PORTLAND MUSEUM OF ART | For some years now, Anna Hepler has been creating woodcuts and wire sculptures of floating ball-like nests. "Makeshift" (July 24 through October 17) may be her most ambitious project yet as the Maine artist fills the museum's Great Hall with a "nest-like mesh of salvaged and sewn plastic." Also on view are watercolors by Winslow Homer (through September 6) and "American Moderns" (through September 12), featuring works on paper by Edward Hopper, John Marin, Rockwell Kent, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andrew Wyeth, and more.
7 Congress Street, Portland | 207.775.6148 | portlandmuseum.org
FARNSWORTH MUSEUM OF ART | "Alex Katz: New Work" (June 12 through December 31) presents recent paintings by the New Yorker, who has summered in Lincolnville since 1954. These paintings of maple leaves, ladies, and, in homage to Monet, yellow lily pads exemplify Katz's signature large, airy, suave style.
10 Museum Street, Rockland | 207.596.6457 | farnsworthmuseum.org
FAWCETT'S ANTIQUE TOY & ART MUSEUM | Artist John Fawcett's museum is an astonishing dream library of American-boy pop culture, chockablock with first-edition Disney toys and watches, rare atomic-themed toys, Gene Autry's pink-and-yellow satin rodeo shirt from the 1940s, and the duds the radio Lone Ranger wore. Imagine if Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner was hot for Mickey Mouse cartoons instead of Renaissance paintings, and you'll get the idea.
3506 Route 1, Waldoboro | 207.832.7398 | home.gwi.net/~fawcetoy/index.htm
NEW HAMPSHIRE
CURRIER MUSEUM OF ART | "Jerome Liebling: Capturing the Human Spirit" (June 19 through September 19) explores the Amherst resident's documentary photos of New Yorkers, a Minnesota slaughterhouse, and farming in Massachusetts's Pioneer Valley. The images are rich, like the work of his teacher Paul Strand, but also gritty. He aims, he's said, to "figure out where the pain was." Also on view through September 6 are Ipswich, Massachusetts, sculptor George Sherwood's shimmering, gliding stainless-steel whirligigs.
150 Ash Street, Manchester | 603.669.6144 | currier.org
HOOD MUSEUM OF ART | "Made in Hollywood" (July 10 through September 12) presents studio portraits and promotional shots of Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Orson Wells, Rita Hayworth, Fred Astaire, and Ginger Rogers from Hollywood's "golden era." It's a survey of glamorous vintage dreams.
Wheelock Street, Dartmouth College, Hanover | 603.646.2808 | hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu
Read Greg Cook's blog at gregcookland.com/journal.
