About the Exhibition

The sculptural work by Ross Bonfanti and Yoram Wolberger often use everyday objects such as childhood toys to investigate the symbolism and cultural paradigms of these objects that inform Western culture. By turning these toys inside out and exposing the underbelly of these objects the artists emphasize the distortions of their original manufacturer disallowing any real illusion and conceptually forcing the viewer to reconsider their meanings. The once soft, cute and cuddly toy animals become hard and creepy after Bonfanti peels their outer skin and imprints their fabric and fur onto concrete molds. Similarly Wolberger transforms the once melodic sounds of the soft toys into a cacophonous symphony, distorting our understanding of soft toy animals as symbols of comfort and companionship for childhood neurosis, affection, and dependencies.

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About the Artists

Ross Bonfanti was born in Toronto, Canada and is a graduate of Ontario College of Art and Design. He currently lives and works in Toronto and is co-founder of Propeller Centre for Visual Arts, Co-Director of AWOL Gallery and Studios, and Co-Director of C1 Art Space: art shop and school.

Yoram Wolberger was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and lives and works in San Francisco where he earned his MFA from San Francisco Art Institute’s (CA) New Genres Department. His work has been collected by numerous institutions and has been included in group exhibitions at Brooklyn Museum of Art, deCordova Sculpture Park, Aldrich Contemporary Museum and Israeli Museum of Modern Art among others.