Contributed by Sharon Butler / A special note to New Yorkers who, like me, are loath to leave the city over holiday weekends or at any point during the summer, really: always check to see if galleries are open on Saturday. Chances are they aren’t. Many gallerists, kind of like Bartleby, simply prefer to close up shop for the entire long weekend. Other galleries, possibly your favorites, are shuttered until late summer or early fall, back to work only after the dust has settled from the September art fairs and blockbuster openings. For the hardcore stay-cation crowd of course, a slew of wonderful group shows are on view – sometimes freewheeling affairs in which emerging artists hang alongside more established ones we know and perhaps love. Where possible, I’ve listed the artists in each show so that you can hunt down the names already on your radar or target a few less familiar up-and-comers. Some of my best memories involve wandering around a nearly empty gallery with the editor on a sweltering summer afternoon and then ending up in a dark hideaway, drinking pints and arguing about the shows we saw. Save the shore for the off-season. As my mother, a woman who lived in a seaside town for most of her life, used to say, why go to the the beach in the summer? It’s a mob scene!
