John Miller Cleveland, OH, USA, b. 1954
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© ICA Miami -
John Miller is an artist, critic, and musician whose practice has challenged the rigid strategies of conceptual art since the early 1980s, combining intellectual irony with a sensuous engagement with everyday reality.
Lives and works in New York City and Berlin
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In 1977 Miller received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, in 1978 completed the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and in 1979 earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Together with classmates Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw, he was part of the CalArts circle of the 1970s that would later shape the language of American post-conceptual art.
For more than three decades, Miller has developed an eclectic and multifaceted body of work that examines ideology, systems of value, and the structures of social hierarchy in contemporary culture. His practice spans painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and text, addressing notions of identity, economy, and social status.
In the mid-1980s Miller gained recognition for a series of relief assemblages constructed from everyday materials, found objects, and synthetic substances coated with dense, saturated layers of paint. These compositions transform the banal into objects of contemplation, turning material substance into a vehicle for ironic commentary on consumer culture.Since 2008 Miller has incorporated gilding into his wall reliefs and sculptures. The metallic sheen of these works captures the viewer’s attention, evoking an illusion of luxury and unconscious attraction. Upon closer inspection, however, the gold-painted and foil-covered elements reveal themselves as inexpensive household objects. Assembled into compositions, they lose their utilitarian function and become ironic reflections of everyday life. This visual deception and ensuing disillusionment form the key to Miller’s critique of aesthetic and economic value: “All that glitters is not gold.” In these works, illusion and disappointment become metaphors for consumer society, where the true value of art is continually replaced by superficial shine.
Miller has participated in the Whitney Biennial (1985, 1991), the Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (2005), and the Gwangju Biennale (2010). In 1991 he received a fellowship from the Berliner Künstlerprogramm (DAAD), and in 2011 was awarded the Wolfgang Hahn Prize by the Society for Contemporary Art at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.
His works are held in major museum and institutional collections, including Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Carnegie Mellon Museum (Pittsburgh), Cabinet des Estampes (Geneva), FRAC Limousin (France), Deutsche Genossenschaftsbank (Frankfurt), Pangea Consortium (Zurich), Progressive Corporation (Cleveland), Queensboro Community College Gallery Collection (New York), and Rehazentrum Lübben (Berlin). -
Works
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Exhibitions
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Tatintsian Gallery Selected
Group Exhibition, Dubai 14 Nov - 30 Dec 2022Tatintsian Selected project opens alongside two Dubai landmark events in fall 2022 – Alserkal Art Week and Dubai Design Week.Read more >
Gallery showroom will spotlight selected works by such contemporary masters as Ron Arad, George Condo, Mat Collishaw, Evgeny Chubarov, Peter Halley, John Miller and Jenny Holzer. -
Olaf Breuning, Tony Matelli, John Miller
Group Exhibition 21 Mar - 15 Jun 2014Read more > -
Bad Planet
Group Exhibition 15 Apr - 14 May 2008Read more >
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