Shary Boyle

This is certainly not the first time I've been seduced by strange, perhaps mildly disturbing artworks …though I'm not sure when this fascination with "cute things gone wrong" first began for me?

Toronto artist Shary Boyle makes wonderfully captivating porcelain figurines. Of course her craftsmanship is stunning, but it is the narrative, the dark fairytale from which these characters spring to life that truly awakens my imagination…

"Boyle is a performance artist, sculptor and painter as well as a filmmaker. She has become known for the deeply personal and psychologically moving content of her imagery, which recalls the anxieties, desire and bittersweet fantasy worlds of childhood and adolescence. Critical, enchanting and at times humorous, Boyle's work is raw with human vulnerability and dysfunction."

Boyle has also collaborated with Peaches and Feist (two of my faves) and other various musicians to create "live drawings" projected onstage during their performances. Her drawings and paintings are perhaps even darker than the sculptures: definitely worth checking out.