“EIGHTY THREE”: This oil pastel on paper by Nicole Michaud is part of “Transient Brevity,” on view through December 19 at The Gallery at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor. The exhibition features the works of five Philadelphia artists representing a variety of media. A community reception is November 6 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The surreal, the ephemeral, and all that is fleeting awaits visitors to The Gallery at Mercer County Community College (MCCC) for the exhibition “Transient Brevity,” on display through December 19.

A community reception with the artists is November 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. in The Gallery.

“This exhibition examines the notion of ephemerality and how each of the artists chooses to represent that which is fleeting,” said Alice K. Thompson, director at The Gallery at Mercer. “The ephemeral quality of the work displayed varies from artist to artist.”

Five Philadelphia artists, representing a variety of media, take part in the exhibit. The intent of the show, Thompson said, is to bring works together from a cross-section of the visual arts community that speak both singularly and collectively.

“Some of the works represent direct interactions or interpretations with the surrounding environment; other works are somewhat autobiographical, with the collective works creating a narrative we are privileged to witness,” Thompson said. “Still, other works consider architectural elements in a deliberately ephemeral manner.”

The featured artists include Phillip C. Hart, whose work is based on an exploration of pattern recognition. The composition of his mobiles is based on form, order, and balance, constructed with simple materials, such as wire, sheet metal, and fishing line.

Sandra Hoffman, a watercolorist and oil painter, has been featured in many solo and group art exhibitions throughout the greater Philadelphia area, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hoffman is inspired by nature, and reworks and interprets subjects, with the paintings becoming environments generated by her imagination.

Nicole J. Michaud creates landscapes based on memories of places intermixed with echoes of other senses. With memory altering the landscape and altering the emotion and context, she strives to produce works that are reflective of not only external, physical landscapes, but the internal landscape of the mind.

Robert Sampson says his work is influenced by the chaos of urban living, particularly what most people overlook. He works to capture his initial reaction to these scenes, starting with a drawing and gradually building and adjusting color, leaving traces of the underpainting and evoking the way the urban past is simultaneously preserved and destroyed.

Ekaterina Vanovskaya, born in St. Petersburg, Russia, received a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MFA from Indiana University-Bloomington. Her work has been exhibited nationally at such venues as Sullivan Galleries in Chicago and Trestle Gallery in New York. Vanovskaya teaches at Drexel University and Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia.

The MCCC Gallery is located on the second floor of the Communications Building on the college’s West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. Gallery hours are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, visit www.mccc.edu/gallery.