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Chuck Scalin traded with a friend for the large painting over the living room sofa. The photographs are by his daughter, Mica. The construction, which reminds him of his work, was a gift, and the fused glass piece is one of his. The vintage lamps are part of his collections.
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In the living room, the Scalins’ son, Noah, created the TV portraits of the family — Mim, Mica, Noah and Chuck — for a group show of the family’s art.
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The vintage art deco antelope sculptures in the dining room belonged to a friend who was moving and didn’t want to keep them. The painting above the fireplace was a gift from the artist.
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Chuck designed the kitchen cabinets and shelving. He found the collection of vintage advertising pieces at a flea market. The large pottery pieces are by Richmond artist Joel Moses.
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The Chinoiserie display cabinet belonged to Chuck’s mother, Freida. “When we first moved here, [my mother] wanted to give us the cabinet, and I thought, ‘How am I even going to get it here?” It still holds some of her things.
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A poster for a show by Antoni Tapies, an artist whose work Chuck admired, is displayed with a piece by his granddaughter Zinn and two of his own assemblages.
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The painting was given to Chuck by one of his students. “He was going to graduate school and didn’t have a place for it. We were friends, so I said OK and schlepped it home.”
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An ever-changing installation of works from Chuck’s ceramics collection includes pieces by German, Japanese and French potters. Chuck took the photographs when he was a student at the Chicago Institute of Art.
Chuck Scalin is accustomed to making old things new again. Known for his extraordinary collages, the celebrated artist and retired VCUarts professor transforms forgotten scraps of paper, wood and metal into urban landscapes of high artistic value.
Like one of his famous pieces, his home on Floyd Avenue in the Fan represents the rich layers of his life as an artist, teacher, husband, father and grandfather. Throughout the interiors, he’s carefully curated various vignettes of art from talented friends and family, arranging muted textiles, colorful paintings, black and white photos, rustic pottery and modern sculptures in unexpected combinations — a personal assemblage of objects and art he holds most dear.
He and his wife, Mim, bought the house in 1973, shortly after relocating to Richmond for his teaching position at the newly formed Virginia Commonwealth University. Built in 1910, the building was in terrible shape, but where others saw a lost cause, the couple saw shining potential.
“We wanted to open it up and make it feel like we still lived in New York, like in a loft,” says Mim, who’s also an artist. “The front rooms we could use for our studio, it had a nice, big kitchen and we had space for our family upstairs.”
Chuck hired a few of his art students to help renovate the house. They knocked down a long wall between the front hallway and the living spaces and meticulously patched the hardwood floors in a beautiful pattern.
In the dining area, Chuck designed a fireplace with a raised hearth faced in black granite. They tore out old-fashioned windows, replacing them with glass brick panels for privacy and natural light. The couple also renovated the bathrooms, modernized the kitchen and screened the narrow double porch along the side of the house.
One day, while Chuck was hammering a nail to hang a painting, plaster crumbled off the wall and revealed brick underneath. The exposed brick adds texture to the room, giving the space a hip, industrial vibe. As a sleek contrast in the sitting area, repurposed barber’s chairs and a wide bench add to the modern aesthetic in black leather and chrome.
The dining room is another showcase for found pieces. The table once sat in an office boardroom, and Mim salvaged the chairs from the alley behind their house.
“We don’t really have a style, we just collect things we like,” Mim says.
While the couple has taken a minimalist approach to furniture, they’re maximalists when it comes to art.
“We’ve accumulated a lot of artwork,” Chuck admits. “We’re a family of four artists. There’s Mim; our daughter, Mica, in New York City; and our son, Noah, who’s a well-known artist in Richmond.”
Chuck is especially drawn to pottery, a medium he says he hasn’t mastered, but one he admires as an artist. The couple has collected pieces from Japan, Germany and France as well as from ceramic artists from the East Coast, like Sidney Schatzky, Akira Satake, Sang Joon, Steven Glass and Joel Moses, to name a few.
Mim and Chuck Scalin stand in their Japanese-inspired backyard garden that Chuck continuously reimagines, much like his collections inside.
Similar to his artistic process in creating collages, Chuck often arranges and rearranges his pottery to create fresh compositions.
“With pottery, I love the variety with what you can get,” he says. “I love walking around the room and moving around the pieces to see something different. How you place them is very important.”
Outside is a lovely Japanese-inspired garden Chuck designed. A path of white rocks mimics flowing water, while a swath of glossy black rocks adds dramatic contrast. On the exterior of the house, Chuck installed an interesting piece of scrap metal inside an old frame from a neighbor. “Now it’s art,” he says.
A giant tulip tree offers shade and a home for birds Mim recognizes by their songs. After each of her parents died, Mim placed a rock in the garden in their honor. Nearby, she’s also displayed a perfect egg-shaped rock their granddaughter Zinn found on a walk.
While they don’t entertain as much as they used to, the Scalins recently hosted a few of Chuck’s former students. “They like checking in with me to see what I’m working on,” he says. “I was honored.”
While Chuck says he’s slowed down a lot at age 84, that’s hard to imagine with the sheer amount of artwork he has recently completed, framed and lined up around the house before it ships out to sell.
Mim complains their historic home has no closet space, but to visitors, seeing their collections and collages is a gift. An ever-rotating art gallery, their living spaces are filled with awe-inspiring objects. The home is an homage to art, and art never goes out of style.
