Since relocating in 2023 to new Hamptons digs, the airy and appealing Stella Flame Gallery (2385 Montauk Highway, Bridgehampton, 631-899-4424), which sits next door to Candy Kitchen on Main Street, has burned brightly in the hub of Bridgehampton.
Owned by designer and curator Stella Flame, the gallery focuses on fine jewelry and contemporary pop art created by artists from around the globe and featured Flame’s own jewelry collection, made in her Istanbul studio. A selection of gift items, including textiles, perfumes, candles and vintage pieces makes for an intriguing shopping experience.
Stella Flame’s curated collection of pop art, jewelry and fun gift items, plus several community-centered events, puts a little panache in downtown Bridgehampton. (Photos by Doug Young)
Flame, who has a master’s in public administration and a certificate from the New York School of Interior Design, had a series of retail shops in Manhattan and, more recently, spent seven ears running her gallery in Sag Harbor.
“We had outgrown our jewelry-like space and had begun searching in earnest for a new locations. “After meeting a friend at Bobby Van’s,” she says, “I stopped into Candy Kitchen to say hello and, noticing that a unique space between the two was suddenly empty, asked longtime owner Gus Laggis to connect be to the leasing agent. The rest is history and I’m convinced that finding our space in Bridgehampton was destiny.”
Flame has enthusiastically embraced Bridgehampton’s community of business owners and had a hand in the creation of the Bridgehampton Chamber of Commerce, for which she serves as the group’s president.
The artists she represents are bold in their work: Miles Jaffe, whose sculptures of giant matchbooks and paint tubes hang on the gallery walls (his wittiest piece, perhaps, is an oversized BS meter); Craig Anthony Miller, a Brooklyn-born graphic artist who paints in a style resembling stained glass; and Sandy Cohen, who uses childhood pop-culture images in combination with adult themes in her paintings.
The jewelry designers Flame shows hail from across the world and include Will Hanigan, a third-generation pearl diver from Australia who uses South Sea pearls and of exceptional size and color in his pieces.
Flame’s own jewelry collection features carved gemstones, made-to-order “StoryChains” inspired by her mother’s old-school charm bracelet and her signature primroses, which appear in much of her work. Her pieces handcrafted in Istanbul, which she considers her adopted home and resides in for three to six months a year.
Designer, curator and nuturer of all things art, Flame ensures her gallery offers personalized and unique items that are meant to both inspire and awe. (Left photo by Marsin Mogielski, right by Doug Young)
“I’m really lucky to be a part of the fabric of several very different communities around the world and I value each of them,” she says. “They all inspire. There’s a sense of awe that’s associated with each, and I hope my passion and perseverance have contributed in some ways to each of those communities as they’ve enriched mine.”
This season, Flame plans to feature photographers at the intersection of music and fashion, including John Lennon’s personal photographer Dean Isidro, and visionary videographer/photographer and longtime Patti Smith collaborator Steven Sebring.
Painter sandy Cohen opened the season May 17 with her boundary-pushing new works “Girls Wanna Get With Me, Boys Wanna Get With Me.” A Champagne reception with Cohen and Pinar Hakim happened earlier this month to usher in the summer season.
The Stella Flame Gallery is open Thursday to Monday from noon to 5 p.m., and open daily from Memorial Day to Columbus Day weekend from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with occassional extended hours and by appointment.
