Jefferson Little: Action Figures

Additional Information

Other associated events: Opening reception and artist talk, Saturday, March 6, 2:00 pm.

The paintings of Jefferson Little are as much a reflection of himself as they are about the toys that he chooses to recreate. Toys are the first objects that we interact with as thinking human beings. They are the medium through which we begin to interpret the world around us; they are an essential part of us as social subjects in western culture. Little pulls them apart, reassembles them and then paints them larger than life to express this value. His paintings, with extremely realistic rendering, represent these objects through which a boy's subjectivity is born. His conscious reassembling of toys reinforces the concept that our subjectivity is as much a construction as the toys he is playing with. Moreover, the toys and images that he uses are specific to his own development and speak to his subjective understanding of the culture that he inhabits. The paintings and murals, therefore, become a nexus of interactions, where images of toys become the interface between the artist and the social world.

Jefferson Little, Action Figures (Installation View), 2004.