Nikko Sedgwick’s series “Veiled References” show paintings which feature his version of the adorable thumb-sized toys first made popular in the 1960s. Instead of smiling men and women from various occupations, Sedgwick’s characters are stereotypes representing a wide variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds. Outwardly benign, the figures interact in provocative scenarios of social friction and violence.

Sedgwick’s oil and acrylic paintings capture the the stylized optimistic quality of the original shiny, brightly colored toys. He uses a nostalgic sense of happy innocence as a subversive entre to satire and social critique. Painted with a dead-pan directness, Sedgwick’s characters raise questions about race and class in America today, the limits of political correctness and the cynical corporate exploitation of “diversity”.

The paintings include both scenes in full color and a series of monochrome images in all black or all white. The full color paintings are often scenarios of two or three characters, who appear child-like yet are enacting adult transgression.

The painting “Fun For Everyone” serves as an introduction to ten of Sedgwick’s recurring cast of characters. These stereotypes include Little Bear, the native American woman in buckskin, Moishe, the Jewish man with skull cap and long beard, Pierre the beret-wearing Frenchman, Rosa, the Latina, LaQuisha, the African American woman, and Mohammed, the Muslim man. All are represented in black and white versions of the mass gathering and also in individual portraits.

In the monochrome paintings the figures are reduced to icons with no features and no color; yet the values they’ve been reduced to are black and white. The figures are delineated only in line, distinguished by its glossy finish on a matte background. The monochromatic aspect creates a disappearing, reappearing phenomenon that forces the viewer to adjust their point of view both literally and figuratively, in order to see the figure. In an effort to decipher the images the viewer will often designate certain racial or ethnic roles to a given character and in so doing is drawn into labeling and discriminating; the precise dynamic this work deals with and forces the viewer to take into account their own feelings on this issue.

There are two conceptual sources for Sedgwick’s series “Veiled References”. The first is the notion of “the veil” in W.E.B DuBois 1903 essay, “The Souls of Black Folk” which led to the notion of exploring cultural identity as commodity in today’s society. The second source is contemporary satire that has addressed socio/political and racial issues. Critical practitioners of this vein of social satire include stand-up comedians like Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Chris Rock and Sarah Silverman amongst many others. In popular music Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, and contemporary Hip Hop similarly use an entertaining context to deliver raw truth and biting social commentary.

Nikko Sedgwick’s, “Veiled References” stemmed from an earlier series, “PSA: From Hymietown to Coonsville” that dealt directly with racism using images of naturalistically rendered figures, written racial epithets and an audio component with the voices of Pryor, Bruce and other comedians and musicians.

NIKKO SEDGWICK

NIKKO SEDGWICK