Chloe Wyma interviews painter Mira Schor on the occasion of the exhibition Mira Schor: Voice and Speech at Marvelli Gallery, New York, on view through April 28, 2012.

Asked about scale in painting Schor replies: "Modest paintings don't necessarily have to be small, and small paintings are not necessarily modest. I'm advocating for a kind of potent expressive reserve that can exist within intimacy, perhaps, but also for painting that is more committed to criticality, rigor and ambition for painting itself than to overpowering the viewer with the size of the work or the ego of the artist. In an age of the world dominance of the 1 percent of the 1 percent, art venues that demand the spectacular, and the empty calories of 'supersize me,' the stakes are emotional, intellectual, and even moral."