Children’s book illustrator Oliver Jeffers’ new exhibit at the High

Oliver Jeffers has been writing and illustrating children’s books for over a decade. He’s known for his whimsy, colorful and textured drawings. His books focus on a range of subjects like thinking creatively, making unlikely friends and handling family arguments. The High’s newest exhibit “Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books” explores his work through the years and includes sketches, finished pages and cover art.

The exhibit is broken into several rooms and includes immersive elements to compliment the framed illustrations. In a room with illustrations from “Stuck” (2011), a large 3D tree in Jeffers’s style sits in the corner. Adjacent to the sculpture is a placard for kids to spot what things are in the tree. Around the exhibit, there were places to sit and read Jeffers’s featured books from the exhibit. The immersive setting provided by the High is both adult and child friendly, alike.

Jeffers largely uses gouache paints, watercolor and mixed media collage. His works are typically simple formed characters with lots of personality. Some illustrations have complete backgrounds with elaborate environments while some feature just the white of the paper. Jeffers utilizes textures like crayon and chalk in his font choice to appear more child friendly or innocent. Lots of his books feel like they are written by kids for kids, with lots of the themes pertaining to life as a child, imagination or magic animal stories. 

The first section of the exhibit features works from “The Great Paper Caper” (2008), “Stuck” (2011) and “Lost and Found” (2005), among others. “Lost and Found” is about a lost penguin showing up at a boy’s door. The boy is determined to find out where the penguin came from and return it there. They go on a daring adventure by sailboat and, after looking long and hard, they find out the penguin was never lost, but just a lonely penguin. 

In “The Day the Crayons Quit” (2013), crayons used by a boy named Duncan decide to go on strike because they are tired of being used to color the same things over and over. The black crayon says they’re tired of being used only for an outline and they want to be used for a beach ball instead. The color blue wants a break and the color pink wants to be used more. The color green complains about only being used for leaves, dinosaurs and alligators. The crayons go on strike and in the end Duncan makes a new drawing with colors used in new and creative ways, like a pink dinosaur.

In the last section of the exhibit, the room is painted dark blue with a large space mural in Jeffers’ style. The room has illustrations from “Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth” (2017), “The Heart and the Bottle” (2010) and more. In the book “Here We Are,” Jeffers addresses big questions kids may have about life. The illustrations depict our solar system, Earth and its environment and community of humankind.  

Welcoming kids into typically adult spaces like art museums opens a gateway for them to explore new interests or hobbies. As the High has curated this exhibit to be enjoyed by kids, children are engaged in the interactive placards and drawings on the walls. Parents and adult viewers are left feeling inspired and connected to their inner child. The exhibit is open to the public with price of admission to the High until August 7, 2022. It is located on the second floor of the Stent Family Wing in the Special Exhibitions Gallery.