Sold for: $6,875

PROVENANCE
Jessica Bradley Art + Projects, Toronto
Collection of George Hartman and Arlene Goldman, Toronto

LITERATURE
Jillian Steinhauer, “Inside Shary Boyle’s Head-Spinning Palace of Wonders,” New York Times, November 9, 2023, para. 2

Please note: this work is unframed.

Shary Boyle’s recent solo exhibition Outside the Palace of Me, organized by Toronto’s Gardiner Museum, brought her fantastical, sometimes animated ceramic creations, complemented by works on paper, to audiences in Montreal, St. John’s, Vancouver and New York City (at the Museum of Arts and Design to February 25). The New York Times described the show as a “contemporary art fun house”—hinting at the theatrical and richly imaginative nature of Boyle’s multidisciplinary work.

This oil on panel from earlier in her career demonstrates her ongoing fascination with the figurative, with folk art, and with symbolic characters that can be both charming and disquieting. The richly patterned costume and bright orange “hands” of this scarecrow might combine to scare birds away. At the same time, his lifelike facial features, backed by a soft blue sky, give this straw man an extremely sympathetic presence.

Internationally, Boyle’s works are held by museums in the UK, France, Lithuania and South Korea. She is also represented in numerous corporate and public collections in Canada, including the National Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Winnipeg Art Gallery and McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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