For those who saw it, Boys presented one of the most fun and provocative museum experiences of the year, but it required a sense of humor, a flexible definition of art and a willingness to channel a certain amount of testosterone. Heavy on photography, video and installation pieces made of traditional boy toys — action figures, skateboards, car parts and stereo components — the exhibit either made you feel like a kid in a candy store or like you’d taken a wrong turn somewhere on your way to the Gulf Coast Museum of Art. As an unofficial follow-up to Beautiful Losers, the widely lauded street-culture show at USF CAM last fall, Boys might have expected a bigger and more enthusiastic turn out. But then, it was in Largo. 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo, 727-518-6833 or www.gulfcoastmuseum.org.
This article appears in Sep 13-19, 2006.