WATER MILL, NY.- To mark America’s semi-quincentennial in 2026, the Parrish Art Museum will present Parrish USA250: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, a yearlong series of exhibitions and programs exploring the core ideals of the Declaration of Independence through the East End of Long Island’s enduring role in shaping American creativity and identity. The series reflects on the nation’s founding values, examines our present moment, and imagines new paths forward, while recognizing the significant contributions of Long Island artists to American art and culture.

“In 2026, the Parrish Art Museum has both the privilege and the responsibility to illuminate the ideals that shaped this nation through the lens of art. As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, we will reflect on our shared history while celebrating the creative spirit that shapes the art and culture in our own community on the East End of Long Island. The planned exhibition series amplifies essential conversations about identity, innovation, and freedom as quintessential American values explored by East End artists past and present. These conversations remain vital as we engage with our history and the realities of our country today. Our exhibitions invite visitors to consider Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness not as distant principles but as living values. We are grateful to the artists whose imagination and insight continue to propose how to move our national story forward, together,” said Dr. Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Executive Director of the Parrish Art Museum.

Beginning with Life:

Regeneration: Long Island’s History of Ecological Art and Care
February 22–June 14, 2026


Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), sugar kelp, 2025_ detail 5. Acrylic, graphite, Xerox on panel boards, 80 x 200 inches (203.2 x 508 cm). Courtesy the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York.

Long Island’s East End has long been a vital fishing and agricultural region, where communities have relied on the land and water for generations. Today, environmental shifts and pressures increasingly present challenges to these traditions. Regeneration: Long Island’s History of Ecological Art and Care showcases works that emerge from the intersection of ecological art, environmental responses, and community collaboration.

The exhibition features an intergenerational group of ten artists with strong ties to Long Island and New York whose works stem from identifying and engaging with the environmental challenges that impact the East End.

Regeneration will explore the PARRISH USA250 theme of “Life” and features newly commissioned works by Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos, b. 1976, Springfield, OR), made in collaboration with the Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, a collective of Indigenous women who harness the ancestral tradition of seaweed harvesting to address nitrogen pollution in local waters. Scott Bluedorn (American, b. 1986, Southampton, NY) and Cindy Pease Roe (American, b. 1959, Hackensack, NJ) incorporate reclaimed and discarded materials into their work to reflect shifting ecologies and the impact of human-made waste. Michelle Stuart (American, b. 1933, Los Angeles, CA) engages with organic matter in her seed-based drawings, while Tucker Marder (American, b. 1989, Southampton, NY) blends puppetry and storytelling to animate the histories of local trees. Earth artist Alan Sonfist (American, b. 1946, Bronx, NY) will create the site-specific Celestial Meadow mapping native wildflowers to the Ursa Major constellation. Mamoun Nukumanu’s (Earth, b. 1995, Southampton, NY) living biomorphic sculptures provide habitats to local flora and fauna in the Parrish Meadow. Works by Sasha Fishman (American, b. 1995, Baltimore, MD), Randi Renate (American, b. 1995, San Antonio, TX), and Maya Lin (American, b. 1959, Athens, OH) draw on their respective interests in scientific research to model restorative ways of engaging with the non-human world.

Regeneration is co-organized by Scout Hutchinson, The FLAG Art Foundation Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, and Corinne Erni, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education.

Sanford Biggers: Drift
May 17–September 13, 2026


Sanford Biggers, Unsui (Cloud Forest), 2025, Brown University

Sanford Biggers: Drift explores the PARRISH USA250 theme of “Pursuit of Happiness” and marks the acclaimed artist’s first major solo presentation on the East End of Long Island, where he has personal ties. The exhibition will feature new commissions alongside signature sculptures and textile works. Fascinated by the way that materials and symbols become charged with spiritual, cultural, and personal significance, Sanford Biggers (b. 1970, Los Angeles, CA) draws on a diverse range of influences, from Buddhism and Los Angeles graffiti culture to Gee’s Bend quilts and his own collection of African sculpture, as well as his connection to Sag Harbor. Working across painting, installation, sculpture, video, and performance, Biggers describes his practice as emerging from an aggregate process of “transposing, combining, and juxtaposing ideas, forms, and genres that challenge traditional historiography.”

Sanford Biggers: Drift traces the multidisciplinary nature of Biggers’ work through the motif of the cloud, a symbol that has engaged the artist for decades. Controlled by the unseen energy of the wind, these nebulous forms are shaped and reshaped by air currents as they move across the sky. Themes of fluctuation and adaptability run throughout the exhibition.

• Unsui (Cloud Forest) (2025) anchors the exhibition with an installation of illuminated cloud sculptures suspended from the Museum’s peaked ceiling. Drawing on Japanese, European, and American art traditions, the work is inspired by Biggers’ time in Japan in the early 1990s. Its title references a Japanese term likening drifting clouds to the Zen Buddhist philosophy of moving through the world without attachment or resistance to change.

