Digital love: The safest variety

“Unrequited Love 2,’’ by Jeroen Nelemans, in the group show “Love Letters,” at Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vt. — COVID-19 permitting.

The gallery says that the show “examines love by focusing on individual relationships and love past, love lost and love lived. The artists explore the theme of love as it exists beyond preconceived notions and societal structures, viewing it as an action, an emotion and a driving force. In the artwork of ‘Love Letters,’ love is memory, honor, hope and so much more. The concept of love is one of the rare truly universal aspects of humanity, and ‘Love Letters’ taps into that universality, framing it in the context of the much newer concept of the digital era.’’

Love before and since the digital era started

“Unrequited Love 2,’’ by Jeroen Nelemans, in the show “Love Letters,’’ at Helen Day Art Center, in the famous ski town of Stowe, Vt., through April 18.

”’Love Letters’ celebrates love and relationships through the lens of the digital era, contrasting the works of artists working before it began with those of artists working currently,’’ says the gallery.

The Trapp Family Lodge , in Stowe. The Trapps are the family that The Sound of Music is based on.

— Photo by Royalbroil

Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest mountain and the primary ski area for Stowe.

In downtown Stowe

— Photo by Dudesleeper

2 heads better than one?

"Morpheous' (bronze), by Lionel Smith, in the group show "Exposed,'' at the Helen Day Art Center,  Stowe, Vt., through Oct. 21.

The gallery says: "Lionel Smit is known for large-scale portraiture both on canvas and as sculpture; he is one of South Africa's preeminent contemporary artists. His process as an artist today remains adaptive, inventive and physically engaging. Mr. Smit's sculpture 'Morpheus' conveys a strong sense of duality with the two bronze heads connected in perfect symmetry. ''

You'll eat alone

"Oak Trees and Picnic Table,'' by Sandra Shenk, at the Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vt., Dec. 2-31.

Earth, fire and water adventure

From "Beyond the Far Blue Mountains,'' a 50-minute, three-screen video by Molly Davies, at the Helen Day Art Center, in Stowe, Vt., through July 31. It's about a young German girl's adventure that includes tests involving earth, fire and water.

And renting of cloth

"Grief'' (fabric), by Liz Collins, in the show "Intimacy + Materiality,'' at the Helen Day Art Center, Stowe. Vt., through April 10.

Treadmill for textiles

 

"Come, run in me'' (video, audio, wood, vinyl, acrylic, treadmill, spray paint, LED light strips, speaker, fabric and tag fastener), by CHRISTY CHOW, from the series "Laborland,'' in the show "Now You See Me: The Best of the Northeast Masters of Fine Arts,'' at the Helen Day Art Center, in Stowe, Vt., through Aug. 23.

With this installation, she wants us to consider the low-wage laborers needed to produce our clothes.

Maybe, but she may as likely be getting people to think about their local YMCA.

After the architecture

 

From MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER'S show "The Age of Consequences,'' at the Helen Day Art Center, in Stowe, Vt., through Nov. 23.

Mr. Christopher's  photos look at abandoned and often dilapidated spaces in America. These are  testimonials and historic markers  that question ''the path of this country by reminding the viewers of these decayed and rusted industries, churches and mental health facilities...''

He says that "This is my collection of the things I found in the aftermath, evidence of who we once were and what would become of us. Our era would become known as the 'The Age of Consequences,' and while we knew deep in our hearts that things were falling apart, there was a time in the beginning where we could still look the other way."

But the concrete is real

 

"Fictitious Force" (outdoor sculpture), by  BEKA GOEDDE,  in the "Exposed'' show at the Helen Day Art Center, in  Stowe, Vt., through Oct. 15.

This piece is  a cast-concrete  tile formation of a braid rug.

Ms.  Goedde says: "A fictitious force, in physics, is an apparent force; it is not due to one object or another accelerating but instead the natural frame of reference itself is accelerating. The rug is a household object I employ especially for its concentric, circular, or centripetal pattern.''

We're in the heart of New England's outdoor art season.