This is Not a Toy
An exhibition titled This is Not a Toy explores the culture of the design toy, highlighting a connection between the creator, consumer and the artform.
With its origins coming from the graffiti culture of 1980s and 1990s, the small release toy is an underground art form that represents rebellion and playfulness. At the same time a product of consumer culture and a piece of art, these works both reject and appropriate familiar consumer imagery, and manipulate household names, cartoons and cultural icons.
This Is Not A Toy is dedicated to exploring the conceptual toy – a form made solely as an expression of an aesthetic or idea – as a fine art and design object, as well as a contemporary cultural signifier. This exhibition marks the first time these vibrant collectible sculptures, figures and paintings have collectively been on display in a museum setting.
The exhibition takes its name from the disclaimer found on packaging for objects that may be called toys, but aren’t meant for play. Ranging in price from just a few dollars to thousands more, these figures are part merchandise, part art. While the creators of these art toys may utilise technical methods of mass production, they do so in a way that produces variation, unique expression, and limited edition objects. Works on display includes pieces from Takashi Murakami, KAWS, Misaki Kawai, FriendsWithYou and DOMA.
The exhibition was co-curated by Pharrell Williams; his participation represents his first foray into museum curation in the lead up to his exhibition at Gagosian Gallery, Paris. Find out more about his solo-curated exhibition G I R L at Gagosian here. This Is Not A Toy is on display until Monday 19 May 2014 at Design Exchange (DX), Canada.
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