Valentina Akerman had been turning the idea of starting a gallery over in her mind for at least a decade when a friend suggested she and her husband, the artist Joe Bradley, look at a house for rent in Amagansett, on Long Island’s East End, that was zoned for mixed use. Akerman, who grew up in Bogotá, Colombia, and has worked as an architect and freelance art director, felt the time was right. So, it turned out, was the space, a 1701 farmhouse set a ways back from Amagansett’s Main Street. The couple and their four children, who also live in Manhattan, moved in May 2024, keeping the ground-floor rooms on the sparer side so they could hold Galerie Sardine.
The sardine is a humble creature, and the operation — which is largely run by Akerman, 49, though Bradley, 50, helps — is certainly a small fish compared with New York’s megagalleries, but it’s also a mighty one. In the year and change it’s existed, it’s attracted serious artists and a slew of other fans. Part of the appeal is the warmth of its setting, which is not merely homey but an actual home, and of Akerman herself. Both were on display one evening in August, when she and Bradley hosted an opening party for the gallery’s latest show, “Song of Chloris,” comprising vibrant impasto paintings by the Norwegian artist Ida Ekblad, 44, ceramic vessels glazed with impressionistic floral motifs by the married Los Angeles-based duo Erin and Sam Falls, 46 and 41, and elegant wood and stone furniture by the Brazilian-born designer Pali Cornelsen, 45.
Word of the event, which took place on the front lawn, must have traveled, because what was originally meant to be a 40-person dinner swelled to encompass 77 guests. Akerman, a lifelong connector of people who’s always striving for something “more congenial, more fruitful, more personal and more truthful” than your typical art world gathering, says that if she could have, she would’ve accommodated even more. There’s a chance, on account of the building’s owner’s plans, that this will be Galerie Sardine’s last summer at the farmhouse. If that is the case, the venture will continue elsewhere — another show will open in a loft on SoHo’s Mercer Street this fall — but Akerman and her family will be sad to leave the home behind. Still, they’ll always have their memories of that night, with its robust creative crowd, many members of whom lingered long past sunset, with some staying on for an after-party in the living room during which the group put to use Cornelsen’s furniture and Akerman’s karaoke machine.
The attendees: Akerman understands the urge to fill gallery events with big players and potential buyers, but her feeling about a guest list is that it should contain a lot of artists. Eddie Martinez, 48, Sam Moyer, 42, and Marina Adams, 64, were all present. Cindy Sherman, 71, stopped by for cocktails, and Stanley Whitney, 78, stayed for dinner — both are Galerie Sardine regulars. “I can’t believe these titans of the art world whom I’d admired from afar would come and come back,” says Akerman, who was similarly honored that Ekblad, whom she’d first reached out to via Instagram, not only took a chance on showing with her but traveled from Oslo for the opening. Other creative types, including the writer and interviewer Aminatou Sow, 40, the dealer and interior designer Michael Bargo, 42, and the actresses Dakota and Elle Fanning, 31 and 27, were also in attendance. Akerman and Bradley’s children Leif, 21, Basil, 15, and Alma, 11, helped serve and move things along, while their youngest, the 6-year-old Nova, Akerman says, “helped by being adorable.”
The table: The afternoon of the event, Akerman went across the street to the antiques shop Nellie’s of Amagansett and borrowed two extra tables from its owner, her friend Connie Dankmyer, arranging them perpendicularly on either end of a long string of rented ones. On top, she placed white linen tablecloths and beeswax candles, “a nonnegotiable” for Akerman because she feels they provide “a beautiful luminosity” and a nice, natural smell. Interspersed between them were serving platters and ceramic mugs made with pigmented clay by the Brooklyn-based artist Isabel Rower, the latter filled with flowers (cosmos, rhododendrons) from the nearby Amber Waves farm shop and herbs (fennel, coriander) from the house’s garden.
The food: With a large family and a passion for good food, Akerman is such a fixture at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan that, for a time, vendors there assumed she was a chef. Food has also been integral to the life of the gallery. If that aspect is done well, Akerman says, “people will feel that you really want them around, and they will show up.” For this get-together, she wanted the sort of slow, family-style meal common in Italy, and thought to enlist Elijah Tarlow, 24, the son of the restaurateurs Andrew Tarlow and Kate Huling (old friends of Akerman’s) and a sous chef at their Manhattan place, Borgo.
August in New York doesn’t leave a cook wanting for fresh ingredients. Instead, the challenge lay in providing for the large crowd without a commercial kitchen. Tarlow, his brother, Roman Tarlow, and his friend and fellow chef Aiden Dummigan set up in the house’s backyard garden, from which emerged crudités; fava bean purée and tonnato Elijah had prepared beforehand; and sourdough from She Wolf Bakery in Brooklyn. Initially, he’d considered making pasta on-site for the midcourse, but he finds it doesn’t scale well so pivoted to a corn risotto with peperonata. The trio cooked the corn and fillets of striped bass on a konro, a Japanese grill that runs on charcoal made from ubame oak and, Elijah says, takes out some of the guesswork of preparing fish by “burning super hot and super controlled.” Dessert, simple and scrumptious, consisted of berries and candied deep-fried almonds on a bed of pastry cream steeped with fig leaves.
The drinks: Upon arrival, guests milled about with drinks — crisp muscadet or a nonalcoholic aperitif made with an Aplós botanical blend and garnished with mint — procured from a makeshift bar equipped with zinc buckets filled with ice. “I like it to feel simple, like you’re having a big cookout,” says Akerman. During dinner, servers poured txakoli, a slightly fizzy white wine from the Basque Country, which Elijah thought would pair well with the food, as well as green glass bottles of still and sparkling spring water from the local business Love Eats.
The music: “We typically don’t have music at Galerie Sardine. I like that the quiet breeds conversation” says Akerman. “But Pali was adamant that, for that night, we should have Brazilian music in the house,” into which guests wandered intermittently to look at the art. They were met with a playlist of bossa nova and tropicália songs played at a low volume. The after-dinner karaoke was less muted and featured such classics as “Blue Jeans” by Lana Del Rey and “I Got You Babe” by Sonny & Cher.
The conversation: Topics of conversation included “Seaweed Stories,” a documentary about the vital marine organism that was directed by Jake Sumner, a guest at the dinner, and set to be screened at the gallery the following weekend; the literary fiction that Ekblad’s artist husband, Matias Faldbakken, writes on the side; and the Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s new movie, “Sentimental Value,” in which Elle Fanning stars. Also: sailboats, 1970s New York, Zohran Mamdani and the fullish moon.
An entertaining tip: Once an event is underway, Akerman’s aim is not to fuss about the details but rather to engage, “from a place of true interest and honesty,” with as many people as she can. “I really try to give them my time and attention,” she says. At this dinner, she made a traditional toast in which she extolled community, art, friendship and beauty, but she also enacted a Chinese tradition that she’d learned about from the Chinese painter Yan Pei-Ming and his patrons in Burgundy, and that she recommends to others: “When you’re at a big table, stand up at some point and go around and have mini toasts with different pockets of people.”
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