Guild Hall proudly announces two new exhibitions. The Artist Members Exhibition began in 1938, and Guild Hall continues this long-standing democratic tradition by hosting the 86th iteration of the oldest non-juried museum exhibition on Long Island. This lively presentation features more than three hundred works and showcases a variety of mediums. As in the traditional salon exhibition, works by established artists are shown alongside those of emerging talents and first-time exhibitors, offering a sampling of artistic practices within our community. This initiative provides an opportunity for audiences to support and celebrate the artists who live and work in our immediate region and for artists to sell their works. In turn, artists show their commitment to and support of Guild Hall. Early participants included James Brooks, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Alfonso Ossorio, Charlotte Park, Jackson Pollock, and many more. Support local artists and Guild Hall by shopping the show at Guild Hall.
“This exhibition is always a highlight for us, celebrating the remarkable diversity and talent of artists in our region. Part of its enduring tradition is seeing who participates each year—from past Top Honors winners who return in support of the exhibition to new voices and unexpected surprises. It is this mix of tradition and discovery that makes each iteration so special.” Stated Melanie Crader, Guild Hall, Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts.
Guild Hall invites nationally and internationally recognized art professionals to select the Top Honors Award and Honorable Mentions, with Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, making this year’s selections. The 2026 Top Honors Award recipient is Susan Magnus for her 2024 Archival pigment print titled Latent. Guerrero also chose five honorable mentions: Christie Jones, Drew Shiflett, Iris Weinstein, Jennifer Cross, and Linda Sirow.
“It’s an honor to have been selected as the juror for the 86th Artist Members Exhibition at Guild Hall. For this year’s top honor, I chose Susan Magnus’s photograph Latent for its hauntingly bizarre magnetism. Drawn to the blurry outline of a figure behind tall grass, the image never quite resolves itself in the mind. It is precisely this sense of unease, this quality of elusiveness and ungraspability, that stood out to me and will remain with me as a memory of jurying this stately exhibition.” Stated Guerrero.
Michael A. Butler received the Top Honors Award at the Guild Hall 85th Artist Members Exhibition in 2024, selected by Storm Ascher, independent curator, writer, and founder of Superposition Gallery and the Hamptons Black Arts Council. A self-taught artist with a strong interest in art and history, Butler has exhibited widely over the past three decades. His small-scale narrative paintings draw on mythology, religion, dreams, and storytelling to illuminate overlooked histories, particularly those of enslaved and Indigenous communities on the East End. Rooted in the belief that the past remains a living aspect of the present, Butler’s work gives visual form to lives and events often left undocumented. Descended from a Sag Harbor family whose presence in the area dates to the 1920s, Butler has made the village his full-time home since 1988.
The artist, who works primarily in acrylic on canvas, describes his practice as narrative or “intuitive” painting. Maintaining a sense of wonder, he constructs imagined realities that incorporate elements of historical fact and creative vision—echoing a poetic, dreamlike spirit while asserting a distinctly contemporary voice. Butler envisions collective memory as an active, evolving narrative, transforming fragments of history into visual allegories that connect personal lineage with broader cultural identity. Michael A. Butler: Somewhere in Time is on view in the Marks Family Gallery North–Tito Spiga Exhibition Space.
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Galleries are open Thursday to Sunday, 12-5 PM. Museum admission is free.
This exhibition is organized by Melanie Crader, Museum Director and Curator of Visual Arts, with support from Brianna Hernández, Museum Registrar, and Claire Hunter, Museum Coordinator and Curatorial Associate.
The Artist Members Exhibition is supported, in part, by the Giuppy Nantista Fund and the Helen Hoie Fund.
Visual Arts programs are supported by Principal Sponsors Lucio and Joan Noto, with additional support provided by The Giuppy Nantista Fund, The Hoie Fund, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, The Michael Lynne Museum Endowment, and Vital Projects Fund.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Museum: Danielle Mandelbaum Anderman, Shari and Jeff Aronson, The Artist Profile Archive, William L. Bernhard, Elizabeth Gordon and Woody Heller, The Hayden Family Foundation, Robert Longo and Sophie Chahinian, Elin and Michael Nierenberg, Onna House, Lori and John Reinsberg, Jeff and Audrey Spiegel, Hillary and Jeff Suchman, Jane Wesman and Don Savelson, and Yurman Family Foundation.
Pictured: 86th Artist Members Exhibition Opening Reception. By Jess Dalene
