The Old Sculpin Gallery is currently welcoming five new artists into the fold with a show featuring the work of Allen Whiting, Lynn Hoeft, Arthur O’Callaghan, Lisa Brown, and Jeremy Brenner. The Edgartown art gallery, located across from the Chappy ferry launch, exhibits work by past and present members of the half-century-old Martha’s Vineyard Art Association (MVAA) exclusively. The five new members were juried last year, but, due to COVID restrictions, the gallery was unable to host an exhibit for the new members in 2020. “It’s a really strong, well-rounded show,” says gallery manager Colleen Scott. “We’re so happy to finally have a chance to introduce our newest members to the public.”
While they may be new to Old Sculpin, many of the artists whose work is included in the current show are well-known to Islanders. Celebrated Vineyard artist Allen Whiting, who celebrated his West Tisbury gallery’s 50th year last summer (although no actual celebration was possible) was invited to join the MVAA by artist member Lowly Finnerty. In his classic, laid-back style, Whiting recalls saying, “Why not?” and joined the ranks of an organization whose past members have included artists whose work now hangs in the Metropolitan Museum, MOMA, and elsewhere. The Old Sculpin has dedicated one wall of its main gallery to Whiting’s work, including two large and five smaller Vineyard landscapes. Whiting’s Davis House Gallery will be open this summer on Sundays from 1 to 6 pm, and by appointment.
Lisa Brown has been photographing on the Vineyard since moving to the Island in 1986. She has shown her work on-Island at the Granary Gallery, the Field Gallery, and the M.V. Artisans Festival. She is currently one of the members of the artists’ cooperative Night Heron Gallery in Vineyard Haven. Included in the Old Sculpin show are a number of Brown’s photos featuring barns, brick walls, and a tree-flanked canal, leading seemingly endlessly to a pinpoint on the horizon. All display Brown’s talent for capturing light, color, texture, shape, and design in a very artistic manner.
One room of the gallery is devoted to the work of Lynn Hoeft, and another features oil paintings by Arthur O’Callaghan. Hoeft creates wonderful, design-oriented watercolor images in which she arranges elements from nature — feathers, bird’s eggs, beach finds — into fun, colorful patterned paintings. Her watercolor “Heath Hen Chronicles,” honoring the now extinct bird that was once found in abundance on the Vineyard, is a multicolored fantasy array of flowers, grasses, feathers, insects, and more, inhabiting rectangles within rectangles.
Irish-born O’Callaghan, who works in realism, has provided a number of striking Vineyard landscapes.
Photographer Jeremy Brenner has contributed a series of black-and-white photos of classic small airplanes, taken at the Katama airfield. The images pay homage to a bygone era when design was valued almost as much as functionality.
Although the current show will only hang through Friday, June 25, work by all of the new artists, as well as the other members, will be on display at the gallery all summer. Next up, the Old Sculpin will host an exhibit of paintings from its permanent collection, including work by renowned artists Vaclav Vytlacil, Fred Messersmith. and MVAA founder Ruth Appledorn Mead. On Sunday, June 27, from 5 to 7 pm, Edgartown poet laureate emeritus Steve Ewing will read selections from his book “Waterfront Poems, Vineyard Season.” The book is illustrated with a number of images from Old Sculpin’s collection, some of which will be included in the exhibit.
“Artist exhibit: Jeremy Brenner, Allen Whiting, Arthur O’Callaghan, Lynn Hoeft, and Lisa Brown” will hang through Friday, June 25. An exhibit of work from the MVAA’s permanent collection will be on display from June 26 to July 2. The opening for the show on Sunday, June 27, from 5 to 7 pm, will include a reading by poet Steve Ewing. Old Sculpin Gallery, 58 Dock St., Edgartown; 508-627-4881; oldsculpingallery.org.