About
Clelia Scala is a visual artist whose work includes mask and puppet design, installations, collage, and illustration. Her explorations into the fantastic and uncanny stem from a lifelong engagement with tales and myths and her interest in the theme of human interaction with the natural world.
As a designer and fabricator for theatre, Clelia has worked with companies and institutions such as Bad New Days, Carousel Players, Geordie Theatre, Guilty by Association, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Odyssey Theatre, Queen’s University, Suitcase in Point, Theatre Kingston, University of Missouri-St Louis Opera Theatre, Yale University, and Zacadia Circus. Clelia’s visual art has shown in galleries in Canada and the United States and is in private collections across North America.
Publications include a series of collages for Alice Through the Working Class (BlazeVox 2024) and Alice in Plunderland (BookThug 2015), both by Steve McCaffery, and collage illustrations for I Can Say Interpellation (BookThug 2011) by Stephen Cain.
Her current personal projects include Jars, a puppet play about eating; an alphabet book of disorders; and a series of futuristic masks, tentatively titled Pataphysical Masks: Faces for a Possible Future.
Clelia is the recipient of the 2019 Established Artist Award for the City of St Catharines. Her work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Kingston Arts Council, and the St Catharines Cultural Investment Program (with Puppet-A-Go-Go). She teaches design in the Dan School of Drama & Music at Queen's University.
Articles, Interviews, & Videos
Audio. All in a Day, with Alan Neal.
Video. Designer Memories. Strathcona Park Diaries Episode 9.
Video. Maker in Residence Clelia Scala (Burlington Public Library).
“I have had the privilege of working with Clelia Scala on two projects that required mask and puppetry. She is a master of her craft, and I am constantly amazed by her talent. Clelia takes on all manner of challenging projects and creates beautiful fine work that is beyond most people’s expectations.”
“Clelia has incredible talent and is able to understand the shortest brief of what is required.... She develops creative solutions to problems as well as beautiful designs. ”
“This dark, discombobulated feeling is actually showcased beautifully in the story’s excellent collages by Clelia Scala that accompany the fractured tale. The images bring the story’s similes and broken-down cast of characters to life in a disjointed, haunting way. ”
“...the images were marvelous. The artist has used some of the classic Carrol drawings and done what I can only describe as collage-ing and scrap-booking with them. These were done incredibly successful, and I loved the style.”