it and were there all the time, dancing and doing tequila shots at Shagwong with the locals.

CF: Do you have a favorite memory?

VF: All of my memories of Montauk are my favorite.

CF: Not like, maybe you and Shelly celebrating your wedding?

VF: Oh, yes, the elopement. We got married in East Hampton, and the party was at Andy’s house. We didn’t tell anybody, except I told my good friend Billy Copley to please wear a blazer that weekend. My best man was Robert Hayes. Shelly and I organized the whole thing down to ordering the cake. One of the many great things about that wedding day was that some of our friends were photographers— Christopher Makos, Alan Kleinberg, and Andy taking pictures—what a photo record!

CF: Well, thankfully you have great photos and stories to tell your children! Thank you, Dad!

From left: Group photo with Vincent Fremont on Dick Cavett’s lap and Andy Warhol, center; a young Fremont with Elizabeth Taylor; Warhol napping in the main house; Fremont with his wife, Shelly, cutting their wedding cake at Eothen while Warhol, Christopher Makos, Alan Kleinberg, and other friends capture the moment.

“I LAID DOWN IN A CHAISE LOUNGE NEXT TO ELIZABETH TAYLOR, HALSTON, AND ARTHUR, LIT A JOINT, AND WE ALL SMOKED AND LOOKED UP AT THE SKY.”

Leave It to the Kiln Gods

EVEN THOUGH HER METICULOUSLY SCULPTED WORKS MIGHT SUGGEST OTHERWISE, ARTIST SARAH AIBEL FINDS PEACE AND SERENITY IN RELINQUISHING CONTROL. AHEAD OF HER UPCOMING GROUP SHOW AT DAVID LEWIS, OPENING IN EAST HAMPTON ON JULY 1, WE DISCUSS MOTHERHOOD, DETACHMENT, AND THE LIFE LESSONS SHE’S FOUND THROUGH WORKING WITH CLAY.

BY TALI JAFFE MINOR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA DALENE

You’re in the upcoming “Syphilis Too” show curated by Anton Kern and Adam Cohen at David Lewis. What are you exhibiting?

I’m making a few new works specifically for the show. I’m going to make a direct, somewhat comedic reference to syphilis, because if it’s not funny, it’s just terribly depressing. And then I’m going to do something more esoteric, more about the breakdown of bodies, society, and culture. You know, just some small themes. And Adam gave you your first solo show, right? Yes, “I Quit” at A Hug From the Art World. Yes, those escape cases. Tell us more about them. I was thinking a lot about work: what it means to work, all the different forms it can take. What are the boundaries of work and life when you’re an artist and a mom with three young kids? And I started fantasizing about escape. What would I bring? What would I need? To just have a go bag ready and waiting for the moment I needed to tap out of my life…that’s how the briefcases began, as escape cases. And then they just morphed into this kind of tight framework in which I could tell a story. In your process you allow the materials and alchemy to lead a bit.

I love not holding on too tight to the outcome I want and kind of being able to be flexible and moving with whatever the clay brings. Obviously I have an idea of what I’m trying to achieve, but this is one of the few places in my

life where I can relinquish control and just be with the process. You really leave it to the kiln gods. Tell me about what clay has taught you.

Working with clay has changed the entire way I view my life, honestly! Feldspar, the main material of clay, is the most abundant mineral group in the Earth’s crust. So in a lot of ways, it’s like clay is Earth, and it’s a metaphor for our time on Earth. You can coax clay and you can manipulate clay, but you can’t force clay. If the clay doesn’t want to do what I had it doing in my mind, then I have to switch gears, reimagine the concept or the technique or even the piece itself. Sometimes I will sit down to make one thing and a completely different piece comes out of it. It’s a constant balance of being flexible but discerning, determined but unattached to the outcome. I feel so meditative in my studio, almost to the point of the works being a collaboration between the tension in the clay and the ideas in my mind.

And when did that ability to let go click for you?

It was always somewhat “built in” to my understanding of the material, but it was when I started firing in my own kiln in my studio that I realized the whole process could be so much more expansive and intuitive. There are a lot of commonsense rules for pottery that I was able to throw out the window. I didn’t have to worry about ruining someone else’s work if mine exploded. I was freed to use whatever I wanted in whatever fashion I wanted to use it. I can’t emphasize enough how much this changed my trajectory. I became able to push the medium in a way I’d never been able to before.

My whole practice has become an exercise in letting go, both in the studio and in life. Letting go of preconceived notions, letting go of expectations, letting go of control. Throw out everything you think you know and just start inside yourself.

Working with her own kiln, Sarah Aibel pushes the boundaries of what pottery can do.

“THIS IS ONE OF THE FEW PLACES IN MY LIFE WHERE I CAN RELINQUISH CONTROL AND JUST BE WITH THE PROCESS.”

11 South Main Street

Southampton, NY 11968

212-673-0531

www.toddmerrillstudio.com

Tapestry: Erik Speer, 2022

Bent Wood Sofa: Enda Scott, 2020

IT’S A SUMMER THING

CATCH UP ON ALL THE NEW SHOPS, POP-UP EATERIES, AND SEASONAL RETAILERS THAT ARE HERE FOR AN EPHEMERAL SUMMER RUN, PLUS A FEW OTHER HIGHLIGHTS ON OUR HAMPTONS RADAR.

Mytheresa x Flamingo Estate Summer

Auto Body Shop, East Hampton

One of the most anticipated pop-ups of the season is Mytheresa and Flamingo Estate’s immersive shopping experience. Housed in a renovated body shop on Railroad Avenue, clothing for women, men, and children will be displayed among racks assembled from car lifts and old tires. A former gas-station snack aisle is transformed into an “inconvenience store” stocked with gourmet pantry items and limited branded merch. Through July 30.

