Playing for Keeps is a buoyant, colorful and sometimes sinister display of painting, drawing, sculpture, photograph and installation. Some of the ‘toys’ on view include cars, animals of all sizes and materials, dolls human and plastic, and board games for a brave new world. Given the world situation and artists’ reaction to it, one is not surprised to see many toy soldiers, and images of children with firearms. TOYS are us, often. In our over the top consumer society, we are what we buy, what we aspire to be, and where we escape to. TOYS go from plush to plastic, from treacle sweet (Hello Kitty) to violent and macabre (Chuckie) and as such occupy both light and dark side of the imagination.
