Gallery Openings Demonstrate Similar Growth in Palm Beach and Southampton.

Artist Clemente Mimun will be featured at two gallery openings this November.  This might not seem unusual, but when you consider that the events take place in Palm Beach and Southampton, both seasonal communities, the between-season openings are quite phenomenal. 

It's not that two galleries have coordinated their efforts to promote Clemente, himself a Palm Beach resident, during the month of November. Instead, the nearly simultaneous events reflect the growing number of full-time residents in these wealthy areas which have traditionally attracted only those people who change their addresses with the weather.  This growth provides the numbers -- both in clientele and in sales -- needed to justify an autumn show. 

Represented by Chrysalis Gallery on the quaintly upscale intersection of Main and Jobs Street in Southampton and by Ken Elias Gallery on the unabashedly swanky Worth Avenue, Clemente has been heralded by artist and critic Bruce Helander as having "a natural intuitive ability to combine a colorful surrealist palette with narrative images taken from art history and modern life."      

The fall openings are a first for both galleries.  Elias Gallery makes its debut with this November show.  For Chrysalis in Southampton, the autumn event is the culmination of its gallery owner's observations: 
"People furnish their homes more in the spring and fall than in the summer when we have the greatest numbers of people," notes owner and director Agnes Ehrenrich. "That's why a fall show could really work.  I've never done an opening at this time of year but things are quite booming."

After four years with Chrysalis, Clemente sees his first gallery opening there. Why the long wait?  Well, the whimsical floral arrangements for which the artist is best known practically moved themselves off the wall.  
"We sell his work very well, so he never really needed an opening," explains Ehrenrich. "In the summer, we do larger group shows, but this smaller autumn show provides an opportunity to spotlight his work."

Known for both his incisive view into human interaction and existence and his capacity for playfulness and humor, Clemente's work at the Chrysalis autumn opening focuses on whimsy rather than satire.  His floral still-lifes and figurative personages will be displayed alongside his recent explorations of landscapes borne of memory and imagination. The Elias Gallery will feature only the artist's newest work. 

Former director of the Armory Art Center, Paul Aho remarked of Clemente's art: "His work as a painter ranges from humorous satire to existential awe. Clemente's work is informed by the shape of our time and conceals many a hidden narrative."

Indeed, the growth of the Palm Beach and Southampton communities and their residents' social and cultural life is reflected in their choice of art. 

 Autumn gallery openings: November 12, 4-8 pm at Ken Elias Gallery, 325 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach; and November 18, 6-9 pm, at Chrysalis, 2 Main Street, Southampton, New York.
 

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