While its disruption was a mere inconvenience compared to the global life-and-death consequences of COVID-19, New York’s arts scene remained out of sight for months during the severe pandemic shutdowns of 2020 and 2021. Social distancing and crowd control have closed museums and made traditional exhibition displays impossible. However, the warm weather months gave the industry a lifeline. Once the spring and summer of 2020 arrived, art galleries set sail for the Hamptons. Beach clubs and yacht vouchers soon appeared on the white walls and track lighting as outdoor shows and occasional auctions literally breathed fresh air into the five boroughs’ faltering art world.
Dobroslava Novak, founder and CEO of Italian Art Guide, tells the Observer that New York galleries were not the only ones fleeing the city for Long Island in 2020. “Some wealthy collectors moved temporarily to the Hamptons. When collectors moved, galleries, auction houses and dealers followed suit opening pop-ups or seasonal locations. Over the past five years, the Hamptons has become a concentrated luxury market where art leads the way.”
Nowak cited as a prime example the powerful Pace Gallery, which opened a 1,700-square-foot temporary exhibition space in the East Hampton Village. While Pace representatives did not respond to questions, Jess Frost, executive director of the Duck Creek Arts Center, explained that Pace transformed the Vered Gallery space (originally founded in 1977) into a specially designed white cube operating during both coronavirus seasons: “They mounted ambitious exhibitions there, including an unforgettable Arlene Shechet sculpture show that seemed as serious as her last show in New York City.”
The Hamptons’ efforts were enough for the show’s success to maintain its presence in the East. “I think a lot of [Hamptons] “People who were less familiar with the contemporary art scene had their horizons broadened that summer,” Frost adds. “It’s really easy to get myopic when you live here full time.”
Frost and Novak acknowledge that the Hamptons was an arts destination in its own right before Covid exodus from Manhattan, but they agree that the pandemic has created an irreversible evolution. “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 points out. “However, the commercial gallery scene has remained relatively modest. The pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the Hamptons from a seasonal cultural destination into an important nexus in the international art market.”
Frost celebrates the coronavirus spotlight on Long Island as the region seized on an unexpected opportunity: “The coronavirus helped people realize that the Hamptons already had galleries with serious curatorial programs. Places like Halsey McKay and The Drawing Room weren’t simply responding to market trends. They had been building thoughtful galleries for years.”
Jamie Marks, senior vice president at Proper Hospitality and spokesman for the Montauk Yacht Club, points to this hotel as an example of an emerging arts venue emerging from the Hamptons’ post-coronavirus identity. This summer, it expanded beyond hospitality to become a cultural destination through a new partnership with the artist-led brand platform. The site’s recent solo exhibition featured new works by Brooklyn-based artist Joe Henry Baker.
Demand for out-of-town art hasn’t gone anywhere, Marks believes, but what has replaced that first wave of permanent and coronavirus-related galleries is now more interesting. “The energy in the East has shifted toward a more flexible model with rotating exhibitions, artist collaborations, and cultural programs that really respond to the season and community,” she says. “This is the most exciting development… We’re not building static experiences. We’re building ecosystems that respond to the cultural moment, whether we’re at Art Basel Miami or Frieze LA or in Montauk with Platform and Joe Henry Baker.”
Offering an artistic perspective, Chiara Rossetti – founder of Rossetti Art – emphasizes that Covid has proven that a real market can exist outside the traditional gallery district model: “This is exactly the thing that has helped independent artists who go directly to collectors like me. Some of this energy has slowed in the Hamptons since 2021, but it has left behind more legitimacy for art transactions taking place outside of Chelsea/Uptown. It has led to private studio visits, direct sales and artists building their own relationships with collectors rather than directing all Something across the gallery, this is the part of the story that continued after the pop-ups themselves.
Rossetti believes the Hamptons’ seasonal fixtures still exist today and treat the area as a priority second market deserving of consistent programming and ongoing relationships, rather than a seasonal surplus space for anything the Chelsea space can’t fit.
Although the trend of the city’s galleries and art spaces moving east in the warmer months naturally slowed once the pandemic abated, Nowak insists there’s still enough demand from Hamptons collectors to sustain satellite spaces. As a result, although the Hamptons is no longer the emergency alternative that coronavirus made necessary, it remains an important arts destination that evolved forever thanks to the struggles of five years ago.
More importantly, Nowak says, the concept of mobile showrooms has taken hold and is now an available strategy for dealers seeking business. “After the pandemic, galleries around the world are more willing to meet collectors wherever they are geographically.”
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