Pieces of Poetry: The Good Stuff

Guiding the viewer towards new discoveries in meaning, each compositional component explores the interplay between scale, form, palette, and texture. Drawing on his Californian roots, Miller explores the connection between advertising, urban environment, and social history by fastidiously and painstakingly re-creating the look of age, grit, and time through the use of paint, collage paper and resin on canvas, painting each visual element by hand.

Referencing classic typefaces and color palettes, the result echoes both the look and feel of print advertisements. Working with the imagery of the visual detritus in all of its faded glory, Miller preserves for us the ephemeral beauty of the printed material.

Extending the narrative even further by the wrapping of the edges with various comic, or book materials, Miller utilizes every inch of his composition to further his storytelling. Containing sketches, dedications, and notes, Miller creates new narratives by building on the history of pop culture and media appropriation. Through juxtapositions of image and text, the inherent socio-cultural, as well as socio-political contexts, are revealed.

In his current show at JoAnne Artman Gallery, New York entitled “The Wild Bunch,” Greg Miller focuses on the theme of the Wild West and it’s influence throughout popular in American art, film, and literature. Discussing the historical progression of how the identity of the Western hero became intertwined in art forms found in public media, his collages address topics of the mythic Western hero, the damsel in distress, Western Pulp Fiction Art, and the modern vision of the Western Frontier.