Posh Hamptons town to sue gallery over 60-foot-tall public artwork: Friggin junkyard mess

Ship this thing out of here!Hamptonites are panning a towering new 60-foot sculpture made of a dozen steel shipping containers as a “grotesque” and “hideous” monstrosity – and hope a court will banish the “junkyard mess” from their posh enclave.  Los Angeles artist Matt Johnson’s massive outdoor sculpture, “Meditating Figure,” went up along with two other large-scale works at a Montauk art gallery called The Ranch on June 27.The 26-acre site on what was once protected farmland is private property.“They’re grotesque and ugly and out of place on Old Montauk Highway,” moaned East Hampton resident Mitchel Agoos, who added that the “monstrosity” of each 40-foot-long container reminds him of the East 42nd street building that’s on the brink of collapse.“It detracts from the gorgeous landscape.

I wouldn’t want this near me – it’s dreck.”The behemoth is “unsightly,” blasted Dr.Jennifer Jablow of Southampton.

“Most of the sculptures out here enhance the area’s nature – not fight it.”“We live out here for the beauty of the nature, and this feels very rough,” she said.The gallery defends the cheeky piece as a socioeconomic metaphor – a “deity built by capital and consumption; a reality of the daily contemporary experience.” It described a ”contemplative giant” sitting cross-legged in the lotus position with arms resting on his knees. But the East Hampton Town board, which oversees the hamlet of Montauk, felt anything but namaste Tuesday when it voted 4 to 1 to take legal action against the posh gallery after it allegedly ignored multiple charges, including failures to obtain a building permit and certificate of occupancy, spokesman Patrick Derenze confirmed to The Post. Town attorney Jake Turner argued that the structure – “melding large pieces of metal together” – required safety checks.“If we don’t take action then we are compromising the safety of the residents.”The lawyer argued that e...