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Randy Hage Miniaturizes Fading Storefronts in “Facade”

Randy Hage caught our attention earlier this year for his stunning mixed-media miniatures of New York, which he then photographs. You may find yourself giving his work a second and third take, even after discovering its true size, with most pieces measuring at 1/12th scale. Working primarily in wood, plastic, resin and metal, Hage draws upon the disciplines of his formative years as a prop maker in the TV/Film industry. What began as an experiment in miniaturizing local structures, particularly cast iron buildings, has turned into what he calls a "documentary project." He will exhibit his latest series in his exhibition "Facade", opening at Flower Pepper Gallery in Los Angeles on October 10th.

Randy Hage caught our attention earlier this year for his stunning mixed-media miniatures of New York, which he then photographs. You may find yourself giving his work a second and third take, even after discovering its true size, with most pieces measuring at 1/12th scale. Working primarily in wood, plastic, resin and metal, Hage draws upon the disciplines of his formative years as a prop maker in the TV/Film industry. What began as an experiment in miniaturizing local structures, particularly cast iron buildings, has turned into what he calls a “documentary project.” He will exhibit his latest series in his exhibition “Facade”, opening at Flower Pepper Gallery in Los Angeles on October 10th. Each piece is hyper-realistically modeled after an actual facade, down to their hand-painted signs and graffiti tags, and in doing so, Hage documents each one before it gets torn down. He averages that about 60% of the buildings that he documents go out of business. “Knowing the intimate details of a structure, understanding the decay and what it went through, the rehabs, the people who owned the building and the business, that intimacy gives me a closeness with New York,” Hage says. “It’s kind of like when someone tells you a secret.”

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