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June Issue 2004
Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, Offers Works by Max Miller
Max
Miller is a relatively new name in South Carolina's art world,
but that won't be for long. Miller, a recent graduate of the College
of Charleston's School of Art, is presenting thirty pieces in
an exhibit at Gallery 2 in Columbia, SC, which will be on view
in the gallery's Main Gallery through June 20, 2004.
Miller's oil paintings are challenging - body parts and odd angles,
dark, brooding colors contrasting with creamy realistic skin tones.
He hand-builds compartmentalized canvases left intentionally raw,
unusually shaped, screw heads protruding. Sometimes words are
splashed across the canvas. Most of Miller's images are self-portraits
pulled from his dreams. Miller channels his subconscious into
his work and viewers wonder and question why the artist is draped
in a sheet or an injured Miller dangles upside down over a patchwork
aerial view of farmland. In one series, the artist is actually
thrusting his face through what look to be cutouts - a cross,
a diamond and a circle - an effective use of negative space. In
another disturbing painting the artist has hugely dilated pupils
and something odd is slipping from his nose.
But it is not just the unique subject matter that draws people
to Miller's work. Gallery 2 owner, Carolyn Powell, explains, "Max's
work is cutting-edge to be sure, but he pays particular attention
to execution. He's studied the Masters and he is in particular
awe of Ribera's work with skin and hair and it shows. Max's art
is a perfect combination of out-there ideas combined with talented
execution."
Miller grew up in a family of artists. Some of his earliest memories
are of helping his father create props for sets used in the film
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Although he was young, Miller
remembers the real skeletons that were used in the film and how
he enjoyed his job of carrying a spray bottle of fake blood around
so he could squirt the underside of props used in the film. Miller
then became fascinated with comic books and spent many years copying
superheroes and creating his own. This early experience with the
macabre is manifesting in Miller's current work.
In 1995, while still in high school, he started taking evening
classes at the Gibbes Studio in Charleston, SC. Miller was selected
to attend the Governors School of the Arts in 1997. He graduated
high school in 1998 and went on to the College of Charleston where
he earned a double major in art history and studio art. The experience
that most shaped his current work was a trip to Spain in the summer
before college graduation.
"In Madrid, I spent a day at the Prado. While I loved the
work of Velazquez and Goya, it was Jose de Ribera's skill that
I most admired. I came back to the states newly galvanized to
paint and threw myself into it," Miller said.
Miller applied to the Cecil Studio in Florence, Italy and was
accepted. He will be working in a classic atelier. Miller felt
he would benefit more from this experience than from a traditional
graduate school. He leaves for Italy in July.
For further information check our SC Commercial Gallery listing,
call the gallery at 803/771-6123 or e-mail at (gallerytwo@aol.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.