On a sunny August morning in 1990, a retired lawyer living on the Vineyard was setting up his presentation for that year’s All Island Art Show at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs.

“I’m getting back into the spirit of Martha’s Vineyard,” he told a Gazette reporter at the time. It was a comment the reporter said reflected the atmosphere of the day. And it’s a sentiment, according to Gazette records, that has marked the last half-century for the All Island Art Show, which opens for its 50th year Monday at the Tabernacle.

Alison Shaw Gallery Fine are photography of Alison Shaw. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 2 to 6 p.m., or by appointment at 88 Dukes County avenue, Oak Bluffs, tel. 508-696-7429 or alisonshaw.com.

Current exhibit: Black and White continues through August 8.

Abode Gallery and Shop Paintings, photography and sculpture. Open by appointment at 224 Oak Lane, West Tisbury, tel. 914-830-9288 or vineyardabode.com.

Lori, Jonas and Rabbi Joshua Plaut are hosting two special summer art happenings featuring a new photography show entitled Sparks of Splendor: Portraits of Jewish Women From East to West. Exhibition and artist’s receptions occur on Sunday, August 3 and Sunday August 10, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in West Tisbury.

It is a pleasure this season to see an exhibition of paintings in which the subject is a serious exploration of an artist’s personal landscape. The show of paintings by Sherrill Blalock opening tonight with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Louisa Gould Gallery is such an exhibition. Appropriately named Cabinet of Curiosities, the paintings represent a complex psychological story of the artist’s view of the world.

It was a sensual delight and a writer’s demise, a step into a clichéd “different world.” Hypnotic trance reggae beats were clearly amplified from a Macintosh laptop computer. The transition was complete with a climate change, from the cool breeze off of Oak Bluffs’ Sunset Lake to the protected cove of Suesan Stovall’s garage. But this is not merely a garage, and this is not, in fact, a different world. It is a familiar and proximate one, only a few minutes from the main drag and harbor in Oak Bluffs.

Carol Craven Gallery welcomes the public to an artists’ reception on Sunday, August 3, for exhibitions of the following gallery artists:

Christie Scheele’s show Changing Winds, her fifth with the gallery, is a selection of atmospheric landscape paintings of Martha’s Vineyard and New York.

Skip Petersen, a graduate of the Pratt Institute of Fine Arts, presents a gallery show of her work, which she defines as “abstract oil in very bright colors” — hence the title of the show, Brilliance.

The exhibition opens tomorrow, Saturday, August 2, at the Pebble Building of Featherstone Center for the Arts, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. The show will hang through August 13.

Jessica Pisano, founder of Belushi Pisano Gallery and an established artist, opens a new solo exhibition with a reception tonight, Friday, August 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the gallery on State Road in Vineyard Haven.

Over the past decade, Ms. Pisano has combined her black and white photography with painting. Using her photography as her canvas, Ms. Pisano paints with media including, oil, pastel and acrylics. In this series of new work, she will showcase her mixed media work presented on birch panel, tile and antique tin or wood frames.

Opening Reception

The Granary Gallery at the Red Barn invites all to an opening reception Sunday, August 3, from 5 to 7 p.m. at its Old County Road space in West Tisbury. The new exhibition features Steve Mills’s new photo-realist paintings of familiar objects and Vineyard scenes, Anda Styler’s impressionistic plein air-style acrylics depicting Island architecture and landscape, as well as new work from Diana van Nes and a trunk show for one day only of work by Cape Cod jeweler Ross Coppelman.

Domestic Secrets, an exhibition of photographs by Julie Jaffe, opens with a reception this evening, Friday, August 1, from 5 to 6:45 p.m. at the Bank of Martha’s Vineyard in Chilmark, across from the Community Center on State Road.