A great way to spend a winter afternoon - Exploring the Mattatuck Museum

A perfect way to spend a cold winter afternoon is to wander through the galleries of the Mattatuck Museum located on 144 West Main Street in Waterbury. The museum is hosting several evocative exhibitions that run through March 12 including Components, the Art of Robert Cottingham, Winter Scenes, Linda Nelson, Ceramics by Mindy Horn and Ann Mallory and Zing by James Biederman.

 Robert Cottingham is known for his paintings and and prints of the urban landscape with its neon signs, movie marquees, and shop fronts, Robert Cottingham often uses letters and words, isolated and treated like objects, as carriers of style and meaning. This exhibition features subjects that were originally derived from engineering textbooks. These "components" are machine parts that were likely, facets of large industrial machines.

Another exhibition, Winter Scenes by folk artist Linda Nelson are the folksy scenes of simple life inspired by her childhood days on a farm in Illinois. Small towns and country settings provided imagery for the calendars and cards that has made her work familiar. More than 25 works of are make up this show and focus on Nelson's winter and holiday scenes. 

 If you like work in clay, don't miss the ceramic exhibit by Mindy Horn and Ann Mallory. Their works vary in size: some are delicately small, inviting close-up inspection, while others are imposing in scale. These technically and aesthetically ambitious works are experimental in shape and dazzle in an array of glazes. 

 Zing is an exhibition that features the artwork of  James Biederman who started painting minimalist drawings and wall sculptures that examined two-and three-dimensional ways of seeing in the 1970s. In recent years he has moved to painting boldly colored gestural abstractions. This exhibition of works completed since 2010 shows the current state of the artistic journey, the legacy of both abstract expressionism and minimalism, and the manner in which Biederman has taken these movements and reshaped them in new ways.

The Gallery is open Tues. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sun. noon to 5 p.m. For a free newsletter on events and things to do and places to go  visit www.litchfieldhills.com to sign up!