Garth Nichol - Charlie, 2025 - Oil on board - 33x33cm framed

This artwork is from Garth Nichol's collection 'Greetings from…'. Read the artist's statement below.

A single figure. Small, bright, plastic. A symbol of innocence, a vessel of nostalgia, a relic of play. A Lego man.

At first glance, he appears as little more than a photobomb; an uninvited, perhaps comical, presence in a carefully composed landscape. But what begins as a simple visual interruption evolves into something more: a reflection on self-absorption, image taking and the constant competition for attention.

This figure, initially playful, transforms into a quiet protagonist in a much larger story. A story that examines the fragments of our own childhoods. The Lego man becomes both a stand-in and a stand-out. A question mark in plastic form. Through his ever-smiling face and fixed gaze, we’re prompted to ask "is he a mere bystander to the innocence of youth, or was he a silent witness to the moments that shaped us? Is he complicit in our decisions, or oblivious to them?"

These figures are drawn from my personal collection (survivors of the '80s and '90s) now repositioned as silent observers in the context of our modern world. Their meaning shifts depending on the scene. Are they appreciating art? Watching a sunset? In the way? Or are they confronting the viewer, suggesting with quiet smugness: I could do that.

There’s a tension in their presence, between nostalgia and critique, innocence and knowingness. They’re fun. They’re unsettling. They watch, and in doing so, they invite us to watch ourselves.

Strange, small, and honest. Within it.

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