Continuing through March 10, 2012
It is hard to believe that everything in Kristen Morgin's exhibition is made of clay. Entitled “Snow White in Evening Wear and Other Works,” Morgin acknowledges her sources - children's toys, comic books, Disney-esque characters who seem to have weathered time and then salvaged from the junk pile. The works, both large and small in scale, have a nostalgic charm, but that is hardly their raison d'etre. Not only is Morgin a master with clay but she has a facility with drawing and painting as well, and in these assemblages the command of her media comes through.
The handcrafted works include puppets and toys that are hung on the wall with homemade map tacks and push pins that combine together fragments from comic books, playing cards, and bits of other ephemera to make compelling objects. Their apparent child-like simplicity serves as a foil for the seriousness of the project, as she explores subjects including gender and cliché using personal strategies of appropriation.
Published courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2012
