Toys From A Slightly Skewed Attic: The Art Of Sean O'Meallie

For the past couple of months the Arvada Center has hosted a Pop Art exhibition entitled rePOPulated - Contemporary Perspectives On Pop Art

I had been meaning to get to the exhibition since it opened in the last week of January, being as I am somewhat of a fan of Pop Art. I was afraid I would miss the show, what with the last day, March 29th, fast approaching. Fortunately, this past Wednesday I had to be in Arvada to get my windshield replaced, and as fate would have it the repair facility just happened to be a few blocks from the Arvada Center. Kismet!

The rePOPulated show is running concurrently with two solo shows, one featuring the works of Phil Bender, and the other featuring the works of Sean O'Meallie.

Being as how the rePOPulated show requested that no photos be taken of the items on display, and that I'm not much for the found-items-arranged-in patterns art of Phil Bender, I thought I'd devote some space to the fun, farcical, preposterous, and altogether enchanting polychrome wood sculptures of Sean O'Meallie.

Of course, polychromed sculptures are nothing new, having been around since antiquity - examples of the medium have been found in ancient Greece and Rome. It was also a favorite for religious statuary during the middle ages.

Even Pop Art polychrome sculpture is nothing new - Pop artists have been using the process of polychroming various materials, such as resin, various metals, and of course wood, for well over half a century now - notably Jeff Koons, Yoshitomo Nara, Robert Indiana, and of course Red Grooms.

So what makes Mr. O'Meallie's sculptures in any way unique, clever or original? Well, that question has a three-facet answer. First, there is his skill as a woodworker, developed from years spent working as a carpenter building custom furniture. Second, there is his experience as a creator of toys, which he did professionally for about a decade. And third, there is his imagination, wild and slightly unhinged. 

All of those factors combine for three dimensional realizations of inspired whimsy. Hope you enjoy these few pictures of Sean O'Meallie's work as much as I enjoyed the exhibition.