Published: February 02, 2006 10:54 am      

Doll exhibit is not child's play

Lewiston — What a doll. And she’s hardly Barbie.

Many a viewer will so remark of Lillian Mendez, creator of “Lily’s Funky Parade,” opening Friday with an artist’s discussion and reception in the Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University in Lewiston.

“This is exactly the type of exhibit we love to bring before the public,” said curator Michael Beam during a recent preview of these sculptural studies. “They're charming, whimsical and quite beautiful, with each piece drawing you into its own allegory. You’ve never seen anything like Lily’s work.”

The Buffalo artist sculpts realistically colored and clothed dolls in any number of environments — sucking on what could be a licorice swirl while riding a tricycle, painting a self-portrait in bed or caging a child shape formed of birdseed.

“The dolls are family, friends, acquaintances and other subjects of events that unintentionally contributed to my artistic vocabulary and growth,” Mendez said.

Each piece marks a page from the artist’s diary: a saga opening on the tricycle rider who awoke in a hospital after her nearly fatal cycling accident and including a freezer-set piece illustrative of Mendez’s married life.

Although she described those 13 years as “uncreative and difficult,” she said they were worth the turmoil for producing “two beautiful children.”

Her happiest imagery is the boudoir portrait.

“That is me as a teenager when I was taking art lessons at the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,” she said. “I have loving memories of the hours spent in these refuges of artistic expression.”

The exhibit fits with the Castellani’s permanent collection of Latin/Hispanic art, a portion of which also hangs this month. Mendez designed her installation according to what she described as a “Pandora’s Box” blueprint with accessories reinforcing her four-dimensional symbolism.

“I open the door, releasing its menacing contents. The door, purchased from an antiques shop, seems quite fitting, since it originally hung in a Rochester psychiatric hospital,” she said. “

Many Mendez dolls wear replicas of dresses the artist’s grandmother patterned and sewed in Puerto Rico. Other sculptures appear suspended in floating wire wagons.

Together, said the creator, “they share a common spiritual purpose, promoting understanding and compassion, and also helping us to face our fears.”

Contact Sharon DeMarko-Gordon at (716) 693-1000, Ext. 107.



If you go

• WHAT: First Friday Series: Lily’s Funky Parades.

• WHERE: Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University in Lewiston.

• WHEN: Exhibit opens Friday with the artist’s talk and reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Show continues throughout the month.

• REGULAR HOURS: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays.

• MORE INFORMATION: 286-8200