• The exhibition also includes works from Biggers’ ongoing Codex series—sculptures and paintings made from repurposed antique quilts, often marked with spray-painted cloud forms. The Codex works reference the legend of “quilt codes”—sewn symbols said to have guided freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad—as a metaphor for perseverance and liberation. Biggers will debut a new large-scale Codex piece that explores the histories of African American communities on the East End, from nineteenth-century Black whalers and an Eastville church that was a stop along the Underground Railroad, to the SANS (Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest & Nineva Subdivisions) neighborhood where he lives today.

• In an adjacent gallery, Biggers will create a new site-specific sand installation inspired by prayer rugs, portable breakdance floors, and Japanese Buddhist mandalas. Initially laid out in a precise geometric design, the sand will be intentionally disrupted in a performance that softens its edges into a painterly “blur.” This gesture of movement and transformation will also appear in his new Codex work, where the quilted pattern will appear rippled, as if stirred by air.

• One of Biggers’ large-scale marble sculptures from the Oracle series will greet visitors entering the Museum in the outdoor lobby.

The works presented in Sanford Biggers: Drift interweave underrecognized local histories and national ideals, offering symbols of hope and celebration of our varied histories and experiences. “As we look into the clouds, we often see very different things from one person to the next,” Biggers explains. “I think that is similar to the way people perceive America. The ideals and values might be different from one person to the next—sometimes clearly visible, sometimes a little hazy or hard to find—but always worth looking for and striving for.” Sanford Biggers: Drift reminds us that contemplating the clouds is not a frivolous activity, but an invitation to reflect on the nature and power of change.

Sanford Biggers: Drift is co-organized by Corinne Erni, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education, and Scout Hutchinson, The FLAG Art Foundation Associate Curator of Contemporary Art.
 
Tony Bechara: An Artist of Many Worlds
June 28–November 1, 2026


Quadrant 4, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 in. © Estate of Tony Bechara, Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Tony Bechara: An Artist of Many Worlds is the part of the PARRISH USA250th theme “Pursuit of Happiness” and the first comprehensive survey of the Puerto Rican artist, including works from his later years and exploring his career-long dedication to color theory and abstraction. Born in Puerto Rico and based in New York City, Bechara (1942–2025) drew on his bilingual and bicultural upbringing, his studies in law and international relations, his long stays in Europe and the East End of Long Island, and his characteristic, enduring curiosity to become a man of many worlds—seeking light and illumination in far corners of the globe and across its diverse cultures.

The artist’s iconic abstract work—realized on square, circular, and triangular canvases as well as in prints and three-dimensional sculpture—deftly engages the viewer’s optics, creating compositions that seem to shimmer and vibrate. This effect stems from his fascination with pointillism and the work of French Impressionists Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. In Bechara’s practice, however, the “points”—in his case, pixels—are meticulously mapped by hand, randomized through analog mathematical formulas and calculations, and arranged to create structures in which chaos and harmony fuse into a unified composition.

His method, centered on a handmade grid, is created through a four-step process of covering and superimposing masking tape directly onto the canvas. This technique enabled him to achieve a randomized color display—a “vehicle of light and vision” that brought together a unity of “order and randomness.” The resulting works provoke an experience that taps into the “symbolic” and “narrative” by offering a platform—a vibrant, chromatic strategy—for diversity and inclusion in a single gesture. An Artist of Many Worlds highlights Bechara’s harmonizing strategy as an important American expression that encourages diverse cultures and ethnicities to blend into a single, unified fabric of American culture; a strategy celebrated at the Parrish on the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Eliciting a dialogue with the Declaration of Independence’s assertion of the “Pursuit of Happiness” as one of our “inalienable rights,” An Artist of Many Worlds proposes that Bechara’s contributions as a Latino/Hispanic artist to American culture—and his own pursuit of happiness —have yielded a language of both self-determination and inclusion. Bechara’s unifying pictorial strategy, understood as an expression of the pursuit of happiness, offers a personal yet prophetic visual model for inclusion and collective possibility—one that strengthens the broader fabric of American art and culture.

Comprising over fifty works, this survey celebrates the accomplished artist’s evolving style across multiple media throughout his sixty-plus-year career. This first-ever career-spanning retrospective of the artist is timed to coincide with the one-year commemoration of Bechara’s passing and will feature an independently published monograph that includes an essay by Domitille d’Orgeval, an interview between Bechara and Hans Ulrich Obrist, a detailed chronology and exhibition history, and a complete plate section.

Tony Bechara: An Artist of Many Worlds is co-organized by Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Ph.D., Executive Director, and Kaitlin Halloran, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.

Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today
September 27, 2026–February 14, 2027


Elaine de Kooning (American, 1918–1989). Juarez, ca. 1959, oil on paper, 22 ¼ x 30 ⅛ in. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, N.Y., Gift of Dr. John E. Hunt and Carol Hunt, 2012.30.1

Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today celebrates “Liberty and Freedom of Expression” in the context of PARRISH USA250 at the Museum. For centuries, Long Island’s East End has been a hub of artistic innovation and cultural exchange, inspiring generations of artists drawn to its landscape and creative community. This was especially true in the mid-twentieth century when Abstract Expressionists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner established their home in Springs. Their move to the South Fork inspired the beginning of many New York School painters—like Elaine and Willem de Kooning and James Brooks and Charlotte Park—to spend time on the East End since the 1940s, some eventually making this region their home and studio year-round. Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today traces how the movement flourished on the East End and celebrates the many voices who shaped it.

Drawn primarily from the Museum’s permanent collection, along with prominent private loans, the exhibition begins in the mid-twentieth century with first- and second-generation Abstract Expressionists of the 1940s–60s. This section features works by Mary Abbott, James Brooks, Elaine de Kooning, Perle Fine, Gertrude Greene, Lee Krasner, and Esteban Vicente, examining works of this pivotal period that the artists produced while living and working on the East End. Paintings and sculpture by Willem de Kooning, John Opper, Betty Parsons, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Syd Solomon trace stylistic shifts of the 1970s and 1980s. The exhibition also highlights the movement’s lasting influence on the East End, with works that demonstrate how artists have continued to expand gestural painting from the 1990s to today, including Claude Lawrence, Suzanne McClelland, Pat Steir, and Frank Wimberley.

Abstract Expressionism: The East End, 1940 to Today is organized by Kaitlin Halloran, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.

William Merritt Chase and Walter Granville-Smith: American Impressionists of the East End
November 16, 2026–March 21, 2027


William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916). A Comfortable Corner (The Blue Kimono), ca. 1888, oil on canvas, 57 x 44 ½ inches. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, N.Y., Littlejohn Collection, 1961.5.21

William Merritt Chase and Walter Granville-Smith: American Impressionists of the East End will explore the PARRISH USA250 theme of “Liberty” and feature the work of two American Impressionists who helped shape the myth of the serene summer lifestyle on the East End for the urban bourgeoisie, finding creative inspiration on Long Island during the social splendor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Presenting William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916) and Walter Granville-Smith (American, 1870–1938) in dialogue, the exhibition highlights their shared interest in the surrounding natural beauty. Ranging from depictions of the new American social scene to more intimate depictions of family life and landscape, the exhibition explores how two painters with distinct training discovered a new American identity and source of inspiration in Long Island’s Hamptons and its increasingly global and sophisticated community and culture.

William Merritt Chase and Walter Granville-Smith: American Impressionists of the East End is organized by Kaitlin Halloran, Associate Curator and Publications Manager.

“I am particularly excited to present the PARRISH USA250 exhibitions exploring Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness at this pivotal moment in our country. These exhibitions recognize the creative force of the East End and its continued global impact, from a new cohort of environmental artists in dialogue with renowned earth artists, to abstract painters inspired by the East End since the1940s, to Sanford Biggers, who remixes cultural values and signifiers through sculptures, quilt works, and site-specific installations, and Tony Bechara, who approached color theory and abstraction through his own perspective as an international Latino artist,” said Corinne Erni, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education.

Additional Upcoming 2026 Exhibitions at the Parrish Art Museum

• FRESH PAINT, an ongoing collaboration between the Parrish Art Museum and The FLAG Art Foundation, is a rotating series of single-artwork exhibitions that spotlight new or rarely exhibited works by both emerging and established artists. FRESH PAINT is accompanied by two sets of interpretative texts: a commissioned piece by an author, critic, poet, or scholar; and another by members of the Parrish Teen Council ARTscope. Upcoming presentations will include works by Tschabalala Self, Emmi Whitehorse (Diné), and Chase Hall.

• Parrish x The FLAG Art Foundation is a new collaborative exhibition series that will take place in the Museum’s central galleries. The series will begin in March 2026 with a presentation of painting and sculpture by Ellsworth Kelly.

• 2026 Student Exhibition | March 8–April 26, 2026 Celebrating 73 years of this joyful annual tradition, the Student Exhibition showcases the work of over 1,000 young artists (kindergarten to high school) from Eastern Long Island schools. Students demonstrate creativity and technical skills across painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography.
 
MIDSUMMER GALA 2026

Honoring Philanthropist Ellen Katz
Honoring Artists Enoc Perez, Joan Semmel, Pat Steir, & Hiroshi Sugimoto
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Midsummer Gala Dinner & Afterglow Party

The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.