The Parrish has a permanent collection of more than 3,600 works from both little-known and venerable local artists, like Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, the de Koonings, Ross Bleckner, and many more. It’s these legends that contemporary artists often measure themselves against, and want their work to be seen alongside. Artist Enoc Perez, standing near the entrance to the dinner banquet with his family, explains that he bought a house in the Hamptons during the financial crisis in the late 2000s —“back when it was possible to buy a house here,” he says. Perez also has a new art studio in the Hamptons. “I took the dog to the veterinarian, and I was looking at the space near him, and thought, This is really cool. I asked, who do I call to rent here? And he said he was the landlord…. I have three floors, like a birdhouse.” Perez has enjoyed the Parrish for years, but now finds himself here often. “Since Mónica took over, even more artists want to show here,” he says. “The museum is vibrant…It’s in a renaissance.”
Nearby, the irrepressible older artist Nina Yankowitz, who completed a retrospective of her six-decade-long career at the Parrish earlier this year, was talking to Joan Semmel, 93, in a dress adorned with stars. Both have had homes in the Hamptons for decades, and Semmel will have her first major show on the East End at the Parrish in 2027. Amy Oppenheim also talked about the enjoyable process of working with the museum on a show by her husband, Dennis Oppenheim, the conceptual and land artist who passed away in 2011. And Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, who showed a wealth of farm tools and kitchenware he spray-painted gold at the Parrish a few years ago, was chatting at a tall table about his experience making art at his home and studio on the North Fork, in Mattituck. “It’s just quiet,” he said. “Over there, there are only artists.”
It’s true that the South Fork is increasingly inhospitable to those without enormous fortunes, but on Saturday, Capital One acted as a presenting sponsor, and collectors and patrons of the museum raised more than $1.7 million for programs that truly serve the whole Hamptons community, including funds for programming for individuals with a range of disabilities. The museum operates all year, and sometimes that means tumbleweeds could fly through the galleries, but on other chilly days, as when I visited in the spring, it’s bustling. On that day, locals were gathered near a large Tschabalala Self painting, Adam and Eve, created for a museum in Australia and on view for the first time in the US as part of the Fresh Paint exhibition series from the Parrish and the FLAG Art Foundation. FLAG is deepening its partnership with the museum as well, committing to multiple shows each year until 2030, and was presenting a show comprising roughly 20 Ellsworth Kelly works created between the 1940s and 2010s. Strikingly, these great works coexisted in the museum with an enormous exhibition of art from schoolchildren on the East End, a tradition at the museum for more than 70 years, with contributors from Flanders and East Hampton.
