East End Arts Presents
Endless Summer: An Uplifting Art Exhibition
Artists Susan Cushing and Franklin Hill Perrell showcase paintings that evoke
the joys of the East End’s most precious season across two galleries in Riverhead’s Arts District.
—————
September 9 – October 15, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 9th from 4-7 p.m.
——————————————
East End Arts & Humanities Council, Inc. (EEA) presents Endless Summer: An Uplifting Art Exhibition from September 9 through October 15, 2023 in two gallery locations (EEA Main Gallery & 11 West Gallery) in the Arts District, Riverhead. The show features paintings by Quogue artist Susan Cushing and Southold artist Franklin Hill Perrell. The Opening Reception is Saturday, September 9, beginning at 4:00 p.m., where visitors can celebrate the exhibition and meet the artists.
Endless Summer is an art exhibition with the distinctive agenda to uplift the spirits of gallery visitors in the way the most precious season on the East End does for its visitors. Susan Cushing and Franklin Hill Perrell share a passion for the positive which is undeviating and inspiring. The vehicle through which they convey these attitudes through art is simple and powerful: pure strong color.
It’s a commonplace idea that color indicates mood, and we all have our favorite colors and ways in which color makes us feel, from calm and tranquil to introspective and metaphysical. For Cushing and Perrell, respectively, the innumerable and infinite combinations of pure color provide the means to project an infinitely nuanced palette of emotion. Like nothing else, color is an energizer that can change attitudes and outlook.
The exhibition shows how Cushing and Perrell have differences of subject and handling, and how despite these variations, they share the view that art can be a vehicle for bettering the world. The artists weigh in on the bright side of all they see.
———————————–
“We want to demonstrate the ability to choose your focus by using the old fashioned concept: emphasize the beautiful and the good,” says Perrell. “The world may be stormy elsewhere, but not in our happy paintings where cloudless skies and sunny days are constant,” adds Cushing.
——————–
Gallery visitors can take a break from the ordinary and step into their painted paradise.
Endless Summer: An Uplifting Art Exhibition is open for viewing on Saturday, September 9th at 12:00 p.m., with its Opening Reception, where visitors can meet the artists and enjoy festive refreshments, taking place from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in both galleries. Visitors are invited to join the fun at the Opening Reception by wearing their brightest, happiest attire.
Endless Summer also hosts several happenings throughout its run, including a gallery concert collaboration with Rites of Spring Music Festival on September 14th, an Artist Salon, a Be in a Painting outdoor event where guests can become subjects of a future painting, and more. Information on events will be regularly updated on the Endless Summer webpage.
The exhibition presents at two EEA galleries, a five minute walk apart, in the Arts District of downtown Riverhead from September 9 – October 15, 2023. The EEA Main Gallery is located at 133 E. Main St., Riverhead. The 11 West Gallery is located at 11 W. Main St., Peconic Crossing, Riverhead. Gallery hours are 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. on Thursdays, 2 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Fridays, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Sundays. The galleries are free and open to the public. Private tours can be arranged by emailing gallery@eastendarts.org.
———————————-
Susan Cushing
Artist Susan Cushing divides her time between New York, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach. In her uniquely distinct stand-alone style, apt to her subject, she portrays the fashionable denizens of these realms in their natural surroundings of elegant houses, swimming pools, manicured gardens, and festive cocktail parties. Cushing’s painted approach combines the faux-naif attitude of a latter- day Grandma Moses, the silhouette-like flatness of Alex Katz, and a flawless sense of the bright crisp colors of a tropical drink, to portray scenes with a glamorous staging that’s right out the photos of Slim Aarons. Her keen observation, covering a comprehensive range of attitudes, bespeaks the humanistic scope of a contemporary Balzac. Cushing has shown work at the Nassau County Museum of Art, Quogue Library, Studio 13 in CT, Art Students League in NY, Claridge House Gallery in NY, Anne Madonia Antiques & 4 North Gallery in Southampton, Foster Gallery in Palm Beach.
———————————-
Franklin Hill Perrell
Best know for his time as Chief Curator at the Nassau County Museum of Art, where he made his mark organizing museum exhibitions for the likes of Geoffrey Holder, Iris Apfel, Hunt Slonem, and with such themes as Surrealism, Op and Pop, and Photorealism, Franklin Hill Perrell actually started his career as an exhibiting artist. The legendary dealer Ivan Karp discovered Perrell’s pop-spirit in 1974, arranging his first New York show at Tribeca’s Walker Street Gallery in ‘75. Subsequent venues in Soho, Madison Avenue, and 57th Street followed. As he shifted focus to his curatorial career in 1989, Perrell took a hiatus from actively exhibiting his own work, until resuming with Tria Gallery in Chelsea in the 2010’s. Now living in Southold on the North Fork, Perrell’s paintings have been featured regionally, beginning with the inaugural East End Arts DETOUR summer exhibition and the ongoing series of thematic exhibitions at the Glen Hansen studio. His passion to share his knowledge and love of art led him to educational ventures, including the soon to launch Artful Vanguard. Perrell never ceased painting throughout the intervening time, and this present joint exhibition with Susan Cushing is the first opportunity to see the overall scope of his work.
———————————-
East End Arts
East End Arts & Humanities Council is a 501[c][3] nonprofit organization located in Riverhead. Since its inception in 1972, East End Arts has become a year-round hub for art and music enrichment and showcase for artists who live, work, and visit the area with its school, gallery, and community development with its Art & Music School, galleries, and events. The East End Arts Art Gallery’s exhibitions act as the catalyst for art collectors and enthusiasts to visit the growing Arts District of Riverhead to view relevant programs from established and emerging artists alike. East End Arts Art Gallery is located at 133 E. Main St., Riverhead, NY 11901 with a sister gallery 11 West Gallery located at 11 W. Main St., Peconic Crossing, Riverhead, NY 11901. Exhibitions have included works from artists such as Adam Straus, Glen Hansen, Anne Sherwood Pundyk, Tom Sachs, Ernie Pannicioli, Rainer Gross, Meghan Broody, Ellen Wiener, Dan Welden, Mike MacLaughlin, Alex Ferrone, and Louise Crandell. All proceeds support East End Arts’ scholarships and programming.
For more information, email gallery@eastendarts.org, call 631.727.0900, or visit eastendarts.org.
———————-
=======================================================
AAQ / Resource: space(s) Landscape Architecture
________________________________________________________