Welcome to the wonder of Bruce Metcalf’s miniature worlds, where strange, cartoon-like characters consider difficult questions of the “moral cosmos within which they – like us – imagine themselves small and incapable of profound change.”

Featuring over 70 pieces dating from the 1970s to the present, The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf is the first major exhibition of the engaging and spirited work of this unconventional artist, also a well-known jeweler, model-maker, curator, essayist and critic of contemporary craft.

Metcalf’s alluring miniaturized worlds, created of metal and wood, engage the unsuspecting viewer with the stories and distinct visual language the artist has created. Tableaus include a close encounter with a tarantula in “Cracker Jack Box,” a squinting fellow undergoing an empathic meltdown during the compassionate act of nourishing another in “Offering Sustenance,” and a miniature train layout with trompe l’oeil surfaces based on an imaginary winter in a train station near Munich, Germany.

Taking center stage are Metcalf's emotionally-distorted characters that reveal the inflicted pain of human nature’s “dark side.” Big-headed with atrophied limbs, Metcalf’s figures are born from cartoon traditions, cast in silver or carved in wood. In this exhibition, size matters. By emphasizing the miniscule, meaning is enlarged. As Metcalf observes, “There’s no scale in the imagination and very small things can become psychologically large.”

About the artist
The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf is the first major exhibition and catalogue focused solely on this artist’s wonderfully whimsical work. Born in 1949, Metcalf has long been recognized as a leading art jeweler, curator, essayist and critic of contemporary craft. He earned a B.F.A. degree in 1972 at Syracuse University and an M.F.A. at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1977. Metcalf taught at Kent State University in Ohio from 1981 to 1991. His work has been featured in major exhibitions, including the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Akron Art Museum, Ohio; Dayton Art Institute, Ohio; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia; and the Galeria Universiteria Artistos, Mexico City. Equally adept as a curator and a critic of contemporary craft, his essays have appeared in such publications as American Craft, Metalsmith, Studio Potter and Crafts Australia.

The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf has been organized by the Palo Alto Art Center, Division of Arts and Sciences, City of Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California. This exhibition has been made possible through the support of the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation, Rotasa Foundation, Windgate Charitable Foundation, the Arts Council Silicon Valley and private contributions. Local viewing of this exhibition made possible in part by the City of Bellevue.