Carl Patow
Toys Are Us

graywall Spotlight Show

August 28 - September 19th

Artist Statement

My work explores how society communicates its expectations of adult masculinity to young boys. This exploration began with a simple observation: two boys tussling in a swimming pool, building their relationship through playful dominance and force. That moment led me to examine how gender roles are taught to boys in more structured, deliberate ways.

The toy store is one such space—a physical map of societal expectations. On one side, aisles washed in pink hold toys built around collaboration and nurturing. On the other, in green, black, and purple, aisles are stocked with weapons, monsters, and speed—violence, competition, and power rendered as play. Having photographed toy stores in over twenty countries, I've found this division to be startlingly consistent across cultures.

The large acrylic painting depicts a young boy stepping into that second side, entering a world already built for him. The thirteen photographs document the same configuration as it appears across the globe—the contrast between shelves that teach care and those that teach conquest.

Who builds these environments, and what happens when boys raised on aggression are asked, later, to collaborate, to listen, to care?