SCULPTURE MILWAUKEE FILLS OUT ITS LIST OF ARTISTS FOR 2018 (EXCERPT)

Over the past decade, Chicago-based artist Tony Tasset has been making surreal sculptures that draw imagery from American popular culture. Like Pop artist Andy Warhol before him, Tasset looks for images or ideas that are simple and easily understood, allowing the visitor to bring their own set of meanings to each work. In his totemic “Mood Sculpture,” 2017, Tasset draws from the cheerful smiley faces, invented in 1963, to show the rainbow range of moods that afflict our days, from the sour grape face at the bottom to the Sunny Delight yellow face on top. His cheery, childlike colors remind us of how radical new ideas of the 1960s have today been packaged as consumer products. Positioned at 411 E. Wisconsin Ave., “Mood Sculpture,” 2017 will carry over into the 2018 installation, courtesy of the artist and the Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago.