
Friends of the Library
Past Exhibits
Anita Samuels: A Life's Work
March 11th, 2023 – May 27th, 2023
Anita Samuels, Cutchogue resident, has created an extensive body of oil, watercolor, and collage media throughout her 60 years of studio practice. Largely self-taught, her watercolor paintings and oil landscapes exhibit a sophisticated understanding of color and a dynamic sense of composition. Her depictions of the North Fork have a degree of abstraction that render them feeling familiar, yet often unspecific. Anita’s studio practice was extensive and diverse as she experimented with techniques such as mushroom spore printing and collage. Her work was shown at many Long Island venues including the Parrish Art Museum and the Guild Hall, where she took first prize for oil painting in 1973 – 50 years ago!
Also exhibited will be architectonic clay sculptures by her son, Tom Samuels. Tom Samuels is a prolific and respected architect who is a co-founder of Samuels and Steelman Architects in Cutchogue.
"Artists & Curators"
January 11th, 2023 – March 7th, 2023
The Upstairs Gallery at the Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library is pleased to present an exhibition of oil paintings by Adelaide Amend and Ann McCaughey opening on January 11th and running daily through March 7th, 2023. Not only are they accomplished painters, they have also been curating the Upstairs Gallery since 2009 and have organized scores of exhibits featuring local artists. Both artists have vibrantly captured landscapes and structures of the North Fork as well as portraits of family, friends, and neighbors. Many of their works hang in local collections. This exhibition will celebrate not only their talents but also serve as a farewell to their co-curation of the gallery. The exhibition is sponsored by the Friends of the Library.
Group Show - Influences
November 2022 – January 7th, 2023
Influences, a new show in the Art Gallery poses a question to viewers: can you see a teacher’s influence in their students’ work? The late Jackie Penney was briefly a teacher of Diane Alec Smith, who is also a teacher and her students’ work is here too! We mixed up the paintings to let you see if you can figure out who painted what. Although many of us think we are familiar with Jackie Penney’s work, this show includes her less seen paintings which attest to the breadth of her skill, and her sense of humor. All but two are original paintings. All of the work is available for purchase.
What is a Landscape? 4 Artists, 4 Contrasting Views
Art critic Amei Wallach asks the question in an exhibition of John Wittenberg’s riffs on furrowed fields in sculpture and handmade paper; Adam Straus’s reinvention of realist painting; Connie Fox’s abstract explosions in paint; and Pamela Wilson-Ryckman’s painterly grounds with their glimpse of something seen. Many works are for sale.
John Wittenberg
Adam Straus
Connie Fox
Pamela Wilson-Ryckman
Five Generations of Women in Art
Jane Sector
Martha Jane Paul
Mary Jane Paul
Invitational Show: Wendy Prellwitz, Tom Lulevitch, Mary Twomey, Mimi Meyers
Wendy Prellwitz
Tom Lulevitch
Mary Twomey
Mimi Myers
Cynthia Wells
Solo exhibition featuring works that explore light as a metaphor, with subjects that dance in and out of darkness representing the confusion of life. Paintings include oil on canvas as well as digital prints from her illustrated children’s book, Moonglow. Cynthia Wells studied at the California Institute of the Arts, and is an internationally exhibited artist and animation filmmaker. Visit: https://cynthiawellsart.com to learn more.
North Fork Art Show 2020
Summer of 2020 exhibited many works of North Fork Artists in a video format due to Covid-19 lockdowns. We encourage you to sit back, relax, and enjoy this diverse visual display set to Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major. Special thanks to Friends of the Library Adelaide Amend and Ann McCaughey.
Dedicated to Artist & Teacher, Jacqueline Penney.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Movements III & IV. Performance by Daniel Veesey. Recording courtesy of Musopen.
Oil & Water
Bob Mueller
The Cutchogue New Suffolk Free Library is proud to present Oil & Water, an exhibition of the art of Bob Mueller. Relax and enjoy this display of original oil paintings and monotypes set to the 3rd Movement (Allegro) of Carl Maria von Weber’s Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet and piano. This exhibit displayed in the library’s upstairs gallery April 2020 – September 2020.
Grand Duo Concertant for clarinet and piano by Carl Maria von Weber, Opus 48, 3rd Movement (Allegro). Performed by William McColl, clarinet, and Joseph Levine, piano. Sourced from WikiMedia Commons.