Lewis Colbern: The Noble Amateur

Lewis Colburn’s debut show with Napoleon gallery is a small but delightful show.  The Noble Amateur is a three part installation in adorably pocket sized Napoleon gallery is a fantastic use of the space.  The show references the artists’ pervious work as a set builder for the theater before exploring sculpture.  There are three interconnected pieces, a theater prop loft full of half finished works, a stage back door with costumes, and a siren tower with plastic pumpkins.   All works are about half size of what a theoretical real life counterpart would be.

 

All items are very curious and oddly functional looking, the siren looking tower structure seems like it should be sending some kind of beacon, the addition of pumpkins at the bottom would almost suggest it to be some sort of pumpkin spice beacon. 

 

The real showstopper of this show is the half sized stage door and half sized reproductions of colonial era uniforms.  All of the clothing in the show is costume made by Lewis Colburn.  The incredible detail and care that has clearly gone into these bity child size clothes.

 

The last piece is the miniature theater loft filled with all sorts of odds and ends, a bit of failed plastic molding here and a bob of half finished sculpture there all add up to a vibrant and eclectic bunch of objects. The interplay between the seemingly unrelated objects very realistically emulates the fascinating and wonderful experience of wandering through old props at a theater or looking through your grandmothers attic.

 

All in all Lewis Colburn’s The Noble Amateur is well worth your visit.  Nostalgic and somehow sweet the whole show (as small as it is) is satisfying.  Maybe it’s the genuine and down to earth lack of pretention in his work maybe it’s the fact that everything is cuter when it’s scaled down, ether way, take the time to take in this marvelous little world.