Dan's Papers - July 13, 2007 - Walk Tall Gallery in East Hampton

Just steps away from East Hampton's glitzy Main Street lies an artistic niche replete with luminosity and transnationalism. Last Saturday, Walk Tall Gallery, located at 62 Park Place, started its second show, which will be on view until July 23. It's slick, smooth floors gleamed in the late afternoon light that poured into the gallery's main room. Wendy Wachtel, the founder and director of the gallery, has transformed the space from a dated-looking frame shop into a bright, snazzy art gallery. The floors, previously covered with worn out basement carpeting, have been plastered, painted and finished with several coats of polyurethane to produce a glossy, cutting-edge collage of colors and textures. "This floor is unique in that it functions to both enhance the artwork on the walls and to stand out on its own as a work of art," John Messinger, the Assistant Manager, said.

But there's more to this gallery than artwork and floors. Beyond the main room lies a smaller room that contains an "open kitchen" of frames that are conveniently tucked into the periphery. "I not only do the customary task of retail art in my gallery," Ms. Wachtel said, "but also act as a roving framing consultant." She explained her dual role of selling the artwork and assisting her clientele in integrating the art into their homes by helping out in the framing and positioning processes.

With an innovative eye and an expertise in designing and framing, Ms. Wachtel searches for artists from around the world who are not afraid to take risks. "When it comes to the artwork I choose for my gallery," she said, "I'm interested in a cross-cultural dialogue that transcends conventional artistic genres." She also considers her gallery a cross-generational one, as she intends to make it both adult and kid-friendly.

Ms. Wachtel was formerly in the travel-consulting business, where she made several of her key contacts with the artists whose work she now exhibits. When asked about the nature of her Hamptons clientele, she confidently explained that she's accustomed to interacting with this type of crowd. "I have been working with this demographic for twenty years, you can find cultivated people everywhere."

On Saturday, Ms. Wachtel opened the exhibit of the works of Walter Us and Miroslav Antic, two artists from the former Yugoslavia who experiment with an eclectic range of styles spanning the classical and the contemporary. While Us, a Sag Harbor resident previously from Montana, is currently exploring American art (with special attention to the Hudson River School), Antic's works are photo-realistic, using surfaces intended to fool the eye. Antic's paintings feature patterned raindrops superimposed on striking images, such as a horse or a boy on a boat. Walter Us, an admirer of Rembrandt, Goya and Manet, uses certain techniques of his predecessors and integrates them originally into a flowing narrative on his canvases. He loves to experiment with different shades of colors and stresses the significance of surfaces in his more contemporary works. His vast landscapes are flooded with soft golds and yellows, accenting trees, humans or animals under vast, textured skies. When asked about the local clientele, Us said, "They're a tough, savvy crowd. There's always a certain amount of implicit pressure to surpass your fellow artists. But I would not go so far as to replicate my prior works for the sake of satisfying customers. I must remain passionate about what I do."

Saturday night's crowd at the Walk Tall Gallery certainly seemed passionate about him. Rich Macdonald, Chair of the Artists Alliance Studio Tour in the Hamptons, said, "Walter is among the most respected artists of the Hamptons and he deserves a major international reputation." Mr. Macdonald added that the narratives in Us' works render them three-dimensional. Nan Dillon, a real estate broker at Corcoran, said, "There's a magical quality that Us' figures have that draws you to his paintings and that forces you to ask questions." There were equally unanimous accolades for the frames that Ms. Wachtel selected, as they blended exquisitely with the paintings, majestically offset by the pristine white walls of the gallery.

Ms. Wachtel will be hosting an exhibit with the Grn/Namdi Nomni gallery at Walk Tall to benefit Russell and Dani Simmons Rush art philanthropic on July 27. She will then be exhibiting works of five artists from St. Bart's, starting August 4.