About Scale:

Suffolk University Art and Design Faculty

October 24 – November 25, 2024

Thursday October 24, Gallery talk with faculty at 5pm, followed by reception

An artwork has a physical size; when referring to an artwork’s size, we use the term scale. Scale is more than simply the object’s size, however. It is the size of the art object in relation to another object. The relative size of the artwork is always compared to the size of the human body–life-sized, miniature, enormous–are all terms that use the human body as a size reference. Lucy Lamp, Sophia.org, https://app.sophia.org/tutorials/design-in-art-scale-and-proportion

Scale refers to the size of an object in relationship to another object. In art the size relationship between an object and the human body is meaningful.  In experiencing the scale of an artwork, there is a tendency to compare its size to the size of our own bodies.

This exhibition is both an invitation and a challenge to Suffolk faculty artists and designers to think about this important principle of art and design that is taught to students, in their own practice. Questions that are raised and answered in the work in the exhibit: In what way do you think about scale? How do you teach ideas of scale to your students? Does it pertain to your own practice?

A special part of the exhibit will celebrate Art and Design faculty Randal Thurston whose position as department Chair will end after the Spring 2025 semester. He is invited to transform the smaller gallery into one of his large signature installations. His piece will be in conversation with the small faculty works in the main gallery. He says this about his work: “My work is about beauty and mortality. I am intensely aware of the transitory nature of life and use imagery associated with the idea of mortality as a way of exploring what it means to be alive.”

Suffolk Art and Design faculty participating artists:

Audrey Goldstein, Ilona Anderson, Sandro Carella, Kayla Schwartz, Shelby Feltoon,

Robin Hockett, Susan Nichter, Keith Kitz, Kristen Mallia, Sean Solley, Steve Novick,

Randal Thurston

Related links of artists and ideas about scale:

About Scale
Fun video about Scale

Michelangelo’s David, Monumental scale sculpture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_(Michelangelo)

Pat Steir, Very large abstract paintings, referencing landscape
https://www.levygorvy.com/artist/pat-steir/

Anne Truitt, Heroic objects
https://www.annetruitt.org

Chuck Close, Gigantic self portraits
https://walkerart.org/calendar/2005/chuck-close-self-portraits-1967-2005/

Claus Oldenburg, Very large scale sculptures of ordinary small objects
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claes_Oldenburg

Joseph Cornell, Assemblage miniature boxes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Cornell

Vija Celmins, Work expresses vastness, represented on a small scale
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vija-celmins-2731/explore-art-vija-celmins

Robert Gober, Surprising scale of objects/body parts
https://www.matthewmarks.com/artists/robert-gober

Charles LeDray, Tiny hand sewn clothing/handmade objects/installation
https://www.peterfreemaninc.com/artists/charles-ledray/featured-works

Anish Kapoor, Art21 video
Anish Kapoor says the scale of a thing is a strange combination of meaning, size, and emotionality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mg4WIM8-XE

Matthew Ritchie, Art21 video
Matthew Ritchie works in many different sizes and scales

https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s3/matthew-ritchie-in-structures-segment/