NYAB Event - "A Toy Story and Other Delights" Exhibition

"A Toy Story and Other Delights" Exhibition

Elisa Contemporary Art

This event has ended.

Elisa Contemporary Art presents A Toy Story and Other Delights, our group Holiday exhibit.
A Toy Story and Other Delights captures the toys, pleasures and amusements that filled many of our childhood days. While some take a wistful look back, others are an indulgent glimpse into the treats of today. Our artists seemlessly transition between childhood and adulthood – days filled with desire, struggle, heroism and hope - memories of childhood bliss, and the adult aching to revisit that time. Our exhibit is a welcomed reprieve to delight the senses, tickle the emotions and bring out the carefree child in all of us. Our three featured artists include Mississippi artist, Allan Innman; Virginia artist, Megan Marlatt; and Hawaii Hyper- realists, Peter and Madeline Powell.

Each artist captures this in a realistic-style, yet renders the vision in uniquely different ways. According to Mississippi artist, Allan Innman, “As I grow older, I see it fit to immortalize these forgotten objects from my childhood into paintings. The paintings serve as a retrospective of my lost youth. They are the embodiment of a sacred time in my life and many other people’s lives when there are no responsibilities or pressures.” His work captures toys, legos, toy cars, action figures and army men, dolls, and play- doh.
Virginia artist Megan Marlatt uses the portrayal of toys and action figures as a metaphor for the uncertainty in our world. She began the series post 9-11 as a way to illustrate the destruction of a safe and secure space.

According to Megan, “...The armies of cartoon characters and salvage store superheroes that make up my piles of plastic toys have become a personal metaphor for the varying factions of external forces rallying to destroy or save us. In addition, abstractionism and realism struggle to co-exist on the picture plane and the antithetical applications of loose expressionism and focused control scuffle to find resolution. I paint the toys from observation and I fight to find visual clarity as I fall into vertigo over the extreme colors and mass consumer objects.”

The hyper-realistic canvases of Los Angeles artists, Peter and Madeline Powell capture life’s treats and play things from both the past and today. According to the couple: "We enjoy taking the little things out of everyday life and giving them the prominence and importance they had when we were children. Our paintings invoke the childhood spirit that everyday life has buried deep within us." Their over-sized images and photorealism bring the viewer into a bursting world of form and color.

[Image: Megan Marlatt "Lost Cerulean Toy Mountain" (2009) Acrylic and Oil on Linen, 42 x 48 in.]