LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Kopeikin Gallery presenting Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh, the gallery's first exhibition with British artist Eleanor Macnair. In this series Macnair uses Play-Doh to recreate images from throughout the history of photography. The original photographs are reinterpreted – simplified and transformed with vivid colour - into three dimensional sculptures which are then re-photographed and presented in the same two dimensional form as the origiinals.. The exhibition opened Friday March 18th and runs through April 16th. This exhibition is free and open to the public.

The series was inspired by a round in photo pub quiz in 2013 in which participants were challenged to make a reproduction of a famous photograph using only Play-Doh. Macnair works with simple tools; Play-Doh, a chopping board, a scalpel, and an empty wine bottle as a rolling pin, to create new versions of familiar images by renowned artists. After the Play-Doh models are photographed and posted on Macnair’s tumblr and instagram accounts, they are disassembled.

With each Play-Doh Macnair spends time reimagining the original photograph, deciding what is most essential to convey the image. For her it is an opportunity to engage with the artists vision and hopes the audience will do the same –slow down, discover new works or reexamine works that they may have viewed but never truly seen. A playful retaliation against our mass consumption of images in the internet age, the images to recreate are researched on the web and thrown back into the digital world in lurid colour.

Originally shared through Macnair’s tumblr account the project quickly spread through the internet and garnered thousands of followers on instagram. The audience for the project is spans the globe and includes curators, photographers and those with no knowledge of the history of photography at all. The simplicity of the project, childlike medium, and off the simple materials create a unique sense of accessibility.

Eleanor Macnair was born in Nottingham, England and now resides and works in London. She received her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Bristol. Photographs Rendered in Play-Doh was published in book form in 2014 and was included of the Observer Review (UK) as one of the photobooks of the year. Her work has been published in the Observer Magazine (UK), The Independent Magazine (UK), Elephant Magazine and IMA and online publications including BBC News, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, Independent UK, Slate Magazine, WIRED and AnOthermag.com amongst others.

Macnair’s work has recently been exhibited in Germany and England. This is her first show in the United States.