 Chanel, East Hampton Chanel’s ephemeral outpost is back for the season. The two-story cottage carries a range of collections, from Coco Beach cover-ups to Métiers d’Art gowns and, of course, the label’s signature tweeds.

Rosie’s, Amagansett

Fans of Charlie Bird’s crispy Tuscan fried chicken can bag some bird when this Soho stalwart pops up at Rosie’s on Main Street. Other summer visitors to Rosie’s include the Michelin-starred Flatiron kaiseki speakeasy Odo and the Lower East Side Thai favorite Wayla. The restaurants alighting at Rosie’s will offer dinner menus and a cocktail program for roughly two weeks each. Through September.

Lilikoi Organic Living, Water Mill

 Givenchy Plage Pop-Up, Bridgehampton

Givenchy’s newly launched capsule swimwear collection, Givenchy Plage, will be available at Bridgehampton’s Topping Rose House for a two-week stretch in July. Directly inspired by circa-1952 swim designs from Hubert de Givenchy’s archives, the line of sleek beachwear and accessories offers a touch of French Riviera timelessness and California cool for East End beach days. July 1–14.

Decades, Sag Harbor

Returning to Sage & Madison for its second East End summer residency is the renowned Los Angeles vintage retailer Decades. Peerless pieces from labels like Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, and Valentino will be on offer, and this year they’re also hosting weekly pop-up boutiques featuring Etro, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jil Sander, Marni, and more. Through September 4.

 Louis Vuitton, East Hampton Louis Vuitton’s new storefront will be open through September, plus a few other dates throughout the year. Located in a landmarked Main Street building, the boutique carries an exclusive limitededition Neverfull bag, a pareo stole, and a Louis Vuitton-monogram fan with a “Hamptons” imprint, in addition to the house’s core collections. Through September.

Diptyque, East Hampton Diptyque’s brand-new Newtown Lane boutique is your one-stop hostess gift shop. Wander through the shop to find design objects mingling with the brand’s full collection of fragrances, scented candles, and skincare collections, as well as accessories for those coveted candles.

Miami’s posh spot for green juices and local veg will bring its freshfocused food and drinks to Water Mill’s sushi outpost Kissaki. Lilikoi chef Manuel Torterola will offer breakfast and lunch, with dishes such as sourdough pancakes topped with whipped coconut cream and a sesame-infused tuna poke bowl with avocado and greens.

Pasta Ramen, Water Mill

The New Jersey Italian-Japanese cult favorite by chef Robbie Felice will take over Kissaki’s private dining room on Sunday and Monday nights. The 10-course omakase includes plates like whipped fried mortadella-stuffed gyoza, sake-and-soy-laced ricotta gnudi, and porcini ramen finished with fresh truffles, complete with sake pairings. Through August.

Wölffer Estate x Zimmermann Summer in a Bottle, Sagaponack

What is a summer day without a glass of rosé? Enjoy the feeling of the Hamptons sunshine, in situ or from afar, with Wölffer Estate’s perfectly dry Summer in a Bottle Long Island Rosé 2022 in a limited-edition bottle in collaboration with Australian fashion house Zimmermann. Available at the Wölffer Estate Vineyard shop or online. While supplies last.

A Sag Harbor fixture, Baron’s Cove celebrates its 65th year this summer with a brand new menu. In homage to its illustrious literary clientele, the team has introduced a new cocktail, the “Jack Rose,” so you can sip like John Steinbeck, who reportedly enjoyed one or many of these sweet-and-tart tipples when he frequented the bar from the late 1950s to the mid-’60s.

Guests enjoying the pool at Baron’s Cove, 1965.

Chanel cloche from the Coco Beach 2023 collection.

Baron’s Cove, Sag Harbor

Givenchy G-Tote shopping bag.

WÖLFFER BRING S YOU a TASTE OF PROVENCE

IT TAKES A Village

AT THE START OF THE SUMMER SEASON, A GROUP OF FRIENDS GATHERED—MUCH LIKE THEY DO THROUGHOUT THE YEAR—TO REFLECT ON THEIR CHOSEN COMMUNITY. MULTIGENERATIONAL, MULTIDISCIPLINARY, AND MULTIFACETED IN EVERY WAY, TOGETHER THEY’RE A REFLECTION OF THIS MOMENT IN TIME IN THE EAST END’S GREAT ARTISTIC LEGACY.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

HANK WILLIS THOMAS

What does this community mean to you?

I’m new to this place, and I came here largely because I have friends like Rashid [Johnson] and Edward Neyham, whom I’ve always loved visiting out here. And then during the pandemic, I ended up renting Joel’s house, which I eventually bought. These are people I love to see and don’t normally see enough of in New York. Now, fortunately, I can spend time with them and their families, summers and holidays. It’s not exactly what I expected, in a good way. It’s just chill.

ERIC FISCHL

What keeps you here?

We’re heavily invested in the Sag Harbor community. We not only have our dream house that we built, that we’ve been in for almost 25 years, but I’m heavily invested in terms of the commitment to bringing culture to Sag Harbor and making that the reason other people come to the town. We had this fantasy—or I did, April [Gornik] is not as foolish as I am—I had this fantasy that artists could gentrify their own town and control the way it was developed. It’s dominated by the artists. Is there a particular landscape in the East End that touches you the most or brings back the most memories?

