Keystone Gallery

Keystone Art Space, recently named LA Weekly’s “Best All-In-One Art -Making Warehouse” hosts a gallery that regularly features exhibitions of Keystone artists. The next exhibition is January 21-31 and features Kathy Curtis Cahill’s first solo show with her new body of work “Make Believe”. Part photography and part installation, this new work deals with early childhood, once again using dolls as avatars for real children. Cahill’s photographs of these dolls (children) at play makes us keenly aware of the innocence and joy that age holds as we struggle to make sense of the world around us. They assume guises and poses just like real children, dressed as superheroes and princesses, arranged in positions that don’t simply represent adult occupations or fantasy preoccupations, but enliven and embody them. As Cahill says, “Play is a young child’s work and dressing up and pretending is a key component to this all important phase of childhood development. It teaches empathy and empowers them to deal with everyday issues in a safe way.” Cahill’s background in set decoration in the entertainment industry has given her the skills to tell a narrative non-verbally. Carefully composing the scenes using the everyday world as the background, she captures just the right moment in an otherwise mundane day. Her photographs make us believe in the life of these dolls, and in romantic notions of childhood.