Art Show: Liz Miller – “Recalcitrant Mimesis” at David B. Smith Gallery

January 20, 2011 – February 18, 2011
Public Lecture: Friday, January 20th from 6-7 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, January 20th from 7-9 pm


Liz Miller Untitled 20 (Mimetic Deception), Mixed media on paper, 24.5 x 19.5 x 8 in. (62.2 x 49.5 x 20.3 cm), framed | Photo: David B. Smith Gallery | Denver, Colorado © 2011

DENVER – The David B. Smith Gallery is proud to present a partner exhibition with the new Clyfford Still Museum, featuring a site-specific installation and collage works on paper by artist Liz Miller.
The exhibition opens on Friday, January 20th with a public lecture by Liz Miller from 6–7 pm, followed by an opening reception from 7–9 pm.
Please join us for this exciting event; Miller will talk about her work as an installation artist and her current exhibition, and will also welcome questions from the audience.

This exhibition is part of the community-wide celebration recognizing the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum. A selection of local arts and cultural organizations are presenting a variety of exhibitions, programs, and events to celebrate the spirit of the Abstract Expressionist movement and the work of Clyfford Still. We are honored to participate in this celebration by showcasing Liz Millerʼs unique approach to creating contemporary art inspired by such an historical figure and movement.

Recalcitrant Mimesis, the site-specific installation by Liz Miller at David B. Smith Gallery, utilizes the work of Clyfford Still as a point of departure. The word mimesis – mimicry or superficial resemblance – is an accurate description of the work, which appropriates some of Stillʼs forms, colors, and compositional devices, but produces its own creative jolt. Through a careful process of identifying and isolating Still’s irregular, gestural brushstrokes from a variety of works, Miller creates dynamic two- and three-dimensional forms, which she translates to stencils and felt. These shapes assume their own narrative as they are installed in the gallery in a manner both organized and aggressive, ultimately enveloping the viewer in a vibrant world of shape and color.
While the energy of Stillʼs seemingly simple canvases comes through in the work, Millerʼs installation retains a kind of unpredictability – resemblance with attitude – giving the work a distinction all its own.

Liz Miller’s mixed media installations and drawings recontextualize shapes, signs, and symbols from a variety of historical and contemporary sources to create abstract fictions. Existing forms are co-opted, altered, spliced, and recombined, and through this process, the shapes lose their real-world connotations. The use of felt, foam, and other tactile materials further complicates the question of source, masking the identity of the forms, while allowing them to inhabit twodimensional and sculptural space. Millerʼs work has become increasingly sculptural, and even architectural, with an impact that surrounds, involves, and intrigues the viewer, and works equally well in smaller collages on paper.

More Pictures

About the Artist
On December 20, 2011, the Joan Mitchell Foundation announced Liz Miller as one of the twenty-five recipients of the 2011 Painters and Sculptors Grant Program. The grants are given to acknowledge painters and sculptors creating work of exceptional quality, and who are “under-recognized for their artistic achievements.” The recipients were considered through an anonymous process by a jury panel that included prominent artists, curators, and arts educators.
Miller was also the 2011-2012 recipient of one of four McKnight Artist Fellowships, and has previously received a Jerome Foundation Fellowship, and two Artist Initiative Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Liz Miller resides in Southern Minnesota, where she teaches drawing at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She earned her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from the University of Minnesota. Miller has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions at a variety of museums, colleges, universities, and art centers.
She has exhibited in Colorado at the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, and at the Gallery of Contemporary Art at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Source

No Replies to "Art Show: Liz Miller - "Recalcitrant Mimesis" at David B. Smith Gallery"

    Leave a reply

    Your email address will not be published.

    *

    %d bloggers like this: