Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic

This retrospective spotlights the playful and interactive world of Walter Wick, best-selling author and artist-creator of the Can You See What I See? series and co-creator, with writer Jean Marzollo, of the I Spy books for children. Approximately 40 large-scale color photographs from his books, as well as several of the models used to craft the images will be on view in this family-friendly exhibition sure to engage all ages!

The exhibition will be on a scale that is playful, entertaining and unexpected. The models, photographs, and behind-the-scenes video clips help visitors understand Wick’s creative process. The photographs, enlarged to five to six-foot wide, reveal details and colors not possible in the book reproductions.

One of Connecticut’s most successful artists, Walter Wick began his artistic career in the 1970s as a commercial product photographer. An interest in optical illusions, especially ones involving photography and its effects on 3-D objects and scenes, led him to experimentation and exploration. By the 1980s, he began work with Games magazine creating photographic puzzles. Several examples of this early work will be on view.

Based in Hartford, CT, a converted fire station serves as his headquarters and houses his photography staging area, model, scene and character workshops, his and wife Linda’s administrative offices, storage and his prop room. Thousands of items fill his “prop room” at his studio – ship models, dishes, globes, marbles, buttons, jewelry and much more. The Wicks are avid collectors and shoppers – searching everywhere from world-wide art galleries to local tag sales – with eclectic eyes to match their pursuits.