For the second time since it opened its doors in 2024, the North Fork Arts Center in Greenport hosted art galleries from across the North Fork on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the opening of a show about what it means to be home.
This year’s show, theme, “There’s No Place Like Home,” was timed to coincide with the opening weekend of “Wicked: For Good” at the historic movie theater, and the artists who participated put a great deal of care into pieces that reflected the theme of belonging, courage and community.
Pictured Above: Dan Romito’s “Oysters for Sale, 2020,” an archival pigment print represented by VSOP Projects in Greenport. VSOP will be moving upstate after its last show on view now.
A recurring theme throughout the show were the barns and outbuildings that have long been a hallmark of the North Fork’s rural landscape, with many portraying a bittersweet take on landmarks that are slowly disappearing as more development makes its way east.
Photographic portraits tenderly view nature and the East End’s Native history and farming and fishing industry, while other abstract and mixed media works explore everything from infinity to the alebrijes of Mexican folk art.
The artists showcased are represented by VEME Studios, VSOP Projects and the North Fork Art Collective in Greenport, the Alex Ferrone Gallery in Cutchogue and William Ris Gallery in Jamesport.
“I feel like, in my paintings, I’ve documented the changes, culturally and environmentally,” said Patricia Feiler, whose “Wooden Cathedrals — Southold” in the show captures the barns at a blueberry farm on Hortons Lane. “I paint outdoors. I love being in that open environment. There are still just incredible vistas and secret places that I seek out.”
“I drive around just in awe,” said Ms. Feiler, who has long captured North Fork scenes. Her works in the show are being represented by the William Ris Gallery. “We’re heading toward the time of year where you can see things from afar, sheds that are usually overgrown, tractors and remnants of someone’s life. In the winter, it’s more monochromatic, but you have the morning light and the evening light.”
Two photographic artists represented by the Alex Ferrone Gallery in Cutchogue also showcased the built landscape, using innovative techniques.
Linda Hacker, who lives in Brooklyn, said she creates physical paper collages of urban environments, then photographs them using multiple and long exposures.
“I blend them in Photoshop and create a city of my imagination, the energy of the city,” she said.
Patricia Beary submitted three black and white dye sublimation prints, whose rich contrast showcases the details of abandoned buildings.
“Real estate is so valuable now — people are just letting them go,” she said of her subjects.
“I work with a lot of nature, and texture,” she said. “The black and white really accentuates that. Dye sublimation is printed on aluminum — they look a little bit like tin types, even though it’s a digital process.”
Alex Ferrone, whose gallery on the Main Road in Cutchogue is now in its 13th year, said she’s “seen some galleries go, as people have left the area, but more artists are opening up their studios. It’s a wonderful, creative community. That’s why I moved here.”
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Erwin List, represented by VEME studios, took his inspiration for two alebrijes, papier-mâché fantastical creatures that hold a mythical place in Mexican folk art, from the exhibit’s concurrence of the exhibition with the release of “Wicked: For Good.” The works depict a flying monkey and dog.
“I wanted it to be a steampunk style, with bolts and gears, so I bought a clock at the Opp Shop and took it apart,” to include the parts in the piece, he said, adding that he usually paints this type of work “but I left the newspaper showing this time, and decided to varnish it to give it a glossiness.”
VEME Studios owners Verona Peñalba and Melissa Flotteron also both brought works to the show. Ms. Flotteron, a ceramicist, brought an ornate vessel titled “Grab Flowers on Your Way Home,” while Ms. Peñalba contributed a papier-mâché mask and two large abstract works, “Finding Home” and “Space Within.”
“This is bringing everyone involved with the arts on the North Fork together,” said Ms. Peñalba of the show.
Artist Gregory Turner, with the North Fork Art Collective, contributed two striking, black on black, labyrinthian works, “Monolith No. 1 & 2” to the show.
“The monoliths are a visual representation of the infinite in the form of a mathematical algorithm that, if allowed, could go on forever,” he said. “These pieces area a homecoming for myself, back to my family on the North Fork.”
Mr. Turner said his grandfather was a farmer on the North Fork, and his family moved to Greenport after his grandfather passed away. He graduated from the Greenport School.
He said moving back home after working in New York has allowed him “to spread out and produce artwork, which I could never do in a small apartment.”
“I wanted to create an object of contemplation of the vastness of the universe and its infinite potential, and invite the viewer to think about the big picture, about the space between and the fabric of reality that holds together this world we all call home,” he said of the pieces.
The afternoon’s festivities were also an open house for the North Fork Arts Center, a non-profit that opened its doors in the storied Greenport movie house in May of 2024, re-envisioning the space as a community arts center, with a wide mix of films, live performances, art openings, educational programming and an an active Youth Advisory Board, a group of young people who program movie showings in Theater 4 on Friday evenings.
“This is so wonderful, to see this building with people, appreciating art, and being a community,” said NFAC Executive Director Tony Spiridakis at the opening. “Tradition is a great thing — stuffing and turkey, it’s a terrible idea, but it sort of caught on. Why shouldn’t we start a tradition to support local artists? Sometimes you have to remind the community that art is for sale, and artists need to have sales in order to survive.”
“Our lives without art are not good,” he added. “The Arts Center is not just a movie theater, but a place where all of this can happen — classical music, book readings, theater, live music and the ballet. These are the things that hold communities together.”
The exhibition is on view through the end of January, 2026.
The North Fork Arts Center is at 211 Front Street in Greenport. Here’s more info on how you can support the NFAC.
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