Although its disruption was a mere distraction compared to the life-and-death effects of COVID-19 around the world, New York’s art scene remained invisible for months during the severe pandemic shutdown of 2020 and 2021. However, the warm weather months have thrown the industry a lifeline. As soon as the spring and summer temperatures of 2020 arrive, galleries begin their journey to the Hamptons. Beach clubs and yacht slips soon replaced the white walls and followed the light as outdoor exhibitions and the occasional auction breathed fresh air into the ailing art world of the five cities.
Dobrosława Nowak, founder and CEO of The Italian Art Guide, tells the Observer that New York galleries are not the only ones fleeing the city to Long Island in 2020. “Some wealthy collectors moved to the Hamptons temporarily. When collectors moved, galleries, auction houses and dealers followed by opening pop-ups, the luxury area of the Hamptons in the last five years. It’s a leading art market.”
Nwak cited a prominent example of the dynamic Pace Gallery opening a 1,700-square-foot temporary exhibition space in East Hampton Village. Although Pace representatives did not respond to questions, Jess Frost, executive director of The Arts Center at Duck Creek, explains that Pace transformed the Vered Gallery space (founded in 1977) into a specially designed white-cube that served two seasons of COVID: New York City.”
And the Hamptons effort was successful enough for the gallery to maintain a presence out east. “I think a lot [Hamptons] people who weren’t very familiar with the art scene of the time had a developed vision that summer,” adds Frost. “It’s really easy to get myopic when you live here full time.”
Frost and Nowak agree that the Hamptons were an art destination in their own right before the outbreak of COVID in Manhattan, but they agree that the pandemic created an irreversible change. “Before 2020, the Hamptons already had a rich artistic history, with institutions like the Parrish Art Museum and a long tradition of artists living and working in the East End,” Nowak said. “However, the commercial gallery scene remained relatively modest. The epidemic elevated the Hamptons from a seasonal cultural center to an important place in the international art market.”
Frost celebrates the spotlight that COVID has opened up on Long Island as the region took advantage of an unexpected opportunity: “Covid helped people realize that the Hamptons already had serious health care programs. Places like Halsey McKay and the Drawing Room weren’t just responding to the market. They had been building meaningful shows for years.”
Jamie Marks, senior vice president at Property Hospitality and a spokesperson for the Montauk Yacht Club, points to that hotel as an example of an emerging art scene growing outside of the Hamptons’ post-COVID identity. This summer, it expanded beyond hospitality into a cultural space through a new partnership with the artist-run Platform. The site’s most recent exhibit featured new works by Brooklyn-based artist Joe Henry Baker.
Marks believes that the demand for art outside the city has never gone anywhere, but what replaced that first wave of COVID-driven permanent and satellite exhibitions is now very interesting. “The energy from the east has shifted to a dynamic model with rotating exhibitions, artist collaborations and cultural programs that respond to the season and the community,” she said. “That’s the most exciting change… we’re not creating static experiences. We’re creating ecosystems that respond to the cultural moment, whether we’re at Art Basel Miami, Frieze LA or Montauk with Platform and Joe Henry Baker.”
Giving an artist’s perspective, Chiara Rossetti—founder of Rossetti Art—emphasizes that COVID has proven that a real market can exist outside of the traditional Gallery District model: “That’s exactly the kind of thing that has helped independent, direct artists and collectors like me. Some of this energy in the Hamptons has been cool since 2021, but left behind the Chelsea art / city. call for private studio tours; and artists building their own relationships with collectors instead of moving everything through a gallery that’s part of the story that went beyond the gangs themselves.
Rossetti sees the Hamptons seasonal schedule still today treating the region as a second most important market that deserves a consistent schedule and ongoing relationships, rather than an overflowing seasonal space for anything Chelsea’s location has no match for.
Although the trend of downtown galleries and art galleries facing east in the warmer months naturally declines once the pandemic subsides, Nowak insists there is still enough demand from Hamptons collectors to fund satellite spaces. As a result, while the Hamptons is no longer the emergency that COVID-19 created, it remains an important artistic destination that was forever shaped by the struggles of the past five years.
More importantly, Nowak says, the idea of setting up galleries took hold and is now a strategy available to retailers chasing business. “After the pandemic, exhibitions around the world are more willing to meet collectors wherever they are.”
More from the Hamptons
