Greg Miller: Under The Surface-Art in Layers – JoAnne Artman Gallery, Laguna Beach, California

JoAnne Artman Gallery is pleased to present UNDER THE SURFACE: ART IN LAYERS an exhibition of new works by Greg Miller. In clever, incongruous juxtapositions, Miller layers and reconstructs imagery of the mid-century American consciousness.

Known for his cheekily playful and vividly rendered collages, Miller draws on his urban Californian roots, engaging with the ambiguity in the American landscape. Combining his paintings with found elements on the surfaces of his canvases and panels, he addresses both art history and the fleeting natures of memory and contemporary ephemera. Parsing through remnants of our collective visual history, the works are a dynamic force that lay bare the commonalities, as well as polarities, of perception.

The seductive allure of faded glory, the detritus of print advertising’s golden age, as well as almost a clinically intense observation of color and font distinguish Greg Miller’s neo-pop paintings. Miller paints a visual collage that hearkens classic, iconic advertisements from the 50’s and 60’s utilizing familiar branding campaigns and slogans. Drawing on image-saturated consumerism, Miller’s paintings excavate this imagery to reappear as unreconstructed fragments found through signs, drips, patterns and phrases. These form the layers of Miller’s pop cultural representations, both literally and figuratively. Referencing classic typefaces and color palettes, the compositions echo the look and feel of print advertisements. Miller achieves this impression 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.

These artists will inspire, provoke, engage and mesmerize. With visual perceptions always changing, peek behind the stories told and you’re sure to find the right artistic expression.