In Fern Apfel’s exhibit, words embody the art

Language pervades the subtle, layered “Abide With Me” show in Troy

The collage-based paintings of Fern Apfel might owe something to what are considered the first fine art collages, like those painted in 1912 by Picasso incorporating bits of newspaper on the canvas.

But Apfel’s are not collages at all. They are paintings that look as though old letters, playing cards and other bits of ephemera have been glued to flat, geometric surfaces. Though painted with great detail, the works are also not quite in the style called trompel’oeil because they do not attempt an illusion of depth. These are detailed paper objects kept flat, often surrounded by large unadorned areas.

When you first see her show of recent work, “Abide with Me,” at the Arts Center in Troy, the hard geometry dominates: White rectangles scatter over squarish wood panels, sometimes in neat little whorls, and other rectangles neatly square up against each other. Up close you discover the faint texture of acrylic paint throughout, and the carefully painted words.

The texts are where the works stir curiosity. In the gallery, it would take perseverance to read all through the longer pieces (many handwritten, others played out in simulations of mechanical fonts or typewriters). But I imagine at home on a wall you’d gradually whittle your way through the layers of words, mining any potential meaning.

Let’s take one, “Darling Parents,” displaying the charm of a real typewritten letter complete with uncorrected mistakes. The source material (which I take to be real) seems to be postmarked 1935 on an envelope also in the painting. One small excerpt: “Enclosed (if I don’t forget to put it in) is a deal which came with the goo Miss Mara told me to get for the two l blisters.” It amounts to nothing in particular — except a sliver of prosaic life, which might be something after all.

Other paintings approach text in a more fabricated way, the words applied directly to the design without mimicking an outside original like a diary page or letter. One, using a bold gold-onvermillion palette, begins by conjugat

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Photos by William Jaeger "Baby's Hat," 2020-22 and "The Red Dress," 2020 (both acrylic on wood panel) from Fern Apfel's “Abide By Me” exhibit in Troy.

"Playing Solo," 2022 (acrylic and pen on wood panel) from Fern Apfel's exhibit at the Art Center of the Capital Region in Troy.

Fern Apfel’s 2022 “Woman to Woman,” acrylic and pen on wood panel.