RIDGEFIELD — The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art’s two major winter exhibitions will remain on view only through the end of this weekend. The shows, “Best Of The Season: Selected Highlights From the 1998-99 Manhattan Gallery Season” and “Playing Off Time: Contemporary Photographers in Dialogue with the Past,” both close Sunday, January 9.

“Best of the Season” is exactly what the exhibition’s name implies. The collection on view represents the museum’s latest offering of a biennial group exhibition survey that follows the Aldrich’s “Highlights of the Season” shows of the 1960s. Museum director Harry Philbrick selected works in a variety of media by 28 contemporary artists of all ages and at varying junctures of their careers.

Participating in “Best of the Season” are the following artists: Janine Antoni, Jean Blackburn, Mat Collishaw, Bonnie Collura, Petah Coyne, Thomas Demand, Emily Eveleth, Roland Flexner, Graham Gillmore, Tim Hawkinson, Alexei Hay, John Kalymnios, Micah Lexier, Winifred Lutz, Loren Madsen, Inigo Manglano0Ovalie, Barry McGee, Ernesto Neto, Rachael Neubauer, Roxy Paine, Matthew Ritchie, Michelle Rollman, Alyson Shotz, Claude Simard, Robin Tewes, Momoya Torimitsu, Stephen Westfall and Zhang Huan.

A total of 47 pieces are presented for visitors to examine and ponder. The pieces are as varied as the artists’ career junctures, ranging from oil on canvas paintings, a video installation and a video still to mixed media and a full installation that includes wood, metal, paint and six bed frames (see Jean Blackburn’s “Mix”).

For the second major exhibition now on view, the museum actually issued a challenge for its participating artists. The challenge was accepted and met by Bill Barrette, Jim Dow, Cheryl Van Hooven, Miranda Lichtenstein, Bob Mitchell, John Pfahl, Shellburne Thurber, Philip Trager, Catherine Vanaria, Tom Zetterstrom, and the team of Theodoré Coloumbe and Alan Krathaus.

For “Playing Off Time,” the museum invited 11 contemporary photographers to use historical photographs dating from the 1860s to the 1960s as a starting point for creating new works based on the experience of looking at photographs from the past. The show was specifically not conceived as a rephotography project (where photographs simply present “then and now”); instead, the photographers were challenged to use the ideas and associations of the photographs to create new images of their own.

Aldrich Museum assistant director Richard Klein conceived and curated “Playing Off Time.” It was Mr Klein who decided to keep the photographs within the area of Danbury, Norwalk, Ridgefield and Wilton.

“These towns, which are equal parts urban and suburban, are linked physically by Route 7, the Danbury branch of the Metro north railroad, and the Norwalk River watershed, as well as historically and economically,” Mr Klein said in explaining his decision.

“The selected photographers, all of whom are known for bodies of work that deal with concepts of place, time, or history, [worked] with local historical societies and archivists. The resulting new works can be looked at as photographic research projects as much as art.”

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art is at 258 Main Street (Route 35) in Ridgefield; telephone 203/438-4519. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 5 pm.