Robb Putnam - Part II

Gallery Walk August 30th, 5-8pm

Putnam sculpts animal forms with cast off blankets, shirts, fake fur, rags, thread, plastic bags, leather scraps, glue and thread. These sculptures evoke playful, whimsical characters found in children’s books, but his characters also offer something different: they are physically and psychologically vulnerable and seem like overgrown stuffed toys or imaginary friends—misfits whose demeanors both invite and may also possess a sense of sadness.

Putnam’s drawings, too, create images that carry associations with simplicity, innocence and play, but as if experienced in a dream. In these works, cartoon heads drift, collide and overlap in space. These orphaned characters in search of a body attempt to reassemble into a larger whole—but sometimes never quite manage the feat.