A recent visit to St. Kate’s campus allowed me a little window of wandering time during which I was delighted to encounter Everyday Epic – The Wild, Weird, Wacky World of Amy Toscani. Nestled between the grey walls of the Catherine G. Murphy’s West Gallery, I found giant abstract objects balanced by soft, wall-hanging compositions. Bodies tend to react to floor-seated sculpture; Toscani’s works do not alienate as minimalist, manufactured object would. Nor do they look ‘junky’ like assemblies of shapes and found remnants. Toscani uses forms that are related to everyday objects and techniques that use the language of craft-store projects, but are employed on a grand scale and amongst refined fabrication. One hybrid form marries the crafty-kitsch of nylon-loop-pot-holders with what looked like an asphalt-coated base, the base itself could have been repurposed sports equipment or a landscaping berm. These surfaces already exist in my memory as lawn chairs, projects for Mom and a hot parking lot I may have wiped out on in my youth. A nearby sculpture could have been a three-dimensional rendering of a child’s drawing of the sun and is adorned with string art, an activity taught at summer camps and hung in cabins. The string art continues on wall-hanging works where it creates recognizable line drawings of factories floating over embroidered pillow-y substrates. Friendly, obscure and playful, Everyday Epicruns through March 31, 2012.
All artwork by Amy Toscani, all photos by Jehra Patrick
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Viewfinder posts are your opportunity to “show & tell” about the everyday arts happenings, interesting sights and sounds made or as seen by Minnesota artists, because art is where you find it. Submit your own informal, first-person responses to the art around you to katie(at)mnartists.org, and we may well publish your piece here on the blog. (Guidelines: 300 words or less, not about your own event/work, and please include an image, media, video, or audio file, and one sentence about yourself.)