While its outage was a mere inconvenience compared to the worldwide life-and-death consequences of COVID-19, the New York art scene still sank out of sight for months during the severe pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Social distancing and crowd control closed museums and made traditional gallery shows impossible. However, the warm weather months threw the industry a life saver. After spring and summer 2020 temperatures arrived, galleries headed to the Hamptons. Beach clubs and yacht slips soon gave way to whitewashed walls and runway lighting, while outdoor shows and the occasional auction literally breathed fresh air into the ailing art world of the five boroughs.
Dobrosława Nowakfounder and CEO of The Italian Art Guide, tells the Observer that it wasn’t just New York galleries that left the city for Long Island in 2020. “Some wealthy collectors moved temporarily to the Hamptons. When collectors moved out, galleries, auction houses and dealers followed opening pop-ups or seasonal locations. Over the past five years, the Hamptons has become an art-focused luxury market.”
Nowak cited the prime example of the powerful Pace Gallery opening a 1,700-square-foot temporary showroom in East Hampton Village. While Pace representatives did not respond to questions, Jess Frostexecutive director of the Duck Creek Center for the Arts, explains that Pace transformed the Vered Gallery space (originally created in 1977) into a specially designed white cube that functioned during two COVID seasons: “They put on ambitious exhibitions there, including an unforgettable one. Arlene Shechet Sculpture show that felt as serious as her last show in New York City.”
And the Hamptons effort was successful enough for the gallery to maintain a presence in the east. “I think a lot of people (in the Hamptons) who were less familiar with the contemporary art scene had their horizons broadened that summer,” adds Frost. “It’s really easy to become myopic when you live here full time.”
Frost and Nowak acknowledge that the Hamptons were an art destination in their own right before Manhattan’s COVID exodus, but agree that the pandemic forged an irreversible evolution. “Before 2020, the Hamptons already had a rich artistic history, with institutions such as the Parrish Art Museum and a long tradition of artists living and working in the East End,” Nowak points out. “However, its commercial gallery scene remained relatively modest. The pandemic accelerated the Hamptons’ shift from a seasonal cultural destination to an important node in the international art market.”
Frost celebrates the attention that COVID brought back to Long Island as the region took advantage of an unexpected opportunity: “Covid helped people realize that the Hamptons already had galleries with serious curatorial programs. Places like Halsey McKay and the Drawing Room they were not simply responding to market trends. They had been building thoughtful displays for years.”
Jamie Markssenior vice president at Proper Hospitality and spokesperson for the Montauk Yacht Club, points to that hotel as an example of an emerging arts venue emerging from the Hamptons’ post-COVID identity. This summer, it expanded beyond hospitality to become a cultural destination through a new partnership with Artist-driven branding platform. The site’s most recent solo exhibition featured new works from the Brooklyn-based artist Joe Henry Baker.
Marks believes the demand for art outside the city hasn’t gone anywhere, but what replaced the first wave of permanent and satellite galleries driven by COVID is now more interesting. “The energy from the east shifted to a more flexible model with rotating exhibitions, artist collaborations and cultural programming that actually responds to the season and the community,” she says. “This is the most exciting evolution… we’re not building static experiences. We’re building ecosystems that respond to the cultural moment, whether we’re at Art Basel Miami, Frieze LA or in Montauk with Platform and Joe Henry Baker.”
Offering an artist’s perspective, Chiara Rossetti– founder of Rossetti Art— points out that COVID proved that a real market could exist outside of the traditional Gallery District model: “This is exactly the kind of thing that has helped independent, direct-to-collector artists like myself. Some of that energy in the Hamptons has cooled since 2021, but it’s left behind more legitimacy for art transactions that happen outside of the city of artist visits and their private sales in Chelsea/U. collector relationships in instead of saving everything through a gallery.
Rossetti sees the Hamptons’ seasonal structures still around today by treating the region as a second-priority market, worthy of consistent programming and ongoing relationships, rather than a seasonal overflow space for anything a Chelsea space can’t accommodate.
Although the trend of the city’s galleries and art spaces heading east in the warmer months naturally slowed as the pandemic subsided, Nowak insists there is still enough demand from Hamptons collectors to support satellite spaces. As a result, while the Hamptons is no longer the emergency option required by COVID, it remains an important art destination forever evolved from the struggles of five years ago.
Most importantly, Nowak says, the concept of gallery decamping took root and is now an available strategy for marketers pursuing the business. “After the pandemic, galleries around the world are more willing to meet collectors wherever they are geographically.”
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