Do you own a magnifying glass? Do you use it for things other than burning ants? Even if insect demise is your favorite pastime, you’ll want to check out “Micro Monumental,” a new, juried sculpture exhibition featuring 47 works no larger than a matchbox. The installation (at The Gallery at Flashpoint, 916 G St., NW, 202-315-1310, www.flashpointdc.com) runs April 6 to May 27. DC sculptor Robert Cole is one of the competition’s entrants; I decide to meet with him to check out what’s new and small in the world of DC art. 

Cole’s U Street studio fulfills every cliché you want an artist’s studio to embody. Large metal sculptures—many of them abstractions of the human form—hang out by the front door. Inside, Cole is waiting with cheese, wine and an endless supply of cigarettes from a slick silver case. A hippie in his youth, he tells me he hung out with the Beats in Venice, California. He’s still utterly cool, riding motorcycles in a leather jacket and hosting parties that last until 4am. “You should come to the next one,” he says invitingly. “I play the guitar and sing. They call me Bill Dylan.” 

At 67, Cole is a DC art icon. Even if you don’t know him by name, you’ve probably encountered a piece or two of his. The Naylor Road Metro Station features two sculptures, and U Street restaurants Utopia and Republic Gardens have commissioned his work. “Sculpture should be outdoors and monumental,” he says. “It should express the age.”
Creating pieces for “Micro Monumental” was evidently a switch. Cole scaled back his usually grand pieces to enter two tiny metal objects in the competition: the first, a stretching Rodin-like female form, and the second, two abstract figures reaching towards each other.

Kristen Hileman, Assistant Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and judge of the competition, says she’s looking for pieces that trigger broader thinking than their size would suggest. “I’m always looking for art that makes me look at things in a different way,” she explains.

Let’s hope Cole’s works do just that for her. Either way, I am so at his next party. 

After this article was written, Robert Cole learned his pieces were not accepted for “Micro Monumental.” However, you can attend his next show May 20 and 21 at his studio at 1714 Rear 15th Street, NW.