THE ART OF SHAQ

Does size matter? For Shaquille O’Neal his very existence offers a larger-than-life answer to that question. Standing at 7’1”, weighing 320 pounds and strutting about in size 22 shoes, Shaq casts a long shadow. His appetites and ambitions are similarly colossal: a professional basketball star, he has also worked as an actor, rapper, memoirist and reserve police officer, and is now working on a PhD in organisational behaviour. Now, thanks to the FLAG Art Foundation in New York, Shaq can cross another item off his to-do list: curate an art show. “Size DOES Matter” features 66 works chosen by the man himself, and a catalogue with an essay by James Frey (yes, that James Frey).

An outsized gimmick? Perhaps. The line to attend the show's opening on February 19th snaked outside for nearly a block. And Shaq's selections, which feature a range of contemporary works of varying, eye-teasing sizes, were plucked from more than 200 images supplied by FLAG's founder, Glenn Fuhrman, and director, Stephanie Roach, over dinner after a game. Still, this playful show holds up as a satisfying examination of size and scale in art.

The works are by 43 artists, including Elizabeth Peyton, Cindy Sherman, Ron Mueck and Richard Phillips. Quite a few of them send viewers through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. Robert Therrien’s "No Title (Table and Six Chairs)" from 2003 achieves this most dramatically. The installation is so big that visitors are granted the perspective of children, peering up at the seats with curiosity about the grown-up world “up there”.

This sense of having stepped through a wrinkle in time is reinforced by Richard Dupont’s "Untitled (Terminal Stage)" from 2008, which features three figures cast from polyurethane resin. These subjects are just slightly larger than human scale, but their dimensions and contours are weirdly puzzling. I was among many who stared and circled these creatures, barely resisting the temptation to touch. A gallery employee stationed nearby dutifully warned for us to "step away".

In a recent interview Shaq described feeling something similar when he goes to New York: "I like to stand in the street and see what happens. When you look at a painting and try to figure it out—you look at me [the same way]. Everything in the world is art"

“Size DOES Matter”, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, From Feb 19th to May 27th