Galerie Sardine is Bringing Bohemia Back to the Hamptons
Mischievous local news by Rory Satran: an ambitious Amagansett art lineup; the latest price cut on Alec and Hilaria Baldwin's mansion; preppy Knicks merch.
Weekend culture is heating up out east, and my Google Cal looks denser on Saturdays than it does during the week. (My friend Crystal Meers had the brilliant idea to name this newsletter ‘Closed on Tuesdays.’) On Saturday, I’m going to the Old Whalers’ Church’s annual strawberry-shortcake social, which has a certain country-fair charm. Pretty much every venue out east will be playing the Knicks game on Saturday night. If I were not beholden to a child’s bedtime I would go to Larry Gagosian, Ronald Perelman, and Sarah Chapman’s classic high/low Mexican joint Blue Parrot, or old-school dive bar Murf’s, which just announced late-night Doubles delivery.
Another hotly anticipated item in the calendar is the reopening of Galerie Sardine tomorrow. We have the scoop on what Amagansett’s resident earth mother Valentina Akerman is planning this summer for the Hamptons’ premiere art destination, below. Plus, scroll further for the ongoing saga of Alec and Hilaria Baldwins’ house sale, and some very East End Knicks merch.
As the weekend winds down, I’d love to see you at our second “office hours” coffee date: Monday from 9-10:30am at The American Hotel. If you plan to have a Bloody Mary, make sure you have Edward Burke’s number on speed dial.
How Galerie Sardine Has Stayed “Odd” While Reinvigorating the Hamptons Art Scene
Valentina Akerman wasn’t sure she would be able to open Galerie Sardine again in Amagansett this year. After two summers showing art and hosting dinners with guests like Cindy Sherman and Elle Fanning in a 1701 farmhouse on Main Street, her lease was in jeopardy. The owners, who had bought the house without immediate plans to use it, suddenly wanted it back. But Akerman pleaded her case in a heartfelt letter, secured it for another summer, and got to work.
With her zen demeanor and chic, casual look—navy sweatpants, The Row Mary Jane shoes—you’d never know that Akerman pulled together an ambitious roster of programming for Galerie Sardine’s summer in less than a month. Her husband, artist Joe Bradley, who co-founded the gallery with her, helped out, as did a few art handlers and helpers (the Colombian Akerman says speaking Spanish is helpful on the East End). This weekend, the gallery reopens with an exhibition of delicate, haunting fabric pieces from Kritika Manchanda and Rafael Prieto. Most of the pieces are made of white cotton, evoking the textile’s complex, colonialist history in India. At the opening tomorrow, the multitalented Prieto will present an edible shirt made of Mexican chocolate from Chiapas.
Although Akerman was originally planning on a “mellow” summer by the beach with her four children, she says “I guess it’s not in my nature.” The rest of the season is stacked, with a show pairing the work of ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene and Brazilian painter Allan Gandhi, an exhibition by Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based artist Susumu Kamijo, and outdoor screenings with artists including Shaniqwa Jarvis and Margarita Jimeno. Sprinkled around the gallery is furniture from Somerset House, like the Pierre Chapo double chair where Akerman and I sit in to chat face-to-face on a recent Saturday.
A lot has happened since last summer. Akerman opened a gallery in Tribeca on Lispenard Street. She’s shown work in Paris and Los Angeles. And she began representing a small group of artists, including Justin Bradshaw, known for his painting of unmade beds. Akerman wanted a physical space to instill trust in collectors: “I’m allergic to the term ‘pop-up.’”
It may not be strictly a pop-up, but Galerie Sardine has a certain undefinable quality by design. Akerman says she wanted the name itself to be disarming. The sardine is a little silly, a lot maritime, and shape-shifts from the sea into a can. “There’s opportunity in being a bit odd,” she says.
Akerman and Bradley drew the gallery’s wavy logo at their kitchen table, and it’s gone on to grace a hat that became accidentally viral. The gallerist says she gets inquiries about the cap constantly, asking if it can be shipped as far away as Sri Lanka. She thinks the playfulness of the logo is universal: “Children like it, which is always a great litmus test.”
That sense of offbeat play has been part of Sardine from the outset. Akerman wanted to create a place that reflected the early days of the Hamptons mid-century art scene, when Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning fled the city to have a more bohemian existence. She says there are still nuggets of that world to be discovered, even amidst the “uber capitalism” of the Hamptons today.
Part of that barefoot lifestyle shows up in Galerie Sardine’s dinners and parties, where Akerman cobbles together tables and chairs from neighbors and invites chefs like Mina Stone of “Cooking for Artists,” and Borgo’s Andrew Tarlow’s son Elijah to cook. Rather than the “cardboard salmon” that she says you typically get at an art dinner, she’s passionate about serving “a good plate of local food.”
Along with the creative types you’d expect would gravitate toward such a scene, it’s also the Hamptons in high summer, which means the serious art world has taken note. Larry Gagosian has come by and bought a piece, and David Zwirner has stopped by too.
“The exclusivity of the Hamptons unavoidable,” says Akerman. Shopping at places like Prada is part of the texture of the place, she says, and it’s “very chic, very wow-factor.” But, she adds, “It’s nice to have culture too.”
‘Here, When’ by Kritika Manchanda & Rafael Prieto is on view at Galerie Sardine from June 13-July 8.
Alec and Hilaria Baldwin are still trying to offload their home in Amagansett. First listed in 2022 for $29 million, the price has been lowered multiple times, most recently to $18,995,000. Two years ago, longtime Hamptons resident Alec appeared in a wry YouTube video to promote the house (“I fell in love with this place the moment I came here”), and Hilaria recently added her own Instagram video peddling the house. The listing emphasizes all the expansion possibilities, from a proposed tennis court, guest house, and upgraded septic system (septic is an unglamorous and unavoidable aspect of Hamptons life). The couple is reportedly house hunting in Montclair, New Jersey.
The Knicks merch craze has hit the East End. Of course real estate agent and North Fork style icon Janet Markarian’s Orient Linen Company is on the case, fast-tracking a Brunson apron ($85, above), and limited-edition Knicks totes for the Sagaponack General Store. Katie Couric’s favorite, the Monogram Shop in East Hampton, is advertising a preppy Knicks-emblazoned roll-neck sweater.
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Brilliant suggestion by Crystal 💕
Valentina Akerman is the best!