Viktor Koen – Dark Peculiar Toys

Dates: October 4 – 28, 2012
Location: United Photo Industries HQ | 111 Front Street, Suite 204

“Dark Peculiar Toys” is an assembly experiment were philosophies of what a toy is and is supposed to do, differ and collide. These collisions deface, brake or de-construct the toys into piles of raw materials, waiting to be re-constructed in alternative ways, without instructions or the memory of their origins and function. Especially without consideration for their original creators intentions. Curiously they brake down not only to their essential parts but to details of character and spirit – if they ever possessed any. They only retain colors, shapes and the scars inflicted by their previous owners. Scars that separate them from their assembly line identical multiples and make them one of the kind.

These tragic action figures are trapped between their new condition and the reality of their past. They link older and contemporary prototypes of heroism or role playing, by combining traditional symbols in unorthodox ways. Their appeal lies solely in the tendency children (of any age) have to cannibalize existing objects in order to fuse their own. These creations come at odds with their carefully planed origins and brake gender and age molds by defying children experts, focus groups and sales projections.

The newly assembled toys, though somewhat dramatic and traumatic due to their darkness, evoke our emotions and form a connection with us, by taking a place in our personal memories. Not in a “lost childhood blah, blah, blah” way – but as images that communicate nostalgia and joy, or the nostalgia of joy.

These emotions also dominated the process of putting them together. I photographed toys and objects that I collected through the years and travels, some of them parts of my personal childhood, and then mixed and matched them for hours. While this was a different form of play, the magic was the same.

Viktor Koen holds a BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design in Jerusalem, Israel and an MFA with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Mr. Koen serves on the faculty of the MFA Illustration program and the BFA Graphic Design Department at SVA.

One-person exhibitions include: Type Directors Club/ NY, Coningsby Gallery/London, Strychnin Gallery/Berlin, Fraser Gallery/Washington/DC, Astrolavos Gallery/Athens/Greece, Slovak National Museum/Bratislava, Photography Center of Athens, LeVall Gallery/Novosibirsk/Russia, Eirmos Gallery/Thessaloniki/Greece, International Month of Photography/Fillipoupolis/Bulgaria, Merry Karnowsky Gallery/Los Angeles, Viridian Artists/NYC, Gazi Exhibition Complex/Athens, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art/Thessaloniki/Greece, Mary Anthony Galleries/NYC.

Distinctions include: First Prize/Digital Hall of Fame/Stockholm, EVGE First Prize Award/Athens, First Prize/Viridian Gallery National Juried Exhibition, Merit Award/Society of Publication Designers, International Digital Art Award/Melbourne, Kounio/Hasselblad Award/Greece, Gold Folio Award/NYC, Award for Excellence/American Design Magazine, First Prize/Bethesda International Photography Competition. His work is featured in numerous books and publications worldwide and it’s part of private and institutional collections.