Written by DCist contributor Genevieve Smith.

With perhaps the exception of art involving excrement or the denigration of religious icons, there are very few types of contemporary art more likely to raise the ire (or at least the eyebrow) of nonbelievers than those using found art objects. Walking into a gallery filled with readymades, one can almost hear a grumbling murmur of “my six year-old could have made that.” But while a sculpture constructed out of plastic children’s toys makes an instant critic out of the most casual viewer, the art itself can offer a critical understanding of what and how we see.

In Jeff Spaulding’s new show, Mine, on display this month at G Fine Art, a playground slide becomes a tongue and a bathmat is transformed into an animal pelt. Like a child’s game of make-believe, nothing is quite as it seems. With a childlike sensitivity and curiosity, Spaulding succeeds in making surreal and expressive works that are playful and at times even comical.

A local artist, Spaulding has gained regional recognition for his formalist sculptures built from found objects. Taking cues from Marcel Duchamp’s readymades as well as surrealism and pop art, Spaulding chooses objects both for their form and their meaning. Earlier pieces have used natural objects, such as branches, as well as bicycle seats, rubber hoses and old clothes.