Heckscher spotlights local artists in Long Island Biennial

How many artists does it take to fill a museum?

For this year's Long Island Biennial, there are 57 — from more than 200 who applied — filling the entire Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington through Jan. 22 with 95 paintings, sculptures, fiber works, prints, assemblages and photographs made by Nassau and Suffolk county artists since 2020. Together, they create a portrait of a large, vibrant, and diverse community, and also of the thoughts, emotions, visions and experiences of the last two turbulent and, for many, trying years.

It’s the seventh iteration of the exhibition which has grown steadily in both scope and sophistication. This year's guest jurors were artist Gabriela Gonzalez Dellosso; curator and art advisor Heather Carter; and Susan Van Scoy, associate professor of art history at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue. The featured artists cover the gamut from professional to self-taught, students and professors, young and old, and span the Island from Lynbrook to East Hampton. What ties them and the exhibition together is authenticity, expressivity and communication.

A NEW DIRECTION

This biennial is the first under the museum's new executive director and CEO, Heather Arnet, who came on board in June after spending more than 20 years in the nonprofit sector and the arts, including stints at the Brooklyn Museum and as the CEO of the Women and Girls Foundation.

"Most of my focus has been engaging audiences in conversations about what's important to them and what's important to the community, connecting people to one another and to art," Arnet said. "The Heckscher was already a place that was amplifying diverse voices and including works by artists of all kinds. I certainly look to continue that."

This year's artists are the most varied group yet, in terms of methods, materials, age, ethnicity, education, and location. But what unites them outweighs what separates them.

"We think we're so uniquely unique, and yet all of us are these organisms trying to do our best while we're here," said Guatemalan-born Bellport artist and Stony Brook University art professor Lorena Salcedo-Watson. "Sometimes it's a bumpy ride," she added, hoping that viewers might find "a moment of sensation that feels familiar or reassuring or just beautiful in my work."

Her pastel, watercolor, and charcoal "New Day," was inspired by the Nina Simone song that became her anthem during the pandemic. The drawing, filled with soft blue colors of air and water, depicts bone-like biomorphic shapes, expressing her love for natural life. Beyond that, it's a self-portrait of sorts, with a long braid, just like her own, running through the composition.

Also referencing natural forms abstractly are John Cino's carved wooden sculpture "Writhe," which features undulating curves that recall torsos, kelp or curling leaves, and "Just Breathe" by Eileen Palmer, which captures a sense of hope and relief, but also fragility. Look for portraits that range from traditional and impressionistic, to heroic and totemic, like Leeanna Chipana's "American Woman," which pays homage to her Quechuan heritage. Some works create a portrait of an entire society, like Cheryl McBride's digital print "School Suspension Rates K-12," or capture states of mind like Edgar Moza's "Of Colors and Aches (Triptych1)."

"The landscape paintings are stunning," said Arnet, adding, "Gina Mars' clay work is just exquisite. There's mixed-media work, photography that involves pigment, collage, and the large felt sculptures of Sheila Fox bring tremendous delight to our audiences." Fox's "Running Quadraflex" is solid and formidable, yet soft and pliable, with appendages going every which way, like a frisky felt octopus.

COMMUNICATING THROUGH ART

To actively engage the community, Arnet pointed out a large loom set beside Candace Hill Montgomery's poetic weavings. Visitors are invited to pick up material — from news clippings to snippets of fabric — and weave their own visions into what will become a community-based artwork. And everyone can vote for the viewer's choice award.

"Art is how we communicate with one another, how we learn about ourselves as humans, engage in our present, and communicate our history," said Arnet.

She has plans to expand the museum's reach, through national and international loans. She's making the museum more inclusive with signage and texts in a range of languages; more inviting, with dance and music; more participatory with art classes in the museum and in the park; more cutting edge, via sound walks on phone apps; and more relevant to peoples' lives. But she's not waiting for the future.

"We have right now in our museum 95 incredible pieces," Arnet said, "that will inspire, engage, and provoke audiences in all sorts of curious and wonderful ways."