Both playful and serious, Toy Stories II is seriously interesting

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William Havu Gallery

1040 Cherokee St.
Denver, CO 80204

Category: Galleries

Region: Out of Town

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See also:
- Toy Stories at Havu Gallery: Out of the sandbox and into the world
- Photos: William Havu Gallery's Toy Stories II is not just for children

Through January 5, William Havu Gallery, 1040 Cherokee Street, 303-893-2360, www.williamhavugallery.com.

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Though all of the above-mentioned artists are seen in depth, Havu has filled out the show with four other artists whose works are sampled. Three are represented by just a single piece. There's noted sculptor Lawrence Argent's "Baby Doll in Door," a wall-hung sculpture of a rusted cast-iron doll attached to a shiny steel panel; Michael Brangoccio's large painting, "Menace of Memory," which depicts a magical staircase filled with animated toys, especially tiny airplanes; and "Salty and Peppy," a mixed-media piece by Suzanne Adan that combines a Prismacolor pencil drawing surmounted by a row of found "Salty" and "Peppy" shakers from the early twentieth century. Finally, there's Laurel Swab, who has done a quartet of small paintings, all of which are eerily anchored by the broken head of a porcelain doll.

Toy Stories II, which runs throughout the holiday season, is crowded with varied work by artists who have embraced a kind of playfulness in their respective mediums and with their subjects. But oddly enough, the real reason the show succeeds is because everything in it is so darned serious.