As a child, Valentina Akerman remembers overhearing her mother tell a friend, “The problem with Valentina is that she likes everything.” Memorable at the time for its tongue-in-cheek candor, the quip has taken on a prescient quality in the years since—today, the curator sees her mother’s observation as an early sign of a powerful desire to do it all.
The latest manifestation of this urge is Galerie Sardine, the Amagansett art space Akerman founded with her husband, artist Joe Bradley, just last summer. While spending time out East getting the program running, the pair decided to move into the building—a rustic 18th-century farmhouse—as well. Despite the whirlwind speed of the gallery’s rise to recognition (the outfit counts Larry Gagosian as a fan and patron), the experience has unfolded quite naturally for Akerman and Bradley.
For one thing, location was a no-brainer: Amagansett holds a special place in the couple’s story (the beach town was an impulse destination for one of their first dates, in the dead of winter). It’s also a font of creative inspiration: “The Hamptons has layers to its history—a refuge from the city for artists, for weirdos,” says Akerman. Galerie Sardine channels this haven-for-weirdos spirit with a program that feels insistently attuned to its location. This makes sense, given that the couple lives alongside the work—a choice that also felt natural. “There is an intimacy to being in this old, unassuming, 1700s farmhouse. The texture is a bit more domestic.”
The gallery’s summer program kicked off first with a residency for jewelry designer Jean Prounis in June and concurrent shows with painter Julian Kent and artist Joline Kwakkenbos. Then came an exhibition with painter Tenki Hiramatsu and a series of light sculptures by Nate Lowman, an artist and friend. The pair will be hosting a few more personal happenings at the house on the side—including a Beni Rugs summer residency featuring designs by Colin King, and two dinners in the garden helmed by Mina Stone and Elijah Tarlow.
“The great thing about summer programming is that you can be a little bit more unbuttoned,” Akerman observes. If the pair are taking a leisurely approach to the season, you wouldn’t know it—alongside the exhibitions in situ, a Sardine program curated by Akerman is on view at Le Consortium Museum in Dijon, France, through Sept. 7, and Bradley is showing a new body of work at David Zwirner’s London outpost until Aug. 1. This geographic and conceptual spread is a sign of more far-flung Sardine programming to come, and a strong vote in favor of doing it all.
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