GOSHEN – Relics, paintings, and remnants of a bygone age mark the landscape at the Sperlak Gallery & Sculpture Gardens, a sprawling property that skirts the Goshen wetlands of Middle Township.
Walking trails guide visitors through a fictional history that feels real as Stan Sperlak, owner, artist, and orator, tells guests about the secrets and fragments he installed here.
A trip to the 24-acre property, with 3 miles of trails, is like stepping into a portal to a magical-realist version of the Cape.
Fitting, then, that a massive portal sculpture greets guests at the front of the property, made of reclaimed materials from Atlantic Cape Fisheries. It brings guests into Sperlak’s domain. He loves to give visitors tours of the land, not to bore them with facts but to bring them into the vibrant world he has created.
He tells many tales: Knotted cast-iron hands hold an ancient seed above the ground, which waits to finally find life in the dirt below. An American spaceship launch went awry due to excessive partying, but the Russians were blamed. The exploded remnants tell the tale on the marsh’s edge.
An electrically charged stainless steel column whispers dark secrets to Sperlak, who bought the property decades ago when land was cheap. He has transformed it into a music venue, event space, and terraformed property that invites guests to uncover its secrets.
Most of the art — more than 100 installations along the property’s trails — is lighthearted and deliberately non-obtuse. But that is not to betray the technical proficiency behind their creation.
Sperlak put in most of the installations himself with the help of his assistant Andrew Brant, a local high schooler and family friend, and helpers who have come and gone over the years. Many of what he called his favorite installations were reclaimed from the brink of obscurity, commissioned, or donated by his artist friends and acquaintances.
“The Turret Gate,” a 2,000-pound, medieval-looking hammered-steel wall by artist David Beckwith, was rescued from underneath a pile of construction materials in New York.
It could keep an army out. It now serves as the backdrop for a mighty suit of knight’s armor.
Just around the corner is “Stanhenge,” a large circle of rock that guards an ancient sword that only the ruler of the property can unleash. Sperlak loves to set up a trick for young guests: He will brief two young children, telling the first to try and fail to pull the swod out.
He tells the second child to pull it out with confidence. The sword, not stuck at all, comes out the second much to the surprise of tour groups who assumed the first child was putting in a herculean effort.
In a past life, Sperlak founded Cape Shore Gardens, a popular landscaping group on Route 9. Much of the success he had as a landscaper was helpful in transforming his marsh property. He uses resilient materials that have been proven to survive the Cape’s salt air and rough winds.
Much of the property was overgrown with phragmites when he first bought the property in the late 1990s. Sperlak spent years mowing, whacking, pushing back against those thick grasses that hogged the marsh’s edge. The resulting trails, which Sperlak and a small crew resurface every January, come right to the water’s edge. Fiddler crabs, with their one giant claw, are a common sight here.
It is important to Sperlak that the ecosystems on his property are well-preserved. Wild turkeys, otters and even, once, a bear, roam the property. Every plant on the property is a native species, obsessively documented in a field guide that guests can borrow as they roam.
Sperlak works with his assistant to transport much of the heavy materials required for the gallery’s many sculptures. The property is called a “sculpture garden,” but that phrasing draws to mind static designs neatly organized in a museum. The installations here seem alive; many look as if they have been here a thousand years and the earth simply formed around them.
A door frame is hidden somewhere in the garden that leads to sculptures with roots in Greek mythology. A clearing in a swampy forest is the only evidence of a gnome kingdom with a small pond and some of the property’s oldest installations. A metal-cast circle sits above a wall of foliage, and during certain times of the day, it lines up perfectly with the sun.
Many of the sculptures are in direct dialogue with the marsh around them. A mirror in a forest reveals, as if through a portal, a sprawling wetland scene behind it. This idea of contrast and illusion is central to the space.
One of the trails near the barn at the center of the property looks as if it stretches a mile, but those who walk it will find it ends quickly. That’s thanks to a clever perspective trick and what Sperlak calls “mirror and mowing tricks.”
The trail, visible all in one long line, is widest at the start and narrowest at its end. A trapezoidal mirror at its end is slanted at a 20-degree backward angle to cause onlookers to tie the whole thing together in their minds as a near-endless path.
To spill more here would be to spoil the joy of the property. Sperlak has transformed every sightline, dark corner, and view of the wetlands with surprise in mind. He hosts events here, too, like an annual solstice party and a raucous fall concert in the barn.
“This is my home, this is a really special place to me,” he said. He welcomes guests to his property year-round.
“But please, tell people not to visit here on the weekdays! Only during my hours 10 to 4 on weekends. I literally live here, I could be naked or bathing during the week!”
Visit the Sperlak Gallery & Sculpture Gardens at 521 Route 47 North in Middle Township.
