By Chisel and Brush

Wesley Fordyce sculpts in wood and stone, unleashing heroic female forms; Jenna Bauer works in oil paint, limning fields of color and light. Fordyce's sculptures imply a sense of permanence, his materials seemingly strong enough to last a lifetime. Bauer's work is one moment suspended on the canvas, something ethereal pinned in place. But neither artist's works are as static as the materials that comprise them. Wait for the light to move, and the statue ages; the colors in the painting waver and represent a different moment. Time works on the piece and the viewer, and the impermanence of it all — life, art, human endeavor — peeks out briefly, winks and disappears back into the stone, sinks beneath the brush strokes. Wesley Fordyce/Jenna Bauer: New Works, an exhibition of sculpture and painting, opens at Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts (3151 Cherokee Street; www.fortgondo.com) with a free public reception from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, May 9. The show remains up through Saturday, May 31; gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday.
Fri., May 9; Saturdays. Starts: May 9. Continues through May 31, 2008