Tim Liddy’s painted constructions so closely resemble their board game inspirations that many viewers walk right past, thinking they must be found objects. Liddy relishes the confusion. The works are actually elaborately enameled copper sculptures, each seemingly printed word and every abraded strip of masking tape made by the artist.
Once you’ve discovered the truth, you are caught up in the astonishing detail and verisimilitude, and you’re drawn in to investigate more closely. Within the recognizable format of a mid-twentieth-century game box are surprising elements that are often at odds with the traditional object. Liddy inserts wry commentary on mid-century social mores into this comfortably recognizable context. The fact that the boxes seem to be held together tenuously by tape suggests the rapidly eroding conventions of an earlier era.
Tim Liddy’s work has been exhibited at venues including Art Miami/Basel, Aqua Art Miami, Dallas Art Fair, Palm Springs Art Fair, and The Affordable Art Fair: Singapore. His works have been acquired for contemporary collections across the United States, including those of Beth DeWoody and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art among many other private collections. As well, the Hunt family, owners of the Kansas City Chiefs, commissioned a number of Liddy’s works for the Arrowhead Stadium.