Anthony Miler Exhibition

ZieherSmith (505 W 27th St.)

This event has ended.

Anthony Miler describes his latest paintings, made with acrylic medium and powdered pigment on raw canvas, as attempts “to humbly discover good old painting’s alive traits… not making academic inquiries or tallying up points about the boundaries of painting in cultural discourse.” Working with a singular subject, an anthropomorphic landscape fit for a mid-century modernist’s dreamscape, Miler’s tactile, direct work reflects his intimate approach: each painting serves as a moment of clarity in the seemingly ceaseless din around us.

Humility is hardly a trait bandied about proudly in today’s culture. But hereby the simple task of stretching the horizontal canvases before beginning work (after years of working on un-stretched surfaces), the simple connection that “one eye and a pair of lips is enough to indicate a face,” and the singular focus on that repetitive image structure with a chalky, subdued palette, (achieved by the use of powdered pigment), Miler’s steadfast approach produced a body of work that “carries its own embodied psychological agency,” a hard won criteria and “response to the overwhelming number of vertical paintings being made this decade, due to the vertical screen in our pockets.”

In 2018, Anthony Miler was featured in group exhibitions at Rod Barton in London, the Willumsen Museum in Fredrikkssune, Denmark and at Almine Rech in London. This show is Miler’s first solo exhibition at ZieherSmith. His work was first featured at the gallery in the group show Hope Despite the Times.