Brett Crawford’s Painted Narratives Come to 111 Minna Gallery

Fluffy, soft and vulnerable, the bunny may be the ultimate metaphor for the naiveté of childhood. New Orleans-based artist Alex Podesta creates mannequin-like sculptures of men dressed in bunny suits, often playing with stuffed rabbits, as an examination of early childhood development and the formation of self-awareness. Presented as doppelgangers or gangs of identical multiples, Podesta's characters follow the trails of their curiosity, playing and experimenting with the limits of the world around them. "In all of my recent work I have culled the rich fantasies, daydreams, misconceptions and experiences of childhood and re-contextualized them through the filters of adulthood, experience and education," wrote Podesta in his artist statement. Simultaneously unsettling and endearing, the adult characters in his work shed the pretensions of seriousness and masculinity, engaging in free-form play that often becomes lost as one comes of age.