Harland Miller
"I never forget what I can't remember "
September 18 -
November 9, 2010
The artist and writer Harland Miller is known
for his large-scale, playful reworkings of Penguin book covers.
Miller takes much-loved book jackets of classic works by Hemmingway,
Fitzgerald, Edgar Allen Poe and others as his starting point. By
rendering them in oils at poster size with quirky new titles, he
transforms them into contemporary, often satirical commentaries on life
and literature.
As with Californian artist, Ed Ruscha, it is words
that set the tone in Miller's work. Whether ironic, nostalgic, or
downright cheeky - "Dirty Northern Bastard," by DH Lawrence, or "I'm so
Fucking Hard," by Hemmingway - the titles demythologise and amuse in
equal measure.
Although a dedicated wordsmith, Miller is an
irrepressibly painterly artist too: the bands of orange, or blue or
green either side of the book's title that make a Penguin cover so
instantly recognisable, become emotive, textural colour fields here.
With their dripping paint and smudgy blurring, they have more in common
with the aesthetic of Rothko than the uniformity of a mass-produced
paperback.
Miller is attracted to books as objects - the more
battered, stained and lived in the better. "I remember my parents'
Penguin books. For me, they are about nostalgia for a by-gone era - that
musty smell, those coffee-mug rings, the often heart-breaking
inscriptions on the inside cover."
Miller has lived and worked in
New York, Berlin and Paris. Born in the North of England in 1964,
Miller's fondness for the drizzle and grimness of those northern towns
remains a strong theme in his work. "I suppose mine is a very English
sense of humour," he says.
In this rare display of his watercolours
and drawings, Miller's Penguin covers are closer to still life studies,
rather than two-dimensional posters. Experimenting with different paper
sizes and angles, he occasionally shows their spines, and the shadows
they cast. It is a celebration of books as treasured objects.
His drawings - in particular his studies for his large-scale oil
paintings with their notes scribbled down the margins - are some of his
most intimate works to date.
Harland Miller's group exhibitions
include Royal Academy, London (2006, 2005), Kunsthalle Mannheim (2004)
and the ICA, London (1996).
A book of Harland Miller's watercolours
will be published by Reflex Editions Amsterdam as well as a special
limited edition of 2 colour lithographs.
Please find attached images
of Miller's works. For further information or high resolution images
please contact Viola Winokan or Alex Daniels (see below for contact
details).
Captions for attached images:
"If The Phone Don't
Ring - It's Me"
2010
Watercolour and pencil on paper
162 x
134 cm
"What's All the Hubbub Bub"
2010
Watercolour,
pencil and gouache on paper
162 x 134 cm
