‘Between permanent and ephemeral’

“Cautionary Configuration” (paint, painted paper, print material and linen, collaged/adhered to panel), by Aaron Wexler, in his show “Everywhere You Go Is a Shape,’’ at Heather Gaudio Fine Art Projects, New Canaan, Conn., June 4-July 23.

The gallery says:

“Wexler uses sourced materials ranging from photographs, printed imagery, illustrations, and his own drawings to create intricately collaged panels and works on paper. Each element is carefully layered and woven into a graphic framework of color, form, and varying textures. Shapes and lines reveal and conceal themselves as they navigate and compete for space on the surface.

In addition to the optical network of color and forms, Wexler plays with texture and weight through the use of different materials. Pieces of coarse and raw canvas are juxtaposed with thinly painted, more transparent Japanese paper, suggesting a push and pull between the permanent and the ephemeral.’’

New Canaan Country Club circa 1906. Since the early 20th Century New Canaan has been an affluent New York City suburb.

The famed editor Maxwell Perkins (1884-1947) praised New Canaan, where he lived from 1924 to his death:

“{T}he charm of New Canaan, a New England village at the end of a single track railroad with almost wild country in three directions, i.e. wild to the Easterner. An ideal way for bringing up children in the way they should go, girls anyhow.”

Moffly Media noted in 2009:

“Max Perkins, who died sixty-two years ago this June, was the most important American literary figure that you may never have heard of. He wrote no books of his own; his daughters insisted he couldn’t spell or punctuate; and his rivals thought him unsophisticated. Yet as a book editor for Charles Scribner’s Sons, where he worked from 1914 until his death in 1947, he possessed a matchless internal compass about writers and writing, shepherding into print the great works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Edmund Wilson, Ring Lardner and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.’’

The Maxwell E. Perkins House, in New Canaan.

— Photo by Staib

We need all the light we can get

“Untitled Mosaic” (glass, concrete and steel), by Ann Gardner, in her show “Expanding the Perception of Light’’, at Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, Conn., Nov. 20 through Jan. 8

The gallery says:

“Gardner’s artistic practice stems from a life-long exploration of light, color, pattern, and volume. Using one of the most ancient man-made materials, glass, her sculptures are presented in a range of formats, shapes, and scales. Gardner hand-cuts colored glass into tiny mosaic pieces and reassembles them onto steel armature structures. These come in a variety of forms, such as curved geometric shapes, tubular ovals, waved panels, star bursts or round compositions created in a series. Their volumes protrude into space and recede into themselves, thereby allowing for additional flickering of light, color, and reflection to take place. Some of the sculptures are mounted onto walls while others are free-standing or suspended from the ceiling.’’

One of many significant buildings in New Canaan: This Greek Revival house , built in 1836, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The house was home to Maxwell E. Perkins (1884-1947), the legendary editor, early promoter and friend of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald Thomas Wolfe and some other famous 20th Century authors.

In 2019 the house was acquired by the New Canaan-based Onera Foundation, with the plan to convert the house into an architectural museum and exhibit space.