“The Curious Items and Strange Artifacts,” of Just Colcord, the first museum exhibition of the RAW artist, opened in March at the Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City, 5235 Oak St., and runs through June 9, 2013. Colcord explores the streets of Kansas City for discarded treasure to transform into characters with elaborate stories— a robot or a wizard with a miniature lair. Each creation evolves from the trash of others, repurposed and reborn into a new lifecycle.
For Colcord, art is an experimental process, an expression of nostalgia for his own childhood. Colcord is a self-trained artist who began creating toys out of found materials in 2011. He usually spends a year exploring a particular vein of art—his past endeavors have included a cast of puppets, handmade jugging balls, and carved wooden wands.
“His art is a reminder that toys are not just for kids and play is not just for childhood. Art is play. It is something evolving and organic that you engage with,” said museum educator Laura Taylor. Featured in Colcord’s universe of figures on exhibit are a heist team of eight headed by Mr. Fixit, a dark character outfitted with rope and suction cup to scale the museum’s cases after hours. Don’t miss this great exhibit! It is included with your admission fee.