5 X 7 in (13 X 18 cm)
(1995-2007)

At 5x7 in. — the scale of a postcard or a wallet photograph — these paintings from 1995 to 2007 represent the most intimate works in Casas's catalogue. The format inverts everything associated with the Humanscape series: where those paintings were designed to confront the viewer at a scale that approximated the cinema screen, these works require proximity, patience, and close looking. They are quiet objects, and that quietness is itself meaningful in the context of a career built around large images and large arguments. In scale, the 5x7-in. paintings recall the postcard reproductions through which most people encounter canonical works of art — a reminder that the same image can carry radically different weight depending on how it is delivered and at what size. These small paintings enact a principle that runs through all his work: that the frame, the format, and the scale of an image are never neutral.