ART AT THE BIG PICTURE

Arthur Schaller is an architect and working artist who has been teaching architectural design and related courses for over forty years; at Ball State University, the University of Texas at Austin, the Architectural Association of London and, for the past sixteen years, the School of Architecture and Art at Norwich University where he served as Dean from 2005 to 2010. A bricoleur at heart, he has been obsessively exploring collage environments assembled from printed surfaces and found materials. He is currently translating some of these implied propositions into three-dimensional constructs.

Much of the work is created in a series format. With each series, a guiding theme or concept is explored and exhausted (though it may mutate or return at a later date) thus making room for a new influence. At present, 14 series, consisting of over 250 works, have been completed. Several are presented here, including recently completed Ships and Shadows, and Billboard Buildings which are variations on frontal views of rambling—but ordered— long thin buildings perched on legs and located in rich color and textural space; a modernist Baba Yaga’s hut of sorts. They strive for a balance between abstract formal two-dimensional composition and speculative spatial realism.

The original works are created in collage, consisting of collected and assembled printed matter glued on board. The surfaces are cut or ripped from printed publications,sorted by color, texture, or image fragments and stored in zip-lock bags. No augmentation of surfaces through drawing, painting or digital manipulation occurs. Both originals and archival museum quality C-prints are exhibited. The printing process also aesthetically unifies the image surface, creating additional qualities of depth and flatness.