Love & Passion Art Exhibit Returns to Springs for 21st Year

Now a more than two-decade-old tradition, Karyn Mannix’s annual Love & Passion group art exhibition is returning Springs, East Hampton this weekend. The show, called Love & Passion: The Times They Are a Changing this year, features approximately 50 local East End artists and runs Saturday, February 7 from noon–7 p.m. (with wine opening reception from 4–7 p.m.), and Sunday, February 8 from noon–4 p.m. at Ashawagh Hall, 780 Springs-Fireplace Road.

An independent art agent, curator and artist, Mannix says this year’s show has many returning favorites and usual suspects from the Springs art scene, as well as a number of new faces who she hopes will also become returning favorites in future iterations of the show, including Alison Seiffer and Sarah Reynolds.

“Right now there’s 40 artists, but that will change by Friday — there’s usually around 60 artists. And I would like to say 10% of them are new, 10–15% every year is the average which is good, and then they start repeating which is good. It’s nice. It’s about community. This is a community show,” Mannix said earlier in the week, pointing out that almost all participants in the show are local or people with a summer house here, aside from Kirstin Ilse, a new addition shipping her work, painted on silk, out east from Boston. “I’ve known her for years. She’s done several shows with me, and that’s it. I think everyone else is here, either in the summer or full time,” Mannix explained.

Mannix recalled that she and beloved late Springs art organizer Vito Sisti created the Love & Passion exhibition all those years ago because the Pebbles jewelry store was empty in winter and they had the opportunity to create a show there. “And we just called it Love & Passion, because it was February, just by chance, you know, and now it’s 21 years later,” Mannix said, noting that the theme still holds, though it was much more focused on edgier, sexy work in years past.

“It really doesn’t have to do with romance anymore. I just think it has to do more with the word ‘passion’ than ‘love’ at this point,” Mannix added, explaining that much of the work is about things people are passionate for, rather than focused on more carnal pursuits. “It used to be different when it began, but times are changing. Art goes with politics and everything else, like fashion and music does, and you could just see things changing over the years,” she continued. “Either we’re all just getting older, or people are just thinking differently. I don’t know what happened to that, because in the beginning I had to really look at the art close, because some stuff was almost pornographic, you know, and that just seemed to go by the wayside after a while.”

Still, Mannix said people continue to ask her to put on the show, and she keeps it going. “There’s some pieces in there which are a little bit more risque, but they’re, you know, beautiful nudes and stuff like that. … A kid could walk into the Love & Passion show and a parent wouldn’t have to worry, not that they should anyway. It’s all very beautiful art.”

More names of artists participating in the show this year include Christina Stow, Diane White, Susan Zises, Gerard Giliberti, Rosa Scott, Mara Sfara, Stephanie Brody Lederman, Brooke Bofill, Ann Brandeis, John Jinks, Donna Corvi, Liz Engelhardt, Lynn Steffanelli, Laurie Hall, Setha Low, Lisa Steiner, Renee Gallanti, Angeli Zankel, Pamela Topham, Joel Lefkowitz, Joanlee Montefusco, Jane Martin, Caroline Dranow, Marilyn Stevenson and, of course, Mannix, among others.

To learn more, contact Karyn Mannix at info@themannixproject.com.