NY Beasts on the Beach * Hamptons 2005


Essay by Julia Szabo \| Back to Summer Show 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30 - August 31, 2005
Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6th, 7.30-9.30pm
Preview Cocktail Party: 4.30-7pm to benefit The Humane Society of NY

SHEILA ISHAM • HUNT SLONEM • BETTINA WERNER • DIRK WESTPHAL

Adding an important new chapter to the long and illustrious history of animals in art, The Salt Queen Foundation announces its Summer Exhibition: "New York Beasts on the Beach."

A multimedia celebration of animals inhabiting earth, sea, and air, it promises to be a highlight of the 2005 Hamptons cultural calendar. The restored Water Mill potato barn that Bettina Werner has converted into an airy, skylit exhibition space will be alive with a bestiary of creatures both domestic and exotic: dogs, birds, fish, even polar bears!

The exhibition features paintings by Werner herself, plus works by three other artists she has invited to participate: painters Sheila Isham and Hunt Slonem, and photographer Dirk Westphal.
What these very different artists have in common is a shared fascination - if not obsession - with the natural world, investigating animals of various species and creating a unique artistic signature by incorporating images of these magnificent creatures in their work.

Werner speaks for all four artists when she says, "Animals have become our muse, our inspiration."
For Werner, the beast-muse is her beloved Dalmatian, Tibino, whose spots appear in his mistress's splendid abstract portraits... for Slonem, the creature of choice is the bird, as parrots of all sizes and shapes – also his housepets - populate his canvases... for Westphal, the animal muse is groups of brightly-colored fish, "piscoli fabulosi" captured by the photographer as they appear to swim in white space... and for Isham, her global travels have inspired her to depict large, wild beasts that cannot, and should not, be kept as pets (the polar bear, for example); her paintings enable the viewer to commune with nature in its more extreme forms.

Unifying their very different artistic styles is the featured artists' choice of palette: black, white and blue. "All life can be reduced to black and white," Werner explains. "The blue of the ocean has a very clarifying effect. All is black and white by the ocean!" During midsummer in the Hamptons, no palette could be more appropriate for contemplation.

And on August 6, visitors will delight to the cutting-edge sound of English music by David Ryder as a DV/DJ Celeste Hastings from the underground world of Manhattan will manipulate and re-digitilized the music/sound with a live vocal by Pamela Hebert, former student of Maria Callas, in a concert of animal-inspired work by Charles Matz (the world premiere of his homage to Charlemagne, "Jux mit Fuchs/Renard the Fox"). The vixen mask created by the Sartori family for this special occasion will be worn by Pamela Hebert. (The Sartori family of Italy has created masks in the past for Brecht, Barrault, Lecocque, Strehler and the winner of the Nobel Price for Literature Dario Fo). It will a multi-lingual concert-performance.

Also on August 6, from 4:30 - 7 pm, there will be a preview cocktail party featuring adoptable shelter animals from The Humane Society of New York http://www.humanesocietyny.org/events/hamptons-aug05.shtml
Taste the refreshing new cocktail, "Beast on the Beach," and leave with a treat-filled goodie bag!
Tickets to the preview are $25, with all proceeds donated to the Humane Society.

"New York Beasts on the Beach" is accompanied by an online gallery with a profile of each artist at http://bettina-werner.com/sqf/hamptons2005/ and introduced with an essay by Julia Szabo, a journalist and author of the book "Animal House Style: Designing a Home to Share with Your Pets" (Bulfinch Press), whose writings on art have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Newsday, New York Magazine, Interview, and Elle Decor.

The Salt Queen Foundation is the first non-profit educational institution created by a young living artist, for the purpose of exhibiting and promoting the work of contemporary artists who are committed to working with unusual materials in distinctive and individual ways.

Since 1904 the Humane Society of New York has been a presence in New York City, reaching out to animals in need when illness, injury or homelessness strikes. Today its hospital and its Vladimir Horowitz & Wanda Toscanini Horowitz Adoption Center help 30,000 dogs and cats annually. The cost of caring is high and for the Society help is made possible through the charitable gifts of people who value and choose to support its mission.

Further information call 212-759-6561 e-mail: newyorkbeastsonthebeach@bettina-werner.com