I prefer the bay side of the island to the ocean. The ocean is an existential kind of nightmare for me. [On the bay side] you have beautiful water, light, dots of land around.… It feels like you possess it in a very different way. Plus, there is something very exciting about areas that are so flat. In relation to the water, it’s kind of compelling and beautiful.

SHEREE HOVSEPIAN

How would you describe the communities that you are a part of here?

Familial. Our kids are often together in the same group, and we’re cooking, dining, and hanging out together by the pool. There is this sense of family, and it’s just more relaxed. It’s nice to be in proximity to people you might not necessarily be close to in the city. Mary [Heilmann] has been coming to our Thanksgiving every year for the past six or seven years. There’s a different mix of people, and meeting people in a different setting is nice, too.

SANFORD BIGGERS

What brought you to the East End?

The pandemic. My parents-in-law have been out here for 25 years, so we were coming out frequently, and then during the pandemic we did an extended stay with them and started looking for a place. Then we got something in Sag Harbor. What keeps you here?

It’s the tranquility, the community. I have a lot of friends who have been moving out here in the past few years. Just the right amount, so when you need to be social, you can be social. I have two young kids, so they have a place to run and play.

How would you describe the artist community (or communities) here?

I feel like, out here, people’s guards are down. When you run into someone, you have way more casual conversations.

Sometimes it’s just “Do you know somebody who could clean my gutters,” as opposed to all the heady stuff that we talk about in the town. It is a good reprieve from it all. And how do you think spending time here has impacted your work?

It has made me appreciate taking time and it has given me a clearer headspace—and [the resources to] work at my own pace.

“I FEEL LIKE, OUT HERE, PEOPLE’S GUARDS ARE DOWN… YOU HAVE MORE CASUAL CONVERSATIONS. IT’S A GOOD REPRIEVE FROM IT ALL.”

—SANFORD BIGGERS

SARAH AIBEL

What about the East End feeds your practice?

When we moved out to the East End, I was immediately affected by the spaciousness, the nature, and of course the light. The visual and auditory chaos that comprised my every moment of living in New York City had morphed into a peaceful quiet. Wind, birds, ocean waves crashing—this was my new soundtrack. Being in such an open, green space soothed my strung-out city nerves. I found myself feeling truly inspired and bubbling with creativity.

What does the community mean to you?

Considering how small it is, the artistic community runs deep. I’ve met many talented artists of all ages, all levels, and working in all mediums. That’s kind of the magic of it—it’s everything, everywhere, all at once, without a hierarchy blocking access. I’m not sure whether the Hamptons attracts artists and art lovers or the space and the light put people in touch with their creativity, motivating them to make and appreciate. But either way, the East End has an invigorating creative energy unlike anywhere else, as though it emanates from the sands, the soils, the sky. Also, having the beach be a five-minute drive from my studio is a cure-all! I’ve found a quick walk on the beach fixes most things.

MARY HEILMANN

What brought you to this area in the first place?

Well, I first moved here right out of college, right out of graduate school. I liked the scene because of [Jackson] Pollock and [Willem] de Kooning and all that. Then I spent more time here and loved the beach and everything else about it. I kept coming back and forth here until around the ’90s, when I bought my little house in Bridgehampton.

What about the East End feeds your practice?

The ocean is big into my thinking and my work. I’m right up from the beach, and I like painting the waves. The gardens and the trees and everything like that... it’s about the nature. And then the energy—the social energy—of this place is a real turn on, too. We’ve got a great art scene out here. You don’t really have to go to Basel or Berlin.

JOEL MESLER

How do you think spending time here and living here has impacted the way you work?

Time has changed. I see time differently, like it’s not really linear anymore. So now I get time to be with other people and not just get time to think about me and my situation. And to actually be present with other people, too. Because I’m allocating more time, I’ve actually gained time.

“THE SOCIAL ENERGY OF THIS PLACE IS A REAL TURN ON. WE’VE GOT A GREAT ART SCENE OUT HERE. YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO GO TO BASEL OR BERLIN.”

— MARY HEILMANN

“THE SOCIAL ENERGY OF THIS PLACE IS A REAL TURN ON. WE’VE GOT A GREAT ART SCENE OUT HERE. YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO GO TO BASEL OR BERLIN.”

— MARY HEILMANN

RASHID JOHNSON

What initially brought you to the East End? I originally came out here because I just wanted to find a place to go get out of the city, and it was the only place that I knew people went to... to get out of the city. So I came to the place from a pretty naive position. What keeps you here?

The light, as a lot of people say. It has a really positive impact on my thinking and my work, my sense of clarity. My relationships have really grown here. I have lots of friends, and I get the opportunity to spend time with them in a more intimate setting and for a longer period of time.

That’s really important to me. And just the opportunity for a kind of peace, being near the water. There’s a bunch of different elements, but all of them come together to make me feel very comfortable here. How would you describe the artist community here? Expansive. A lot of different kinds of artist communities are here. There are the folks who are here more or less full time, who have put together a kind of network of galleries and opportunities to exhibit their work and have really built community. There are the folks who are here more in the summer, like myself. It’s a pretty diverse group of approaches to an artist’s life or an artist’s career—there’s not just one way to be an artist.

Clockwise from left: Hank Willis Thomas, Rashid Johnson, Sheree Hovsepian, Sanford Biggers, Sarah Aibel, Eric Fischl, Joel Mesler, and in the driver’s seat, Mary Heilmann.

Drawn to the Light

Still grappling with the success of his first solo show last year at Harper’s Chelsea 534, the East Hampton—based Vietnamese-American painter Charles Ly tells me he’s “dealing with the imposter syndrome” that comes with new attention.

“People liked my work, but it was my first big show,” he says.

