Andy Warhol
James Rosenquist
Donald Baechler
Ida Applebroog
Polly Apfelbaum
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Rob Pruitt
James Angus
Tom Sachs
Toland Grinnell
David Humphrey
Eddy De Vos
Lyle Starr
Jean-Christian Bourcart
Isabelle Jousset
Reza Farkhondeh
Bill Albertini
Christina Hejtmanek
Toys highlights works by twenty two artists in photography, painting, sculpture, and video. The show includes the work of established artists: Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Jasper Johns, Hans Bellmer, Louise Lawler, Laurie Simmons, Donald Baechler, Ida Applebroog and other.
Toys highlights works by twenty two artists in photography, painting, sculpture, and video. The show includes the work of established artists: Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, Jasper Johns, Hans Bellmer, Louise Lawler, Laurie Simmons, Donald Baechler, Ida Applebroog, Polly Apfelbaum, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Rob Pruitt, James Angus, Tom Sachs, Toland Grinnell, David Humphrey, as well as mid-career artists: Eddy De Vos, Lyle Starr, Jean-Christian Bourcart, Isabelle Jousset, Reza Farkhondeh, Bill Albertini and Christina Hejtmanek.
Warhol, Rosenquist, Baechler, Starr and Farkhondeh, depict toys as iconic objects. De Vos and Applebroog make poetic paintings of a child's experience with toys. A three panel video by Albertini shows the making of a clumsy plasteline model of a roller coaster and its perfect virtual reality counterpart. In photography Lawler documents a grouping of Jeff Koons' ceramic objects.
Simmons utilizes miniature toys in her photograph to create a playful simulation of reality. Bourcart's photograph of a bed filled with Teddy bears in a bordello is disturbingly realistic. Hejtmanek captures the motion of a rocking doll, thus pushing her photography towards painting with a blurred effect. Jousset, Humphrey, Angus and Chapman's sculptures recreate toys with a caustic twist. In a similar vein, Bellmer deconstructs a self-made doll which he then photographs.
Sachs and Pruitt reinvent the classic toy through new media, and Apfelbaum decorates a beat up jump-rope with flowers. Grinnell constructs his own toy invention, a valise doubling as a hamster's habitat. In a spirited gesture, Johns presents his iconoclastic target as a coloring book image. All the artists in the show juggle the symbolic, emotional, poetic, and fantastic associations with toys. It is evident that toys still capture the imagination of the artists creating in our modern society.
Opening - Tuesday, December 12 - from 6 to 8 pm.
Gallery hours - Tuesday through Saturday - 11 AM to 6 PM.
Closed for the holiday from 25 December to 3 January, 2001.
Kagan Martos Gallery - 515 Broadway - New York - Tel. 2123434293 - Fax. 2123434292