The Evolving Icon exhibit opens in October at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum

Keith, oil painting by
Cary Gersh on exhibit at the lockwood mathews mansions museum in Norwalk connecticut in october 2026 — Keith, oil painting by
Cary Gersh

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is partnering with The Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists to present a new group exhibition titled “The Evolving Icon.” The exhibit opens to the public on October 7, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. and will run through January 3, 2027. Access to the exhibition is included with the purchase of a guided house tour at the museum.

The schedule includes an exclusive preview during the museum’s “Red Carpet Gala” on October 3, 2026. An Artists’ Reception is scheduled for Thursday, October 8, 2026, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Curated by museum trustee and Art Committee Chair Gail Ingis, the exhibition focuses on hand-rendered portraiture ranging from traditional realism and classical techniques to contemporary and conceptual interpretations. Featured artworks examine historical figures through modern approaches, portray present-day individuals, and represent potential future icons.

Seventeen artists are featured in the exhibition: Don Arsenault, Gigi Barrett, Linda Champanier, Michel Delafontaine, Katy Despot, Cary Gersh, Jeanine Jackson, Arlene Markoya Lawrence, Ana Paula Martins, Deborah Howland-Murray, Sharon Rubinstein, Nancy Stember, Elizabeth Thomas, Connie van Rhyn, Cindy Wagner, ShawnaLee Waterbury-Kwashnak, and Robert Francis Whelan.

Classically trained portrait and landscape artist Laurel Stern Boeck served as the juror for the exhibit. Boeck studied at the Art Students League of New York, earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, trained at the John Murray Atelier, and completed an MFA at the New York Academy of Art. Her portrait and landscape works are held in private collections, universities, boardrooms, supreme courts, and institutions in Washington.

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The Evolving Icon exhibit opens in October at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum