The Artist Members Exhibition returns for its 84th installment at Guild Hall in East Hampton, also featuring a solo exhibit by 2019 Top Honors award-winner Mary Boochever with the show “Chart of the Inner Warp.”
The Artist Members Exhibition began in 1938, and Guild Hall continues this long-standing tradition as the oldest non-juried museum exhibition on Long Island. The presentation features over 300 works and showcases a variety of media. Early participants included James Brooks, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Alfonso Ossorio, Charlotte Park, and Jackson Pollock.
This initiative allows audiences to support and celebrate artists who live and work on the East End and enables artists to sell their works.
The Top Honors Award receives a future solo exhibition at Guild Hall. Virginia Lebermann, Ballroom Marfa co-founder and board president, and East End resident will serve as this year’s juror. Boochever was awarded the Top Honor prize by juror Jocelyn Miller, curator and cultural producer. Deeply rooted in research and investigations of color systems, Boochever creates visual experiences for the viewer through her paintings, sculptures, and installations.
Both exhibitions open on Saturday, October 28, with a members-only reception from 4 to 6 PM. The shows will be open to the public from Sunday, October 29, through January 8.
We spoke to Boochever to learn more about her show and process.
Tell us about your background as an artist.
I studied art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste – or the Academy of Fine Arts – in Munich, Germany. In 1979, I moved to New York City, where I maintained an art studio and exhibited my work. In 1982, I exhibited my work in a Special Projects installation at P.S.1, now MoMA, in Queens. My work has been included in many one-person and group shows, nationally and internationally.
Can you talk a little about your artistic process?
The themes in my work come from my interest in ideas about color, as an exploration of these ideas.
What is your connection with the East End and how does the region inspire your work?
As a full-time resident in the East End since 1993, I am grateful to have the peace and quiet to develop my work and to be in nature.
You received top honors at the 2019 Artist Members Exhibition at Guild Hall. Can you tell us about this experience?
I decided to show a piece in the 2019 Artist Members Exhibition from a recently started series about the wells and springs of the ancient world, so I was surprised and happy to see that it resonated with someone who sees a lot of different types of artwork.
“Chart of the Inner Warp” will open alongside the 84th annual Artist Members Exhibition. What can visitors expect from the exhibit? What do you hope they’ll take away from it?
”Chart of the Inner Warp” is a reverent/irreverent look at some of the unknowable aspects of reality. There is a way of looking that engages the whole body. I hope that a visitor might feel vitalized by this way of seeing.
