Charleston-based painter Robert Lange plays with scale by shrinking massive animals and blowing-up mini animals in a series of 25 new works entitled Measure: Creatures Great + Small. On view from September 4 thru September 30, 2009, at Robert Lange Studios, the show is a unique investigation into how the size of an animal effects our interaction with them.
At the modest age of 28, Lange was recently the American Heart Association’s featured artist. He received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and is best known for creating bodies of work in a hyper-realist fashion.
In December of 2008, Lange’s acclaimed series Still + Life portrayed still lives with the addition of living elements such as birds and humans. In his upcoming Measure show, Lange is now giving the viewer a unique and whimsical perspective of nature; a tiny lion sits regally on a chair or a huge penguin follows a pedestrian down the sidewalk.
Some humorous, some obvious, and some more subtler but in each painting Lange has illustrated how much animals are missing from our everyday by placing them in common scenarios. For example, in one of the pieces for his September show titled, The Fox + The Pear, Lange has depicted a tiny fox sitting in a bowl next to a pear. The fox is scaled to be the same size as the pear and in a charming way sits as though he isn’t a bit out of place.
“The reason for playing with the comparative size of each animal versus their surroundings is to make people take notice. There is an intrigue that is created and captivates the viewer by skewing the scales,” says Lange. “I can’t help but feel a certain amount of disconnection from animals and nature in general and a desire to bring both into my life and at least make people think about a possible addition to theirs.”
In The Viewer, one of the works from his upcoming show, Lange paints a giant owl being viewed by two people in a museum-type setting. Due to the relative scale of the viewers and creature, the people appear overwhelmed by the twenty-foot owl before them. This piece exhibits not only the artist’s feeling towards how our natural world is now displayed but also his humbled feeling as an artist towards capturing the quintessential essence of the subject.
“I wish through realism to create a seamless feeling that makes people second guess if tiny pandas really exist or what their experience would be like to have a giant chipmunk standing next to them,” says Lange. “It’s import to me that I’m always asking questions of the viewers through my paintings and that my audience looks to find the answers.”
Measure: Creatures Great + Small series will hang at Robert Lange Studios at 151 East Bay St. from Friday, September 4 – Wednesday, September 30, 2009. The opening reception will be Friday, September 4, from 5:30 – 8:30 PM and the artist will attend.
Please visit www.robertlangestudios.com or call for more information 843.805.8052. Digital images are available upon request.
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