ABSTRACT TOYS

3D abstraction is a break with tradition, from Greenbergian flat space, working with lessons from sculpture, installation and computer games applicable to painting. Employing some realism techniques with a critique of expression, gestural painting and art historical styles I paint abstract toys and floating architecture in an alternate space, a kind of floating still life. Objects hover like aircraft in science fiction movies or fantasy video game landscapes. These are painting events and objects suspended in an airy Venetian space, based on the idea of continuous invention (not repetition) and form finding in the sculptural sense. Painting has been brought into sculpture and installation but has sculpture and installation been brought into abstract painting? My toys are a counter to the commercialisation of the object in capitalist systems and use painting as a display device in a substitute art economy of the gallery and internet.

My father was a toy manufacturer of Lincoln Toys (Lincoln Laidlaw) which was a household name in NZ in the 1960s to 80s and this series is an homage to him (he passed away in 2014). As well as a statement about abstraction, it is my recollection of toy memories and the amazing experience of being let into the factories sample room once a month on a Saturday morning where samples of toys from all around the world from international toy fairs, that he went to each year, were kept. Boy Oh Boy A Lincoln Toy.