Homefront: Gallery Spotlight
While most city galleries are slowing down for the summer—in many cases closing their doors for all of August—the art scene on Nantucket is as hot as it gets all year.
While most city galleries are slowing down for the summer—in many cases closing their doors for all of August—the art scene on Nantucket is as hot as it gets all year. This little island 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod is home to more than its share of world-class artists, many of whom are drawn to Nantucket for its inspiring landscapes. One of the best places to see and buy work by those artists is the downtown gallery of the Artists’ Association of Nantucket (AAN), which has represented the island’s artistic talent since 1945.
The AAN has the largest permanent collection of contemporary Nantucket art in the world. Unlike many local galleries, the association requires its artists to be Nantucket residents for more than three months of the year, and many are year-round islanders. The gallery also has rotating shows, and the workshop offers art classes to the public all year long.
New exhibitions open every two weeks in the summer, kicking off with well-attended opening receptions every other Friday night. The shows include work by established, in-demand artists as well as up-and-comers. Gallery director Bobby Frazier cites Andrew Casner (a bold landscape impressionist), Julija Mostykanova (who does intensely colorful still lifes and landscapes) and Sandra Flavin (a painter of landscapes, cityscapes and floral still lifes that are “realistic with an impasto flair”) as ones to watch.
>>Artists’ Association of Nantucket Gallery, 19 Washington St., Nantucket, 508-228-0294, www.nantucketarts.org.