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KIAF 2010
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Single Voice, 38.1x55.88cm, Watercolor and Ink, 2004
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Michael MILLER
Michael Miller finds his images in the vastness of our visual record. He is a scavenger and recycler not only of available images and ideas, but also of processes and his own inventions. A Professor of Print Media for forty-plus years, within the body of his printed oeuvre, Miller has employed traditional as well as photomechanical methods of printmaking, but also produced singular works on paper that are combinations of these processes. Indeed, his career trajectory parallels the greatest expansion and acceptance of print vocabularies in history, making his hybrid objects which commingle traditional and industrial technology mirrors of what is possible in and expected of works on paper today. Most recently, in his Voices series seen here, he has combined various media without regard to foregrounding traditions of printmaking practice. Yet, at the same time, the present work references historical styles of artists whose work often was disseminated in the popular press—satirical artists and political cartoonists such as Saul Steinberg, Robert Crumb, and especially the great editorial artists of the late-18th and early-19th centuries, whose work appeared in the early manifestations of a daily newspaper. Like his exemplars, Miller finds his subject in the power struggles that exist between classes of people—authority—as well as those that exist internally—imagined, or constructed, but based on lived experience. His tools reference common drawing techniques, such as hatched and crossed-hatched linear patterns (Angleheads), grids composed of dots which ground the compositions, and repetitions of lines in arabesque that he uses to create hilarious parodies of mental states (Headchain, Loopman, and Yellowheads, for example). Moreover, just as Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein fetishized the look of half-tone dots used in reproduction, Miller shows here that he is a connoisseur of line qualities. The artists who he admires employ lines to define their subjects’ appearance, mental state, as well as poke fun at or criticize their attributes or presumed status and authority. In the Voices works, what appear to be hand-drawn, autographic lines are often cut, scanned, copied, or otherwise resized from an original mark. This imparts various twists of meaning from a tentative, vulnerable state to a sarcastic, self-parodying exposé. Perhaps even more devastatingly witty is Miller’s use of corporate graphing concepts to organize the compositions in Bubbleheads and Headstring. Often used to mind-numbing effect in lectures by people who know less about the subject than those being lectured to, one can well imagine that the artist has suffered through countless meetings in which charts of this type are used to quantify ineffable ideas. Sadly, in today’s world, most of us can relate to this terror in the conference room experience. Thus inspired, in Voices, Miller has created a suite of sarcastic yet appealing visual equivalents for painful commonplaces of contemporary life—in the workplace, and in the mind. Education: 1962-1964 M.A. Fine Arts, The Pennsylvania State University (2 year program- M.F.A. equivalent) 1960-1962 B.S. Art Education, East Carolina University Academic: 1973-Present Professor, Printmedia Department School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2007- 2009 Adjunct Professor, Korea University (summer) 1996-2006 Senior Advisor, International Relations School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1996-1999 Chairman, Professor, Printmedia Department School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1994-1996 Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs (Interim) School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1992-1994 Chair, Graduate Division School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1976-1979 Chair, Printmaking Department 1984-1987 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago 1968-1973 Assistant Professor, University of Delaware 1967-1968 Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University 1964-1967 Instructor, Middle Tennessee State University Selected Exhibitions Colorprint U.S.A. 40th Anniversary Exhibiton, April 2010 Solo Show, Gallery Sun Contemporary, Seoul, April 2010 Walsh Gallery, Anniversary Group Show, Chicago, 2009 “CONCEPTUAL COMICS”, Banff Art Centre, Alberta, 2006 “FACE TO FACE, Ewha Museum and the Keumsan Gallery, Seoul, 2004 “FACE TO FACE”, solo show, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, 2005 “NO SMOKING”, Group Show, Chicago, 2001 “SHORT STORIES”, Solo Show- Union League, 2001 “Out of Line” Invitational Drawing Exhibition, Chicago Cultural Center, 2000 One Person Show: Drake University, Jan. 1999 "Beastly Thoughts", Chicago, Illinois, 1998 7th International Biennial Exhibition of Portrait, Drawings and Graphics '97, Tuzla, Bosnia/Herzegovina, (invited artist), 1997 Collections Seoul Museum of Art (2009) Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 2009 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Art Institute of Chicago Banff Art Centre, Alberta, Canada Flasch Artist’s Books Collection, Chicago Skopelos Art Foundation, Greece Shinsegae Corporation, Seoul, Korea Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas Musee d'Art Contemporain, Chamaliers, France Brooklyn Museum Philadelphia Museum of Art Springfield, Mo. Art Museum Joseph Heinz Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa. Hart, Schaffner and Marx, Chicago Princeton University Texas Tech University Rochester Institute of Technology University of Delaware East Tennessee State University Fisk University Georgia State University, Atlanta Hunterdon, N.J. Art Center Charles Russell Museum, Montana Colgate University Mankato State University Tulsa City - County Library Austin Peay State University Edinboro State University Other Board of Directors, Skopelos Found.for the Arts,Greece Artist in Residence, Ewha Woman University, 2004 “Nano- Stories in a Blink”, comic book, Sara Ranchouse Pub., 2005 Lecture, Sookmyung Woman’s University, 2004, Lecture, Korean National University of the Arts, 2000 Juror, Beijing/ Chicago student exchange competition, 2000 Juror, City of Chicago, City of Beijing, Arch. Comp.1999 Juror, Fine Arts Gallery Exhibition, Chicago, Ill. 1999 Lecture, Beijing Central Academy of fine Arts, 1998 Juror, Chicago International Grants Program, 1997 Juror, Seoul International Print Biennial, 1996 Review: Art World, November 1996 MANIF 95' and 96' Catalogues Review, Mun-Hwa Il Bo (Daily Newspaper)Seoul Article based on transcription of lecure at American Embassy, Seoul, Korea Art World (Korean Art Magazine), 1994 Lecture, “Contemporary American Printmaking: High Art or Low Art?” U.S. Information Service, American Embassy, Seoul, Korea,1994 Curator, "Prints from Chicago" Seoul, Korea - 1994 Curator, "Prints From Chicago", VI Mostra De Gravura Print Biennial Curritiba, Brazil Visiting Artist, Korean National University of the Arts Visiting Artist: Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts Visiting Artist: Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Visiting Artist: University of Texas, Austin Visiting Artist, Tyler School of Art Visiting Artist, Nova Scotia College of Art Visiting Artist, University of Delaware |