Ly’s oeuvre includes a lot of slightly surreal figurative paintings that spotlight Vietnamese people, cultures, and food. The artist’s charming downplaying of his success aside, Cháo (2021) and Xe Lua (2021), which appeared in the Harper’s

CHARLES LY

BY ELISHA TAWE

exhibition, are beautiful works laced with a bit of comic relief. We see in them the metaphorical hands of God reaching down from the heavens into bowls of pho and volcanic hot pots surrounded by skewers of vegetables ready to attack.

“The soups serve as metaphors for melting pots, metaphors for our world,” he says. Ly explains that he went to Vietnam for the first time five years ago. “Growing up Vietnamese in rural America, food is the thing you connect to from your heritage,” he says. “Going [to Vietnam] reaffirmed to me who I was on a cellular level.”

We continue to mull over our shared experiences as members of our respective diasporas, food never far from the focus. “When my mom calls, she starts every conversation with ‘Have you eaten?’ In our culture, we express our emotions through food,” Ly laughs.

The artist, 39, grew up in the art-rich community of East Hampton. “Willem de Kooning, Chuck Close, and Andy Warhol had places here. They still have estates here,” he says. The deep artistic roots of the area provide plenty of inspiration to him now, but even though he was “very much surrounded by art as a kid,” he wasn’t always aware of it. “I was more into comics and video games, watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and trying to copy them on paper,” he says. “I was always trying to put myself in those worlds.”

Ly trained as a graphic designer, but after a few unfulfilling years he says he found the screen time too taxing. Instead he turned to painting and drawing. He is currently preparing a new body of work for his next solo show, set to open in 2024 at Harper’s Los Angeles. When asked how he feels about spending time in his studio this summer, Ly laughs. “The hardest part of being an artist is being inside on a nice day,” he says. “I’m on an island after all—I like to surf whenever there are waves. I try to be in nature as much as possible, so [studio work] is like torture.”

MEET THREE ARTISTS WHOSE WORK AND CAREERS HAVE BEEN INFORMED BY THE EAST END.

CAMERON WELCH

BY AMAYA McDONALD

Cameron Welch recalls the first time he saw a painting by a person of color. Born in Indianapolis, Welch made many trips to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (now Newfields) as a child, but it wasn’t until his teenage years that he saw a newly acquired work there titled Don’t Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together by the Black self-taught assemblage artist Thornton Dial. It was only then, Welch says, that “I had seen myself in an artwork, in any sense of the phrase.”

Dial’s formative influence on Welch remains evident. Based in Brooklyn, Welch, 32, is recognized for his assemblages that marry myth with the mundane by incorporating found objects like mirrors, CDs, and MIDI keyboards. Throughout his training—first at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he received a BFA in 2013, and later at New York’s Columbia University, where he earned an MFA in 2016—Welch foregrounded underrepresented Black histories and experiences in his paintings by using commonly found objects.

ALMOND ZIGMUND

BY MATILDA BATHURST

For Almond Zigmund, art is inherently social. The process of working through deeply personal ideas in the privacy of the studio becomes a way of reaching out and seeking to communicate something of our shared humanity.

From paintings to sculpture, and from interior murals to large-scale urban interventions, Zigmund’s work renews an awareness of how we relate to our surroundings and to one another. “When relationships are formed, whether in an artistic composition or between human beings, it’s incredibly generative and never predictive,” she says, speaking from her home studio, where she’s surrounded by clay maquettes and vivid geometric paintings ready to be rearranged. “Those relationships bring about transformations that subvert expectation—a whole universe is brought into being.”

When at home in the Hamptons, Zigmund’s attunement to that network of relationships arises from observation of the natural world. However, her artistic language first emerged from the pressure and intensity of urban environments. She grew up in Brooklyn and pursued her undergraduate studies at Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris before receiving her MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, so Zigmund’s imagination is constantly drawn to architecture and the drama of civic life. “My grandparents were European immigrants who moved to the U.S. during the Second World War,” she explains.

“I think my fascination with the built environment has to do with the need for roots—that feeling of being anonymous and slightly unmoored but also engaged in a constant dance.”

Dance is the operative word for an artist who finds inspiration in the costumes and set designs of Bauhaus ballet, the “non-places,” as she calls them, of supermodernity, and the intimate physicality of artworks that can be inhabited, from the clothing designs of Rudi Gernreich to the ecstatically tactile assemblages of Miriam Schapiro. Here in the Hamptons, that dance finds a new type of grace and pace. “I have great peers here—artists whose work I love and whom I look to when I need inspiration, friends I can easily call into my studio whenever I need advice or direction.”

Zigmund’s site-specific work sets the tone for the types of creative relationships that define the Hamptons art scene. You’ll find her bold decals adorning the walls at Onna House, and her mural in the Parrish Art Museum café is a playful evocation of collective living. After having recently completed a major public commission for the U.S. Embassy in Asunción, Paraguay, she is now enjoying a return to smallerscale works and experimenting with new materials for private commissions. “I’m always thinking about how these works might translate between different realms, scales, and media. Nothing is fixed in one form; nothing is static. Art allows us to find joy in that fact, to feel that possibility.”

His 2018 solo show, “Retrograde” at Rental Gallery in East Hampton, proved pivotal in his practice. Through 10 large-scale mixed-media paintings, Welch reimagined well-known characters from Western mythology and classical literature as people of color. His use of mosaic, a medium often associated with the Roman Empire, is intentionally referential. “[I thought] it would be a really great way to pose new mythologies or new narratives around Blackness,” he says. The exhibition presented him with an opportunity to investigate racial identity through the lens of mythmaking on a large scale, and “having that dialogue take place in what is a predominantly white space provided a really generative conversation around the work.”

