Exhibition | A Psychoanalysis, Brad Miller’s ‘Stones & Object Relations Theory’

Miller further describes his concept:

Recalling this layered frenzied energy in his Venice Beach studio, Miller physically interacts with his work applying layer after layer of slip and paint, firing, torching, sanding, tumbling and grinding away the layers. This graduall process reveals their temporary condition as objects that change according to the needs of those who use them. Employing methods of abstract expressionism and conceptualism, Miller orchestrates accidents to build forms that mirror found stones and paintings that could be sculptures in an exacting manner.

About the artist: Brad Miller received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon, Eugene. Using wood, ceramics, and paper for both their physical and conceptual properties, Miller is interested in capturing organic systems through the creation of abstract representations. Miller has had solo exhibitions at Harvey Meadows Gallery, Aspen, CO; Edward Cella Art + Architecture, Los Angeles, CA; Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Margo Jacobsen Gallery, Portland, OR; Bellas Artes, Santa Fe, NM; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; and Campo S. Angelo, Venice, Italy. Group exhibitions include Carnegie Art Museum, Oxnard, CA; Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA; Houston Center for Crafts, Houston, TX; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Pasadena City College Art Gallery, Pasadena, CA; and Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. He received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1994). His work is included in the collection of Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Miller says he is always reconfiguring nature’s most persistent ordering systems.

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Here are some other works we found really interesting from his previous exhibitions at Edward Cella.