WATER MILL, NY.- The Parrish Art Museum’s creative off-site summer series Parrish Road Show features the Bellport-based artist collective Auto Body, which transform common roadside signage into public art through text-based artworks positioned along a 35-mile span of Montauk Highway. Auto Body reimagines the advertising medium from an object that promotes consumerism to one that calls attention to natural environments of the region. The exhibition is on view from August 1 through September 4.
The project also serves to enhance the perception of Montauk Highway, one of the oldest roadways on Long Island, from a utilitarian thoroughfare to a space for viewing art. Several local businesses along the highway collaborate by offering their property as sites for the artworks, which consist of nature-themed colloquial phrases painted on wood boards. Each work highlights a nearby natural site: the Great South Bay, a bird sanctuary, a hiking trail, or a scenic outlook. Informational material at each site will map out and provide insight on the locations.
“I’m excited to work with Auto Body to connect the East End to other areas of Long Island, in this case Bellport, and all that lies in between,” said Corinne Erni, Curator of Special Projects at the Parrish. “We invite visitors to rediscover an historic highway and the natural beauty surrounding it, as well as the local businesses—farms, motels, canoe rentals, restaurants—along the road who graciously agreed to host the artworks.”
The public is invited to meet the artists at two receptions. The opening reception will take place on Saturday, August 12 from 3:00 to 5:00pm, at Bush Farms and Museum. Originally a dairy farm that was converted into a duck farm in the 1940s, it has been owned for nearly 40 years by Ron Bush, whose collection of farm tools, equipment, trucks, and tractors are contained in eleven buildings on the five-acre property. Guests at the Road Show opening will have a rare opportunity to explore the farm collection, as well as a display of custom footwear by Bush’s aunt, Elizabeth Katz, who designed shoes for first ladies and movie stars.
The closing reception on Sunday, August 27, from 5:00 to 7:00pm, will take place outdoors at the Parrish Art Museum, the easternmost site of the installation. The building, designed by the award-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, was inspired by barns that were repurposed as studios by artists drawn to the region for decades. Both receptions are free and open to the public.
Parrish Road Show is presented annually in August and features temporary projects by artists from this region. Ongoing since 2012, the series is designed to deeply connect creativity to everyday life by presenting exhibitions and programs in unexpected places—from public parks to historic sites—across the area.
Founded in Bellport, New York, in 2014, Auto Body has long relied on the Long Island environment as a source of inspiration, a resource, and a venue for innovative “actions.” Originally based in a self-renovated auto body shop on Main Street in Bellport Village, the group has since expanded beyond its physical space to produce installations on locations including landscapes, rooftops, attics, ferry boats, farms, and beaches. Exhibitions range from Salt Talk, a water color exhibition aboard a fishing charter boat, to Dioramas, a series of large-scale bamboo structures featuring found objects, paintings, and figures on farmland. The group is composed of eight practicing artists and designers, each with a unique relationship to Long Island: Tyler Healy, Johnny Knapp, Aria McManus, Claire Read, Georgia Read, Will Rose, Quinn Sherman, and Charlie Stravinsky. Auto Body operates both as a collective producing work collaboratively and as curators organizing projects and exhibitions.