Welch continues to create pieces that he calls new myths—untold stories of the present that may one day inform the future. Much of his recent work doubles down on his dialogue with the past by incorporating marble, “which anchors the practice in an ancient space.” Nonetheless, an optimism for the future shines through the hard stone, showing how people of color “should be and could be depicted in a historical sense.”

ERIC: “C’MERE, SHMUCK, I SEE LAND!”

FIELD STUDY

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO ARTISTS GO OUT IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT POOL?

WE FOLLOW ERIC FISCHL AND JOEL MESLER AS THEY NAVIGATE THE FINE LINE BETWEEN GUEST AND INTERLOPER.

DALENE

JOEL: “I THINK THIS MIGHT NOT BE A POOL!”

JOEL:

“ARE YOU FEELING THE AWE AND WONDER, BESTIE?”

JOEL: “HOW DO THESE WORK? I’M HEARING NOTHING!”

JOEL: “WE’VE BEEN SPOTTED!”

ERIC:

“I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WERE ON OZEMPIC!”

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA

ERIC:

“I THINK SHE’S READING A BOOK”

JOEL: “ARE THOSE YOUR KEYS IN YOUR POCKET?”

JOEL: “IS THAT NOT YOUR PAINTING ON THE WALL, ERIC?”

ERIC:

“I THINK I’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE”

JOEL:

“IF ONLY THERE WAS AN EASIER WAY IN!”

ERIC: “THERE IS, THE GATE IS OPEN! I’M GOING TO STOP DOING THIS WITH YOU… LOSE MY NUMBER.”

NEDA:

“I’M SO GLAD YOU GUYS CAME BY TO SAY HELLO! CLEARLY MY DOOR IS ALWAYS UNLOCKED FOR YOU.”

JOEL: “UH OH!”

NEDA: “JOEL?!”

JOEL: “NEDA?”

NEDA: “ERIC?!”

ERIC: “NEDA?!”

NEDA: “COME AND SIT, LET’S HAVE SOME TEA AND STRAWBERRIES AND LOOK AT MY POOL.”

Artist’s Choice

IN CELEBRATION OF THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM’S 125TH ANNIVERSARY, THE MUSEUM ASKED LEADING CONTEMPORARY EAST END ARTISTS TO CHOOSE WORKS FROM ITS EXPANSIVE COLLECTION TO NOT ONLY SHOWCASE THE REGION’S STORIED PAST BUT ALSO TO REFLECT ITS PRESENT AS A DIVERSE ARTISTIC HUB.

THE PARRISH ART MUSEUM, a keystone of the East End’s art institutions, marks its 125th anniversary this year, and to celebrate it is mounting a sweeping exhibition in three parts, which will run through February 2024. “Artists Choose Parrish” features works drawn from the museum’s collection of 3,600 objects, from the 19th century to today, which have been selected by 41 esteemed contemporary artists with local roots, whose work is shown alongside their selections.

“What is it that has attracted artists here? The light, the nature, the community. I think it’s really important to highlight that,” explains Corinne Erni, deputy director of Curatorial Affairs and senior curator of ArtsReach and Special Projects at the museum.

“Today there remains an incredible multigenerational group of artists living or working in the region,” Erni says. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have that dialogue of living artists and past artists who obviously made the East End their home—or at least their artistic home.’”

Part one of the show, which opened in April and will be on view through the summer, represents the largest portion of the multipart exhibition, with more than 200 works, chosen by 20 artists, spanning the entirety of the museum.

Here, artists Sam Moyer and Nina Yankowitz share their thoughts on the works they selected from the museum’s collection for part one of “Artists Choose Parrish.”

NINA YANKOWITZ

To create a renewed dialogue between the Parrish’s past and future, I wanted to offer different viewing perspectives to experience the art that I chose from the museum’s collection. I made scenario stories for each of the walls and floor to reflect our current unstable world conditions.

The artworks can be experienced in two ways. Viewers can look upward from two adjustable reclining lounges. They can also climb up stairs to a platform to look up, down, and around the gallery to view the walls and a floor story. The floor story comprises two torn rugs addressing walls, and sound notation scores spreading along the floor for using eyes to hear the room’s stories. A cacophony of audio sounds acts like an abstract symphonic backdrop. Some artworks are installed slightly angled, tilted, on the wall, in a visual conversation with the museum’s architecture.

SAM MOYER

Lynda Benglis was one of the first female sculptors I discovered as a teenager. I remember watching a video of her making one of her bow pieces and thinking, “She just does it—she lets the material do what it wants, while knowing what she wants it to do.” When I was in art school, I had two very informative and supportive studio visits with Benglis, after which she hired me to work as her assistant. The first task assigned to me required a drive from New Haven through the North Fork to the Hamptons to maintain one of her sculptures. I had never been to Long Island before, and I was blown away by the beauty of the landscape.

Not long after that drive, I began living part-time with my family on the North Fork, a place that continues to inform my work to this day. Benglis’s work is at the root of two essential components that run throughout my own practice: it introduced me to a landscape that has literally infused my work, and it provided me with a visual guide to cultivating my own collaborative relationship with material.

Sam Moyer with two of her paintings at “Artists Choose Parrish, Part I A.”

