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. 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.”