Artist Insights: In Conversation with Allison Miller
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Miller’s paintings typically combine multiple media and utilize bright colors, bold forms and textures, and tentative sketchy lines. Two of her pieces, Spinning Field and Spinning Table, were recently added to the Neuberger Museum of Art’s permanent collection. A relatively young female artist, Miller stands out a bit from many of the other artists in the collection but adding her paintings is in line with Roy R. Neuberger’s passion to recognize and support the work of living artists.
An exhibition of Miller’s art will also be on view at the Susan Inglett Gallery in New York starting March 11th. Her work has been shown in group collections across the U.S. and in Austria.
Like many of you reading this post, Miller was an art student. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and then moved to Los Angeles where she earned her MFA at UCLA. She continues to live and work in LA, where she is on the faculty at the Otis College of Art and Design.
In 2012, she told the Huffington Post, “I use the term ‘build’ when I talk and think about making the paintings because that’s the best way of describing how it feels to make them. Things are tacked-on, pushed back, covered-up, and layered as if I were building an object. … This is true to the point that I consider a lot of the paintings to be portraits of sculptures, since, if they were to sit in real space, I don’t know what else they would be.”
In my view, Miller’s art encompasses a relationship between the boundaries of painting, as well as going wherever the brush leads and being true to herself as a contemporary artist.
Joining Miller for the In Conversation talk is Daniel Gerwin, an artist and writer who curates exhibitions, teaches art courses, and writes about contemporary art. The pair have known each other for years. In a 2016 article about Miller for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Gerwin described the artist as a “’master’ of negative capability” and said that her “capacity for the unknown allows her to arrive at novel and fascinating outcomes in her paintings, with unpredictability the most notable through-line.”
Even if it’s through a computer screen, this is a chance for students to speak directly with working artists. Allison Miller is someone who has been in our shoes. This is our chance to hear how her experiences as an art student—and, now, as an art educator—influenced her career, expanded her network, and affected her success in the art world.
“I hope that students gain perspectives different from their own or ones that inspire their thinking from the artists, curators, and scholars we invite,” explained Diana Puglisi, Curator of Education, Youth & Adult Programs at the Neuberger Museum. “This is an opportunity for students to ask questions. It’s always wonderful when there is a moment in a talk where the artists or scholars discover something— it’s exciting to see ideas unfold and evolve organically.”
Miller’s tips may give us inspiration for what our futures might look like and how we can make what we’re passionate about attainable.
Register now to save your spot.
Eve Hlavatovic
Neuberger Museum of Art
Spring 2021 Communications Intern
NEU Student Voices Blogger