Nina Yankowitz with works by Jackie Black, Tara Donovan, and her own Cantilevered Wing Tongue and Ghost Dress

Kill Your Darlings

WHEN ASKED what brings them to the Hamptons, many artists invoke the area’s atmospheric light. Author Susan Scarf Merrell, whose wrote the novels Shirley and A Member of the Family, moved to the Hamptons in 1989, and while she might appreciate the light and the inspiration it gives others, she says she stays for the literary community. As codirector of the Southampton Writers Conference and cofounder and codirector, with Meg Wolitzer, of the BookEnds novel-incubator program, Merrell ensures that the literary legacy of the Hamptons is shared with new generations. “Even as we struggle with development and crowding, influxes of new people, and outfluxes of old,” she says, “what makes the East End special seems to run underneath all the grumbling, like a vein of unprospected gold.” Here, Merrell paints a picture of the East End literary community’s past, present, and future.

Describe the literary community out East. There have been novelists living in the Hamptons since James Fenimore Cooper wrote here in the early 1800s. [James] Salter, [E.L.] Doctorow, Betty Friedan, and Kurt Vonnegut were all here when I arrived. This is a particularly rich moment with such a range of talented people in the area: A.M. Homes, Colson Whitehead, Jay McInerney, Amy Hempel, Zachary Lazar, Amanda Fairbanks, Alafair Burke, Steven Gaines, Robert Caro...

What’s the best spot for reading and writing?

I wrote much of my first book, The Accidental Bond, in the John Steinbeck Writers Room at what is now the Stony Brook Southampton campus and my second, A Member of the Family, on the third floor of the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor. I think my favorite reading spot is Gibson Beach in Sagaponack, but any beach will do! The Southampton Writers Conference returns for its 48th edition in July. The location is one that people don’t usually associate with scholarship: the beach. What is it about the Hamptons that facilitates this?

All of our writers love to spend time both in the water and on the beach. There’s no place more beautiful to sit and think or to hang out with new and old friends. The Hamptons draws so many artists to visit and live—that light the painters love lures artists of all kinds.

What piece of advice have you heard from a great literary mind that has stuck with you over the years?

My favorite piece of advice ever came from the sorely missed Melissa Bank. The simplest, truest directive ever: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” She had me write it down and place it on the cork wall near one of my favorite writing spots in my house. I smile at it every day.

Can you describe the role of community in BookEnds, the year-long novel incubator program that you codirect?

I like to say we become a holding environment for each book, a play on the work of the psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott. There are layers of support: first, the four separate pods of three writers; then the fellowship of all 12 writers; then the mentorship by me, Meg, and our associate director, Jennifer Solheim; and finally the ultimate support, which is the one-on-one mentorship with an established writer that begins halfway through the fellowship year.

PAGE TURNERS

Beyond its illustrious authors and writers in residence of past and present, the Hamptons maintains its literary clout through numerous residencies and fellowships, author circles, and book events. Here are a few to bookmark.

Guild Hall Community Artist-in-Residence First Literature Project, East Hampton

Guild Hall offers two-year residencies to community artists. The current residents, Wunetu Wequai Tarrant and Christian Scheider (2022-24), aim to revive the Shinnecock language and its literature, which was once widespread across Long Island until the last century. Collaborating with Ayím Kutoowonk (She Speaks), a community-based language revitalization group, and a group of four Indigenous women, their work will supplement the First Literature Project, an initiative to preserve the history, culture, and language of Native nations.

The Church, Sag Harbor

Co-founded by artists April Gornik and Eric Fischl, The Church has launched a newly expanded, interdisciplinary pilot residency program and hosts a bevy of book events. Summer programming includes a Moby Dick Marathon and a onewoman show by author Candace Bushnell of Sex and the City fame, as well as talks with its resident writers and poets.

Alison Fairbrother’s The Catch (Random House, June, 2022) is a wonderful, wholly absorbing family drama with a mystery at its beating heart. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.

Sue Mell’s Provenance (Madville Publishing, July, 2022), is a gorgeous, unforgettable novel about learning how to value what is most important in life: those we love. Winner of the Madville Publishing 2021 Blue Moon Novel Award.

Coco Picard’s The Healing Circle (Red Hen Press, August, 2022), is a far-reaching novel about the end of life. Winner of the 2020 Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize.

Daisy Alpert Florin’s My Last Innocent Year (Henry Holt & Co, February, 2023) is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Clinton’s

Lewinsky scandal. My Last Innocent Year is a timely and wise portrait of a young woman learning to trust her voice and move toward independence while recognizing the beauty and grit of where she came from. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Zibby Owens.

Vanessa Cuti’s The Tip Line (Crooked Lane, April, 2023) is an unsettling thriller that asks just how far you should go to find love. “An exceptional debut,” says Publishers Weekly

In Caitlin Mullen’s Please See Us (Gallery, March, 2020) two young women become unlikely friends during one fateful summer in Atlantic City as mysterious disappearances hit dangerously close to home. Winner of the 2021 Edgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author.

 Watermill Center Artists Residency, Water Mill

The Watermill Center, founded by artist and theater director Robert Wilson, this year welcomes more than two dozen new artists and artist groups, actors and performers, and of course authors from around the globe to its illustrious residency program, started in 2006. The 2023 cohort includes writers Carina Kohn and Mónica-Ramón Ríos, among others.

 Almond Artist and Writers, Bridgehampton

Starting each September, Almond Artists and Writers offers monthly gatherings during the off-season with artists and writers, who are asked to create a dining experience at the Bridgehampton restaurant through which to share their work. On deck for the next season is a dinner coordinated by the Peter Matthiessen Center, which will feature readings from the late East End novelist’s works, as well as an evening with Georgette Grier-Key from the Eastville Community Historical Society and textile artist Liz Collins.

