“Man Eating Turkey Leg” isn’t your average piece of art.

It features a man past his prime as he struggles to take a bite of an enormous fried turkey leg, a Disney logo visible and recognizable on its wrappings. The man wears the standard-issue uniform of the American tourist: sunglasses, tennis shoes over calf-length socks and a shirt tucked into belted shorts. Behind him, a younger man sits cross-legged eating a popsicle. Framed between these two figures stands a wooden Indian in a headdress — a juxtaposition that illustrates from what America has presumably evolved. Greta Pratt’s photograph is found among many pieces at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art on State Street in “Apple Pie: Symbols of Americana,” an exhibit that seeks to stretch the boundaries of what defines American art.

The gallery is a concoction of new and old, a blend of many artistic media. With art highlighting regions of the US from the kitchens of the Midwest to the rodeos of the old West, one would be hard pressed to find a single group of people unrepresented. And that is the reason this exhibit was compiled ? to act as a cross-section of the American people.

Even in works where the human figures are greatly diminished in comparison to objects and their surroundings, one gets the feeling they are still in the forefront of the artist’s mind. These works, such as “Mountain Sites,” display an embodiment of the American people through the beautiful scenery of American landscapes. Roger Brown’s oil on canvas uses impeccable shading with white paint to give the illusion that the crevices and folds of the mountain are glowing. The people and houses depicted are likewise “glowing” below and between the 18 enormous mountains — a contemporary hyperbole of traditional American landscape paintings.

A less abstract artist, Luis Jimenez, has many entries in the exhibit, most portraying over-glamorized rodeo queens and the like. One of his best, however, does not have glitter glazed over the lithograph print. “Bronco” is a larger than life portrayal of a horse and two cowpokes, each muscle of all three dramatically rippling. One thing to notice is the red, white and blue shading within the horse which, intentional or not, is a perfect but subtle tie-in to the theme of “Apple Pie.”

While Jimenez’ horses are glorified, Elizabeth Frink’s “Lying Down Horse” looks as if were on its way to the glue factory. Frink conveys this through misshapen, knobby angles of its legs and the mournful look in its unfocused eyes. Her work with geometric shape and muted colors in this painting make just as much of a statement as Jimenez’ glitter and drama, and shows a creative understanding of the equestrian persona.

One of several Wisconsin dwelling artists in the gallery is Fred Stonehouse, who undoubtedly channels Frida Kahlo’s “Venado Herido” in his sorrowful “Untitled (beso/kiss)” which superimposes a rabbit in the place of Kahlo’s deer. Fred Stonehouse will be discussing his artwork at the museum MMoCA Feb. 25 at 12:30 p.m. as part of a series of 30-minute “Apple Pie Gallery Talks.” These casual discussions of the artwork, hosted by a variety of Madison art professionals, are free of charge and will take place through April.

Some older work currently on display includes that of John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) and Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), two artists whose definition of American angst lies in agriculture, open fields and hard laborers, as seen in each of their series of detailed black and white lithographs.

The biggest amazement of this gallery can be found in the multiplicity: There are the prolific, traditionally beautiful paintings with painstaking details and perfect composition, and then there are works such as a photograph by E. William Wollin which showcases an outhouse artfully painted to look like the Star-Spangled Banner. Both are correct examples of Americana, and the exhibit would be incomplete without either.

Many have tried to define America only to realize that it cannot be done. Art fills this void to illustrate what words cannot achieve.

Apple Pie: Symbols of Americana in MMoCA’s Permanent Collection will run through April 11. More information about the exhibit can be found at www.mmoca.org.