The Space Toy Artwork of Steven Skollar

If you're in New York City this weekend, I highly recommend heading over to SoHo's Arcadia Gallery to check out the latest exhibition of paintings by artist Steven Skollar. His focus is on (mostly) vintage toys -- robots, ray guns, flying saucers, and other odds and ends. Yep, all the stuff we love!


Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.

His paintings evoke the masters of prior centuries, with a very formal approach to lighting and composition. But this juxtaposes wonderfully with his pop culture subject matter, and the end result is something forceful yet whimsical. If I had a fireplace and a mantel in my toy room, his are exactly the kinds of paintings I'd want to hang above it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Steven for the first time nearly a year ago, when he asked if he could use some of my robots and ray guns as models for his paintings. Of course I said yes, and Steven came over with a pretty interesting -- and top secret! -- photo rig which he used to snap shots of a number of different toys. (I wrote about the day here.) I'm thrilled to see that many of them made the final cut, and now grace the walls of a SoHo art gallery. And people say that toy collecting isn't respectable! Pshaw!


Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.



Painting © Steven Skollar. Used with permission.


The exhibit runs until Sunday, November 26. Arcadia Gallery is located at 51 Greene Street, New York, NY. Their number is 212-965-1387, and their web site is www.arcadiafineart.com. Steven Skollar can be found online at www.stevenskollar.com