Students working on The Southampton Review, the literary journal of the Stony Brook Southampton MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literature.

Almond has been hosting its Artists and Writers series since 2012.

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SAG HARBOR–BASED WRITER SUSAN SCARF MERRELL DISCUSSES THE REGION’S EVOLVING LITERARY COMMUNITY, THE BOOKENDS PROGRAM, AND THE SOUTHAMPTON WRITERS CONFERENCE.

Artist-in-Residence, Sarah Brahim in her studio at The Watermill Center.

Susan Scarf Merrell shares a few award-winning novels developed during the BookEnds fellowship.

QUESTIONNAIRE Neda Young buys with

NedabuysYoungwith her gut and doesn’t take herself too

gut

AFTER 50 YEARS, YOUNG SEES HER COLLECTION AS A REFLECTION OF HER LIFE STORY, EACH WORK A MEMORY OF A TIME AND PLACE. FROM HER SAG HARBOR HOME, SHE RECOUNTS HOW IT ALL BEGAN.

BY TALI JAFFE MINOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY JESSICA DALENE

In your eyes, what makes the Hamptons art scene distinct from others?

I think it’s because there are so many artists here, no? I don’t think it’s about collectors. I really think it’s about artists. They love the Hamptons. I think the light is beautiful here, and somehow, you know, two hours from a major metropolis, you really have nature. You have deer, you have beautiful trees. My property gets ducks and geese and deer and wild turkeys. You really feel a part of nature. But I also think that for artists there is so much space for larger studios, and the art institutions here are also very supportive.

Where does the story of your collection begin?

I studied art history, and I think being European—I’m Croatian—you grow up with art, especially figurative art. In the churches we have the Tintorettos; in the street there are sculptures. It’s just something that’s part of your life. And then when I came to the States, probably 50 years ago, in ’72, I had no money. I was divorced, but I bought a Joan Snyder for $600. So things like that, it started a long time ago for me.

And was that the first piece you purchased?

Maybe not the first. I bought Käthe Kollwitz early on. I went to visit a friend in Boston who had a gallery, and she had these artists, and I said, “Oh, I like this. I’d like to buy them.” And it just became an addiction, in a way. Every time I had any money, I would just buy art. Friends would go buy gorgeous leather pants—but, you know, T.J. Maxx didn’t exist then.

From left: Works by Eric Fischl, Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, and Cecily Brown.

her

and doesn’t take herself too seriously as a collector.

seriously as a collector.

Are those pieces still a part of your collection today?

I still have the Snyder painting. At the time that she painted it, she had just given birth, and I think she left the marriage for a female partner. I was identifying with the work because I had also just gotten divorced. I was a single mother, and I also felt like I was going through this freedom from something. For me that was quite meaningful.

I love that. So is your collection more heavily represented by women artists?

I really think so. I was asked to have some works from my collection be a part of a show—with Beth Rudin DeWoody and Baby Jane [Holzer] and others—at the Southampton Arts Center, and I was just sending them stuff, and I realized that probably more than half of my collection is women artists. But I honestly never realized it until then. So maybe it was subconsciously that you were building the collection.

Usually I just buy from passion and reaction. It’s a gut feeling, always. I never had an advisor or anything. It was usually just for me to connect with a piece of art. I was very lucky with the artists and galleries—we were like family. I was incredibly close with Cindy Sherman, with Metro Pictures, with Gagosian, and women-led galleries—Barbara Gladstone, Marian Goodman. So I really think I was on the inside. I would always be in the back room someplace when something came in. I was lucky, I think.

Well, I’m sure it was more than luck.

Yeah, I always give credit to a higher power. I don’t know. And what about when people come to visit you? Is there a particular work that stirs up the most conversation or that people are drawn to?

People love Eric Fischl’s painting, one of his India paintings, which is major in my home. Everybody reacts strongly to that one. I have so many great works, though. I have very important [Julian] Schnabels—huge works—also Ed Ruscha, David Salle, Alex Katz. And how about some more of the women artists you’ve collected over the years?

Oh, yes, off the top of my head: Agnes Martin, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Kara Walker, Elizabeth Peyton, Ghada Amer, Tracey Emin, Shirin Neshat, Cecily Brown, Nan Goldin…

How do you discover new artists?

I really don’t discover artists. The galleries discover artists. I think that’s their job. And if they show it to me, I will choose. I have access to a lot of galleries, so I get stuff all the time, and then I look at it. I’m very curious, so I do have younger artists in the collection, too. That’s a very important part of life, to be curious. Yeah, for me it’s very important. Each artist is like a part of my life. It’s like my biography. Every artwork was acquired within a situation, at a moment in my life. Honestly, my art is like my life story. Now when I look at a different work, it brings back that time in my life. I have a picture in my head of me, the artist, the conversation. It becomes sentimental.

That’s very powerful.

But that’s how it feels for me. I had access because of my relationships with a lot of artists. I don’t even think I had money sometimes, but I just managed. And how about the moments when the work got away? There are many pieces that got away. A Louise Bourgeois Spider I bought a smaller one. I have a few wonderful pieces of Louise Bourgeois’s, but that one I just couldn’t afford. There are a few pieces that today I go like, “Wow.” But I think I did well, so I have no regrets.

What’s your art-fair approach? Do you still enjoy them?

I think the fairs are okay. I usually go because I see all my friends from all over the world. So for me, art fairs are about socializing more than buying art. All the art is sent to you before the fair anyway. So truly, for me it’s socializing. That’s a refreshing answer. And what would you tell young collectors getting their start?

Buy with your heart. First you have a feeling, and all three things, you know, the feeling, the eyes, the mind. You have to have some knowledge, but it always comes from the stomach and the heart for me.

