The broken furniture and massed BMX bikes in the front gallery of Sean M. Johnsons new show can be digested in a glance, but when you venture in back at “This Growing Up Stuff ,” you may find yourself on the floor, scrutinizing his most intricate and interesting work in the group. I Was Nine is composed of over 1,600 Matchbox cars; its a color-coded pointillist portrait rendered in Hot Wheels®, guaranteed to bring out the 9-year-old in any guy. (Women may not care so much.) Look! Theres a tiny fire truck! And a Ford GT-40! Each one of these toys represents hours and hours of childhood playtime, and its a bit of a shock to realize theyre still manufactured today. Do boys still race them around on the floor, making engine sounds, in preference to V-Rally 3 on Xbox? We can only hope. Johnsons collage speaks to the same total absorption that kids bring to playthe patience and love of repetition that seems to disappear with adolescence. The outside (adult) world doesnt exist. Here, each little auto has been idled, literally parked, though they beg for movementa fingers propulsion across the floor. Theyre the components of a naïve younger self, and you can only see the whole pattern when standing at adult height. Most of Johnsons other sculptural objects on view, like a chair cut in half, speak to the grown-up world, where stuff is cheap, costly, or unreliable. No wonder he wants to reassemble a part of his childhood. BRIAN MILLER
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: April 1. Continues through May 1, 2010