Chuck Scalin

Biography

Professor emeritus and former assistant chair of the Communication Arts + Design Department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

BFA degree from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois and an MFA degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

Currently teaching courses in collage and assemblage at the Studio School in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia.

Photography, glass and collage works are included and also received recognition in over 250 exhibitions, including 25 solo shows in the US and abroad and have been purchased for public and private collections.

Exhibition Highlights

Awarded 7 two-month residencies at the Cité International des Arts in Paris, France. During these residencies, I worked on a continuing photographic project, Unsung View of Paris, consisting of obscure, mostly unnoticed fragments of the Parisian cityscape.

A recent limited-edition Book Art piece: Body of Evidence: 14 unsolved mysteries, which were based on a series of assemblages created for a 2012 solo exhibition. Scalin collaborated with 21 people, including 15 authors, who contributed their narratives based on the contents of the clues found in these evidence boxes.

Artist Statement

I'm a gleaner and a collector.
I search and gather both found materials and visual information from the cities I visit and incorporate them into my work.

Throughout my artistic career the urban landscape has been and continues to be a source of inspiration for me. This unending offering of surface texture, indigenous color and architectural detail have all become part of my visual vocabulary. Through this process I have learned to appreciate the inherent beauty found in the ordinary and the ephemeral.

As a visual artist, my interests extend beyond any single medium and have driven me to experiment with photography, collage, assemblage, kiln fired glass and clay. I've enjoyed the challenge of exploring the inherent limitations of each medium I explore and allow myself to move from medium to medium bringing the information acquired from one into the next and then back again.

I was trained by instructors from the "new" Bauhaus in Chicago and this educational experience has played a crucial role in my development as a professional artist.