It’s where all the truths are, right? In the gut. Yes, exactly.

Do you think of yourself as a collector?

My friends are artists, and they say, “I don’t think of you as a collector.” And I really don’t either. I don’t take myself too seriously. I do what I like. I’m honest and direct. You have to be true to yourself and just do the right thing in life.

Behind Neda Young hangs Sister to a Solstice by Lynette YiadomBoakye.

Women’s Work

LISA PERRY IS WORKING HARDER THAN EVER, AND COULDN’T BE HAPPIER ABOUT IT. HER LATEST ENDEAVOR—THE EAST HAMPTON ART SPACE ONNA HOUSE—IS A PERSONAL EXPRESSION OF HER COLLECTION AND A PLATFORM TO CELEBRATE WOMEN ARTISTS AND DESIGNERS.

BY DEVORAH LAUTER PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID BENTHAL

FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, the iconic fashion designer Lisa Perry has been amassing important 1960s Pop and Minimalist art with her husband, Richard. But she recently embarked on a new kind of collecting endeavor— one she is building on her own, housed in a historic Hamptons gem she’s dubbed Onna House and dedicated to supporting and collaborating with women artists and designers.

“This has opened up an entire new chapter in my life,” Perry says about the initiative from her home in New York City. “This is me, starting from scratch.”

Onna, which means “woman” in Japanese, is a nod to the modernist, Japanese aesthetic of the house, which was designed by Paul Lester Wiener in

the early 1960s for the famed collectors Robert and Ethel Scull. In search of a “creative outlet” during the pandemic, Perry purchased the residence, which was at the time threatened by demolition. Now, much like when the Sculls entertained there, the place once again brims with art and design. Last year Perry opened Onna House to the public for the first time, motivated by “a great need to spotlight underrecognized women artists.”

Visitors can expect an array of juxtaposed creative genres; a majority of the pieces are made from materials associated with long-undervalued crafts and traditional women’s work like ceramics and textiles. (Textiles are a soft spot for the designer, whose family

was in the fabric business.) Among its many functions, Onna House connects collectors to artists and it “shows how you can live alongside art in a home,” Perry explains.

This summer season kicked off with “Pearls, Pills, and Protests,” featuring works by the artists Jerelyn Hanrahan, Kelly Tapìa-Chuning, Lulu Varona, and Michele Pred. The exhibition, which presents an uplifting rebuke to current restrictions on abortion rights, includes outsize string-of-pearl sculptures by Hanrahan, a colorful retro quilt that Pred patterned with packets of birth-control pills, and wool boards needle-felted with phrases like “you’ll never get a man if you can’t cook.” A group ceramics show will follow in July.

“I have always been a champion of women’s rights,” Perry says, noting that she won’t consider showing anything but the work of women. “I will not deviate,” she continues, emphatically. “People say, ‘This man is so great!’ Nope. Don’t even want to look. If people see that you can be singularly and extremely focused on helping women artists, then maybe more will do it.”

“THIS HAS OPENED UP AN ENTIRE NEW CHAPTER IN MY LIFE. THIS IS ME, STARTING FROM SCRATCH.”

Lisa Perry with Jerelyn Hanrahan’s Graduated Pearls (2023).

East of Eden

SAG HARBOR PARTNERSHIP HAS ENSURED THAT JOHN STEINBECK ’S INDELIBLE FOOTPRINT

was “just John” in the town, according to Nada Barry, 92, wife of the inn’s former owner Robert Barry. “In the 1960s, most of Sag Harbor had not ever heard of John Steinbeck or read any of his books,” she says.

FEW LOCAL FIGURES are as well celebrated in Sag Harbor as John Steinbeck, and the author’s legacy continues with a writers residency, newly launched by the Steinbeck House. The program, in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin’s Michener Center for Writers, will award residencies to wordsmiths at various stages in their careers, from students to internationally renowned authors.

Steinbeck lived in Sag Harbor with his wife Elaine from 1955 through the mid-’60s, during which time he proved to be a community fixture and organizer. In

1962 he started the town’s Whalers Festival (later renamed HarborFest), and as a tribute to Steinbeck’s community involvement, a core component of each residency will be a communityoutreach project, which participants design themselves.

Steinbeck, who died in 1968, authored dozens of books, among them the classics The Grapes of Wrath and The Winter of our Discontent. He was a fixture at Sag Harbor’s local watering holes, including Baron’s Cove, which celebrates its 65th anniversary this season. Despite his success, Steinbeck

Steinbeck would “only agree to be honorary chairman of the Whalers Festival if people in the village misdirected anyone asking how to get to his house,” Barry says. Yet now, she adds, “nothing would have made him happier than having his place turned into a writers retreat.”

Cape Resorts, the current owner of Baron’s Cove, is celebrating the inn’s anniversary by supporting Sag Harbor Partnership, which recently dedicated the John Steinbeck Waterfront Park and purchased the Steinbecks’ former home when it was put on the market in 2021. The house will be open to the public over Labor Day and Columbus Day weekends; transportation to and from the house, via Hamptons Hopper, will depart from Baron’s Cove several times a day and is underwritten by Cape Resorts.

John Steinbeck sits on the dock with his son in a boat in the background. Photo by Elaine Steinbeck, May 1, 1966.

ON THE EAST END WILL BE CARRIED ON FOR GENERATIONS TO COME, WITH PLANS FOR A NEW RESIDENCY PROGRAM AT THE WRITER’S FORMER OCEANSIDE HOME.

BY MARGARET CARRIGAN