This holiday season, good things come in small packages. And inside those packages, miniature art in fun-sized frames.Tiny Art Show is a permanent exhibit built into a 3x3x3.5 cube set back into the wall of a lofted nook in Provo’s brand-new contemporary art gallery Alma, which opened Nov. 1 in the space once occupied by the Writ & Vision gallery and bookstore. To view the Tiny Art Show, regular-sized aesthetes can kneel in front of the exhibit or crawl inside if they choose. Using a gallery-provided magnifying glass for assistance, they’ll witness the diminutive wonders inside the box: a well-lit, professional–albeit itty-bitty–gallery filled with original art hung at eye level (for a Barbie or maybe a vole with good posture). Each artist in the Tiny Art Show currently has a larger format piece on display in Alma’s inaugural show, which runs until Nov. 30.Tiny Art Show is a permanent exhibit built into a 3x3x3.5 cube set back into the wall of a lofted nook in Provo’s brand-new contemporary art gallery Alma, which opened Nov. 1 in the space once occupied by the Writ & Vision gallery and bookstore. Credit: Courtesy of Cam DeverAll pieces on display in the Tiny Art Show are around 4 square inches, and their subject matter varies: for example, a cartoony two-faced boy balancing a watermelon on his head by artist Mika Rane (not for sale), a bloody mouth grinning by artist Alexis Rauch ($150), and portraits of a vintage sweater model vogueing and a family of three skiing ($75) –both by Mary Sinner, whose stylish ski-inspired art based on found vintage images is familiar to Parkites as a long-running staple at Meyer Gallery on Main Street.Sinner’s tiny art at Alma is like a little sister to her two larger oil paintings of ski models on display downstairs, retailing for $650 and $800. Sinner sketches versions of all different sizes to work out a composition that will eventually be scaled up on canvas for all of her works in progress, but this is her first show of such stature. “I don’t typically paint that small. It’s more of a challenge for me as if forces me to slow down and be really careful,” said Sinner. “I like to have lots of freedom to play with edges and texture.”Tiny Art Show is the brainchild of artist McKay Lenker, who conceived of the idea as a student at Brigham Young University in 2016 when an art professor tasked the class with displaying their art somewhere untraditional. Lenker decided to take some tiny paintings she’d made and exhibited them an inch off the ground in various public places with minuscule labels and magnifying glasses.“It sparked so much joy, seeing the tiny exhibit but also seeing the reactions of people walking by who noticed it,” Lenker said. She’s always been tickled by miniatures. When she was a child, her mother gifted her a transparent cube in which she kept all sorts of tiny things.“My mom also taught me to pretend, imagine, and believe in magic like fairies. I built lots of fairy houses and would even get super tiny handwritten notes from the fairies,” Bayer said. “They had similar handwriting as my mom, but that’s unrelated.”In 2018, Lenker began hosting monthly mini art shows around Provo. The pandemic and a new baby slowed Lenker’s curating duties, so the permanent Tiny Art Show opening earlier this month at Alma, which treated guests to miniature slices of pumpkin pie, was her first in four years. Lenker knows Alma’s owner and art director, Tyler Alexander (whose young daughter Alma is the namesake of the gallery), through the Provo art scene. When Alexander, a former employee of Writ & Vision, took over the real estate, an early intention of his was to dedicate some of the square footage as a permanent space for the Tiny Art Show. They’ve got big plans for the little space: each month, the gallery will exhibit a new show with an opening reception with more tiny snacks. The walls of the tiny gallery will be painted and the lighting will be changed out so that each show feels fresh. Just about everything in the Tiny Art Show is for sale at a fraction of the price that their full-scale companion pieces retail. Credit: Courtesy of Cam DeverThis way, art-viewing is a little more whimsical, and more important, art-buying is a little more accessible. Just about everything in the Tiny Art Show is for sale at a fraction of the price that their full-scale companion pieces retail. The artist Colby Sanford, who also shows at PC’s Meyer Gallery, sold a palm-sized piece in the Tiny Art Show for under $200, while his paintings of hands on display in the main showroom at Alma retail for just under $10,000.“Owning original art shouldn’t just be for the super wealthy,” Lenker said. “Tiny Art Show makes it possible to own original artwork by artists we love.”Alma is located at 274 West Center St. in Provo and is open Wednesday-Friday 4-8 p.m. and on Saturday noon-8 p.m. All pieces on display in the Tiny Art Show are around 4 square inches, and their subject matter varies Credit: Courtesy of Cam DeverThe post The Tiny Art Show is really tiny, seriously; gallery provides magnifying glass appeared first on Park Record.